fyodor dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's life was dark and dramatic as his novels were. His father's drunken brutality led to his murder by his own serfs. At the age of 28 he was imprisoned for alleged subversion against Tsar Nicholas. He was in prison for ten years. While in prison he made many changes in his philosophies and it was greatly shown in his novels. "Man is a mystery. If you spend your entire life puzzling it out then do not say you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this because I want to be a man." This quote is from a letter that Dostoevsky sent to his brother at the age of eighteen. The quote shows the mindset of the author. This mystery is what Crime and Punishment is about. Dostoevsky reveals this mystery through guilt. He shows that almost everybody has a sense of guilt. This guilt will not let you get away with the crime. This information brings me to a statement that I feel reflects the entire novel. Through pain and suffering, guilt will bring confession. Knowledge of crime or bad deeds lead to guilt. " I was not delirious, I knew what I was doing," he cried straining. "I was quite myself do you hear?" (Dostoevsky 310) This quote shows that Raskolnikov knew what he was doing and that
This shows you how very bad the crime affected Raskolnikov. "I ask you the same question again: if you consider me guilty, why don't you take me to prison"(Dostoevsky 286)? Raskolnikov almost seems as though he wants to get caught. It was said in a essay of criticism that Dostoevsky was contemplating how to end the novel. The two decisions were suicide or confession. The question arose in his mind: how is one to explain this desire to oneself? As a weakness or a strength? It would have been much more simple and believable to explain it as a weakness, but it was much more pleasant for Raskolnikov to consider himself as a strong man and to justify his hand in someone else's pocket by this shameful thinking" (Pisarev 157). "He returned to his room, where he remained for four days in a high fever"(Kasdan 1197). "Good God, am I going out of my senses?"(Dostoevsky 130) This shows that he doesn't know what is happening to himself. "The feeling of disconnection and of isolation from mankind, which he had realized immediately on committing the crime, torments him to death"(Dostoevsky 69). Raskolnikov had to think this way in order to justify the murder to himself. The prison cell is probably not much different than his own room that he rents. I feel that this statement should have given the man that he was talking to the suspicion that Raskolnikov was somehow linked to the murder. If you think about it, prison might actually be a better place for Raskolnikov.
Common topics in this essay:
Punishment Raskolnikov,
Punishment Dostoevsky,
Tsar Nicholas,
Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's,
Crime Punishment,
committing crime,
extraordinary theory,
consequences sin,
law guilt,
crime punishment,
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