Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoyevsky has been hailed as the greatest literary work in the Western hemisphere. Crime and Punishment was written in pre-Communist Russia under the Tsar. Dostoyevsky's writing shows insight into the human mind that is at once frightening and frighteningly real. His main character, around who all other characters are introduced, is Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov.Raskolnikov murders an old pawnbroker woman for seemingly no reason at all. His sister and mother move to St. Petersburg following his sister's engagement to a man whom Raskolnikov was extremely displeased. Raskolnikov undergoes severe mental trauma, and falls ill after the killing. The reader isn't sure why Raskolnikov killed the woman, indeed it appears that Raskolnikov didn't know himself. He is surrounded by friends and his family and draws in other characters to him during his illness. He befriends a woman, Sofya Seymonavitch, who prostitutes herself to support her mother and her drunken father. As the police come closer onto his trail Raskolnikov faces serious threats to his sister from her two suitors, one of which tries to rape her and kills himself after he finds that he can't bring himself to. At the end Raskolnikov gives himsel
Dostoyevsky gives the reader no such comfort. Here is the character in the book who is possibly the most evil, but he cannot commit the act which would make him the clear and undoubtable antagonist. When Douina came to Svidrigailov, he attempted to rape her, only to find that he could not bring himself to. Everyone wants to think of themselves as have some redeeming value in their lives, and for the most part, people usually think the good in them outweighs the bad. Svdrigailov was a man with an admitted reputation for being a womanizer. Raskolnikov did not know how serious Svidrigailov was about his sister. Can the reader hate Marmeladov for destroying his family and then himself, while he so vehemently proclaims that he loves them and hates himself?! Of course not, the reader is forced to admit that this terrible vile man is pitiable and almost lovable. Must the reader in the end admit that this horrible criminal is human? That Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov was neither brute nor hero, but one of us? Dostoyevsky leaves the reader who was looking to divide the characters with the sword of moral right and wrong with the sword pointing directly at himself. He had poisoned his wife, and made indecent propositions to Raskolnikov's sister Douina. So how come in many Western novels the bad guy is thoroughly and totally corrupt and evil. He saves a family from certain destitution, and helps many people before he is sent to Siberia at the end of the novel. Can the reader accept Raskolnikov, who violently kills an old woman and her innocent sister with and axe, goes and buries the money he took from them, and then gives all of his money in the world to Marmeledov's family after his death? Who befriends and supports Sofya? Who time and time again defends his sisters honor and safety? Can the reader call this man murderer, shun him, and cast him out, make him the bad guy? Or must the reader be forced to see the suffering Raskolnikov is inflicting upon himself, the acceptance that what he did was evil, his urge to confess to the world what he had done. We are at once revolted and then pity this man. Svidrigailov, who knows about Raskolnikov's murder, blackmails Raskolnikov into letting him get close to his sister. Dostoyevsky is using Marmeledov's story to set the reader up for the even larger question of the acceptance of Raskolnikov after the murder.
Common topics in this essay:
Douina Svidrigailov,
Marmeladov Raskolnikov,
Crime Punishment,
Douina Dostoyevsky,
St Petersburg,
Porifry Petrovitch,
Sofya Seymonavitch,
Romanovitch Raskolnikov,
Tsar Dostoyevsky's,
Svidrigailov Raskolnikov's,
crime punishment,
bad guy,
reader forced,
sister douina,
sister douina svidrigailov,
reader hate,
douina svidrigailov,
murder mystery,
romanovitch raskolnikov,
raskolnikov serious,
rodion romanovitch raskolnikov,
raskolnikov's sister douina,
rodion romanovitch,
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Acceptance Essays
