Shadowing Practice: Dostoevsky’s Warning to Great Thinkers | Crime and Punishment - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.
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This is one of Dostoevsky's most famous quotes, but not many people know that it is spoken by the tongue of a murderer,
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and applies just as much to himself as the innocent woman he is berating.
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Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is many things.
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It has been described as the greatest novel of all time, and has inspired thinkers, authors, and philosophers the world over,
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from Kafka to Nietzsche to Sartre.
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It is a deep psychological examination of the mind of a murderer, an evisceration of the philosophy of nihilism,
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and an uplifting tale of the power of love.
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And today I want to take you on a journey through the philosophy of this extraordinary work of literature.
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We will explore how abstract thinking can be dangerous, ask whether all men are truly created equal,
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and show how none of us can escape the vice -like grasp of our own conscience.
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But before that, let's have a brief summary of the book, just so we know where we all stand.
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1. Crime and Punishment.
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A brief recap.
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Crime and Punishment follows a 23 -year -old ex -law student named Raskolnikov.
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Raskolnikov is a very clever young man, but he's condemned to deep poverty.
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He has recently had an article published in which he argues that there are two types of person.
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There are ordinary people who are bound to societal norms, morality, and the judgment of others,
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and there are extraordinary people who can safely disregard morality and use their liberation from this constraint to achieve great things.
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One day, in his dingy
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Petersburg room, Raskolnikov realises he can both alleviate his impoverishment
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and test whether he is truly an extraordinary man by murdering
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a vile old pawn broker who exploits the desperation of the people around her to make money.
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He says he will use this money to rise to prominence and commit great acts of charity.
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In his words, one death in exchange for thousands of lives, it is simple arithmetic.
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He concludes that if he can just move on with his life after the murder, then he must be an extraordinary man.
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And this concept fills him with excitement.
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So he murders the old pawn broker
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and her sister who interrupts the crime before or stealing a purse
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and stashing it under some cobblestones where nobody would think to look.
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But no sooner has he committed this act than his guilt and fear start to eat away at his mind.
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He starts lashing out at his friend Razimikhin and his sister Dunya.
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He is tormented by the idea that the inspector in charge of the case, Porfiry Petrovich, might find some evidence against him.
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He is plunged into paranoia and terror and feels cut off from society by his crime, even though no one yet knows he's committed it.
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Amongst all this, he meets Sonja, the prostitute daughter of a drunk that Raskolnikov met at a bar when he was planning the murder.
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Sonia is a sort of living taunt for Raskolnikov.
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She is in circumstances much more difficult than his own.
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She has to support her entire family with her prostitution.
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Yet she manages to be a pure -hearted and accepting soul.
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After a few meetings with Sonia, Raskolnikov breaks down and confesses his crime to her.
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She embraces him with tears, loving him for who he is, but says that he must confess and suffer whatever penalty the authorities deem necessary.
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She also says that she will follow Raskolnikov to whatever prison he is sent to.
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Raskolnikov thinks about it, but he will not confess at this time.
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Parallel to all this, a vicious and amoral man named Svidrigayov enters the fray.
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He is an abuser of children and a murderer, who is incapable of feeling guilt,
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and who has poisoned his wife so he might marry Raskolnikov's sister, Dunya.
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He rents the room next to Sonia's and overhears Raskolnikov's confession, and he taunts Raskolnikov with this knowledge.
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Eventually he uses this in an attempt to blackmail Dunya to have sex with him and to marry him.
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Dunya refuses and leaves Svidrigayov alone.
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Svidrigayev then commits suicide for reasons that have become much debated amongst readers of Dostoevsky.
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Some say he was overcome with a rush of guilt, others say he is a coward.
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I like John Jones's interpretation, where he paints Svidrigayev as such a nihilist that he just gets bored of life and ends it on a whim.
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Either way, this piece of knowledge Svidrigayev obtained pushes Raskolnikov one step further to confessing.
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Then Raskolnikov is visited in his lodgings once more by the inspector, Pafiri Petrovich, who earnestly asks him to confess.
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He sincerely proclaims that he wants the best for Raskolnikov.
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He points out Raskolnikov is not the sort of man who can run from his guilt.
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He must either confess now and receive his due punishment, or torture himself forever.
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Raskolnikov does not give Porfiry an answer, but runs to see Sonia one last time.
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At Sonia's, he states his intention to confess and leaves without saying goodbye.
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On his way to the police station, he notices that Sonia is following him,
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and that is when he realizes that she will be with him to the ends of the earth, and even to Siberia.
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He walks in and confesses his crime openly, purging his guilt and accepting his sentence.
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I will openly say that I am leaving much of the subtlety and subplots out in this summary.
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I have not had any time to talk about Dunja's contemptible fiancé,
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Peter Petrovich, nor have I been able to talk about the rest of Sonja's family
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and the trials they endure at the hands of fate.
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Nonetheless, I've covered the main points of the story, and we can crack on with our analysis.
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As always, just remember that this is what I have taken from the novel.
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If you have a different interpretation, that is absolutely fine.
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So, without further ado, let's get started.
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2. The danger of philosophy Friedrich Nietzsche hated Socrates.
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People are always very surprised when they learn this, but it actually makes quite a lot of sense.
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Whereas Socrates accepted the authority of Athens and went peacefully to his death, Nietzsche would have kicked and screamed the entire way.
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Where Socrates wanted to convince people, giving them reasons to change their minds, Nietzsche saw this as a sign of weakness.
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If Socrates was stronger, he could have bent people to his will by force.
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Above all, Nietzsche thought that a philosophical worldview
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that dwelt entirely in the abstract prevented people from engaging with the world as it actually existed.
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In Beyond Good and Evil, he shows contempt for the philosopher's disinterest at playing a part in the world,
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and mocks their belief that they can engage with it purely in the third person.
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For Nietzsche, the moment you give up on the concrete material world to dwell entirely in the abstract one,
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you are denying yourself the gift that life has given you, and giving up on your will to power.
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In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky criticises abstract philosophy from a different direction.
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He shows how purely abstract thought can make one forget the importance of the concrete material world that they inhabit.
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And he does this principally through the character of Raskolnikov.
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In one passage, Raskolnikov is described as a sceptic, young, abstract, and therefore cruel.
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And it is this abstraction which allows him to rationalise killing the old woman.
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He does this both through his extraordinary man theory, but also through more familiar utilitarian reasoning.
