Marquis De Sade's influence on Dostoevsky and "Crime and Punishment"

[cvn]

I read an interesting article a couple months ago titled Dostoevsky vs. the Marquis De Sade in which the author points out the influence of De Sade on Dostoevsky, who frequently referenced him, implicitly and explicitly, numerous times in his works.

Having recently read De Sade's Justine, I can attest to his influence, particularly on Crime and Punishment. One the novel's most vile characters, Rodin, a surgeon and libertine who espouses a nihilistic philosophy and the theory that "great men" shouldn't be bound by the same laws as everyone else, clearly resembles Dostoevsky's creation, Rodion Raskolnikov, even in name (although Raskolnikov is a far more sympathetic figure).

The character from De Sade's novel at one point has a discussion about anatomy and his future experiments with his friend, colleague, and fellow libertine, Rombeau, in which the similarities between the two authors' characters can be seen by the reader:

"It was Rodin who was speaking: 'Anatomy will never reach its ultimate state of perfection until an examination has been performed upon the vaginal canal of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old child who has expired from a cruel death. It is only from the contingent contraction we can obtain a complete analysis of a so highly interesting part.'

'The same holds true,' Rombeau replied, 'for the hymeneal membrane. We must, of course, find a young girl for the dissection. What the deuce is there to be seen after the age of puberty? Nothing, the menstrual discharges rupture the hymen, and all research is necessarily inexact. Your daughter is precisely what we need; although she is fifteen, she is not yet mature. The manner in which we have enjoyed her has done no damage to the membranous tissue, and we will be able to handle her with complete immunity from interference. I am delighted you have made up your mind at last.'

'Oh, I certainly have,' Rodin rejoined. 'I find it odious that futile considerations check the progress of science. Did great men ever allow themselves to be enslaved by such contemptible chains? And, when Michelangelo wished to render a Christ after nature, did he make the crucifixion of a young man the occasion for a fit of remorse? Why, no: he copied the body in his death agonies. But where it is a question of the advance of our art, how essential such means become! And how the evil in permitting them dwindles to insignificance! Only think of it! You sacrifice one, but you save a million perhaps. May one hesitate when the price is so modest? Is the murder operated by the law of a species different from the one we are going to perform? And is not the purpose of those laws, which are commonly found so wise, the sacrifice of one in order to save a thousand?'"

Sound familiar?

[Slovenly Old Man]

It does sound familiar... here's the quote from C & P... Raskolnikov overhears some students discussing this while sitting at an inn.... so we can see that it wasn't a unique idea to Raskolnikov, but a "progressive" idea frequently discussed by the young generation.....

"Look here; on one side we have a stupid, senseless, worthless, spiteful, ailing, horrid old woman, not simply useless, but doing actual mischief, who has not an idea what she is living for herself, and who will die in a day or two in any case…  On the other side, fresh young lives thrown away for want of help, and by thousands, on every side!  A hundred thousand good deeds could be done and helped, on that old woman’s money which will be buried in a monastery!  Hundreds, thousands perhaps, might be set on the right path; dozens of families saved from destitution, from ruin, from vice, from the hospitals – and all with her money.  Kill her, take the money, and with the help of it devote oneself to the service of humanity and the good of all.  What do you think, would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds?  For one life, thousands would be saved from corruption and decay.  One death, and a hundred lives in exchange – it’s simple arithmetic!"