Crime and Punishment (1970)

Yefim Kopelyan: Svidrigaylov

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Quotes 

• Svidrigaylov : Maybe ghosts are fragments of other worlds. A healthy man has no reason to see them. He lives in this world for the sake of order. But as soon as he falls sick, as soon as the normal order is broken in the organism... one starts to realize the possibility of another world. And as he become sicker, he needs more chances of contacts with this other world. If you believe there is a future life, you could believe that, too.

• Svidrigaylov : But let us assume for a moment that I, too, am a human being and can fall in love. So the question is: Am I a monster or am I a victim? And if I am a victim?

• Svidrigaylov : Rodion Romanovich has two alternatives: a bullet through his brain or Siberia. Don't worry, I'm not a gossip. It was good advice you gave him. He should turn himself in like you said.

• Avdotya Romanovna : Why would he murder?

  Svidrigaylov : it's a long story. He has a sort of theory that a crime is justified, if the final goal is beneficial. Then there is the irritation of being hungry, of living in a cramped flat, wearing rags, and the plight of his family, but above all there is his vanity. His pride and his vanity.

  Avdotya Romanovna : And his conscience? Do you deny him his moral feeling?

  Svidrigaylov : Oh, Avdotya Romanovna, everything is upside down. Though l suppose things never were in better order than they are now. Russians have big ideas, Avdotya Romanovna, as large as their country. And we've always been disposed to chaos and fantasy.