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As I mentioned before, he describes all of the great deeds he could do with the pawnbroker's money,
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and says that measured up against all of this good, the old woman's life is simply insignificant.
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It is this treatment of people, where they become not living things, but numbers, values on a spreadsheet,
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that allows Raskolnikov to think that he will be able to kill without remorse.
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He has fooled himself into thinking that the human conscience is an entirely reasonable thing.
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But he is wrong.
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It would not have mattered how strong his logic was, because deep down, these were not his real reasons for killing.
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Of course, Dostoevsky is by no means saying that philosophy is all bad or that it will turn you into a murderer.
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Instead, I think he is making a very nuanced point about
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how a certain way of considering the world can make you completely forget its emotional dimension.
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For utilitarianism specifically, it is not a criticism of the philosophy in direct terms,
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but instead it is a worry about how it would make people think in practice.
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This is not the first time he does this, and I find it very interesting how Dostoevsky counters abstract philosophical positions with a concrete psychological example.
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You see, Dostoevsky was writing at a time where waves of ideas were sweeping Russia.
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These ideas included atheism, nihilism, and a belief in the totality of rational thought.
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Dostoevsky was not a fan of any of these, but he attacks the final one incisively,
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both in Crime and Punishment and his other work, Notes from the Underground.
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In each of these works, he highlights the parts of mankind that are fundamentally irrational.
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In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov is given a perfectly reasonable way out of poverty by his friend Razumikhin,
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who offers him translation work and an advance on each book he works on.
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But Raskolnikov refuses.
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Likewise, the underground man from Dostoevsky's other novel is constantly given potential ways out of his miserable condition,
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but he refuses them each and every time they are presented to him.
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In both cases, the practical solution is besides the point.
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It does not fix the gaping hole in the hearts of our anti -heroes.
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In the epilogue of the book, when he is safely locked away in a Siberian prison, Raskolnikov reflects on his motives for the murder.
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He admits that he did not kill the old woman out of poverty, nor a desire to do good deeds,
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but instead he had a deep spiritual dissatisfaction with being an ordinary person.
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He wanted to be a great man, to be a Napoleon, storming through Europe, conquering whole nations, and leaving his mark on history forever.
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But a military or political career was just not a realistic prospect.
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All that was left for him to do was to be the Napoleon of his little quarter in Petersburg,
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to make his mark by transgressing the deepest rule of law and public morality,
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and so prove that he would have been Napoleon if only he was in the right place at the right time.
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Of course, this too is a danger of abstract thinking.
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Raskolnikov is so blinded by the glory of his ideas
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that he cannot see the wonder and complexity of the ordinary people around him.
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I am always surprised at just how many analyses of crime
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and punishment skim over one of my favourite characters in all of fiction, Razumikin.
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Razumikin is everything one could ask for in a friend.
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He is loyal to a fault, constantly offers his help to Raskolnikov,
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looks after Raskolnikov's family, and even plans to move to Siberia to follow Raskolnikov to prison.
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Razumikhin is such an extraordinary character, and to have someone like him as a friend would be one of the greatest gifts life could offer.
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I say this because Raskolnikov blatantly misses this fact.
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He knows Razumikhin is his friend, but he often snaps at him, snubs his kindness, and treats him as somewhat beneath him.
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In his veneration of the abstract, Raskolnikov fails to realise that far from being worthy of contempt, the ordinary is full of greatness.
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Had he wanted to, he could have spent years thinking and writing about the characters he is surrounded by,
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each of which has fascinated Dostoevsky readers for decades.
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But instead, he lets all of this pass him by in favour of purely abstract thinking.
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Again, I must emphasise that Dostoevsky is not saying that abstract thinking is bad, and he's certainly not saying that thinking is bad.
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Abstract thinking has brought us maths, logic, analytic philosophy, modern science and the steam engine.
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No one would deny its usefulness nor its wisdom.
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Dostoevsky is instead pointing to those areas of life that we miss when we only focus on the abstract.
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In Raskolnikov's case, it drives a wedge between him and other people
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and prevents him from seeing the world in all of its ordinary glory.
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It also means he is alienated from his own emotions.
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He does not predict how much guilt and fear and shame he will feel after murdering the old woman, because these are just not quantifiable factors.
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They would require that he step down from his abstract throne and consider the concrete, the particular and the irrational.
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And this he simply will not do.
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So in a great stroke of irony, Raskolnikov's disdain for any thought that is an abstract not only drives him to commit murder,
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but also means he never predicts that his own mind will torture him until he confesses to that murder.
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But the way Dostoevsky explores the depths of Raskolnikov's conscience is its own work of genius.
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And that is what we shall move on to next.
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If you want more on philosophy and the art of learning, subscribe to my email list.
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The link is in the description.
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Three, fear, shame, and guilt.
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The French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir talks at length about the powerful force of societal judgment.
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In her book, The Ethics of Ambiguity, she talks about the effects of being born into certain structures,
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which impose certain values, morals and hierarchies upon us.
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If we do not fit into these societal structures, we are othered.
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That is, we are made to feel as if we're somehow not welcome here.
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We are then presented with a choice.
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We can hide some part of ourselves, and a facsimile of our true character will be embraced by the people around us,
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or we can resign ourselves to being, to some extent, alienated from the rest of society.
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And I think we can all relate to this idea to a greater or lesser extent.
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We all have desires or wishes or aspects of our history that we'd rather not let see the light of day.
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And we all hide parts of ourselves to fit in.
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But Raskolnikov lives with this on a huge scale.
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Arguably the most important thing he has ever done is considered evil by everyone around him.
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And he can never let anyone know a fraction of who he is without resigning himself to a lengthy prison sentence.
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Dostoevsky writes that immediately after the murder, Raskolnikov is struck by a deep sense of loneliness that fills his entire soul.
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From that moment forth, he knows that he can't speak freely with anyone.
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Yet something inside him yearns to confess, to be seen by his fellow man in his full glory.
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After all, because of his personal philosophy, the murder is the very thing that makes him someone worthy of respect.
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It's the thing that makes him not like the ordinary people, who he rather nastily refers to as lice.
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In one particular scene, he bumps into a court clerk called Zazimov just a few days after the murder,
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and they start to discuss the ongoing investigation.
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Raskolnikov laughs contemptuously at each of the police's theories, saying that if someone genuinely wanted to commit the crime, they would do the following.
