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Dostoyevsky capturing human's flaws

 “This was the first time she had spoken to him of the project, and she launched out into the most alluring details. It suddenly appeared that Katerina Ivanovna had in her hands the very certificate of honour of which Marmeladov had spoken to Raskolnikov in the tavern, when he told him that Katerina Ivanovna, his wife, had danced the shawl dance before the governor and other great personages on leaving school. This certificate of honour was obviously intended now to prove Katerina Ivanovna’s right to open a boarding-school; but she had armed herself with it chiefly with the object of overwhelming ‘those two stuck-up draggletails’ if they came to the dinner, and proving incontestably that Katerina Ivanovna was of the most noble, ‘she might even say aristocratic family, a colonel’s daughter and was far superior to certain adventuresses who have been so much to the fore of late.’”


“‘Yes, he was fond of drink, he was fond of it, he did drink!’ cried the commissariat clerk, gulping down his twelfth glass of vodka. ‘My late husband certainly had that weakness, and everyone knows it,’ Katerina Ivanovna attacked him at once, ‘but he was a kind and honourable man, who loved and respected his family. The worst of it was his good nature made him trust all sorts of disreputable people, and he drank with fellows who were not worth the sole of his shoe. Would you believe it, Rodion Romanovitch, they found a gingerbread cock in his pocket; he was dead drunk, but he did not forget the children!’”



“sir’ (Marmeladov suddenly gave a sort of start, raised his head and gazed intently at his listener) ‘well, on the very next day after all those dreams, that is to say, exactly five days ago, in the evening, by a cunning trick, like a thief in the night, I stole from Katerina Ivanovna”




‘well, on the very next day after all those dreams, that is to say, exactly five days ago, in the evening, by a cunning trick, like a thief in the night, I stole from Katerina Ivanovna the key of her box, took out what was left of my earnings, how much it was I have forgotten, and now look at me, all of you! It’s the fifth day since I left home, and they are looking for me there and it’s the end of my employment, and my uniform is lying in a tavern on the Egyptian bridge. I exchanged it for the garments I have on … and it’s the end of everything!’



and I feel it! Do you suppose I don’t feel it? And the more I drink the more I feel it. That’s why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink…. I drink so that I may suffer twice as much!’ And as though in despair he laid his head down on the table.

and her breathing too…. Have you noticed how people in that disease breathe … when they are excited? I am frightened of the children’s crying, too…. For if Sonia has not taken them food … I don’t know what’s happened! I don’t know! But blows I am not afraid of…. Know, sir, that such blows are not a pain to me, but even an enjoyment. In fact I can’t get on without it…. It’s better so. Let her strike me, it relieves her heart … it’s better so …