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Hyperbole
Definition of Idiom
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the words in the phrase. For... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on... read full definition
Part 4, Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Holy Fool:
In his early conversations with Sonya, Raskolnikov repeatedly uses the idiom “holy fool” to describe her appearance, a phrase that he also uses when thinking of the tragic Lizaveta. When he first visits Sonya’s small apartment, the narration reflects his perception of Sonya:
With a new, strange, almost painful feeling, he peered at that pale, thin, irregular, and angular little face, those meek blue eyes, capable of flashing with such fire, such severe, energetic feeling, that small body still trembling with indignation and wrath, and it all seemed more and more strange to him, almost impossible. “A holy fool! A holy fool!” he kept saying within himself.
Reflecting upon her combination of religious intensity and innocence, the idiom “holy fool” comes to his mind multiple times. In early Christianity, this term designated a saintly or ascetic person who sacrificed ordinary comforts and security for their faith. By Dostoevsky’s time, however, this idiom had come, in common usage, to mean a crazy person or simpleton. Here, Raskolnikov’s use of the idiom is somewhat ambiguous, implying both the earlier and later meaning of the term. Ultimately, an important idea in the novel is that it is better to be, like Sonya, a holy fool than to be clever and faithless, as Raskolnikov is.