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And then he says how he committed the murder, down to the detail of hiding the spoils under a cobblestone somewhere.
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Just a few days after the killing, Raskolnikov is already chomping at the bit to be recognised as the murderer.
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And this is without any prompting from anyone.
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He simply yearns to be acknowledged, to be seen for who he is.
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And are we at all surprised by this?
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Many psychoanalysts, psychologists and philosophers have argued that the perception of other people is of vital importance when we form our identities.
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Most notably, Jacques Lacan and Jean -Paul Sartre both talk of how we form our identities
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and self -conceptions by testing our beliefs about ourselves and seeing if society concurs.
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So I could go out tomorrow and claim the identity of being a fantastic football player, but for lack of evidence,
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no one will believe that this is true.
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As a result, I could not fully absorb this belief into my identity.
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I am simplifying here, but you get the general idea.
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Raskolnikov has just embarked on the greatest experiment of his life, murdering this old pawnbroker.
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And yet he has no way of presenting this action to other people to get their recognition.
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He also resents even having to ask for it,
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saying in a conversation with Sonia that a true extraordinary man would just not care what anyone thought of him.
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But the fact is, like many of us, Raskolnikov does want to present his whole self to the world, and especially to those closest to him.
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In a very heartfelt conversation between Raskolnikov and his mother towards the end of the book,
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it is clear that Raskolnikov wants to confess his sin to her and have her embrace him as her son anyway.
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But he cannot bring himself to do it.
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He is still scared and he fears that the knowledge of what he has done will break his mother.
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Even when he has already resolved to hand himself in for his crimes, he cannot bear to show his whole character to his loved ones.
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The sole exception to this is Sonya.
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But put a pin in that as we'll revisit it later.
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And the mental torment does not stop there.
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The dominant attitude Raskolnikov holds from the murder onwards is complete and total paranoia.
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The day after the murder he is summoned to the local police station to address a debt,
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and he immediately leaps to the conclusion that he's been found out.
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But on the other hand, he can't be 100 % sure, and to not attend would certainly arouse suspicion.
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So he goes to the station like a prisoner being led to the guillotine, unable to refuse the police's summons,
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yet certain he is going to his doom.
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He eventually faints due to the stress of the situation and falls ill for several days.
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When he awakes, his first thought is terror that he might have muttered a confession in his sleep.
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Later, when the inspector Pifiri Petrovich even hints that he suspects Raskolnikov, the murderer is thrown into a rage of fury and terror.
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He berates the detective for trying to catch him out, and after each sentence he berates himself for appearing suspicious.
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His behavior confirms his guilt in the mind of the inspector, even before a single shred of evidence has arisen.
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Raskolnikov spends most of books two and three of the novel in various states of fear at the suspicion of others.
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And yet, when people lose suspicion in him, that brings up the old terror of nobody truly knowing who he is,
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and nobody recognizing what he's done of no one ever knowing his full self.
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One of my favourite analogies in the book is made by Pafiri Petrovich about criminals like Raskolnikov,
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who are seized both with the terror of being caught and the insatiable desire to be known.
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He describes them like a moth circling around a candle.
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They may flutter away temporarily, but they'll eventually come to orbit the flame,
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getting closer and closer until they finally fall into the fire of their own accord, without the candle having to move one inch.
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Such is Raskolnikov's dilemma.
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Each time he is scared of being caught he acts
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so guilty he confirms suspicions and every time suspicion wanes his desire to be acknowledged pulls him back to near confession.
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He both desperately wants to confess and desperately wants to avoid punishment and this contradiction tears at the seams of his mind.
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And I love this observation by Dostoevsky because as I said we all suffer from it to some extent.
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We all have things that deep down we're ashamed of, that torture us as we try and go to sleep.
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These might be mistakes we've made, there might be times that we've compromised our values,
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there might just be who we used to be in previous years.
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We all have parts of ourselves that we wonder whether anyone would ever accept.
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And if we're not careful, enough of these can drive us just as mad as Raskolnikov.
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And this is ultimately the punishment in Crime and Punishment.
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When Raskolnikov is actually sent to prison, only a couple of chapters are devoted to the years -long ordeal.
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The whole rest of the novel charts the course of his mental anguish in the few days leading up to his confession.
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But what about those whose consciences are not only clean but non -existent?
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Well, I'm glad you brought them up.
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4. Nihilism, Hedonism and Despair.
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In an 1879 article presciently titled
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The Revolution in Russia, an anonymous Russian nihilist gives his opinion on what he takes nihilism to be.
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He describes it as a fascinating whirlwind of different philosophical and political views.
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But in his view, Russian nihilism amounts to questioning the authority of the Tsar
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and wanting to impose some type of social reform.
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This more political outlook was taken by Peter Kropotkin, who famously argued for nihilism as a form of political anarchism,
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a deep questioning of the power structures that existed in Tsarist Russia.
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However, this was certainly not Dostoevsky's interpretation of nihilism.
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Dostoevsky saw in nihilism what many of the other conservative thinkers in Russia observed, a total breakdown in values,
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moral or otherwise, that would eventually lead people to egoism and despair.
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To that extent, for Dostoevsky, nihilism and a crude individualistic hedonism go hand in hand.
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After all, if you think nothing matters in any sense greater than yourself, then you are just left with what feels good in the moment.
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Or at least that was how they saw it.
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They also thought it was a philosophy that would lead to the downfall of Russia.
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It seems to be a matter of historical debate, with very firm opinions on both sides,
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to what extent the conservative interpretation of Russian nihilism was an accurate analysis of the movement.
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Don't quote me on any of this, I'm not a historian and I am deeply out of my depth.
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But putting such historical matters aside, since I have no desire to touch them with a 10 -foot barge pole,
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Crime and Punishment offers a devastating critique of both nihilism and hedonism as Dostoevsky saw them.
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It is a great intellectual takedown of the idea that you can live without valuing anything.
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And whatever you think of Russian nihilists,
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it's undeniable that the attitude of nothing matters and we might as well die is a common opinion in YouTube comment sections.
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So if nothing else, Dostoevsky can certainly give us a criticism of this idea.
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And to clarify from now on, when I say nihilist, I am talking about Dostoevsky's idea of a nihilist.
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Surprisingly, Dostoevsky's greatest critique of the nihilist hedonist worldview comes not from the character of Raskolnikov, but from the portrayal of the outright hedonist Svidrigayov.
