Fyodor Dostoevsky\'s Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment details the crime and aftermath of the murder by Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov of an elderly pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna and her sister Lizaveta. Raskolnikov was a student of the law, but was forced to abandon his studies because of family finances. His justification for the murder shifts and changes throughout the novel. While contemplating the crime, he seems to toy with the idea of using the pawnbroker's money to help the poor. But it is also revealed that he has published an article, which later comes back to haunt him, indicating that he believes certain people are specially gifted, and therefore conventional moral norms do not apply to them, like Napoleon.

While contemplating the murder, Raskolnikov met Marmeladov, a drunkard who forced his daughter Sonya to engage in prostitution to support the family. By chance, Raskolnikov meets the Marmeladovs again and gives the father the little money he did remember to take during his hysterical, botched murder. Soon afterward, Raskolnikov meets with his mother and sister, the latter of who is marrying a man she does not love to support the family, even though her brother forbids her to do so. Raskolnikov enters into a platonic relationship with Sonya and one day is driven by guilt to confess his crime. His sister Dounia's old, corrupt employer Svidrigailov overhears this confession in a nearby room and in turn confesses to Raskolnikov that he murdered his wife. Raskolnikov, mentally unbalanced and urged on by Sonya and the dogged attempts of the police inspector Porfiry (who has no evidence but is convinced of Raskolnikov's guilt), eventually confesses and is sent to Siberia. Sonya follows him there, and the two of them find peace when Raskolnikov accepts the Christian God so important to Sonya. Raskolnikov's sister marries her brother's best friend Razumikhin.

Q1. I expected a book that would feature an antihero. I thought that Raskolnikov would be portrayed as a kind of tormented genius, a man driven mad by an oppressive system.

Q2. After reading the second half of the book, I began to understand the psychological dimensions of Dostoevsky's writing to a greater degree. I thought that Raskolnikov would eventually go completely insane. Dostoevsky's presentation of the hero's dilemmas suggests that the author believes that the worst punishment for any crime is the guilt suffered by the perpetrator. I also admit to feeling outraged at many of the social abuses I saw going on in Raskolnikov's Russia, such as Sonya being forced into prostitution. I also believed that the proposed marriage Raskolnikov's sister felt compelled to enter with Luzhin to support her family was akin to prostitution. Despite the evilness of the murder, I felt bad for Raskolnikov, and felt that his inability to support his studies had driven him insane.

Q3. At first, I felt that the ending of the book was a kind of a 'cop-out.' The reasons that Raskolnikov committed his murder, like his frustration at his extreme poverty and the poverty and desperation of the Marmeladovs were not seen as injustices, but merely as part of life. The only satisfactory aspect of the novel was that Dounia did not marry for money and married Razumikhin. However, the idea that Raskolnikov accepted God as a kind of solution to both his and Sonya's woes seemed very unsatisfactory. While of course I sympathized with Sonya, I was also very frustrated by the way that she let herself be a 'doormat' for her family on many occasions. Instead of standing up for herself, the book seemed to validate her passivity, and also suggested that Raskolnikov emulate it in his own behavior. While of course murder is never justified, the novel seemed to suggest no middle ground between denying the need for any moral laws at all and utter subjugation.

Q4. Parts of the book, like the portrait of the drunkard Marmeladov, made me laugh, while the scene in which Raskolnikov confessed his crime before the saintly Sonya made me cringe. Even though Sonya is so pious it is almost unbelievable, it is hard not to feel sympathy for her, given the contrast between her ideals and the life she is forced to live.

Q5. It is frightening to contemplate that there are many Raskolnikov-like characters today, in the form of students who are graduating and entering into an uncertain job market. They are educated, but have no clear direction in life. They often have high student loans and no jobs. They may even be filled with a sense of entitlement, but without any real accomplishments to prove their worthiness. Even Raskolnikov's existence -- living in a poor and miserable flat, entirely occupied with his books and his own imagination -- could be said to be paralleled in the instance of someone who sits online all day, reading the Internet and becoming angry about the world he sees around him. When regarding our contemporary situation in the United States, I am also torn. I want things to change and believe that my generation in many ways is getting a 'raw deal' but I am afraid of the inchoate anger of those who protest conditions today.