Luck and Fate in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment Essay

Luck and Fate in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment - Essay Example A self-confessed drunkard, a widower with a daughter from his first wife and later on remarried to Katerina Ivanovna, a widow who had three children from her previous husband, believed that it was his fate to be a drunkard to the point that he had sold most of his possessions including some of his wife’s valued possessions (Dostoevsky 16-17). In acceptance of his fate as a hopeless drunkard, Marmeladov claimed, â€Å"Such is my fate! Do you know, sir, do you know, I have sold her very stockings for drink?. (Dostoevsky 17)† But later on reasons out that his drinking is a self-inflicted suffering to pay for his sins to his wife and children as he claimed, â€Å"Thats why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink.. . I drink so that I may suffer twice as much! (Dostoevsky 17)† On a close examination of Marmeladov’s behavior, he blaming his fate of loving alcohol too much was his excuse for behaving as he had confessed. Likened to a McLaughlin quote saying that, â€Å"The chief reason for drinking is the desire to behave in a certain way, and to be able to blame it on alcohol,† (Guillemets) Marmeladov blames his actions to his drinking and not entirely taking the blame to himself. On the contrary, Marmeladov, instead of putting the blame on his drinking and lamenting his fate at the tavern, should at least make efforts to retain his job better yet to accept that his family problems are his fault and that he can make a way to at least feed his children and tend to his ailing wife. Also, he should have thought of these problems when he is sober and not when he was drunk since he would eventually forget all his thoughts when the effects of his drink wear off. Marmeladov’s alcoholism had developed into a family problem. Accordingly, alcoholics may have young, teenage, or grown-up children; they have wives or husbands; they have brothers or sisters; they have parents or other relatives. An alcoholic can totally disrupt family life and cause