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There is almost no character in fiction quite as repulsive as Svidrigayov.
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He has no morals, no values, he abuses children and revels in the sheer thrill he takes in doing something genuinely awful.
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He poisons his wife, blackmails Dunya, Raskolnikov's sister, and the horizon of his desires never stretches beyond the next day or week.
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He has no general orientation to his life and he seems to revel in this fact.
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For him, there is nothing higher than moment -to -moment pleasure.
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He is Dostoevsky's platonic ideal of an amoral nihilist.
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He is happy to walk all over the feelings and lives of others to get his way, and he does this without a second thought.
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In a lot of ways, he is the only character in the book that comes close to actually being Raskolnikov's extraordinary man.
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Though, as pointed out by Frank Seeley, whereas Raskolnikov's extraordinary man seeks to change the world and reshape it anew,
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Svidrigayev sees no higher master than his own short -term pleasure.
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Personally, I interpret Svidrigayev as Dostoevsky's idea of what the extraordinary man would look like in practice.
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Once someone has proclaimed themselves king of their own morality, completely free to choose what rules to follow and which to disobey,
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and they value nothing, then they are entirely reliant on sensory stimuli.
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If no ideas matter, and there's nothing worth subordinating one's desires to, then we are back to the feedback loop we had as a child.
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Does this feel good?
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Great, then do it.
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Does this feel bad?
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Well, then stop.
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But this in itself is not a criticism.
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A nihilist might respond by saying, what's wrong with that?
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And Dostoevsky uses the character of Svidrigailov to deliver a two -part blow to the worldview of the nihilist.
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He shows both how the state of valuing nothing is impossible to maintain, and how even if one could spend their entire lives as a nihilist,
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it would just make them miserable.
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The striking thing about Svidrigailov is just how bored he is for most of the novel.
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He commits acts of depravity and great acts of charity without seeming to take much genuine pleasure in either.
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In each case, he seems to enjoy the act itself and telling others about it.
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But that joy is momentary.
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It flickers briefly and then it fades.
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There is no thread of meaning in his life to sustain him.
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And so, he is bored.
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He cannot even imagine the idea of heaven except as a dull place overrun by pests.
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Everywhere we see his nihilism and hedonism robbing the world of its potential vibrancy.
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He has liberated himself from every possible constraint.
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But in doing so, he has made all his choices meaningless.
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He suffers from an excess of freedom.
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He is now so free he can no longer choose.
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And as if this wasn't enough of an evisceration to Svidrigaïlov's approach to life,
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Dostoevsky also makes it so something actually does matter to him in the end.
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Svidrigaïlov falls in love.
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He loves Raskolnikov's sister Dunya.
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Despite all of his hedonistic beliefs, he cannot help eventually finding something that he values beyond himself.
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In one of the tensest scenes in the novel, Svidrigaïlov is in the process of blackmailing Dunya to marry him.
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But Dunya refuses.
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She eventually takes out a gun and tries to shoot Svidrigaïlov and the supposed hedonist makes no attempt to defend himself.
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Instead, there is the following exchange.
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So you don't love me?
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Svidrigailov asked quietly.
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Dunya shook her head.
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And you can't?
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Not ever?
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He whispered in despair.
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No. Never.
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Dunya whispered.
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Immediately after this, Svidrigailov lets her go.
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With no conditions, no threats, and nothing to motivate her to return.
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This man, who was killed, threatened, abused, and assaulted so many before, now relents.
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And he cannot bring himself to actually harm Dunya.
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Despite his nihilistic pretensions, he has fallen in love, and in that moment, however briefly, he values Dunya's happiness over his own.
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But his moment of meaning is short -lived.
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In the same moment he realizes that he finally cares about someone, that someone rejects him and leaves him.
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Not without good reason.
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If Svidrigailov was not such a bastard, this would almost be tragic.
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In my interpretation, it is this which pushes Svidrigailov to suicide.
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He realizes that for all his hopes, his hedonism actually can't sustain him,
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And this confrontation with the failure of his own philosophy is too much for him to bear.
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Unlike Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov has completely abandoned any hope of finding meaning again, or making peace with his meaninglessness.
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So he takes the only route he sees available and enters own life.
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Albert Camus would say that Svidrigailov has come face to face with the absurd.
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He has a thirst for meaning, but there is not a drop of water in sight.
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Unable to reconcile this, he chooses oblivion instead.
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This, for Dostoevsky, is what someone who truly embraces nihilism looks like.
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Someone who not only thinks that nothing matters, but acts like it as well.
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Again, just like in his critique of utilitarianism, Dostoevsky is not engaging with the philosophy directly.
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He is not saying nihilism is false, but rather saying nihilism is unlivable.
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Once more, he takes an abstract philosophical idea and attacks it using concrete psychology.
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And it is certainly worth noting that very few philosophers have actually recommended this sort of nihilism,
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where we truly never consider anything to be greater than ourselves and abandon all of our values.
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The only person who comes close to this is Camus, and he is pretty clear about his absurdism not leading one to be hedonistic.
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But instead, we should embrace a sort of calm indifference and find meaning in the process of living itself.
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It is not just in the minds of orthodox Russian novelists that nihilism finds no home.
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It is rejected as a life philosophy by some of the wisest thinkers in history.
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So when your mind whispers in your ear that nothing really matters, take this with a pinch of salt.
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It is one thing to take the pressure off our lives
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by noting our comforting insignificance in the grand scheme of the universe, but it is quite another to actually consider every situation as equivalent,
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to abandon all self -imposed restraints and commit fully to our moment -to -moment instincts.
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One is a sensible salve to the stresses of being alive, and another is a philosophy that can only end in self -destruction.
346
It's a delicate tightrope to walk.
347
Next, we move on to one of the greatest themes in the book, and one that is pertinent to us all.
348
Four, the value of suffering.
349
Humans have thought about suffering for probably as long as humans have been around.
350
From Nietzsche's idea of growth through suffering to Kierkegaard's extended theories on the many different levels of despair.
351
There has been no shortage of thinkers theorising on the subject of human misery.
352
But Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment has some of the most nuanced thoughts on how people approach, use and react to suffering that I have ever read.
353
He demonstrates this through a number of his characters, and I will treat each of these in turn.
354
Perhaps the most interesting approach to suffering is embodied by Sonia.
355
Sonia seems to take on suffering as if it were an inherent good to do so.
