Crime and Punishment - Madness
Demur, you're straightaway dangerous - Emily Dickinson Knowing the difference between insanity and intense clarity is often difficult when dealing with eccentric characters. Comedians such as Johnny Carson, while at times appearing utterly mad, are extremely self-controlled at all times, even when pouring liquids down their pants. Raskolnikov, a less humorous example, is thought by many characters in Crime and Punishment to be batty on several occasions, Zossimov and Zametov being only a few examples. His madness, however, his delusion and monomania, are disguising a real and sane objective. Wisdom can appear in the midst of lunacy, and Raskolnikov's spiritual journey that is the heart of Crime and Punishment explores this idea. The most defining eccentricity of Raskolnikov's character is his obsession with theory. His own theory of the ordinary and the extraordinary becomes the framework of his whole existence, in that he views everything he does through the twisted lens of his idea. I
So, there was a "divine sense" in his theory in that it allowed him to obtain what he lacked the whole time: religion. It focuses on keeping him cold, calculating, and inhumanly callous and at times vicious. certain obstacles" to obtain a goal that would benefit the masses of humanity. 'What a stupid thing I've done,' he thought" (23). This duality of character creates a conflict that Dostoevsky presents clearly to the reader, evidence of the fact that something inside Raskolnikov's head is not quite right. His obsession with theory is certainly a mark of insanity. n his theory, all of humanity is divided into two categories: "ordinary men have to live in submission," and "have no right to transgress the law" while "extraordinary men have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way" (225). His theory is based upon ideas that have some merit, which the few must sometimes suffer for the greater benefit of all. From this lowest point, however, he rises to a new understanding in the Epilogue, a connection with God and with his human side. The theory states that extraordinary men can, and indeed should, "overstep. Raskolnikov's spiritual journey that is the heart and theme of Crime and Punishment ends with the redemption that would not have been possible without the theory and its resultant transgression, without his madness. The aspects of his theory and his crime, however mad they might appear, have some merit. " A very visible effect of this theoretical existence is the division of his mind and being into two distinct characters.
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