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Volume 9, 1988 |  |
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The Acoustic Dimensions of Crime and PunishmentVictor Peppard, University of South Florida, TampaThe once current notion that Dostoevskij was a careless stylist and sloppy technician appears increasingly absurd in light of the fact that his style turns out to be one of the richest aspects of his work. There is now a considerable body of scholarship concerning the stylistic and technical aspects of Dostoevskij's work.(1) Nevertheless, most of the critical discourse on Crime and Punishment deals with the novel on an abstract, ideological level that tends to disregard its tremendously dynamic and affective stylistic texture. One of the areas of Dostoevskij's stylistic mastery that still deserves to be examined is his employment of a whole range of sounds and stylistic devices related to sound on different levels of the novel. Dostoevskij's use of music and certain patterns of sound, particularly in the portrayal of character speech and in the descriptive passages of the novel, are not only effective means of creating drama and suspense in crucial places, but also often the means by which he creates the special tonality of the novel. Ultimately, it may be seen that the acoustic dimensions of Crime and Punishment profoundly affect the novel's overall structure and poetics. One of the principal levels of Crime and Punishment on which Dostoevskij employs sound in definite, meaningful patterns is the representation of character speech. Dostoevskij's modulation of the characters' speech is an important element in the dramatic exposition of many passages. In addition, Dostoevskij 's consistent exploitation of the characters' many exclamations comes to have metaphorical significance for their psychological states. The tenor of the characters' speech also can not help but affect the novel's atmosphere and tonality. Crime and Punishment is a novel in which the characters often "do not speak, but yell, cry out, and exclaim."(2) Dostoevskij establishes this tendency in the novel's very first encounter between characters. As Alfred Kuhn has pointed out, the first person Raskol'nikov meets in Crime and Punishment shouts at him and calls him "a German hatter."(3) This meeting sets the tone for much of the subsequent dialogue between the characters in the novel. Later in part one, in an example of his fondness for counterpoint and juxtaposition, Dostoevskij shows Raskol'nikov himself shouting at a stranger. When Raskol'nikov observes a man with obviously suspect motives following a young girl, he becomes incensed and shouts at him, "Hey, you, Svidrigajlov!"(4) Raskol'nikov's conversation with Marmeladov in the tavern where they first meet exemplifies the loud, sometimes frantic level on which so much of the dialogue takes place. Here Raskol'nikov sits and listens, while Marmeladov
144 regales him with a rambling discourse on his many woes. Throughout this lengthy and impassioned diatribe, virtually all of Marmeladov's remarks are punctuated with an exclamation point. As G. Simina has shown, in the first fifty pages of Crime and Punishment only about twenty per cent of the characters' utterances are emotionally and stylistically neutral. The rest are emotionally charged and intense.(5) On this background of shouting and yelling that is so prominent in part one Dostoevskij is able to achieve dramatic results in certain instances by using unuttered cries. There are two such cases of unuttered cries that deserve special attention. The first takes place when Lizaveta returns to the flat and finds her sister has been murdered. She is too frightened even to cry out as Raskol'nikov attacks her: "ona. . . vse-taki ne vskriknula. . . no vse ne kriča, točno ej vozduxu nedostavalo, čtoby kriknut'." The expression on her face is like that of a frightened child about to scream (zakričat')(86). Here, as in other parts of the novel, Dostoevskij virtually hammers out different verbal forms of the basic root -krik. The fact that Lizaveta is deprived of a last human reaction to the unprovoked attack intensifies the horror the reader feels toward the murder of an innocent, defenseless person. The second unuttered cry figures in the end of the first part of the novel. It is here that Dostoevskij brings the leitmotif of the cry, which pervades the whole first part of Crime and Punishment, to a conclusion. Soon after he has committed the two murders, Raskol'nikov returns to his room. The penultimate sentence of part one is: "If someone had come into his room, he would have immediately jumped up and given a shout (zakričal)"(93). The relationship Dostoevskij creates between the cry and the unuttered cry in this part of the novel is symptomatic of his tendency to use acoustic