356
She takes on the role of feeding her family and as a result becomes a prostitute, which Dostoevsky described as the most torturous of professions.
357
In some ways she did not have to do this.
358
At the time she turned to this desperate measure, her father was still alive and it was ultimately his responsibility to put food on the table.
359
But she does it for her family because she does not consider her suffering to be of any importance.
360
At points she seems to view it as a positive.
361
She almost admits this to Raskolnikov when she is encouraging him to confess.
362
She says it is only through the suffering of his official punishment
363
that he'll be able to redeem himself and live among people again.
364
Sonia sees herself as shamed by her prostitution and alienated from humanity as a result,
365
so she turns to suffering in an attempt to alleviate that shame.
366
It is not entirely clear to me what Dostoevsky meant to say about suffering through his portrayal of Sonia, and the whole character is somewhat controversial,
367
but there is nonetheless a lot of wisdom here on how suffering can become self -perpetuating.
368
Sonia feels ashamed of her prostitution and sees fit to punish herself.
369
But there is no greater punishment she can think of than making herself continue in this profession
370
that she feels so guilty about.
371
Far from alleviating her shame, Sonia's self -abasement only adds to it, and so there is no root out of suffering.
372
This is the grain of truth when Raskolnikov says
373
that her worst sin is that she has destroyed and betrayed herself for nothing.
374
Sonia is stuck in a cycle from which there is no escape as long as she continues this endless self -punishment.
375
She only finds a way out through her love for Raskolnikov, which we will get to shortly.
376
So whatever Dostoevsky's intentions, Sonia's particular treatment of her shame has a warning in it for us all.
377
Suffering can be transformative, but it can also be unnecessary and even counterproductive.
378
Sonia has nothing to suffer for because she hasn't done anything wrong.
379
She makes herself suffer over and over again for no higher purpose.
380
Her suffering is meaningless, and that makes it all the more tragic.
381
Raskolnikov, for his part, has a contradictory relationship with suffering.
382
As we mentioned earlier, Raskolnikov is deeply scared of his official punishment.
383
This fear is so intense it causes him to rage against the investigator for torturing him with his endless suspicions.
384
The irony is that in fleeing from the suffering of prison, Raskolnikov has resigned himself to a far greater ordeal at the hands of his mind.
385
Raskolnikov, like many of Dostoevsky's protagonists, suffers from a form of what we might call hyper -consciousness.
386
He cannot simply do things without thinking obsessively about them first.
387
This is both his blessing and his curse.
388
On the one hand, it allows him to come up with novel ideas, to impress those around him with his great intelligence,
389
and it grants him the potential to truly excel in the world.
390
But on the other hand, his intense intellectualism means he cannot act in the totally unselfconscious way that his extraordinary man would.
391
He cannot help but recognize that he has transgressed a social boundary
392
and must bear the punishment for it if he's going to dwell in society.
393
Just like Pafiri Petrovich says, Raskolnikov's reason demands that he hand himself in to the officials.
394
His reason is inexorable.
395
It will lead him to the cell just as it led him to murder the old pawnbroker.
396
It will torment him until the world is put back in order, until his crimes are given their due punishment.
397
As Raskolnikov says, if the murderer has a conscience, let him suffer.
398
That will be his punishment, over and above the labor camp.
399
Raskolnikov seems to think that compared to the torture of one's own conscience, the fear of retribution, and the alienation from the rest of society,
400
the actual prison sentence is practically an afterthought.
401
Here we have our second view on suffering.
402
Suffering as atonement.
403
When Raskolnikov submits to the Russian authorities, he is doing something very important philosophically.
404
He is recognizing that there are powers apart from himself that he will willingly submit to.
405
He is re -entering the fold of society by admitting
406
that he has done wrong and bowing his head to his fellow man.
407
It is this submission that grants his re -entry into humanity, and that ultimately alleviates the far greater headache caused by his conscience.
408
This is the purging power of suffering.
409
It allows you to be free from guilt.
410
And I think it is worth noting the vast contrast between the suffering of these two characters.
411
Whereas a great many philosophers have talked about the value of suffering, just as many have advised we avoid it at all costs.
412
But Dostoevsky recognizes the unfortunate truth that there is no way of classifying suffering as a whole as good or bad.
413
The pointless suffering of Sonia is just as real as the transformative suffering of Raskolnikov.
414
The value of suffering depends on the person, the place, and the time.
415
So Dostoevsky manages to show at once the depth and value in some suffering, and the pointless cruelty in other suffering.
416
I mention Sonia specifically here, but you could easily talk about Svidrigailov's innocent child victims, or Raskolnikov's mother, who is constantly sick with worry,
417
or Sonia's family, who are condemned to poverty by the careless actions of Sonia's drunken father.
418
Crime and punishment is often considered to be a pro -suffering tome, but I disagree.
419
I think it is a manifesto for the careful usage of suffering.
420
In Dostoevsky's orthodox Christian views,
421
the same brutal execution method that made Jesus Christ the saviour of mankind also brought endless pointless suffering to many innocent victims.
422
Both can be true at once.
423
And the many flavours, colours and philosophies of suffering are brought out in full force in crime and punishment.
424
The other point I want to make here is about Svidrigailov.
425
Svidrigailov basically never suffers until right at the end of his life.
426
This is because of his nihilistic outlook.
427
In his view, just as there is nothing worth celebrating, there is nothing worth despairing over either.
428
The whole world is one dull shade of grey.
429
For Dostoevsky, like Kierkegaard, suffering is not inherently good, but the ability to suffer is part of what makes us human.
430
The only way to stem suffering completely would be to value nothing.
431
If you take no meaning in anything, then yeah, nothing can hurt you.
432
But as we touched upon earlier, nothing can bring you joy either.
433
Suffering is sometimes arbitrary and cruel, and sometimes transformative, but our ability to suffer is integral to what makes us empathetic, thoughtful, and reflective creatures.
434
And I think
435
That is a truly beautiful thought.
436
So one lesson we can take from crime
437
and punishment is a great caution against taking very simplistic views on the purpose of suffering.
438
Dostoevsky simultaneously acknowledges that on the one hand, some suffering is greatly transformative and purging and on the other,
439
that there is an excess of pointless and destructive suffering.
440
He does this all while showing the life -affirming effects of being able to suffer.
441
Each time we feel upset, or ashamed, or despairing, it is confirmation of our deep humanity.
