Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Crime and Punishment Notes

Fyodor Dostoevsky


Fyodor Dostoevsky

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

SETTING

Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is set against the backdrop of the historic Russian city

of St. Petersburg, which stands on the River Neva. Although born and raised in Moscow, Dostoevsky

was very familiar with the streets, buildings and other landmarks of this great city because he spent

six years of his youth at the college of Military Engineering in St. Petersburg. His close familiarity

with the city is immediately evident to readers of the novel. He offers a kind of guided tour of the

city, featuring many authentic locales of St. Petersburg, as the vast narrative unfolds. St. Petersburg

was later called Petrograd from 1914 to 1924, then renamed Leningrad in honor of the communist

leader, Lenin. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, it was renamed St. Petersburg in the

1990s.

The period of the novel is the nineteenth century; the novel was written in 1866. By this time, the

city had served as the capital of the Russian empire for over a century. Tsar Peter the Great, who

founded the city in 1703, shifted Russia's capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg in 1712. At the

time of the novel, it had established itself as the social and intellectual center of Tsarist Russia and

became the country's "Window to the West." The choice of this city, rather than Moscow, suited

Dostoevsky's purpose of introducing the influence of decadent western ideas through the central

character, Raskolnikov, who has formulated a theory of "the extraordinary man" using ideas

borrowed from German philosophy.

Most of the action of the novel takes place in seedy surroundings: the dingy rented rooms of

impoverished students like Raskolnikov and Razumihin, the cramped apartment of the pawnbroker,

Alena Ivanovna, lower-class taverns, and the houses of prostitutes like Sonia. Some crucial scenes

are set in the open streets of the city (as, for example, the death of Marmeladov), the police station

where Raskolnikov finally confesses his crime, or in the scenic surroundings of St. Petersburg. The

islands of the River Neva, where aristocratic Russians had their luxurious 'dachas' (summer houses),

play an important role early in the novel.

The epilogue of the novel is set in the cold stretches of Russia's eastern most province, Siberia,

where Raskolnikov is sent to serve his sentence for the murders he has committed. At a more

subtle level, however, the psychological topography of Dostoevsky's novel is the tortured mind and

tormented soul of the murderer in whose perceptions and consciousness most of the action in Crime

and Punishment unfolds.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

LIST OF CHARACTERS

Major Characters

Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov

An impoverished law student. He writes a brilliant thesis on the role of "the extraordinary man,"

who, he believes, stands above the law. He later attempts to justify his crime of murdering two

women on the basis of this fantastic theory. (He is also referred to by such pet names as Rodya,

Rodka and Rodenka). The Russian word, raskol, from which the protagonist's name is derived, means

"schism" or "split." Thus Raskolnikov's very name implies duality, which is the crux of his nature.

Porfiry Petrovitch

A police official in charge of investigating the double murder. He suspects Raskolnikov and plays a

sort of 'cat- and-mouse' game with him all through the novel. When he finally is convinced of

Raskolnikov's guilt, he offers him a chance to confess of his own accord.

Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov

Usually called "Sonia," she is the daughter of the alcoholic clerk, Marmeladov. Her father's

ineptitude and philandering virtually force her into a life of prostitution for the sake of supporting

the family. In the end, she redeems both herself and Raskolnikov, who falls in love with her.

Arkady Ivanovitch Svidrigailov

Acts as a kind of foil (contrast) to the character of Raskolnikov. He is the former employer of

Raskolnikov's sister, Dounia, and follows her to St. Petersburg because he is obsessed with her.

Minor Characters

Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikov

The mother of Raskolnikov and Dounia. She is a rather conventional Russian woman, who cares for

her family and is especially concerned about her son.

Avodtya Romanovna Raskolnikov

Raskolnikov's sister, who is often referred to as "Dounia." She once worked in the Svidrigailov

household. She and her mother come to St. Petersburg soon after Raskolnikov commits the double

murder.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

Pyotr Petrovitch Luzhin

A government employee who is in love with Dounia and is engaged to her. They do not get married

because Raskolnikov objects to Luzhin as a suitor for his sister.

Dmitri Prokofitch Razumihin

Raskolnikov's fellow student and confidante who later marries Dounia.

Alena Ivanovna

An old woman in her sixties who operates a money-lending business. She is Raskolnikov's first

victim.

Lizaveta Ivanovna

The half-sister of Elena. She enters their apartment just after the murder, and Raskolnikov is forced

to kill her, too.

Nikolai and Dmitri

House-painters working in an apartment below the moneylender's rooms when the murder is

committed. Strangely, one of them confesses to the crime although they are both innocent.

Zametov

Razumihin's friend. He works as a clerk in the police station.

Ilya Petrovitch

A rather loud-mouthed police official.

Nikodim Fomitch

The Chief of Police in St. Petersburg.

Zossimov

A doctor who is a friend of Razumihin. He attends to Raskolnikov, who falls ill soon after the

murders.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

Praskovya Pavlovna Chebarov

Raskolnikov's landlady who at the time of his crime, registers a complaint with the police because

he has not paid his rent.

Nastasya

Works as a servant for Raskolnikov's landlady and is rather friendly with him.

Semyon Zakharovitch Marmeladov

A government servant who loses his job because he is an alcoholic. Sonia is his daughter by his

first wife. His second wife, Katerina, has three children from her previous marriage: Polenka, Lida

and Kolya.

Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladov

Marmeladov's second wife and a woman of higher social status than her husband. Her first marriage

was to an army officer.

Amalia Fyodorovna

Marmeladov's landlady. As a German, she is treated with disdain by Katerina.

Andrei Semyonovitch Lebeziatnikov

He lives in the same apartment house where the Marmeladov family lives. He considers himself a

liberal.

Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailov

Svidrigailov's long-suffering wife. When she dies, she leaves 3,000 rubles to Dounia.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

CONFLICT

The central conflict in Crime and Punishment stems from Raskolnikov's crime of murder and his

struggles with his conscience over whether or not he should confess to the police. At one level,

therefore, it is a kind of detective story where the police seek the criminal, and he evades arrest

until the last pages of the novel.

On a deeper level, the conflict springs from Raskolnikov's exaggerated theories of "the extraordinary

man" and how such western ideas are opposed to the Slavophile concepts indigenous to Russia. The

novel also highlights the eternal conflict between the forces of good and those of evil.

Protagonist

Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Dostoevsky's novel, is a handsome and brilliant law student who

holds firm but unusual views. He believes that certain superior people in a society stand above the

ordinary human and moral laws. To test his thesis, he murders an old woman that is a greedy

moneylender. He feels her death is no great loss to society because she preys upon the misery and

poverty of her fellow humans.

After the dastardly deed, he is seized by alternate moods of great cunning with which he tries to

outwit the police and moments of nagging guilt when he resolves to confess his crime. However, he

does not confess until the last chapter of the novel. Through this fascinating study of a criminal's

conscience, Dostoevsky also examines complex intellectual theories about human reason and the 'will

to power.' Such theories were made popular in mid- nineteenth century Europe by German

philosophers like Hegel and Nietzsche.

Antagonist

On the surface level, the antagonist is apparently the police force of St. Petersburg, especially

Porfiry Petrovitch, who investigates the murders that Raskolnikov has committed. All through the

novel, the murderer attempts to evade arrest and to mislead the police. However, on a deeper level,

the very order of autocratic society in Tsarist Russia seems to be the antagonist against whom

Raskolnikov is pitted. He theorizes that vicious, predatory humans like the pawnbroker are evil and

deserve to be eliminated in a society that permits such vile people to prosper.

