Crime and Punishment is considered by many to be the first of
             Fyodor Dostoevsky's great books. Crime and Punishment is a psychological
             account of a crime. The crime is double murder. A book about such a broad
             subject can be made powerful and appealing to our intellectual interests if
             there is a link between the reader, the action, and the characters.
             Doestoevsky makes all these links at the right places. The action takes
             place between the protagonists and the antagonists. The protagonists
             include Dounia, the Marmeladovs, Sonia, Razumhin, Porfiry Petrovich, and
             Nastaya. The antagonists of the story are Luzhin, Ilya Petrovich, and the
             landlady. Raskolnikov could be considered to be the primary protagonist,
             while Svidrigailov could be thought of as the primary antagonist.
             In every story the protagonist is the character that the reader
             cares most about. In Crime and Punishment the reader cares about Rodion
             Raskolnikov. He is the primary and most significant character in the novel.
             We are introduced to this complex character in Part 1. We get to know the
             poverty stricken condition that he resides in, and we get to know his
             family situation as we read the long letter from Raskolnikov's mother.
             Then we witness the murder as it is graphically described by Doestoevsky.
             After reading this graphic description of the murder, how can the reader be
             sympathetic towards Raskolnikov? How can the reader believe that a
             murderer is the protagonist? It is, in fact, not hard to accept this
             murderer as the protagonist. Raskolnikov believed that by murdering the
             pawnbroker, he rid society of a pest. We realize that if the victim would
             have been someone other than an evil old pawnbroker the crime would never
             had taken place. He could never have found the courage to kill an innocent
             person. It would not prove anything to him. So, Raskolnikov was not a
             criminal. He does not repent because h...