elements in a point-counterpoint relationship to each other. Some of the most dramatic instances of Dostoevskij's deliberate modulation of the acoustic levels of the characters' speech occur in the Marmeladov section of the novel. Most of this part of Crime and Punishment is carried out at an extremely high pitch. While Katerina Ivanovna howls, her landlady, Lippewechsel, whines. In fact, employing a technique analogous to a constant epithet, Dostoevskij uses whining, either in its verbal form, "vizžat'", or as a noun, "vizg", as a constant attribute in his descriptions of Lippewechsel. Lippewechsel' s whining acts as a complement on the acoustic level to the comicality of her name, which suggests aimless, tiresome verbal activity. At the same time, Dostoevskij employs a gradual crescendo in the volume of the characters' speech that parallels and contributes to the increase in tension and conflict between them. This technique is particularly evident in his celebrated scandal scenes. In Crime and Punishment one of the best examples of such a crescendo may be found in the funeral dinner of Marmeladov. At the beginning of the dinner, Katerina Ivanovna speaks to Raskol'nikov in an animated half whisper, punctuated by laughter ("xa, xa, xa" or "kxi, kxi, kxi"). But soon, in her constant arguing with Lippewechsel, Katerina Ivanovna's voice rises to a shout, and her derisive laughter becomes louder. When she begins to take away the silver spoons
145 from the table, a din and hubbub breaks out and the children begin to cry. Prom this point on Dostoevskij maintains a remarkable level of clamor, as Lužin accuses Sonja of robbing him, Lebezjatnikov defends her, and the squabble between Lippewechsel and Katerina Ivanovna reaches new heights. Finally, Dostoevskij brings the scandal to a close by combining two of the leitmotifs associated with the characters. Katerina Ivanovna lets out a howl (vopl') as she runs out into the street, while Lippewechsel continues to whine (vizžala) indoors. While Marmeladov's funeral dinner is perhaps the most sustained passage of pandemonium in Crime and Punishment, the scene of Katerina Ivanovna trying to make her children perform in the streets is one of the most intense. Here Dostoevskij constantly repeats one or another of the forms of the verb to cry or shout: [Katerina Ivanovna] kričala, vskričala, vskriknula, zakričala, vykrikivala, kriknula (446-454). These verbs with the root -krik are occasionally interspersed with a howl, as for example, "zavopila." The only times Katerina Ivanovna ceases her screaming are when she thanks a stranger for his gift of money and when she speaks to Sonja tenderly and caressingly just before she dies. Fittingly, however, Katerina Ivanovna departs this world on her dominant note, that is, she cries out spitefully, "Enough!... It's time!... Farewell, poor wretch! ... They've driven the old mare to death!... I'm broken!"(454). As though following in their mother's footsteps, when Katerina Ivanovna dies, first Polecka begins to cry and then Kolja and Lenja begin to scream (načali kričat'). What are the consequences of Dostoevskij's deliberate, detailed representation of the acoustic aspects of the characters' speech in Crime and Punishment? From a certain point of view, much of Crime and Punishment and some of Dostoevskij's other works would appear to contain a shrill, strident tone. In discussing the style of Notes from Underground Nabokov cites Dostoevski]'s "repetition of words and phrases" and an "intonation of obsession" as proof of Dostoevskij's supposed deficiency as a literary stylist.(6) As it turns out, Crime and Punishment is greatly more repetitive than Notes from Underground. Both Toporov and Simina have convincingly demonstrated Dostoevskij's frequent repetition of certain words and phrases throughout the novel.(7) And as has been shown here, the root-word -krik is repeated literally dozens of times in many places as part of the depiction of character speech. Furthermore, for large parts of this relatively long novel, the dialogue is carried on at a frenzied pitch. The point that needs to be made about Dostoevskij ' s style and technique in Crime and Punishment, however, is not that they might be offensive to certain tastes or sensibilities, but that they are so thoroughly effective in accomplishing their purposes. In the first place, the underlined acoustic patterns in many scenes dramatize the dialogue in a way that makes it palpable to the reader. But the significance of the acoustic features of the characters' speech clearly goes well beyond its role in specific passages. For example, the shouting that surrounds Raskol'nikov in part one is a forceful and effective way of metaphorically suggesting that he is out of harmony with both himself and with others, and that he is tense and uneasy about his plans for commit-