Raskolnikov also believes that some "extraordinary" humans like himself have the right to transgress

and oppose ordinary social laws in order to create a new and more just social order. At another

level, ironically, Raskolnikov himself may also be looked upon as the antagonist of conventional

society and its unjust system.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

Climax

Throughout the novel, Raskolnikov toys with the idea of confessing his guilt. However, he never

manages to do so. At last, in the concluding chapters of Part V, he finally brings himself to reveal

to Sonia that it was he who murdered the moneylender and her half-sister, Lizaveta. Although she

is deeply shocked by his terrible revelation, Sonia promises to share in Raskolnikov's future

sufferings and punishment in a Siberian prison camp. Raskolnikov's redemption begins here, after

having established a connection with Sonia, but his actual confession to the police occurs at the

close of Part VI.

Outcome

Part VI of Crime and Punishment focuses on Raskolnikov's final moments of hesitation before he

confesses to the police. It deals with unresolved issues, like Dounia's escape from Svidrigailov, and

the latter's suicide. Freed from his repulsive attentions, she is able to marry Razumihin with

Raskolnikov's full approval.

In the Epilogue that rounds off the story, the reader hears details of Raskolnikov's trial, where

friends gave testimony about his generosity and his noble character. This perhaps helps him to

obtain a rather light sentence of eight years in a Siberian prison camp. His mother, Pulcheria

Alexandrovna, falls ill during the trial and dies soon afterward. She is never told of her son's

terrible crime or his sentence.

Sonia follows Raskolnikov to Siberia using the money left to her by Svidrigailov and his wife. In

prison, Raskolnikov is at first quite distant and cold to his fellow prisoners and even a bit

antagonistic towards Sonia. Her devotion to him impresses the other prisoners and they consider her

to be an angel of mercy. After a long period of illness and alienation in the first year of his

imprisonment, Raskolnikov finally realizes how good and kind Sonia is to him. Thus, he slowly

rehabilitates himself into the world of human understanding and compassion. After taking the reader

to the depths of human suffering, this novel ends happily.

Part I

Crime and Punishment centers around the life of Raskolnikov, a law student at the university in St.

Petersburg. He lives in a dilapidated boarding house and is very poor. He is young, handsome and

quite intelligent. He writes a brilliant if somewhat shocking paper on a theory that he has developed:

that the world consists of two types of people; the ordinary and the extraordinary. In his thesis, he

asserts that the extraordinary human has the right to commit any crime, as long as this is done to

further an important goal. As he considers himself one of these superior people, he decides to test

his theory by putting it into practice. He meticulously plans the murder of a greedy old

moneylender, Alena Ivanovna, as he feels she is a parasite who preys upon the poor and deserves

to die.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

After committing the first murder, Raskolnikov is then forced to murder Alena's stepsister, Lizaveta,

who unexpectedly enters the scene of the crime before he can leave. When he returns to his

lodgings after the double murder, he is exhausted and stays in his room for several days, feverishly

drifting in and out of consciousness.

Part II

During this period, a fellow student and friend, Razumihin, arrives. Raskolnikov is also visited by

Nastasya, his landlady's servant, and a police officer that summons him to the police station. He

fears that his crime has been detected but is soon relieved to learn that his landlady has complained

about him to the police for not paying his rent. He returns home after signing an IOU at the police

station. Then he hides the money and some other objects he stole from the old moneylender under

a large rock in a nearby park. However, his fears about his crime do not subside, and he falls

under another spell of illness and delirium.

His friends, Razumihin and Nastasya, and Dr. Zossimov look after him. Whenever they discuss the

recent murders and how the police have arrested two painters working near the scene of the crime,

Raskolnikov expresses a keen though morbid interest in the matter. He even defends the painters,

claiming they are innocent. However, one of them later confesses to the crime, strangely enough. At

the close of Part II, Luzhin visits Raskolnikov. He is a suitor for Dounia, Raskolnikov's sister, who

has just arrived in St. Petersburg along with her mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna.

Raskolnikov resents Luzhin's rather patronizing attitude and his shabby treatment of Dounia and her

mother. He put them up in a shoddy apartment that everyone feels is "a disgusting place . . . of

doubtful character." Raskolnikov drives Luzhin out of his room. When Raskolnikov recovers from his

illness, he goes out and reads about his crime in the recent newspapers. In a tavern he meets

Zametov, a police official, and alludes to his crime, thereby arousing the man's interest. He even

visits the scene of the crime and once more resolves to go to the police and confess. However, he

changes his mind.

Part III

Shortly afterward, he witnesses the death of Marmeladov, a former government clerk, who is

knocked down by a carriage when he is wandering, drunk, in the street. Raskolnikov had met him

previously in a tavern, and he helps the man's family and meets his daughter, Sonia, for the first

time. She has turned to a life of prostitution to help support her father's family.

Back at his room, Raskolnikov objects to his sister's impending marriage to Luzhin, saying: "I won't

accept the sacrifice." Meanwhile, Razumihin develops feelings for Dounia. Matters get more

complicated when her former employer, Svidrigailov, follows her to St. Petersburg. He had once

tried to seduce her, and so now Raskolnikov will not permit him to meet his sister.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

Luzhin tries to create a rift between Raskolnikov and his family. He insinuates that Raskolnikov has

given money to Sonia, and not to Marmeladov's widow, Katerina. A reunion between Luzhin and his

fiancée's family is interrupted by the arrival of Sonia. She invites them all to a memorial service for

her father and shares a brief moment alone with Raskolnikov. From the shabbiness of his room, she

realizes that he has given them all his money. She begins to feel a fondness for him.

Raskolnikov soon learns that the police are interviewing all those who borrowed money from the old

moneylender. So he decides to meet Porfiry, who is Razumihin's uncle. At the meeting, he discusses

his theory of the "extraordinary man" with the inspector. However, he does not reveal his role in

the recent murders. He fears the police suspect him but thinks they have no proof of his guilt. On

his way home, a stranger taunts him with the word, "Murderer!" This incident leaves him shaken,

and he begins to have terrible nightmares about the murder.

Part IV

This part of the novel begins with an encounter between Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov, an evil man

who resembles the murderer in certain respects. They both share a propensity for evil and a

domineering will. Rumor has it that Svidrigailov often beat his wife. When she died, she left 3,000

rubles for Dounia, who had worked for them. Having rejected Luzhin and Svidrigailov as suitors for

Dounia, Raskolnikov advises Razumihin to take care of his mother and sister.

Then, in a state of deep agitation Raskolnikov visits Sonia. He asks her to read the biblical story of

how Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. Ironically, she reads this story from a Bible that Lizaveta

once gave her. He leaves Sonia with the promise to tell her who killed Lizaveta and her elder

sister.

Parts V and VI

Raskolnikov has a second, disturbing interview with Porfiry. He then decides to reveal everything to

Sonia. Svidrigailov overhears this confession and uses the information in a sadistic attempt to seduce

Dounia. After she escapes his lustful designs, he commits suicide. Porfiry then meets Raskolnikov

and tells him that he knows who murdered the two women. However, he says that he prefers to

have the murderer come forward and confess his crime of his own accord.

Raskolnikov finally goes to the police and reveals that he is the murderer. He is tried and sentenced

to eight years hard labor in a Siberian prison camp. His sister marries Razumihin, while his mother

dies soon after, blissful ignorant of her son's deadly crimes. Sonia follows Raskolnikov to Siberia

and, after a year, he is finally able to reach out to her and to his fellow prisoners. He then begins

his slow journey to emotional and spiritual rehabilitation. Dostoevsky hints that when Raskolnikov is

free in seven years time, he and Sonia may find a degree of happiness and peace in their life

together.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

THEMES

Major Themes

The apparent theme of the novel is that of planning and executing the perfect crime, as well as the

subsequent suffering on the part of the criminal and his obsessive need to confess. Only the first

part of the novel deals with the careful planning that precedes the crime. The other five parts are

concerned with Raskolnikov's intermittent moments of remorse and his overwhelming desire to

confess and to rid himself of the guilt. However, he is unable to do so until the end of the novel.

