Raskolnikov’s Theory in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment

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Recommended: Crime is a social construction

Crime and Punishment novel is one of the greatest creations of Fyodor Dostoyevsky that had a huge influence on the future world literature. It is social, psychological, philosophical and ideological novel. The work was written by Dostoyevsky in a hard time for Russia when there were conflicts between political views, when new ideas were still weak and old ideas started to collapse. According to Boris Lichman, PD, a Russian historian, Russian society movement towards a capitalist system in the second half of XIX century led to the destruction of villages, peoples’ impoverishment, aggravation of social conflicts, and, consequently, to the increase of crimes (Lichman). Therefore, this topic of criminality became very popular in Russian literature writings of that period. Main heroes’ norms were Christian commandments like “do not kill”, “do not steal”, “do not fornicate”. When a main hero broke a rule, he/she inevitably collided with society. Thus, Fyodor Dostoyevsky wanted to show that a human, who committed a crime disregarding the reason, would not change the world, and pure Christian love and self-sacrifice were the only way towards societal transformation.
The idea to write the novel came to Dostoyevsky during his exile in 1859. He was going to share all his inward experience of the exile. During that period he met many strong personalities who helped to change his previous beliefs. He has been hatching his idea for six years. On June 8th, 1965, Dostoyevsky proposed to Andrey Krayevsky, a Russian publisher and journalist, his new novel named “Pyanenky”, but Krayevsky refused because the editorial office did not have the money. On July 2nd, because of lack of money, Dostoyevsky had to have an agreement with another publisher, Fyo...

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...le, and no evil is to be justified with the happiness of millions; it could not be built on blood, violence and tyranny. Only a humane and fine society could rise and reach the happiness for most people. However, despite the heavy darkness of Crime and Punishment written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, there was a light in the main hero’s life, his moral strength and courage to find a way of true serving to people.

Works Cited

Albetin E.A. and Litvinova V.I. Crime and Punishment by F.M.Dostoyevsky in the light of Christian ethics.” Crime and Punishment by F.M.Dostoyevsky in the context of modern learning of classics. Abakan: 1999.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Prague: Animedia Company, 2013. Print.
Lichman, Boris. The Russian History. The Theories of Study. The First Book. From the Ancient Period to the End of XIX century. Yekaterinburg: SV-96, 2001. Print.

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