146 ting murder. Similarly, the shouting of Marmeladov and Katerina Ivanovna comes to stand for the psychological states of turmoil and distress they experience. It also appears that the loud, often obstreperous dialogues of the characters can not help but have implications for the general atmosphere and tonality of the novel. Leonid Grossman has noted that in Crime and Punishment there is the "symphonic sound of contemporary Petersburg, merging the enormity of its many voices, its weeping, its screams, into the unified, powerful whole of Raskol'nikov's tragedy."(8) Grossman's suggestion that Crime and Punishment has symphonic and polyphonic qualities is an illuminating one, and it will be dealt with here subsequently. For the moment it is sufficient to note that Grossman is struck by the discordant voices of Petersburg that the novel describes. And indeed, in addition to the screams of the main characters, the novel is permeated with the cries of Petersburg's drunks, who are ubiquitous in the city's taverns and streets. One might even say that these cries, which are part of Dostoevkij's description of setting, form an echo with the anguished utterances of the major characters. The combined effect of these many cries is to produce a pervasive tonality in the novel of tremendous dissonance and discord. The second plane of Crime and Punishment on which sound plays a crucial role is the descriptive one. Here both definite patterns of sound and music carry out a number of functions. In Crime and Punishment music is the most prominent, and perhaps the most productice acoustic element of the novel. Music is first of all a vital aspect of the setting; it acts to portray the life of the city and its people in an especially graphic way. In this connection it turns out that music has clear social implications in Crime and Punishment. In combination with other sounds music may also reflect metaphorically on either the nature of the characters' actions or their spiritual states. Except for some songs sung by Katerina Ivanovna, the music found in Crime and Punishment is entirely in the tradition of folk music and the music of the streets. The sounds of the barrel organ and various folk songs, especially "Xutorok", are heard throughout Crime and Punishment, particularly in the several important tavern scenes of the novel. The barrel organ music and the folk songs are a vivid means of conveying a feeling for the life of the lower classes of Petersburg. This music does more than just portray the byt of contemporary Petersburg. The noise of the organ grinders was one of the most prominent acoustic features of the urban holidays and celebrations of nineteenth century Russia. For example, in May, either on the first day of the first Sunday of the month, Muscovites would drive out to Sokolniki or Petrovsky park, where "in the grove walked organ grinders and choirs of Russian singers."(9) Similar holidays were held in Petersburg. These celebrations are latter day descendants of the Russian folk holidays held at Shrovetide and Easter, the Russian analogues to the European carnival. Although much of the specific ritual is lost by the nineteenth century, and foreign borrowings give them an eclectic makeup, the nineteenth century urban festivals are still very much in the carnivalistic spirit that charac-
147 characterized earlier folk holidays. In Mikhail Baxtin's analysis elements of the carnival tradition appear in a novel such as Crime and Punishment in a largely transformed aspect. For example, the traditional act of discrowning the jester-king of the carnival takes the form of the unmasking of a character. (10) Also, various public places and public streets acquire a carnivalized aspect by virtue of their similarity with the public square that was the locus of the action in the carnival. (11) In Crime and Punishment the activities of the organ grinders, choirs of Russian singers, and drunks in the streets and taverns of Petersburg are largely stripped of any festive connotations, and only occasionally do they contribute to something like an atmosphere of celebration. An exception to this tendency takes place when Raskol'nikov is standing outside of the tavern where he hears an organ grinder, and he makes a point of telling someone in the crowd how much he likes this kind of music. Otherwise, the carnivalistic behavior of organ grinders and singers of folk and street music acts to amplify the novel's fundamentally discordant tonality. Certain social implications of the music in Crime and Punishment become explicit in the passage that culminates in Katerina Ivanovna' s death. Katerina Ivanovna tells Polečka to speak with her in French so that people will know that they are from a noble family and not like "all those organ grinders"(449). Nevertheless, when