Porfiry Petrovich: Between Professionalism and Morality

Authors:

Pages: 45-61
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/WCVR4779

Abstract:

The article studies the character and the plot function of Porfiry Petrovich, one of the basic characters in F. Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. The study aims to prove that he can be seen as the protagonist Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov’s double in worldview only in the context of the Napoleonic idea. A detailed hermeneutic analysis of the three encounters between the two characters reveals that under the guise of the Law Porfiry Petrovich has adopted and employed this idea in its ontological purity as the will to exercise power over the rest. The outlined proximity supports the hypothesis that Porfiry Petrovich has a biography, symbolically speaking. It enters discourse imperceptibly as shared by Raskolnokov in terms of the biography of the idea, its birth, and how it is experienced by both men.

Keywords:

Porfiry Petrovich, Arkady Svidrigailov, Rodion Raskolnikov, doubles; Napoleonic idea

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