The realist movement in literature first developed in France in the mid-nineteenth century, and soon spread to England, Russia, and the United States. Realist writers sought to narrate their novels from an objective, unbiased perspective that simply and clearly represented the factual elements of the story. They became masters of psychological characterization, detailed descriptions of everyday life in realistic settings, and dialogue that captures the idioms of natural human speech. The realists endeavored to accurately represent contemporary culture and people from all walks of life. Thus, realist writers often addressed themes of socioeconomic conflict by contrasting the living conditions of the poor with those of the upper classes in urban as well as rural societies. In Russia, one major contributor to realist literature was Fyodor Dostoevsky, whose novel, Crime and Punishment, illustrates the core principles of realism.
             Written in the early 1860's and published in 1866, Crime and Punishment replaced the elegant style of Romanticism with fictional realism, depicting individual behavior and human development. Dostoevsky depicts a world full of segregation and division between social classes. He writes that two groups of people exist in society. The first group of people is conservative conformists who thrive on obedience during their lives. Raskolnikov states, "in my opinion they ought to obey because that is their destiny, and there is nothing at all degrading to them in it." (Fiero p. 763) The second group of people is law breakers and transgressors, who necessitate "the destruction of what already exists in the name of better things." (Fiero p. 763) In stark contrast to the previous Romantic writings of William Wordsworth, Mary Shelley and John Keats, Dostoevsky portrays a division of classes which is cut and dry; these two groups leave little room for variation.
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