an official tells her to stop her performance, Katerina Ivanovna claims that she is doing nothing more than what an organ grinder would be doing. Katerina Ivanovna wants her daughter, Lenja, to sing something more genteel than the folk song "Xutorok", such as "Gusar že na sablju opirajas'", or a French song. To illustrate her point, Katerina Ivanovna sings lines from two French songs and a German song, "Du hast die schönsten Augen." Finally, she sings a Balakirev melody with the words of Lermontov's poem, "Son": "v poldnevnyj žar! ... v doline!... Dagestana!. . . S svincom v grudi! . . . "(454) . Whereas she had sung the previous songs largely to impress her listeners with her gentility, Katerina Ivanovna sings this last song because it reminds her of her youth. The song's romantic theme of a duelist lying mortally wounded in an exotic place forms a striking contrast with Katerina Ivanovna's lying on her deathbed in the room of a prostitute. Well before the death of Katerina Ivanovna Dostoevskij has already begun systematically to associate discordant music and loud noise with the profound crises of some of the characters. In the tavern where Raskol'nikov initially meets Marmeladov, there are the raucous, grating sounds of a barrel organ. A young singer is also singing the popular song, "Xutorok." In this scene Marmeladov, is making a public confession of his weaknesses and describing himself as a person who has no place to go. Together with the sounds of a crowd of drunks, the barrel organ and the singing form an atmosphere of chaotic noise that acts as a metaphorical reflection of Marmeladov's state of turmoil. The discordant music of Crime and Punishment reaches its zenith in part six when Raskol'nikov and Svidrigajlov meet in a tavern. Raskol'nikov's earlier tavern dialogues with Marmeladov and Zametov are artistic precursors to his later meeting with Svi-
148 drigajlov, Dostoevskij makes an indirect but significant association between the raucous music and Raskol'nikov's thoughts of murder. When he comes upon Svidrigajlov in the tavern, Raskol 'nikov has been looking for Svidrigajlov and thinking of killing him. Inside the tavern, "singers were giving forth (razlivalis'), a clarinet and a violin were ringing (zveneli), and a Turkish drum was banging (gremel). Women's squeals could be heard"(484). This cacophony is further amplified when Raskol 'nikov finds Svidrigajlov in a small room which is joined to a larger hall. On twenty small tables merchants, clerks and all sorts of people drank tea to the screeching of a desperate chorus of singers. From somewhere came the click of billiard balls... In the small room there were also an organ grinder, and a healthy, red-cheeked girl... a singer of about eighteen, who in spite of the choral singing in the other room, sang some sort of lackey's song in a hoarse contralto to the accompaniment of the organ grinder...(485) Svidrigajlov has hired the boy and girl to perform for him. His attraction to the music they play is a further link between him and Raskol'nikov. In this passage, however, Raskol'nikov's reaction to the street music is not even mentioned. Here it is rather the way in which the sounds reflect on the psychological state of Svidrigajlov that is paramount. The wild cacophony of sounds and music in this passage is an especially effective means of metaphorically suggesting the crisis building in the mind of Svidrigajlov, who is about to commit suicide.(12) Specially orchestrated non-musical sound patterns also play an important role on the descriptive plane of the novel. One of Crime and Punishment's salient features is its powerful drama and suspense. The prominence of drama and suspense in Dostoevskij has led Nabokov to compare his work with mystery novels. As Nabokov points out, Dostoevskij "builds up his climaxes and keeps up his suspenses with consummate mastery."(13) Certainly, Dostoevskij was assiduous in the pursuit of dramatic effects. In Crime and Punishment one of the principal means by which Dostoevskij produces these effects is by endowing certain scenes with specific patterns of sound and/or music. Some particularly noteworthy patterns emerge in connection with the crime and the two dreams that are closely associated with it. Dostoevskij often heightens suspense by alternating noise and silence. This is especially noticeable after Raskol'nikov murders the pawnbroker. When Raskol'nikov is trying to leave the old woman's apartment, Dostoevskij amplifies the suspense about whether he will be caught by systematically alternating silence with the loud noise of the painters and others in the building. He listened for a long time. Somewhere far away below... loudly and shrilly shouted two voices, arguing and swearing ... "What are they up to?"