442
But there is one characteristic we find pervading Raskolnikov's psyche, and Dostoevsky explores it better than any other author I've ever read.
443
Five, the danger of superiority.
444
Dostoevsky and Nietzsche are often spoken of together, and it is true that they touch on similar ideas.
445
They both treat themes of nihilism, the decline of religious values in a post -enlightenment society,
446
and how people can deal with the existential malaise of living in a cold, unfeeling world.
447
But despite this, I am always amazed at how they disagree on pretty much everything,
448
and this is brought out most starkly in their treatment of so -called superior people.
449
It is difficult not to read about Raskolnikov's idea of the extraordinary man, and not think of Nietzsche's concept of the Ubermensch.
450
After all, both Raskolnikov and Nietzsche divide humanity into two classes, partly separated by their approach to morality.
451
In each case, you have a specially selected set of people who can stand apart from the herd,
452
who can act without any regard for the feelings or lives of those around them,
453
and who are able to create their own definitions of good and bad, while the rest of us must obey the rules set by our society.
454
They even both use the same archetypal figure to illustrate this fact, Napoleon.
455
Both Nietzsche and Raskolnikov talk of Napoleon as a great example of a superior man,
456
the kind of person who can sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives without a second thought, caring only about his own ambitions.
457
The difference is that while for Nietzsche and Raskolnikov this theory is partly aspirational, for Dostoevsky no philosophy seems more ridiculous.
458
Crime and Punishment is Dostoevsky's explanation of what happens when you actually think of yourself as superior to other people.
459
As I mentioned before, Raskolnikov is obsessed with this idea that he is something greater than the ordinary people of Russia.
460
In Dostoevsky's own words, mere existence wasn't enough for Raskolnikov.
461
He would always need something more.
462
Perhaps it had only ever been the intensity of his desires
463
that had led him to feel that he was a man to whom more was allowed than to others.
464
And this is a big part of what drives Raskolnikov to murder the old pawnbroker and alienate himself from the world.
465
As we have already touched upon, Raskolnikov attempts to isolate himself for much of the novel.
466
But what I have not yet mentioned is that this trend began long before he committed his crime.
467
Razumikhin is perhaps our best look at how Raskolnikov seems from an outside perspective.
468
He describes Raskolnikov as haughty and proud, and that in the year preceding the events of crime and punishment,
469
he had taken to locking himself away in his room.
470
Tellingly, he says Raskolnikov has a dreadfully high opinion of himself.
471
Razumikhin obviously also thinks well of his friend, but he views this arrogance as having done Raskolnikov some real harm.
472
When Raskolnikov's mother and sister arrive in Petersburg, Razumikhin thinks this will jolt him back into the arms of humanity,
473
and for the sake of his friend, he is very hopeful that this will happen.
474
Raskolnikov himself always seems to be pining for the recognition of others, even as he considers himself above them.
475
This emerges in the confession -fear tension I mentioned in section 2, but it's not at all limited to this.
476
For most of his early conversations with Sonia, Raskolnikov berates her while at the same time desperately seeking her approval.
477
He visits her at her lodgings and rants at how she has debased herself with her prostitution, how she is doing nothing to help her family,
478
and how she is one bad day away from putting them all out on the streets.
479
But at the same time, he bows to her and confesses his sins to her
480
so he might be told that he is still a person worthy of love.
481
At first this dynamic might seem confusing
482
but I think it is an incredibly insightful account of what happens when we consider ourselves superior to our fellow humans.
483
Like I said before, as people we crave for our beliefs about ourselves to be confirmed.
484
If we believe
485
that we're superior to others
486
then we're going to have to seek out evidence for this fact to confirm it to be true,
487
otherwise we'll forever be insecure in our own superiority.
488
However, the main way that we can seek confirmation that we are better than others is by their recognition and their worship.
489
Unless we are recognized as superior, the belief becomes unstable and threatens to collapse into despair.
490
But on the other hand, if you believe you're superior to others, then you aren't going to value their judgment.
491
They are inferior, so what do they know?
492
But this is where our intellectual trap is sprung.
493
Our belief in our superiority can never be confirmed because we do not respect the one thing that can confirm it, the testimony of others.
494
Any feeling of innate superiority to other people is a fragile belief that cannot be maintained,
495
because it involves seeking the recognition and respect of those we have already considered beneath us.
496
We cannot both truly believe that we're superior to others and seek to have that belief confirmed.
497
So either way, our belief will eventually collapse.
498
And this is exactly what happens with Raskolnikov.
499
He is constantly seeking Sonia's respect, yet he cannot accept it because he still views her with contempt.
500
It is only after his confession, after he admits that he is not superior to others, that he is an ordinary man,
501
that he can find full comfort in her tears and embraces.
502
It is at that point that he can allow himself to be loved.
503
I was lucky enough to attend Cambridge University
504
and there are no shortage of people there who think that their educational background somehow makes them superior to others.
505
I would speak to at least a dozen people a month who are convinced
506
that their genius placed them above everyone else in the world and some of them had reason to believe this.
507
One person I spoke to who had this view was a childhood maths prodigy and was poised for an excellent academic career.
508
He was undoubtedly one of the cleverest people I've ever met, and he was only 19 at the time.
509
But something I noticed was that the people who held this view invariably degraded over the years.
510
They would end up alone, having pushed away all of their friends.
511
Any romantic relationships they had were brief and miserable, and each of them ended up taking one of two roads.
512
They either plunged deeper into their misery and their delusions of grandeur, or they gave up the belief.
513
Those who took the second route would immediately see improvements to their lives.
514
They would be able to embrace other people as equals, Share in communities and feel fulfilled by the company of their peers.
515
Feeling superior to others is a very tempting defence mechanism if you feel like your situation is unfair,
516
that the world is spitting in your face and not giving you the recognition that you deserve.
517
But this belief will eventually cut you off from companionship, learning and love.
518
And that nicely moves us on to what is perhaps the most important point in the book.
519
6. Love and forgiveness
520
Reading Crime and Punishment is a truly unique experience.
521
Dostoevsky drops you into the mind of a murderer and you just have to cope.
522
It is one of the few books I have both found difficult to put down,
523
yet at the same time it made me incredibly tired to read.
524
Flicking through the pages you can taste the sickly summer heat of Petersburg, you can smell the drains and feel the miserable wet on your face,
525
you can sense the clockwork of Raskolnikov's mind as it ticks inevitably towards confession.
