Numerology in Crime and Punishment

[Lewis B. Sckolnick]

  I do not know how much Chinese Old Fyodor knew but Dost is friend in 
Turkic and Dostok is friendship.

Lewis B. Sckolnick
The Ledge House
130 Rattlesnake Gutter Road, Suite 1000
Leverett, MA 01054-9726
U.S.A.

Telephone 1. 413. 367. 0303
Facsimile 1. 413. 367. 2853
info at runanywhere.com
http://www.twitter.com/Lewisxxxusa




> Even numbers of flowers for funerals, odd numbers for birthdays and 
> other lively occasions. Ulitskaya plays on this in her short story 
> "Zürich" where the Swiss brings her a dozen flowers.
>
> Four is bad in Chinese and Japanese because the word for death is 
> homophonic to the word meaning four 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture#Four.
>
> Did Dostoevsky know Chinese? Or Chinese customs?
>
> AI
>
> Dec 22, 2010, в 6:00 PM, anne marie devlin написал(а):
>
>> Four flowers are often given at a funeral.  I'm not sure whether this 
>> applies only to the number four or to all even numbers
>> AM
>>
>>> Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 20:33:47 +0000
>>> From: wfr at SAS.AC.UK
>>> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Numerology in Crime and Punishment
>>> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
>>>
>>> The Russian world is a big place - can you be more specific about who
>>> believes this?
>>> Will
>>>
>>> On 22/12/2010 19:56, Lewis B. Sckolnick wrote:
>>>> In the Russian world the number four is the number which represents
>>>> death.
>>>>
>>>> Lewis B. Sckolnick
>>>> The Ledge House
>>>> 130 Rattlesnake Gutter Road, Suite 1000
>>>> Leverett, MA 01054-9726
>>>> U.S.A.
>>>>
>>>> Telephone 1. 413. 367. 0303
>>>> Facsimile 1. 413. 367. 2853
>>>> info at runanywhere.com
>>>>
>>>>> I am currently teaching Crime and Punishment to a group of Advanced
>>>>> Placement high school seniors. We are trying to figure out the
>>>>> significance of
>>>>> numbers in the book, especially the number four which he uses
>>>>> constantly.
>>>>> The scene in the police station shortly after the murder is inundated
>>>>> with the
>>>>> number four and most people live on the fourth floor. Razuhmikhin,
>>>>> however,
>>>>> lives on the fifth floor. Don't want to make too much out of it, but
>>>>> when
>>>>> someone of Dostoevsky's caliber emphazises a number there is most 
>>>>> likely
>>>>> something behind it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for any input!
>>>>>
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>>>>
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>
> Alina Israeli
> Associate Professor of Russian
> LFS, American University
> 4400 Massachusetts Ave.
> Washington DC 20016
> (202) 885-2387     fax (202) 885-1076
> aisrael at american.edu
>
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