Comparison Essay between Crime and Punishment and Notes from the
             Fyodor Dostoyevsky's stories are stories of a sort of rebirth. He
             weaves a tale of suffering and how each character attempts to deliver
             themselves from this misery. In the novel Crime and Punishment, he
             tells the story of Raskolnikov, a former student who murders an old
             pawnbroker as an attempt to prove a theory. In Notes from the
             Underground, we are given a chance to explore Dostoyevsky's opinion of
             Dostoyevsky's characters are very similar, as is his stories. He puts
             a strong stress on the estrangement and isolation his characters feel.
             His characters are both brilliant and "sick" as mentioned in each novel,
             poisoned by their intelligence. In Notes from the Underground, the
             character, who is never given a name, writes his journal from solitude.
             He is spoiled by his intelligence, giving him a fierce conceit with
             which he lashes out at the world and justifies the malicious things he
             does. At the same time, though, he speaks of the doubt he feels at the
             value of human thought and purpose and later, of human life. He
             believes that intelligence, to be constantly questioning and
             "faithless(ly) drifting" between ideas, is a curse. To be damned to see
             everything, clearly as a window (and that includes things that aren't
             meant to be seen, such as the corruption in the world) or constantly
             seeking the meaning of things elusive. Dostoyevsky thought that humans
             are evil, destructive and irrational.
             In Crime and Punishment, we see Raskolnikov caught between reason and
             will, the human needs for personal freedom and the need to submit to
             authority. He spends most of the first two parts stuck between wanting
             to act and wanting to observe. After he acts and murders the old
             woman, he spends much time contemplating confession. Raskolnikov seems
             ...