... Finally everything grew silent at once... He already wanted to leave, but suddenly a door opened loudly onto the stairway, and someone began to walk down below, humming some sort of tune. "What are they making so much noise for!" flashed in his mind... Finally everything grew quiet. He was about to step onto Shortly after this a.similar pattern is repeated when Raskol'nikov actually begins to go down the stairs, after the two men who come to see the pawnbroker leave. Someone cries out, "Hey, you devil! Wait!" The yell becomes a whine, everything becomes quiet, and several people begin loudly to climb the stairs. As has been shown here, in Crime and Punishment, especially during moments of great drama, it is often the sounds which not only communicate the atmosphere, but graphically describe the emotional states of the characters. As Raskol'nikov stands in the flat after killing the two women, he is extraordinarily sensitive to every sound. Dostoevskij underscores this sensitivity with onomatopoeia, a device he uses elsewhere very seldom, when Koch rings the bell, "zvjaknul žestjanoj zvuk kolokol'čika"(89). In the dream at the end of part three which recapitulates the murder, Dostoevskij brilliantly reformulates the motifs of the murder, including the suspense and tension produced by alternating noise and silence. In Raskol'nikov's dream everything is muted. He hears steps, they die out, then he is frightened by the sound of his own steps. This is followed by silence, which in his dream logic Raskol'nikov thinks comes from the moon. This silence is broken by a sudden, dry cracking sound. A fly is heard buzzing ("Muxa... žalobno zažužala."). As with the murder, onomatopoeia again highlights Raskol'nikov1s sensitivity to sound. Then, while Raskol'nikov tries in vain to kill the old woman, who laughs silently at him, he suddenly hears laughter and whispering. This laughter and whispering of the crowd of people who gather to watch grows ever louder. But when he runs out to see what is going on, there is silence and the people are quiet. "He wanted to cry out and - woke up." (287, 288) One critic has already noted the silence of this dream.(14) But the silence by itself could not possibly have created the drama which the alternation between sound and silence does. The artistic coherence between the dream and the murder consists not only of the fact that Dostoevskij reinterprets the actions and motifs of the murder symbolically in the dream, but also that he repeats the basic pattern of sound that accompanies the murder, including even the use of sound orchestration in onomatopoeia. Similar patterns of sound help to form a special relationship between the dream that reformulates the murder and the dream of the beating of the horse in part one that foreshadows the murder. The similarity between these two dreams has to do not just with the fact that they share many of the same motifs, but also with the fact that they both contain the kind of crescendo found in the novel's other scandal scenes. The dream of the beating of the horse is carried out in the shouts, laughter, and singing of the drunken peasants. The peasants in the tavern "bellowed, laughed, and cursed"(60). When they come out of the tavern, it is with "shouts, songs, and balalaikas... immediately laughter and exclamations rang out." While the peasant Mikolka is beating his mare, the laughter of
150 the peasants who are watching increases. He himself is screaming and shouting as his anger grows. The clamor reaches its peak when, "a coarse song rings out, a tambourine bangs, there is a whistle in the refrain. The wench cracks nuts and chuckles" (60-63). This passage bears a strong affinity with the one examined above in which Katerina Ivanovna dies. Both of them describe acute crises. What is more, in each case Dostoevskij creates a systematic acoustic orchestration, consisting of a full range of musical and sound effects, that helps to dramatize the crisis. It should also be pointed out that Raskol'nikov's first crisis dream about the beating of the horse contains the most explicit link between violence and discordant sounds and music in the novel. The motif of derisive laughter from the dream of the horse recurs in the second dream about the old woman. In both dreams there is a crowd that gathers to watch a beating, and in both cases the laughter of the crowd grows ever louder while a person becomes increasingly frustrated as the blows he is delivering fail to kill the object of his wrath. The boisterous laughter of the peasants in the first dream has become the muted laughter of the crowd in the second dream. This correlation in the sound structure of both dreams makes the second one not simply a recasting of the murder alone, but a special synthesis of both the dream of the killing of the horse and the actual murder of the pawnbroker. As