Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Impressions of Russian Literature - VI
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
her rubles in his pocket. And how conscientiously has
he not acted! He assured himself first by a careful
self-examination, that he would not overstep the barriers to
satisfy sensuous impulses, but for the sake of a great
object; so he himself selected, among all “the useless
lice,” the most useless of all, and finally determined,
although he killed the woman, to take only so much as
was absolutely necessary for the object nearest to him.
But it is not the old woman he has killed; it was
himself, his own ego. His deed has grown up far above his
head; it has isolated him completely, thrown him
wholly back into himself. The secret gnaws him to
insanity, and the agony of being himself “a louse,” like
all the others, paralyzes him.
Scarcely had he committed the murder before he
began to feel lonesome, strange to himself, and doomed
to everlasting dumbness. He it is who will nevermore
be able to talk with others. Soon after, he is tormented
by an insane impulse to disclose himself, to tell all
himself. He prefers immediately to throw all that he
has taken into the canal; he has no idea of using it,
conceals it under a stone in a building-lot. He does not
himself understand what has happened to him; but he
has been separated from his past, as if by the clip of
a pair of scissors. There comes a moment when he
almost jumps into the water, to make an end of all.
On his associates he makes the impression of a madman.
But he falls in with human wretchedness in its worst
form — a drunkard who dies; a consumptive widow with
a nest full of children, without bread; a noble young
girl who has been compelled to sell herself to get food
for her little brothers and sisters; and the need of
showing generosity, of helping, restores to him, for a
short time, faith in life. Still, this short rise is followed
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