The act of murder and its effects on the mind of the killer form the central subject of Dostoevsky's

Crime and Punishment.

Linked closely to this cycle of crime and confession is the motif of all-encompassing fear. This fear

reduces Raskolnikov to a quivering mass of indecision, subject to spells of illness, emotional

outbursts of anger and horrible nightmares. The crime and its long- term effects on Raskolnikov's

behavior and peace of mind become the very punishment itself. Only in Siberia does he overcome

the fear and begin the difficult process of social rehabilitation and moral regeneration.

Minor Themes

One of the important minor Themes of this novel is that of the emotional estrangement and social

isolation suffered by Raskolnikov, especially after he turns into a criminal. He feels terribly lonely

and utterly devastated by his inability to turn to anyone after the double murder. He feels some

sympathy for the unfortunate Marmeladov, who dies in a street accident and for the woman who

attempts suicide in the River Neva. Sonia's patience and profound understanding finally help him to

bring himself to confess his crime and ultimately to reintegrate into ordinary human society.

To reinforce the theme of isolation and alienation, Dostoevsky makes Raskolnikov often think of "the

square yard of space" to which his crime has confined him. In addition, the novelist frequently

introduces the motif of "fresh air" as a cure for the criminal's isolation and intermittent periods of

sickness.

Another recurrent theme in the novel is the idea that man must undergo suffering before he can

find redemption from a life of sin. The first sign of Raskolnikov's suffering is his illness after the

murder, his terrifying nightmares and his recurrent failure to confess, although he often comes close

to revealing his crime. A consistent pattern of suffering and hardship extends to almost all of the

other characters.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

Another significant theme is that of the Superman or "extraordinary man," who, according to

Raskolnikov's startling thesis, stands above ordinary humans and is exempt from obeying the law.

What Dostoevsky tries to show is that although Raskolnikov believes he is an extraordinary human

being and thus commits the murders, he is no better or worse than an ordinary man. He cannot

escape the consequences of his crime, and he is not above the common human experience of

suffering the effects of one's deeds. On the one hand, Raskolnikov thinks of himself as a sort of

superior human. On the other hand, he realizes as the novel progresses that he is a part of common

humanity.

MOOD

The mood throughout Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is somber, brooding and profoundly

contemplative. For the most part, the reader lives in the consciousness of the protagonist,

Raskolnikov, who is introspective and rather gloomy. He first contemplates how to commit the

perfect murder and thus eliminate the predatory moneylender. Afterwards, he is haunted by his guilt

and the fear of exposure, and he is driven by a compulsive need to confess, which he cannot

transform into action.

Furthermore, a mood of suspense and anticipation is created, as in any good detective story. Here,

the identity of the murderer is known to the readers, although not to the police, who are close to

the criminal. There are also moments of extreme horror, as at the scene of the murder or when

other characters die by accident, suicide or prolonged illness. A sense of panic and terror is also

created by the nightmares that the murderer has and the almost claustrophobic ruminations that

haunt him after he commits the crime. Until he confesses and begins to serve out his sentence, he

seems to undergo the tortures of a living hell

BACKGROUND INFORMATION - BIOGRAPHY

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

The life and literary career of the author makes for as much fascinating reading as that of any of

his great novels. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-81) was born on February 8, 1821 in a

Moscow hospital, where his father, Mikhail Dostoevsky, was the chief doctor. The second of eight

children, he was given to reading and a life of solitude. His mother, Maria, a generous, fragile and

religious woman, faced the wrath of a miserly, possessive and jealous husband. She died tragically

of consumption in 1837 at the age of thirty-three. The author experienced another tragedy in 1839,

when his father, an alcoholic, was murdered on his country estate by his serfs because of his cruel

and despotic ways. The portrait of Fyodor Karamazov, the father in The Brothers Karamazov who is

murdered by one of his sons, is based partially on Dostoevsky's own father.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

In 1838, Dostoevsky entered the Military Engineering School in St. Petersburg. Six years later he

resigned his commission in the army in order to devote himself fully to a literary career. The

success of his first story, Poor Folk (1846), brought him into contact with the leading writers of the

time. In 1847 he joined a progressive circle of intellectuals led by the revolutionary socialist,

Butashevich-Petrashevski. Like Raskolnikov in his novel, Dostoevsky adopted radical ideas, derived

mostly from western thinkers. The anti-autocracy stance of this circle angered Tsar Nicholas I, who

ordered the arrest of its members, including Petrashevski and Dostoevsky, in April of 1849.

For eight months, the prisoners were kept in solitary confinement in the fortress of saints Peter and

Paul. Then they were sentenced to death. As Dostoevsky and the fifteen other revolutionaries were

about to face the firing squad, a last-minute reprieve came from the Tsar. Actually, he had intended

only to frighten the prisoners and did not plan to have them executed. Dostoevsky was terribly

shaken by this experience that served to aggravate his congenital epilepsy and left him bitter all

through his later life. Dostoevsky had his sentence commuted to five years hard labor in Siberia,

and subsequently served four more years of punishment as a common soldier in the Siberian

regiment (1854-58). He rose to be a commissioned officer and was granted amnesty by Tsar

Alexander II in 1859.

In the cold and unforgiving climate of Siberia, Dostoevsky served his years of penal servitude. He

was constantly kept in shackles and was made to bake bricks and unload barges on the River Irtish.

His experiences as a prisoner in Siberia are reflected in The Manor of Stepanchikovo (1859) and, in

Memoirs from the House of the Dead (1862). While in prison he was surrounded by rapists, robbers

and murderers, but there were also innocent political prisoners like himself who were the victims of

the Tsar's oppressive regime. Ironically, he meekly accepted his rather unjust punishment, seeing it

as an opportunity to make amends for his faults. This conviction that man must repent and suffer to

find his salvation remained an obsession all through his life and dominates his novels.

In 1857 Dostoevsky married Maria Isaeva, the widow of a colleague. Her sickly nature and

Dostoevsky's fondness for gambling and women made their marriage an unhappy one. To supplement

his meager income, he often gambled desperately both in Russia and at various casinos in Europe.

He tells of his wild compulsion for gambling in his story, The Gambler (1866). Between the years of

1862 and 1864, he visited Paris and London; he also passed through Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

While in Paris, he had a tempestuous affair with a sensual but enigmatic woman named Pauline

Suslova.

On returning to Russia, he found his wife grievously ill. She died of tuberculosis in 1864. In the

months before her death, Dostoevsky wrote Notes from the Underground. It is, in his own words, a

"harsh and bizarre" piece containing the ravings of an almost schizophrenic mind. It defines, in

greater detail, Dostoevsky's concepts on the psychology of duality that he first explored in The

Double (1846). It also introduces the realm of "the underground" and the image of "the underground

man." Later in 1864, his elder brother Mikhail (to whom he was very close and who was his

fellow-editor) died, leaving Dostoevsky in serious debt.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

The author was keenly aware of the unstable political and social situation in both Russia and Europe

in those days. He commented on it in magazines like Vremya (Time) and Epoka (Epoch), which he

published, and the journal, Grazhdanin (The Citizen), of which he was an active editor. In 1865, after

Epoka was shut down by the Tsar's censors, Dostoevsky began work on Crime and Punishment

(1866). In that same year he completed The Gambler in 26 days. He had hired a stenographer, the

twenty-year-old Anna Grigorievna Snitkin, to help him with his work. Attracted by her selfless

devotion, Dostoevsky married her in 1867.

His second marriage was a happy one, and it led to a fruitful period in his literary and personal life.

To escape their creditors, the Dostoevskys lived abroad for four years. There he wrote The Idiot

(1868), which tells of the need to preserve one's faith in goodness and to trust one's fellow humans,

despite the presence of greed, selfishness and evil in the world. In it Dostoevsky created the

memorable character of Prince Myshkin, a Russian variation of Cervantes' Don Quixote, and like his

creator, an epilepsy patient.

