Reading Novels Like A Professor: Chapter 12 –Life Sentences

Reading Novels Like A Professor: Chapter 12 –Life Sentences: Choose the most significant paragraph from the novel you are reading. Choose the most significant paragraph from a novel you have read by an...

In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, the most significant paragraph is at the end. When Raskolnikov realizes his true love for Sonia, breaks down in tears, and weeps at her feet. “How it happened he did not know. But all at once something seemed to seize him and fling him at her feet. He wept and through his arms around her knees. At first instant she was terribly frightened and turned pale. She jumped up and looked at him trembling. But at the same moment she understood, and a light of infinite happiness came into her eyes. She knew and had no doubt that he loved her above everything else and that at last the moment had come...” (520). In Victor Hugo’s, Les Miserables, the most significant paragraph is also at the end of the story when Valjean is on his deathbed with Marius and Cosette at his side. “I do not know what is the matter with me, I see a light. Come nearer. I die happy. Let me put my hands upon your dear beloved heads.’ Cosette and Marius fell on their knees, overwhelmed, choked with tears, each grasping one of Jean Valjean’s hands. Those august hands moved no more. He had fallen backwards, the light from the candle-sticks fell upon him; his white face looked up towards heaven he let Cosette and Marius cover his hands with kisses; he was dead” (399). In both of these paragraphs the reader sees at first a very familiar symbol embedded, the symbol of light. In Les Miserables the narrator states that Valjean fell back and the light from a candlestick glowed upon his face. This is truly symbolic of a spiritual renewal. Although the same symbol is used in Crime and Punishment, it is not symbolic of anything spiritual at all. When Sonia’s eyes light up with happiness, this is symbolizing her true and pure feelings towards Raskolnikov. Both authors use very dramatic writing styles in each of the paragraphs. In each stories the characters were so overcome by emotion that they had to kneel down on the ground. Both of these stories are excellent examples of precise writing technique as well as perfect dramatic instances.

-Conner Furr