Is it fair to say that Raskolnikov is, in many ways, Porfiry’s nemesis in The Gentle Axe?
It’s certainly true that Porfiry is Raskolnikov’s nemesis. I think what’s interesting about the character of Porfiry in Crime and Punishment is what a powerful influence he has on the book, and yet how little of the action he participates in directly. Our understanding of Porfiry comes entirely from Raskolnikov’s perception of him. We see Porfiry through the prism of Raskolnikov, as Dostoevsky developed for the book what I call a closed-off third person point of view. It’s something a lot of writers have used since, but it was pretty new when he did it. He may even have invented it. The first draft was written in the first person but that didn’t allow him the distance from the murderer that he felt he needed. So he worked out this innovative way of handling the point of view. The result is we feel pretty intensely how Raskolnikov is fascinated by Porfiry and in fact becomes obsessed by him, convinced that Porfiry is on to him. I imagine — though we’re not shown this explicitly in the
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