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
He was broken by his weakness for alcohol, but at the root of it he loved his family more than life itself. The reader wants to see Raskolnikov have some good excuse for killing the old woman, some sense of moral justification of the act so we can turn his accusers into "bad guys" and himself and his friends the "good guys". One must pause here and wonder why Dostoyevsky would put such an absurd notion into his story. Yet another of Dostoyevsky's parellel's to the ongoing moral conflict on accepting Raskolnikov. The reader again is forced to ask, could this human who commits these evil deeds be considered anything but the "bad guy"? The answer is yes. Marmeladov was what could be called the scum of the earth. 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. Two of the most obvious of these characters were Marmeladov, and Svdrigailov. The reader might loathe Svidrigailov, but cannot condemn him. How then can it be a murder mystery? The mystery is finding out why Raskolnikov committed the crime. The reader gets nothing of the sort, Crime and Punishment is no fairy tale. The reader also can't side against Raskolnikov and identify with Porifry Petrovitch, the detective on Raskolnikov's trail, because Raskolnikov has done so much good and has his mother, sister, and Sofya to live for. He finds out that after all his wickedness, he has some good in him. Western minds want desperately to see some sense of right and wrong, a clear cut "good guy", and an evil nasty "bad guy". He had poisoned his wife, and made indecent propositions to Raskolnikov's sister Douina.
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,
bad guy,
crime punishment,
sister douina,
reader forced,
rodion romanovitch raskolnikov,
murder mystery,
douina svidrigailov,
romanovitch raskolnikov,
reader hate,
rodion romanovitch,
sister douina svidrigailov,
raskolnikov's sister douina,
trail raskolnikov,
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Acceptance Essays
