Comparing Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment

The characters in Crime and Punishment, at least in Raskolnikov’s mind, are more or less defined by their ability to breach societal constructs and do what is necessary to achieve their goals. In formulating his theory for extraordinary people, Raskolnikov established vital criteria for people to become transgressors: “... the ‘extraordinary’ man… has the inner right to permit his conscience to transgress certain obstacles, but only if the execution of his idea—which might involve the salvation of all mankind—demands it…” (p 249). Thus, the theory of the extraordinary vs. the ordinary is born, with the extraordinary permitted to go above the law when circumstances ask for it, and the ordinary forever bound to the moral realm. Raskolnikov,

He had devised the idea of being above the law as a way to justify his actions. Under no moral code would his thoughts or motives be excusable, so Raskolnikov’s solution was to simply circumvent existing laws. However, his one fatal flaw proved to be incompetence: Raskolnikov is unfit to take on the mantle he created. Although he succeeds in breaking the law, he feels waves of guilt that drive the novel for hundreds of pages; Sonia, the real transgressor of the novel, never has the need to feel guilty for her actions. He has dreamless sleeps and waking nightmares, constantly haunted by the possibility of evidence and his own inability to keep himself from appearing guilty. He takes on the role of the ordinary quite well: “the mass almost never concedes them [the right to transgress], and more or less insists on punishing and hanging them[selves]…” (p 251). Looking at Raskolnikov as his own moral ruler, the eccentric steps he takes to both get himself caught and avoid detection are the facets of a judge and a criminal acting as one. He searches for a way to alleviate guilt without facing the gulags of Siberia. On a subconscious level, he knows that his theory excludes him, but he is desperate to keep himself from the grave repercussions of his actions; the only way of doing so is by continuing to live in a lie. And so, Raskolnikov continues to fool himself into believing he is extraordinary, even though the guilt that paralyzes him proves