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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. His speech and everyday behavior demonstrate how the idea works. The latter serves to bring to light the connection between “professional” and “moral” standards, by proving that the institutionalized cynicism with which Porfiry Petrovich puts the Law “into practice” corresponds precisely to the theoretical principles designed by Raskolnikov to classify people into extraordinary and insignificant beings. 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. The awareness of that undivided authority predetermines the overall attitude of Porfiry Petrovich to the student. On the other hand, it also makes Raskolnikov deny verbally his guilt towards Porfiry while seeking a possibility to sever the connections with their “past”, binding them symbolically.

About the author(s) :

Hristo Manolakev

St. St. Cyril and Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo (Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3425-2607

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 19.11.2021; date of publication: 25.12.2021.

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