the forgoing analysis demonstrates, the bulk of Dostoevskij's acoustic devices and patterns contribute in one way or another to the genaral tonality of Crime and Punishment. This is of course not true in every case. The alternation of sound and silence, for example, greatly enhances drama and suspense, and establishes resonances between events and/or dream sequences. It does not, however, contribute substantially to the novel's basic tonality. The speech of the characters and music, on the other hand, may in addition to dramatizing the action of certain passages reflect metaphorically on the emotional and psychological states of the characters and contribute to the generally dissonant tonality of the novel. Indeed, it is the very combination of overwrought character speech, interludes of raucous music, and a general din of shouting in the background of the setting that makes the novel's tonality so powerfully dissonant. Because the general level of tumult is so high throughout most of Crime and Punishment, in order to underscore cathartic action Dostoevskij tends either greatly to raise or to lower the acoustic level of the backdrop on which it takes place. In fact, as we have seen, Dostoevskij almost always highlights the most profound crises of the characters by means of a specific acoustic device: he combines both loud noise and discordant music at an extremely high volume. This is the case in virtually all of the major crises, including Marmeladov's tavern diatribe, Raskol'nikov's dream of the beating of the horse, Katerina Ivanovna's hysteria before dying, and Svidrigajlov's tavern dinner before his suicide. The pattern that emerges is one in which music appears as an almost essential aspect of Dostoevskij's depiction of crisis in Crime and Punishment. Given Dostoevskij's propensity for using juxtaposition and point-counterpoint in the implementation of
151 acoustic techniques, one might expect that the resolution of crisis in Crime and Punishment would display an acoustic character that contrasts markedly with that of the crisis scenes. As will be demonstrated shortly, this is exactly the case. Although the basic tonality of Crime and Punishment is overwhelmingly dissonant, if it is a truly polyphonic novel it should have a counterweight to even its most dominant tendency. According to Baxtin's conception of the polyphonic novel, "Dialogical relationships exist between all the elements of the novel's structure, that is, they are contrapuntually juxtaposed. "(15) In other words, for every point there should be a counterpoint. And so it appears that one of the noteworthy features of Dostoevskij's fiction is that there is nearly always a counter or an answer to even the most dominant character type, atmosphere, motif, or theme in a given work. For example, to the tirade of the Grand Inquisitor there is the silent answer of Christ's kiss. In Crime and Punishment the prevailing dissonance of the novel has its counterpoint in a small number of crucial passages that are characterized by peace and solitude. In fact, the rarity of such scenes in Crime and Punishment serves to set them out in bold relief and thereby greatly to highlight their significance. One of the most important interludes of tranquility takes place in part one before the murder. Raskol'nikov daydreams that he is at an oasis in Africa where he drinks cold water. He imagined that he was somewhere in Africa, in Egypt, at some oasis. A caravan was resting, the camels were lying peacefully; palm trees grew around in a complete circle; everyone was eating dinner. He kept drinking water, straight from a stream which flowed and gurgled right by his side. And it was so cool, and it ran over multicolored stones and over such clean sand flashing gold... (73-74) In this daydream Raskol'nikov expresses on a semi-conscious level his desire for peace and tranquility, for a release from the oppressive weight his plans for murder place on him.(16) This daydream takes place just before he sets out for the pawnbroker's, and therefore represents the last time Raskol'nikov may be seen in an uncorrupted state, which the cool water of the oasis so effectively suggests. This longing for a state of release and innocence never leaves Raskol'nikov, even though most of the time he tries to deny it by asserting his right to have killed a "louse." The second important interlude of peace and tranquility is found in the epilogue just before Raskol'nikov throws himself at Sonja's feet. Here also he is in a dreamlike state. He began to look at the wide deserted river. From the high bank there opened up a wide expanse. From the other faraway bank there carried a song, barely audible. There, in the boundless steppe that was lit by the sun, nomads' tents shone black in barely visible spots. There was freedom, and there lived other people, completely unlike the Although the details of what Raskol'nikov sees here do not correspond exactly with the daydream before the murder, the imagery, the motifs, and the overall atmosphere of both passages are strikingly similar.