When Dostoevsky returned to Russia in 1871, his son Fyodor was born. The Dostoevskys now

began to lead a prosperous and more settled existence. In 1872 the novel The Possessed was

published. This novel is also known as The Devils, and it portrays political radicals as ambitious

men who turn against God. From 1876 onwards, Dostoevsky brought out an influential journal called

A Writer's Diary. In it he discussed social, political, religious and literary issues. His greatest novel,

The Brothers Karamazov, appeared in 1880. It is a tale of a bitter family feud caused by the

presence of a domineering father. The novel centers around the murder of the evil Fyodor

Karamazov and its effect on his four sons.

In the same year, 1880, Dostoevsky made a famous public speech on Pushkin (1799-1837).

Dostoevsky was by now firmly established as one of Russia's greatest novelists, as Pushkin, his

ideal, was Russia's greatest 19th-century poet. His political conservatism and faith in the Russian

Orthodox Church won him favor in his final years even from Tsar Alexander II. Dostoevsky died in

1881 and was given an impressive public funeral by the state. His grave at the Tikhvin cemetery in

St. Petersburg is adorned with a fine bust of the author by the famous Russian sculptor, Nikolai

Laveretsky.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

LITERARY INFORMATION

In the early decades of the 19th century, Russian literature was predominantly Romantic. By 1840,

however, Realism emerged as an important literary trend, mainly as a reaction to Romantic writing

and mostly in prose fiction. These Russian realists often wrote about social and political problems

because they believed that literature should portray life with unapologetic honesty. One of the

founders of Russian realism was the renowned critic, Vissarion Belinsky (1811-48). He held that

literature should serve the needs of society by depicting a clear picture of its many shortcomings

and by advocating viable social reforms. His views influenced the great 19th-century Russian

realists in fiction from Turgenev and Goncharov, to Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Chekov.

In the 1850s and early '60s, Turgenev's novels, such as Rudin and Fathers and Sons, reveal his

deep understanding of Russian society and people. Goncharov, in novels like Oblomov (1859), tried

to convince his readers that only practical action, not sentiment or romance, could lead to social

reform. By the 1860s and '70s, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were the principal realists in fiction. They

replaced the elegant style of Romanticism with the simplified and practical prose of realism. They

also discarded certain Romantic notions of sentiment and heroism. In their work, they depicted

instead a deep concern for the natural stages of individual behavior and human development.

Tolstoy's War and Peace (begun in 1865) is an epic novel that captures the intense passion and

dramatic sweep of Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia. His Anna Karenina (1875) attacks

romantic love as self-indulgence and encourages a sense of family love and moral duty. It explores

and reflects upon the destructive power of love when Anna leaves husband, child and home to

follow her desperately doomed love for a handsome officer called Vronsky. Dostoevsky rivals

Tolstoy in the depth and scope of his genius through his great novels such as Crime and

Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov.

As a novelist, Dostoevsky has been interpreted in different ways. Some see him as a writer keen on

portraying social realities in the manner of a Balzac or a Dickens. Others look upon him as a

psychologist delving into the depths of the human mind, and often depicting characters that are

either mentally sick or spiritually depraved. Still others insist that he is, primarily, a philosopher in

search of the ultimate truth, looking for reasons to explain human existence and searching for

solutions to the most profound human problems. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky is a mix of

all these characteristics and much more. His understanding of the most basic human needs, and his

portrayal of a depressed and lonely human being, is finely depicted here.

Dostoevsky's fictional works are essentially novels of "ideas" which are embodied in the great

characters he creates in them. These characters are highly individualized, vital, intense and complex

humans who are far from being stereotypes. He usually places them in a vortex of conflicting

passions and tumultuous ideas. The reader sees them caught in highly dramatic situations, often

floundering in the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, yet making laudable efforts to attain

salvation through their suffering. Dostoevsky gives the reader dramatic portrayals of the inner

conflicts in his central characters. They often experience a violent spiritual struggle between their

belief in goodness (or God) and their strong sense of pride and self-centeredness.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

As Crime and Punishment is a novel set against the sociological conditions prevailing in

19th-century Russia, it is necessary to understand something of the repressive nature of the Tsarist

regimes that ruled this great country at that time.

From the times of its founding in the early 18th century by Tsar Peter the Great, St. Petersburg

was Russia's "Window to the West" (the rest of Europe). One of his successors in the latter half of

the 18th century, Catherine II, made Russia a formidable European power. In 1801, Tsar Alexander I

tried to introduce a few social reforms. Actually, he did fairly little to reduce the Tsar's despotic

power or to end the cruel practice of serfdom under which the vast majority of Russian peasants

were forced to live. Other parts of Western Europe discontinued the practice of serfdom soon after

the Renaissance (by the 16th century).

After Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, the Tsar's reform program was further reduced. Hence,

many young aristocrats and intellectuals turned to secret revolutionary organizations to overthrow

the Tsar. In 1825, the year Dostoevsky was born, the new Tsar Nicholas I was crowned. Later the

same year, he suppressed the Decembrist Revolt and introduced strict control over the press,

education, foreign travel and political organizations through his secret police system. He soon came

to be called, "The Policeman of Europe." A number of educated Russians and intellectuals began to

admire the values of Western European life as opposed to the conventional and repressive Russian

system. Orthodox Russians, however, favored the older ways that included a strong Russian

Orthodox Church, a Tsarist government and the traditional lifestyle of the vast Russian countryside.

When Dostoevsky was a young man in the 1840s, many new and radical ideas were entering Russia

from West European countries, especially France and Germany. Like Raskolnikov in Crime and

Punishment, Dostoevsky soon came under the influence of such revolutionary ideals and he hoped

that Russia could also become a liberal country by adopting freer systems of thought and life, as

then prevailed in Western Europe. However, Dostoevsky's soul- shattering experience with death

(when he and his revolutionary friends were arrested and almost executed by the Tsar) and his

later experience of squalid prison life forced him to do some serious thinking upon his return from

Siberia in 1858. He now began to feel that rash acceptance of every new idea from the West was

perhaps not the best thing for Russia.

When he traveled through Europe in 1862-64, he hated what he saw of capitalist western civilization

and soon became an ardent Russian nationalist. These were troubled times for both Western Europe

and Russia, as many countries underwent turbulent social change. Happily, serfdom was abolished in

Russia in 1861 under the new Tsar, Alexander II.

The revolutionary Populists in Russia, however, continued to be anti-tsarist and they staged a

number of terrorist attacks in an attempt to destabilize the regime. More often than not, these

attempts failed, and the revolutionary leaders landed either in prison for long-term sentences or

before the Tsar's execution squad.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky now began to believe that it was more important to cultivate and propagate new and

independent ideas that were specifically Russian or Slavic in origin. Such a total commitment to

indigenous thought soon made him a Slavophile, like the character of Porfiry in Crime and

Punishment. Hence, in this novel, he contrasts the ultra-radical views of Raskolnikov on the

"extraordinary man," or "superman," with Porfiry's slavophillic notions. These two characters

essentially dramatize the conflict that faced every thinking Russian in those troubled times when

social change was imperative if the entrenched tsarist power was to be curtailed and the lot of the

common Russian improved.

OVERALL ANALYSES

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Raskolnikov

In his profoundly psychological novel, Dostoevsky's main interest lies in the depiction of the

multifaceted personality of his protagonist, Raskolnikov. With deep insight, the novelist explores the

complex and confused motivations that prompt Raskolnikov to commit murder. Dostoevsky also

studies the obscure and often ambiguous theories of crime that plague the mind of the central

figure. In addition, he expounds upon the closely inter-related Themes of isolation, suffering and

moral salvation through this portrait of a criminal mind.

