The Paradox of the Righteous Sinner

The paradox of the righteous sinner: How does Dostoyevsky portray the contradictions of Sonya’s character?
“On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. Bridge”. Upon reading Dostoyevsky’s psychological drama ‘Crime and Punishment’, the reader is immediately plunged into the ambience of the city of St. Petersburg, in the year of 1866. We are introduced to a place, not only asphyxiating from the weather and the bestial atmosphere of St. Petersburg itself, but also a world lived in by its protagonist, psychologically splitting as a result of his overwhelming feelings of contempt for others, despair and self-loathing. Dostoyevsky presents the city in such a way that it seems stressful, unstable and unpleasant, (“The heat in the street was terrible: and the airlessness, the bustle and the plaster, scaffolding, bricks and dust all about him, and that special Petersburg stench, so familiar to all who are unable to get out of town in summer- all worked painfully upon the young man’s already overwrought nerves”) in order to emphasise Raskólnikov’s intense discomfort as he walks from street to street. This metaphorical city is also Dostoyevsky’s commentary on the social issues of the time, including the treatment of women. For instance, “girls picking up a living as best they could”, highlights the issue of gender inequality. Dostoyevsky uses this phrase as it shows that the girls are trying hard, despite the difficulties that face them, such as violence and poverty.