526
The whole endeavour is at once riveting and incredibly depressing, so it is striking
527
that Dostoevsky's message for the last part of his novel is
528
ultimately how the worst of us are still worthy of love and forgiveness, provided that we make steps to change and redeem ourselves.
529
To touch again on Razumikhin's description of Raskolnikov before his confession, he and Dunya remarked that the young man seems incapable of love.
530
So blinded is he by dwelling in permanent abstraction, his arrogance, his guilt, and his fear, that he cannot bring himself to love another person,
531
nor to accept anyone else's love of him.
532
When his family arrives, Raskolnikov is incredibly rude to them, saying that he plans to abandon them and that they will never see him again.
533
We see the same theme in his first meeting with Sonia,
534
where he takes every bit of kindness she offers him and throws it back in her face, accompanied with words of venom and bile.
535
He even lashes out at Razumikin, sending his friend away and saying that he is tortured by Razumikin's mere presence.
536
Anytime anyone gets close to Raskolnikov, even makes a small attempt at loving him,
537
he sends them packing with the most hateful insult he can think of.
538
We have talked a little about the possible reasons Raskolnikov acts like this.
539
His shame makes him feel unlovable and unworthy, while his arrogance makes him think that he does not need other people in the first place.
540
It all comes together in the perfect cocktail for rejecting the love of other people.
541
And when we outright reject any love from others, it is borderline impossible to love anyone ourselves.
542
As Aristotle put it, true companionship cannot exist apart from between equals who give and receive love for one another.
543
Raskolnikov's entire philosophy has conspired to cut him off from love.
544
And this, for Dostoevsky, is a complete disaster.
545
In Dostoevsky's view, love is the property that brings out some of the best aspects of humanity, and its perversion or absence brings out the worst.
546
In one of his other books, The Brothers Karamazov, there is one chapter where the devil appears to one of the brothers,
547
and the focus is on how the devil professes to love mankind, but all the while seeks to use them for his own ends. By contrast,
548
Sonia in Crime and Punishment is remarkable and admirable just
549
because she is able to feel such depth of love despite her desperate circumstances.
550
All she has is love.
551
And while that does not make her happy, it does make her kind, generous, and above all, good.
552
At least, that's how Dostoevsky seemed to see it.
553
And of course, for Dostoevsky himself, this is part of his overall view on orthodox Christianity.
554
He thought the most important thing in any of our lives is the love of Christ and God.
555
But we do not need to be Christian
556
or even religious to understand the deep wisdom in the importance he places on this simple human emotion.
557
The depiction of love in crime and punishment is that of mutual submission.
558
To Love is to bow down before someone, and mutual love is two people promising to place one another first.
559
We bandy around the word love all the time,
560
but how often do we pause to think what an extraordinary thing it is to give our life to another person,
561
and for them to give theirs to us?
562
It is a relationship that only functions at the extremity of human kindness and care.
563
If one of the participants begins putting themselves first, the other one is doomed.
564
It requires a situation where there's no defensiveness, no barriers, no psychological walls.
565
For Dostoevsky, love is almost like magic, a bit of the supernatural placed on our world for us to enjoy.
566
And the effects of love are clear in the case of Raskolnikov.
567
It is only through Sonia's love that he begins to re -enter the fold of humanity.
568
There are two moments where this comes across.
569
First, when he confesses to Sonia, and again in the epilogue to the book, where Raskolnikov is behind bars,
570
and Sonia is living in a village near the prison.
571
When Raskolnikov confesses, Sonia almost seems to be in pain.
572
With each line that he speaks, she winces and cries.
573
Initially, it is tempting to interpret this as Sonia recoiling in horror
574
that she now sees Raskolnikov as a monster but then she bursts into speech saying
575
How great is your suffering?
576
Far from judging or condemning Raskolnikov, Sonia feels only empathy and patience for him.
577
She urges him to confess, not because she wants to see him punished or because she hates him.
578
She does it because she knows it's the only way Raskolnikov will be released from his inner torment.
579
The fact that Sonia is willing to look through Raskolnikov's crimes, to see the suffering man beneath it all,
580
and feel pity for him, completely flummoxes Raskolnikov.
581
This is almost a traumatic experience for him.
582
One notable passage of the book reads, Raskolnikov looked at Sonia and felt how much love she had for him,
583
and strangely enough, he found it oppressive and painful to be so much loved.
584
Raskolnikov just cannot fathom the love that is held for him by another, but it is this love,
585
more so than his shame or his fear or his guilt, that allows him to confess.
586
He can march into the police office and hand himself in, knowing that wherever he is, Sonia will also be.
587
Later, when he is actually in prison, comes the final dramatic beat of the novel.
588
Sonia and Raskolnikov has managed to steal a moment to themselves while Raskolnikov is working outside of the prison.
589
They sit next to one another, and Sonia offers Raskolnikov her hand.
590
To Raskolnikov's surprise, when he takes it, he is completely emotionally overcome.
591
He falls on his knees weeping, and at that moment he is consumed by his love for her.
592
He submits his life to her just as she submitted hers to him, and the transformative effect is immediate.
593
He feels the prison sentence is so much lighter.
594
What are six years now he has meaning in his life again?
595
Whereas before he looked upon his fellow prisoners with contempt, now he views them with a kindly eye.
596
For Dostoevsky, this moment, even more so than his confession, is where Raskolnikov re -enters humanity.
597
To read from some of the final lines of the book, here begins a new story, the story of the gradual renewal of a man,
598
of his gradual rebirth, as he learns to know a new reality, one which had so far escaped him.
599
Dostoevsky is many things.
600
He is a harsh critic of nihilism, a deep defender of Russian traditions, and a champion of the innate worth of all people.
601
But perhaps most of all,
602
he is a philosopher of love and love's ability to turn anyone from despair to a new life of purpose and meaning.
603
And lastly, a few closing words on my favourite subject.
604
Seven, why read
605
Crime and Punishment?
606
There are good books, there are great books, and there is Dostoevsky.
607
In some ways, this whole video has been an advert for why you should go out there, get a copy of Crime and Punishment,
608
and tear into it for yourselves.
609
But now I want to make that case directly.
610
Why is this dusty old book set in one corner of one city in 19th century
611
Russia relevant to us today?
612
And I can answer this in one sentence.
613
It is timeless.
614
The struggles Raskolnikov goes through are almost universal, and probably even more so now than when Dostoevsky was writing.