The Dualism in Raskolnikov's Character:

The protagonist of Crime and Punishment is a rather solitary intellectual, an impoverished student of

law at the university in St. Petersburg. If he seems somewhat introverted at times, there is good

reason to attribute this to the constraints of his financial circumstances and his rather stifling

attic-room. Sometimes, he can be warm, friendly and even compassionate to others more miserable

and unfortunate than himself. For instance, he is extremely generous towards Marmeladov's family

after the man dies in a street accident. The testimony of certain witnesses at his trial substantiates

the general nobility of Raskolnikov's character. These witnesses cite examples of his many

charitable acts before and after the murders.

One way of looking at this duality in Raskolnikov's character is to regard it as a conflict between

the alienated intellectual and his hostile social environment. Another approach is to view

Raskolnikov's nature as a struggle between his solitary mind and his own moral consciousness. In an

early chapter of Part III, Razumihin remarks to Raskolnikov's mother and sister: "It's as though he

(Raskolnikov) were alternating between two characters." On the one hand, he finds Raskolnikov

"morose, gloomy, and haughty," and on the other, Razumihin confirms: "He has a noble nature and a

kind heart."


Fyodor Dostoevsky

In a certain symbolic sense, the two murders that he commits correspond to these dual facets of

Raskolnikov's personality. While Alena represents the cold and vicious side of his nature, Lizaveta is

the humane and submissive side. In killing these two women, he attempts to stifle or destroy both

sides of his own inner character. Ironically, he rarely thinks of the murder of Lizaveta and is

disturbed mainly by the memory of his murdering Alena. Significantly, again, he kills Alena with the

blunt side of the axe, while he murders Lizaveta with the sharp blade. It is as if, in doing so, he

smashes the submissive and compassionate elements in his nature with greater ferocity and

viciousness than he employs in killing Alena.

PLOT ANALYSIS (Structure)

Dostoevsky's great dramatic narrative has six separate parts, with an epilogue divided into two

smaller sections. Central to the whole story are the dual murders committed by Raskolnikov. He

plans and executes them within the space of a chapter in Part I. The remaining five parts of the

novel are devoted to the gradual unfolding of his suppressed guilt. They trace in detail the slow

evolution of his punishment and sufferings, both physical and psychological. The Epilogue tells of his

trial and imprisonment in Siberia where, at last, he begins the slow process of his moral

regeneration and emotional re-integration into ordinary human society.

Central to the structure of Crime and Punishment is the character of Raskolnikov. The plot of the

novel unfolds around him; for the most part, the reader lives in his consciousness and experiences

the occurrences in the book through the perceptions of the protagonist. Dostoevsky portrays

Raskolnikov as a complex and puzzling character who seems to be a sort of split personality. On the

one hand, he is cold and calculating, as seen in the manner he plans and executes the murder, as

well as in his skill in evading detection. On the other hand, the reader often sees him as a kind and

helpful soul, always willing to offer assistance and sympathy to those in distress. Despite the

conflicts in his character that seem to tear him apart, the character of Raskolnikov gives the novel a

sense of cohesion and artistic unity.

Apparently, Dostoevsky's aim is to depict the essential conflicts in mid-19th-century Russian

national life through his brilliant study of the contradictions in the personality of this young law

student. Raskolnikov represents, in part, the fate of young Russian intellectuals who faced social

injustice and moral degeneration under the tsarist autocracy, but found they could do very little to

reform society. Hence, they turned to revolutionary ideas, often derived from Western Europe,

represented by Raskolnikov's radical views on crime and the 'extraordinary' man. These disgruntled

Russians often turned quite cynical, if not utterly nihilistic, in their attitudes.

Gradually, such radical opinions led their defenders to believe they could commit any crime if their

goal was to benefit suffering humanity. They were thus alienated from the established codes of

social authority and common morality, often even defying the existing laws. This led them to be no

less evil or degenerate than those whom they sought to eliminate from society for society's own

good, as they claimed. Thus, Raskolnikov, whose action and thinking holds the entire narrative

together, is essentially dualistic in his inner nature and becomes a difficult character to understand.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

The two murders that Raskolnikov commits ironically represent a crime against common humanity

(two helpless women) and also a crime for humanity. Raskolnikov considers Alena Ivanovna a

parasite because she preys upon the misery of the poor by lending money at exorbitant interest

rates. Hence, she must be eradicated from society. This crime, with its dual implications, sets off

dual reactions in its perpetrator. On the one hand, he is an isolated individual pitted against an

unfeeling and hostile world. On the other hand, he endures a soul-wrenching inner conflict between

his ethical awareness of evil and his desire to reform society through drastic means. The latter trait

makes him cynical and doubtful of any goodness in this world. So he refuses to redeem himself by

confessing.

These contradictory impulses in Raskolnikov's character lie at the very core of the novel. This

dichotomy makes him vacillate between extremes of willful behavior, wherein he sees himself as a

superior person, and moments of low self-esteem, during which he appears meek and submissive to

the forces around him. Against his cold, inhumane and detached intellect, Dostoevsky juxtaposes the

sympathetic, humane aspect of Raskolnikov's character. In this respect, his opposing traits can be

seen as extensions of what appears separately in Sonia, who is meek and submissive, and

Svidrigailov, who is violently willful.

Obviously, through this contrast between Raskolnikov's views on the Hegelian and Nietzschean

concepts of a superman, and Porfiry's indigenous or Slavophillic view point, Dostoevsky is able to

structure his novel into a sociological commentary on the need for reform in 19th century Russian

society. The problem of Raskolnikov's duality is symptomatic of both the individual psyche and the

soul of a nation caught in the turmoil of social change. Besides, elements of this duality are also

distributed among various other characters such as Sonia, Porfiry and Svidrigailov.

By probing deeply into this dichotomy in the character of Raskolnikov and those around him,

Dostoevsky gives to his novel an essential unity of plot and makes it an artistic whole. The two

extremes of individual self-centeredness, and self-denial or sacrifice, are the novelist's primary

concern in his construction of the plot for Crime and Punishment. A closely linked purpose is to

study the psychology of the murderer and to analyze the effects of his horrible deed. Thus, by the

end of novel, Dostoevsky is able to restore the moral balance of social laws by returning

Raskolnikov to human society and re-establishing his ability to discern the differences between good

and evil, hope and despair, love and hatred, cynicism and faith.

Thus, the structure of this great novel is designed to expose the dangers of excessive individualism

that may begin in a seemingly humanist quest. Dostoevsky shows clearly that the ends, however

noble, never justify the means used to secure them. Raskolnikov's crime must meet with its

inevitable punishment.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

THEME ANALYSIS

Major Themes

The dominant theme of Dostoevsky's classic novel is obviously stated in its title. Ostensibly, it deals

with the crime of murder and the punishment that follows it. It is a profoundly psychological

treatment of the murderer's criminal instincts (or lack thereof) and his dual personality. Dostoevsky

focus much of his attention in Crime and Punishment on the rather obscure and contradictory

motives that prompt Raskolnikov to commit the extreme action of murder. He combines this theme

of criminal behavior with the allied theme of moral redemption through suffering.

As in most of Dostoevsky's fiction, one of the central concerns in this novel is the portrayal of the

world of human suffering. Thematically, the structure of Crime and Punishment may be regarded as

a pyramid of ideas. The broad foundation or base of this pyramid is made of intricate portrayals of

human suffering: Raskolnikov's wrestling with his conscience, Sonia's humiliation as a prostitute, or

the social and financial degradation of Katerina, Marmeladov and her family. Dostoevsky peoples the

universe of this novel with a vast range of characters, most of whom suffer for a wide variety of

complex reasons, stemming from personal or societal factors.