(17) In both cases Dostoevskij evokes the spirit of an ancient people living in a tranquil and unspoiled state. In both instances water enhances the calmness of the setting. Since Dostoevskij has already foreshadowed in Raskol'nikov's daydream before the murder that a counterweight to murder is solitude, it is especially appropriate that the scene of the nomads in Siberia acts as a catalyst for Raskol'nikov's epiphany. Because of this congruence of imagery between the two passages, it is possible to say that Dostoevskij actually prefigures Raskol'nikov's conversion. This foreshadowing lends artistic credibility to the epilogue, which has often been attacked.(15) In the epilogue to Crime and Punishment Raskol'nikov's dreams of pestilence and chaos, when the alarm sounds for days on end, have their counterpoint in the quiet scene of the nomads' tents. The axiom has been advanced here that since the general atmosphere of the novel is already fundamentally tumultuous and dissonant, in order for Dostoevskij to highlight cathartic action he either substantially raises or lowers the acoustic background on which it takes place. The first proof of this axiom is that the characters' crises involving murder, death, and suicide are systematically associated with the highest levels of discord and dissonance. According to the novel's dialogical structure, the second proof should then be that the resolution of crisis and regeneration are connected with the opposite or absence of discord, that is, tranquility. And in fact, Raskol'nikov's catharsis in the epilogue which heralds the possibility for his eventual regeneration takes place on a background of great calm and solitude. In this way the basic acoustic juxtaposition of tumultuous dissonance with tranquility found in Crime and Punishment is perfectly reticulated with the novel's fundamental thematic antinomy of disintegration versus regeneration. In the critical literature on Crime and Punishment one often encounters analogies between the novel and musical structure. As already noted, Leonid Grossman speaks of the novel's symphonic qualities. Baxtin's description of Dostoevskij's polyphonic novels is also based on a musical analogy. In fact, if one were to simplify the situation somewhat, one might say that Baxtin's conception of the polyphonic novel is largely a projection of Grossman's characterization of the many voices of Crime and Punishment into a paradigm for Dostoevskij's novelistic structure as a whole. Baxtin combines this with the notion of dialogue or competition between the characters and the ideas they represent. Examination of the acoustical elements of Crime and Punishment suggests that these musical analogies have a real basis, for the novel has symphonic qualities in an almost literal sense. In addition to the specifically musical motifs of singing and the playing of barrel organ music, Dostoevskij also employs non-musical leitmotifs,
153 such as the repetition of the root work -krik throughout part one and the speech patterns of Kater'ina Ivanovna and Lippewechsel. The use of a gradually rising crescendo in the scandal scenes and crisis dreams is also strongly suggestive of the techniques of symphonic composition. Finally the juxtaposition of solitude and dissonance found in the overall structure of Crime and Punishment, when considered together with the specific devices of alternating sound and silence, or juxtaposing cries with unuttered cries in certain passages suggests that Dostoevskij's use of point-counterpoint is central feature of his method of composition. The acoustic polyphony of Crime and Punishment is, therefore, a dynamic, multifacted phenomenon that virtually permeates the several levels of the novel. The extremely precise and systematic ways in which Dostoevskij orchestrates patterns of sound and music indicates that he rarely conceives of characters and events without regard for their acoustic features. In fact, in Dostoevskij's fictive world acoustic elements occupy a place of special priority, and are often more significant than visual ones. (19) This is certainly true with respect to Crime and Punishment, where acoustic elements are so profoundly and organically integrated into the entire structure of the novel, including its style, setting, dramatic exposition of action, thematics, and tonality. It is no exaggeration to say that Crime and Punishment is inconceivable without the acoustic dimensions with which Dostoevskij has so thoroughly and pervasively endowed the novel. NOTES
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