615
We are increasingly living in a world where values and the rules of morality are up for grabs.
616
Without institutions like the Russian Orthodox Church imposing commandments on us from on high,
617
we have more intellectual freedom about how we should live our lives now than ever.
618
That was the great warning and the great opportunity in Nietzsche's famous saying, God is dead and we have killed him.
619
Dostoevsky predicted all of the challenges this new world would bring.
620
He predicted that we would struggle to live meaningful lives, that each generation would now have to tackle the question of morality for themselves.
621
Crime and punishment is the advice of a wise and thoughtful man on how to deal with these questions,
622
and his warnings of a few ways that we can go astray.
623
We may not want to bring back religious authority, I certainly don't.
624
But these are still questions worth asking and warnings worth paying attention to.
625
And this is not to mention the intense relatability of Raskolnikov.
626
Now, do hear me out, as I did just describe a murderer as relatable.
627
What I mean is that in his isolation, Raskolnikov has come to embody some of the darkest
628
and most self -destructive desires that strike us all to a greater or a lesser extent.
629
You might have never thought of killing someone, but it might have crossed your head to hurt someone, maybe even to hurt them badly,
630
whether this is physically or psychologically.
631
I bet in your most fearful and despairing moments, you've wished someone harm.
632
I bet when you felt really low, you have taken comfort in the fragile feeling of superiority and separation from your fellow man.
633
We all have a little Raskolnikov inside of us.
634
No one can read
635
Crime and Punishment without learning more about themselves than they bargained for,
636
and this is probably why it is still considered to be one of the greatest novels of all time.
637
You have probably learned a little bit more about me through my analysis of it.
638
It is impossible to interpret it in a way that does not bear your own soul for the world to see.
639
And I think in some ways the deeper insights of the book have actually been lost
640
because of just how good of a character Raskolnikov is.
641
I've seen a lot of discourse online about crime and punishment that is fundamentally pessimistic.
642
They take the suffering of Raskolnikov, his tortured conscience and deep isolation, and embrace and romanticize it.
643
Without recognizing that Dostoevsky is not just giving a warning here, he's also giving a message of hope.
644
In some ways, Crime and Punishment is a deeply optimistic novel.
645
It shows how someone can commit the most heinous crimes, suffer psychological torture that almost breaks them in two,
646
and still recover their humanity and find joy and meaning in their life.
647
And there are so many great aspects of the novel I have not been able to touch upon,
648
even as I type the 10 ,000th word in this script.
649
I have barely scratched the surface of Dostoevsky's painting of St. Petersburg, how he creates an atmosphere so oppressive it can give you a migraine.
650
I haven't been able to examine the characters of Dunya and Raskolnikov's mother, both of which are fantastic examples of fortitude,
651
strength and courage in dire circumstances.
652
I haven't been able to dive into the pathetic Luzhin and his perverted schemes.
653
There is so much I have had to miss out.
654
So, if nothing else, please read the book and tell me how I missed your favourite part.
655
So, when you're flicking through this novel, and I do hope that it is a when,
656
enjoy the fact that your inner turmoils are given a poignant voice by Raskolnikov.
657
Relish in the way Dostoevsky can understand human misery like no other author in history.
658
But I would also encourage you to take a moment to appreciate the optimism of a story
659
that says a man can commit murder and still rejoin society with work, patience, love and forgiveness.
660
And after you've finished it, please do email me with the insights that you've gained from it.
661
As I said, everyone's interpretation of crime and punishment bears the unmistakable mark of their particular personality.
662
And I would love to get to know yours through the medium of this classic Russian novel.
663
Thank you for watching and I hope you have a wonderful day.
664
And if you want more on Dostoevsky, click on this video to hear about the Notes from the Underground, Dostoevsky's Guide to Ruining Your Life.
665
And subscribe for more on thinking to improve your life.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Dostoevsky’s Warning to Great Thinkers”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky, suffering. This video has 665 sentences and 9819 words to shadow. The speech runs for 46:12. The speaker talks fast, about 213 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 80% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| punishment noun | /ˈpʌnɪʃmənt/ | The act (action) or process of punishing, imposing and/or applying a sanction, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent or… |
| confess verb | /kənˈfɛs/ | To admit to the truth, particularly in the context of sins or crimes committed. |
| abstract noun | /ˈæbˌstɹækt/ | An abridgement or summary of a longer publication. |
| belief noun | /bɪˈliːf/ | Mental acceptance of a claim as true. |
| extraordinary adjective | /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/ | Out of the ordinary; exceptional; unusual. |
| suffer verb | /ˈsʌfɚ/ | To undergo hardship. |
| superior adjective | /sʊˈpɪɹ.i.ɚ/ | Higher in rank, status, or quality. |
| guilt noun | /ɡɪlt/ | Responsibility for wrongdoing. |
| humanity noun | /hjuˈmænɪti/ | Humankind; human beings as a group. |
| confession noun | /kənˈfɛʃən/ | The open admittance of having done something (especially something bad). |
| despair noun | /dɪˈspɛə(ɹ)/ | Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency. |
| murderer noun | /ˈmɝdɚɚ/ | A person who commits murder. |
| ordinary adjective | /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/ | Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases. |
| commit verb | /kəˈmɪt/ | To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto. |
| embrace verb | /ɛmˈbɹes/ | To clasp (someone or each other) in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bring out verb | To elicit, evoke, or emphasize (a particular quality). | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| flick through verb | To browse rapidly. | |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. | |
| point out verb | To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body. | |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. | |
| bring back verb | /ˈbɹɪŋ bæk/ | To fetch something. |
| bring up verb | To mention. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- So you don't love me?
- How great is your suffering?
- Russia relevant to us today?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have destroyed · has been described · has poisoned |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is spoken · has been described · are bound |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · people who can · man who can |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 37 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, can't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, orthodox /ˈɔɹθədɑks/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, nonetheless /ˌnʌnðəˈlɛs/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: punishment /ˈpʌnɪʃmənt/, confession /kənˈfɛʃən/, conscience /ˈkɑn.ʃəns/, interpretation /ɪnˌtɜːpɹəˈteɪʃən/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/
- Long words — get the stress right: extraordinary /ɪksˈtɹɔːrdɪn(ə)ɹi/, superior /sʊˈpɪɹ.i.ɚ/, humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, morality /məˈɹælɪti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like punishment, confess, abstract.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.