From this broad foundation of human suffering rises the massive problem of duality within the

central character. Raskolnikov's rebellious streak alternates with moments of docility. His defiance of

moral and social authority, as well as his pride in his intellect, is contrasted with his abject fear of

the consequences of his crime and the weakening of his mental state after the murder. At the apex

of this thematic pyramid, Dostoevsky takes up the philosophical problems of life and death and the

eternal conflict between good and evil.

Undoubtedly, Dostoevsky is a master artist when it comes to depicting the vast gamut of human

suffering, from the physical torture of the human being to the terrifying anguish of the human soul.

The scenes of physical punishment, such as Svidrigailov's whipping of his wife, the flogging of a

horse to death by its drunken owner, or the violent scene of the dual murder, affect any sensitive

reader of the novel. However, such incidents of purely corporal punishment pale in comparison with

the scenes of psychological degradation, such as Sonia's humiliation when she turns to prostitution

at the age of seventeen to support her drunken father's family, or Luzhin's false accusations against

Sonia.

Another moment of great suffering in the novel is the death of Katerina Marmeladov. First, she

suffers social and economic deprivation after the death of her first husband, the army officer. Then,

her second husband turns out to be a drunkard who is unable to provide for his family. At the death

of Marmeladov, she and her children are forced into a life of beggary on the streets. This leads to

her total physical and psychological deterioration. At the point of her death, she stoutly refuses help

from doctors or priests. She feels she has suffered so much that God will accept her just as she is.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

However, the greatest suffering is reserved for Raskolnikov. His eventual salvation is closely linked

to his capacity to undergo great suffering. He commits his first murder under the false notion that

he is helping to reduce the sufferings of humanity by getting rid of a predatory social parasite.

Ironically, he winds up killing her half- sister, Lizaveta, although he had no intention of doing so.

Now Raskolnikov must suffer intensely the consequences of his ignoble actions. His sufferings begin

soon after the crime, in the form of intermittent bouts of illness, irrational outbursts of anger and

terrifying nightmares.

More than all this, his greater sufferings spring from his total social isolation after the murders. He

is unable to trust himself and his sordid secret with his friends or even his close family members.

Most of all, his inability to confess his crime torments his soul and shatters his peace of mind. Until

he can bring himself to reveal his guilt and thus suffer his due punishment, he cannot re-integrate

himself into normal human society.

Soon after the murders, he thinks of confession but shrinks from it almost at once. Then, in the

next chapter, he thinks of confessing again when he is summoned to the police station: "If they

question me . . . I'll go in, fall on my knees and confess everything." Twice more, in the same

chapter, he toys with the idea of confession but cannot summon up the courage to do so. At the

close of Part II, when he meets Zametov, the police clerk, he almost confesses to the crime by

reconstructing it hypothetically. He even taunts Zametov with the insolent statement: "And what if it

was I who murdered the old woman and Lizaveta?" Later, when he observes the woman who

attempts suicide in the river, he once again thinks of confessing. When he revisits the scene of the

crime, he offers to go to the police with the men there and confess all he knows about the

murders.

Again in Part III, he realizes with growing desperation that his crime has left him "alone, utterly

alone." Instead of freeing him to become the "extraordinary man" he dreams of being, it has not

raised him above the fears and guilt of any ordinary human. After defending his theory of crime

before Porfiry and hearing a stranger call him a "murderer," he again feels the need to confess.

Once more in Part IV, after Sonia reads to him the story of Lazarus, he leaves her with the

startling revelation that he will tell her all about the murders on the next day. Here, he almost

confesses the truth to Sonia but postpones the dreaded moment by a day.

Finally, at their next meeting, he reveals to Sonia the sordid truth about his crimes. Yet he cannot

bring himself to confess his deed at the public crossroads, as Sonia suggests. When he goes to the

police station in the final chapter of Part VI, he hesitates confessing to the clerk who is on duty

and turns away. However, on seeing Sonia's crestfallen face outside, he steels himself to go back

and say: "It was I who killed the old pawn broker and her sister, Lizaveta." Thus, on a dozen

occasions or more, Raskolnikov is tempted to confess and relieve the pressures of his guilt, but he

cannot do so until the very end. This inability to come to terms with himself and his own heinous

crimes constitutes in itself his worst punishment.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

It is his fear of humiliation and public disgrace that keeps him from confessing all through the novel.

This weakness defines Raskolnikov as an ordinary human being with the usual human sensitivities. If

he were "extraordinary," according to his own theory, he would have risen above his fears. He

would have blatantly told the whole world the horrible truth about himself, just as Sonia advised him

to do at the crossroads. His fear of discovery and his sense of shame over his crime also cut him

off from all human contact. He tries to avoid his mother, his sister and even his best friend,

Razumihin.

Finally, he is released from his fears when he finds the courage to confess, face the world, and

suffer his due punishment. Thus, Raskolnikov's crime and its resulting punishments, the agonies of

isolation, the pangs of a guilty conscience, and the fears about confessing the crime all form the

central theme of this novel. It must be noted, however, that Raskolnikov hardly feels a sense of

remorse over his crime or a twinge of regret for the two women he has killed. Only after a year of

imprisonment does he begin to fraternize with his fellow prisoners and slowly awaken to the virtues

of love and supreme self-sacrifice that Sonia has shown him all through the novel.

Minor Themes

The theme of isolation is another major concern in Crime and Punishment. From the very first

chapter, the reader sees Raskolnikov as a "loner," perhaps due to the constraints of his

impoverished lifestyle. He experiences all the deprivations of poverty as a university student living

in a depressing, lower class lodging house. This makes him view the world around him with utter

disgust and cynical contempt that further alienates him from other humans.

Raskolnikov's brilliant thesis on the "Extraordinary man" springs in part from his notion that the

larger part of humanity suffers poverty and deprivations due to the selfish excesses of a few rich

individuals. Hence, he also develops the theory that parasitic and predatory individuals in society,

who prey upon the misery of other humans, deserve to be eliminated from the world. His theory of

crime and the "Extraordinary man" is, thus, a result of his morbid view of the world, developed

through long spells of introspection and isolation.

When he propounds his theory of crime and the "Extraordinary man," Raskolnikov is aware that a

crime such as murder isolates the criminal from the rest of human society. He believes that the

"Superior" man must be able to face the isolation that follows his crime. Raskolnikov, later, begins

to feel that the worst part of his punishment for his crimes is his total alienation from others. After

all, his crime springs from his utter isolation and introversion. This leads him to suffer an even

deeper despair and loneliness soon after the deed. His act of murder isolates him from all human

compassion and love. It also alienates him from the established order of society, its moral laws and

common human decency.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

His sister, Dounia, suffers a similar isolation. She is willing to sacrifice herself in a loveless

marriage to the rather patronizing and contemptible Luzhin. Although Raskolnikov has no means to

prevent this shabby marriage of convenience, he firmly proclaims, "I won't accept this sacrifice."

Dounia's desperate situation irritates him because he knows he is powerless to help her. He feels

bitter about the fact that she is willing to marry Luzhin just so that her brother may complete his

law studies. This makes Raskolnikov impotent with suppressed rage, and it alienates him further

from society.

After the death of her first husband, a Russian army officer, Katerina is forced to marry the

drunken clerk, Marmeladov, who can barely support her children and herself. When he dies in an

accident, she is evicted from her lodgings, along with her three children. She suffers both a physical

and a psychological breakdown, and dies defiantly refusing help from either priest or doctor. Her

intense sorrows and misery in life, again, underscore Dostoevsky's theme of human sufferings and

isolation.

Above all, Sonia experiences soul-shattering humiliation and solitude. She is forced to take up a life

of prostitution in order to help support her drunken father's second family. Men like Luzhin treat her

with unwarranted contempt. Poor Sonia has to suffer vile rebukes that naturally would tend to

isolate her from a world full of cruel and despicable people like Luzhin. It is her loneliness and

silent suffering that draws Raskolnikov to her and prompts him to reveal his dreadful secret. He

confesses to Sonia mainly because he has no one else to turn to in his great distress. Besides, he

can no longer endure his terrible isolation from ordinary humanity.

