I did not bow down to you, I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity.
Raskolnikov kneels before Sonia, but he reframes the gesture as universal pity. The bow becomes a symbol: his pride can bend to abstract “humanity,” but not yet to personal wrong. The sentence exposes his evasion even as it shows a crack in his armor. Sonia’s presence has begun to redirect his gaze from theory to persons. Stylistically, the lofty phrasing both moves and alarms; it’s grandeur without confession. The moment hints that genuine compassion will require naming the harm. Love must become particular before it can heal.