The theme of the "Extraordinary Man" or "superman":

Raskolnikov's theories about the "superman" or "Extraordinary Man" also form a major theme in

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. In fact, the theory of crime that he formulates constitutes the

very basis for his murders. His fantastic concepts about crime and men of superior intellect bring

Raskolnikov to the point of committing a crime to prove the viability of his thesis in actual practice.

The main-spring of action in the novel is, no doubt, the double murders that he commits. This

heinous deed is motivated by his theory that the "Extraordinary man," with his superior intellect,

stands outside and above the boundaries of common moral and human laws. Raskolnikov believes

that there are two types of humans in society: the ordinary and the extraordinary. Ordinary men

merely propagate the species and, hence, they are inferior. Extraordinary men are those who help

society develop through their contribution to the store of humanity's intellectual achievements.

This theory is based partially on views drawn from Hegel and Nietzsche, two German philosophers,

as well as from Raskolnikov's own notions of the Superman. There are, however, certain inherent

contradictions in his theories, as they are not fully developed. In order to complete and test his

thesis about the "Extraordinary man," he has to commit a crime to see what effect the crime would

have on its perpetrator. Thus, Dostoevsky exposes Raskolnikov's weakness as one of the young,

misguided revolutionaries who was dissatisfied with social conditions in mid- 19th century Russia.

They drew their inspiration from Western thinkers whose views they had only partially digested.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

Raskolnikov's thesis draws partially from the Hegelian view of the Superman as one who exists to

do good for humankind. Hegel also held that the ends justify the means, provided the ends were

noble. Hence, Raskolnikov believed that killing the evil moneylender was essentially a good act, as

he hoped thereby to remove from society a harmful person who preyed on the misfortunes of the

poor and whose money could be put to good use.

Although Nietzsche had not yet published his explicit theories of the "Superman," Dostoevsky may

have been exposed to some related ideas when he visited Germany a few years before writing

Crime and Punishment. In Nietzsche's view, the "Superman" does not exist for the good of society,

but for his own advancement and satisfaction. He has no specifically noble motives. He wants only

to assert his own strong will, achieve his desires and dominate others. In Dostoevsky's novel,

Svidrigailov represents the Nietzschean type of "Superman" more than Raskolnikov. The assertion of

his dominant will and vulgar desires is his defining characteristic. However, neither Svidrigailov nor

Raskolnikov can endure the extreme isolation from others that is required of the "superman."

By using a blend of prevailing ideas about the "Extraordinary Man," Dostoevsky shows how men like

Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov adopted revolutionary stances against the established order of Imperial

Russian society. They derived inspiration from contemporary West European thinkers. They often

used Napoleon as a "role-model" because of his daring vision, his enterprising exploits and his

dauntless spirit. However, they failed to realize that Napoleon proved ultimately to be a failure, and

his dreams of conquering all of Europe and Russia ended disastrously both for himself and others.

After his years of penal servitude and a visit to Europe in 1862- 1864, Dostoevsky was

disillusioned by the radical socialist ideas that had earlier enthralled him. He now saw the tragic

contradictions inherent in the French Revolution and distrusted the rising bourgeois capitalist society

throughout Europe. In Russia he sensed the widening gulf between the fanciful dreams of the

"raznochintsy" (people of various social ranks who often had progressive ideas) and the simple

aspirations of the common people. Viewing the political reactions that engulfed Europe in the 1850s

and early 1860s, Dostoevsky became increasingly skeptical about ultra-revolutionary movements and

their dangerous possibilities.

This brought Dostoevsky in opposition to his earlier political mentors, like Chernyshevsky and the

revolutionary socialist, Petrashevsky. Hence, in Crime and Punishment, he attempted to depict two

extremes of the revolutionary ideologies of Russian intellectuals through his complementary portraits

of Svidrigailov and Raskolnikov.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

AUTHOR'S STYLE AND USE OF LANGUAGE

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is a landmark in the annals of Russian fiction. It marks the

beginning of a new trend in the writing of both Russian and world literature. It can be considered a

pioneering work in the realm of psychological fiction, as well as an important piece of realistic

sociological criticism. On the one hand, the novel reflects its author's anguish at the immensity of

human suffering in language that steers clear of the trappings of sophistication or sentimentalism. On

the other hand, Dostoevsky delves deeply and into the most complex workings of the human psyche.

He probes the obscure motives and subtle shifts of mood in the mind of a criminal. Hence, a large

part of the 'action' of the novel takes place in the criminal's mind. At such moments, the style

adopted by Dostoevsky may be compared to that of a great dramatic monologue.

This great Russian novelist not only shows the tortured psyche of the criminal, Raskolnikov, but also

attempts to lay bare the ideological struggles and social conflicts that give rise to individuals who

resort to crime. His integrity as a writer forces Dostoevsky to explore the diverse roots of crime in

a society where exploitation of the many by the few is the established norm. For such an ambitious

novel, the style used is rather simple, direct and unpretentious. It has a remarkable precision both in

its narrative and analytical sections. With almost uncanny intuition, Dostoevsky displays a keen

understanding of the human psyche, which subsequent developments in modern psychology have

substantiated.

Dostoevsky's powers of fictional narration leave the reader fully absorbed in the complex and subtle

shifts of thought in Raskolnikov's mind. To depict his dark and obscure motives for the crime, the

novelist explores different theories of crime. To capture the sordid depths of the criminal mind,

Dostoevsky employs dreams and nightmares, and other images, like the tiny attic and its contrasting

symbol of "fresh air." Other symbols, like Svidrigailov's whip, correspond to the flogging to death of

a horse in Raskolnikov's dream and suggest great cruelty. The sight and smell of blood and fresh

paint are cleverly used as recurrent symbols of Raskolnikov's guilt after the murder.

Thus, by clever and controlled use of symbols and imagery, Dostoevsky sets forth a graphic picture

of the interior of the murderer's mind. Apart from this ability to plumb the depths of the human

soul, Dostoevsky also excels in capturing mid-19th century Russian society in all its realistic detail.

The social conditions that then prevailed also had some effect on the way individuals thought, felt

and behaved. From the agonizing scenes of desperate solitude and grinding poverty that fill the

pages of this novel, the novelist is able to portray the grief and misery that has tormented

humankind all through the ages. The squalor and humiliation of social degradation is seen clearly in

the plights of Sonia, her stepmother, Katerina, and in Dounia's near disgrace by Luzhin and

Svidrigailov. Very few authors capture human suffering as movingly as Dostoevsky.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

Life in mid-19th century St. Petersburg was not that different from the squalid conditions that still

prevail in many an urban ghetto today, both in highly industrialized and in developing countries. It is

a tribute to Dostoevsky's skill as a writer that he is able to recreate with graphic realism this

universally relevant picture of social injustice. Although he does not indulge in the naturalist's

delight in depicting the sordid or seamier side of life, some of his scenes do make for somewhat

disturbing or unpleasant reading at times. A quality of his genius is that, with his grimly realistic

style, he is able to explore and expose man's soul with all its imperfections.

With slight and almost imperceptible shifts of focus, Dostoevsky often gives forceful glimpses into

the terrifying chasms of both human and social reality. On the vast canvas of his monumental novel,

Crime and Punishment, he depicts with profound psychological insight his intimate understanding of

characters like Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov, Luzhin, Marmeladov, Sonia, Dounia and the rest of his large

range of characters. He also displays a wide range of social conditions that reduce man to his

sufferings and his weaknesses. In the scene of Marmeladov's death, he provides a telling instance of

people's morbid sense of curiosity when neighbors gather to see this victim of a fatal road accident.

Dostoevsky's prose, even in translation from the Russian, has the power to stir the reader deeply by

its simplicity and directness. In his writing style, he aimed to discard all the artificiality and

adornments of the earlier Russian writers of the Romantic era who used a more elegant style. As he

himself reveals in this work and in most of his other novels, his deep interest in psychoanalysis

offered exciting possibilities for his realistic art.

SYMBOLISM AND IMAGERY

Dostoevsky makes skillful use of powerful symbols in his novel. These are subtly woven into the

texture of the narrative to give it a finely wrought artistic unity. Some of the recurrent symbols are

closely related to the thoughts and feelings of Raskolnikov. These serve to highlight some significant

aspect of his character or underscore other thematic concerns.

One of the most striking symbols in Crime and Punishment is that of blood. In the scene of the

double murder, it represents the violence and cruelty of Raskolnikov's deed, as well as the evidence

of his guilt. He kills Alena Ivanovna with the blunt side of the axe, while Lizaveta is struck with the

sharp blade. In either case, a good deal of blood and gore is displayed in this scene. Raskolnikov

begins to clean the blood from the axe, his person, and his clothes soon after the deed. However,

some of the blood cannot be wiped away, at least not from his memory. His socks are soaked in

blood, and he continues to wear them even later. His horror of the blood of his victims clings to

him and is the first symbol of his punishment, or guilt.

Symbolically, he is forced to live on with the indelible imprints of his crime, as he still has to wear

the blood-stained socks. In his illness, he clutches the socks almost neurotically even while

unconscious. This is clearly a symbolic indication of how his guilt and his crime remain with him.

Ironically, when Marmeladov dies in the street accident and his blood splatters on Raskolnikov, he

feels no great sense of disgust at the sight and feel of the poor man's blood. It is obvious then that

only the blood of his victims, even when dried, haunts his conscience.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

The illness and spells of delirium that Raskolnikov suffers after the murders clearly symbolize

aspects of his suffering, guilt and punishment for his crimes. He gradually overcomes these

debilitating attacks but continues to be plagued by horrid dreams. After his first visit to the police

station, he dreams that the police official, Ilya Petrovitch, is torturing his landlady. Later, he has the

terrifying dream that he is killing the pawnbroker again. However, in his nightmare, she refuses to

die, no matter how viciously he bludgeons her. These dreams are symbolic of his extremely

disturbed psyche after the crime. Even the dream about the horse being flogged to death by its

drunken owner recalls, in a subtly symbolic way, Raskolnikov's own cruelty. Some even see the

horse as a symbol of the innocent who suffer at the hands of others.

The smell of fresh paint is another symbolic reminder of Raskolnikov's guilt. Soon after he murders

the two women, he takes refuge in a freshly painted apartment below the scene of the crime. Later,

when he answers the police summons, he suffers a fainting spell when he is overcome by the smell

of the freshly painted police station. Again, when he re-visits the scene of the crime, Alena

Ivanovna's apartment has been recently re-painted, and his sense of guilt is triggered once again.

Dostoevsky then describes how Raskolnikov remembers "the hideous and agonizingly fearful

sensation he had felt when he was trapped after the crime."

Another recurring symbol used in the novel is the whip. In the dream Raskolnikov has in Chapter 5

of Part I, the whip that Mikolka uses to flog his horse clearly signifies mindless cruelty and the

exercise of unrestrained power. In Chapter 2 of Part II, the dazed Raskolnikov, returning from the

police station, is lashed by a coach driver as he stumbles in the street. Here, the whip is a symbol

of his humiliation or chastisement for his recent crimes.

Later in the novel, when Svidrigailov reveals how he used to whip his wife, the whip symbolizes a

weapon as deadly as the axe, for his wife dies later. It also represents an instrument of sadistic

pleasure and vile depravity.

The small cubicle of Raskolnikov's attic room is another important symbol. It shows how cramped he

is both in terms of physical and mental space. Hence, he often tries to escape the confines of his

room and wander out in the open street. The room also symbolizes his solitude or isolation from

human society. Raskolnikov's thoughts about the "square yard of space" are closely associated with

this idea of his being confined in his room. Related to this symbol is the idea of his need for "fresh

air" and his bouts of illness and depression after the murder. The fresh air could represent not just

a cure of physical or psychological ailments, but also freedom from the agony of guilt that follows

him after his heinous crime. Ironically, Raskolnikov finds this "free air" only in the confines of his

Siberian prison camp.

Religious symbols, like the cross and the story of Lazarus raised from the dead, also have great

significance in the novel. The cross of cypress wood that Sonia gives Raskolnikov to wear when at

last he confesses his crime is, ironically, the murdered Lizaveta's cross. He had seen it at the scene

of the crime. It now becomes a symbol of his gradual but inevitable salvation. The story of Christ

raising Lazarus from the dead, which Raskolnikov makes Sonia to read to him before he confesses,

bears obvious symbolic relevance to the murderer whose 'dead' soul has to be slowly revived.


Fyodor Dostoevsky

USE OF IRONY

Dostoevsky makes superb use of irony as a literary device in this novel. Raskolnikov's soul is

seemingly cramped by the narrow confines of his room. However, when he tries to free himself of

his constricting poverty and isolation by murdering the pawnbroker and stealing her money, he

further restricts his own freedom, as he withdraws even more from human society. Another stroke

of irony is that he never uses this money to advance himself in life but buries it in the park nearby.

He seems to have forgotten his noble aim of helping society with Alena Ivanovna's money.

Although he appears meticulous in his preplanning of the murder, when he actually executes the

plan, he commits serious blunders that are unusual in a man of his so-called "superior" intellect. He

leaves for the crime at the very last moment and risks meeting Lizaveta, who may return any time

after her evening appointment in the Haymarket area. He acquires the murder weapon merely by

chance, then leaves the front door open while committing the crime, and escapes from the scene

only by sheer luck. For a man who prides himself on his "extraordinary" intellect, this is poor

planning indeed.

After the murder, he had presumed that he would hardly be affected by his crime as the

"Extraordinary man" is expected to stifle his conscience. Yet, Raskolnikov suffers all the symptoms

of a man with a horrible secret. He has recurrent bouts of illness, horrifying nightmares and feels a

compulsive urge to confess on at least a dozen occasion, although he always stops himself just in

time. Ironically, when he does confess to Sonia in what he thinks is a confidential encounter,

Svidrigailov happens to overhear his revelations. Besides, Porfiry already has confirmed his

suspicions that Raskolnikov is the culprit, yet Raskolnikov thinks he is fooling the police and leading

them around in circles. It is the police who play an elaborate cat-and-mouse game with him.

Ironically, Raskolnikov blissfully ignores the fact that in trying to help society to rid itself of the

parasitic pawnbroker, he himself has to stoop to the level of becoming a common thief and

cold-blooded murderer. Thus, in trying to help others by what he considers a humane act of

murder, he renders himself into an inhumane monster. Dostoevsky stresses this fact when

Raskolnikov commits a second murder because of Lizaveta's unexpected appearance. This second

crime is executed in an even more ghastly fashion, with the sharper side of the axe. This shows

the reader that Raskolnikov can commit both the premeditated murder of one he considers an evil in

society and the impulsive murder of an innocent person like Lizaveta.

Another moment of irony occurs early in Part II, when Raskolnikov is struck with a lash by a coach

drawer. Soon afterwards, he is mistaken for a beggar when someone forces money into his hands.

This whipping and unexpected act of charity are ironic contrasts to Raskolnikov's grandiose theories

of his being an exception in the world of ordinary mortals.

Every chapter of the novel, if studied in detail, will reveal some exquisite piece of irony that

underscores a crucial point. One of the crowning ironies of the novel is that Raskolnikov is finally

redeemed by the so-called "fallen woman, " Sonia.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

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