Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
raskolnikov crime and punishment analysis
crime and punishment by Dostoyevskyt reasurch paper
Raskolnikov's room analysis crime and punishment
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: raskolnikov crime and punishment analysis
Crime and Punishment and Raskolnikov's article, "On Crime"
Raskolnikov's article, "On Crime," is vital to the understanding of his beliefs. This article also has a profound effect on Crime and Punishment as a whole, the subject matter being one of the main themes of the novel. The idea of the "extraordinary man" is referred to literally throughout the book, but also notable is the subconscious effect the idea has on Raskolnikov. Sometimes Raskolnikov is not even aware of this influence. It is important to note originality, or the ability to "utter a new word," as a defining characteristic of the extraordinary man. Therefore, we must take into account the presence of similar ideas, those of Pisarev, Nietzsche, and nihilism, as these might bring to light the possibility that Raskolnikov is not original, a possibility that haunts him throughout the novel.
Within the article Raskolnikov analyzes the psychology of a criminal before and after the crime. This main portion of the article is not discussed, but it is likely that the psychological explanation that Porfiry gives Raskolnikov later, in the examination, is very similar. During this later examination, Raskolnikov appears resentful, but never disputes what Porfiry tells him, perhaps because it is a regurgitation of Raskolnikov's own thoughts. In the last meeting of the two men, Porfiry admits that he liked the article very much, and actually felt a connection with it. The one part of the main body of the article that is mentioned is "that the perpetration of a crime is always accompanied by illness" (225). Porfiry comments that this idea is very original; Raskolnikov welcomes this praise.
Shortly, Porfiry moves on to the main topic of their discussion, a topic only mentioned briefly in the article, the idea that "certain persons...have a perfect right to commit breaches of morality and crimes" (225). Raskolnikov immediately realizes that Porfiry is intentionally exaggerating the idea, and "decided to take up the challenge" (226). Dostoevsky lets the reader know that the conversation will be a battle of wits. The ensuing argumentative dialogue makes the passage very entertaining, especially in contrast to later interviews between the two, in which Porfiry does nearly all the talking (he loves to hear himself talk). Raskolnikov attempts to clarify his idea, explaining that the "extraordinary" people have the right, but are not bound, to "overstep obstacles" if it is "essential" for the fulfillment of their idea.
Countee LeRoy Cullen was one of the leading poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Although there is no real account of his early life, his accomplishments throughout his time was magnificent. During the Harlem Renaissance, he and other writers and poets used their work to empower blacks and talk about the ongoing struggle of blacks. His poem, “Incident”, depicts how overt racism was and how it attacked anyone regardless age or gender.
Literary critic and the novel’s annotator Alfred Appel Jr. claims “what is extraordinary about Lolita is the way in which Nabokov enlists us, against our will, on Humbert’s side… Humbert has figuratively made the reader his accomplice in both statutory rape and murder” (Durantaye, Style Is Matter: the Moral Art of Vladimir Nabokov 8). Nabokov employs various literary devices such as direct second reader address, metaphor, and allusions through Humbert Humbert as a means to conjure up feelings of empathy. The reader comes to find that . It is clear that Humbert Humbert uses second person address as a way to control how the reader perceives him. Through the use of this narrative mode, he aims to convince the reader that his sexual violence is artistically justifiable and that the art he creates is a remedy for mortality. I will argue is that art is not a remedy for mortality because in Humbert Humbert’s creation of Lolita, t...
Often times in literature, we are presented with quintessential characters that are all placed into the conventional categories of either good or bad. In these pieces, we are usually able to differentiate the characters and discover their true intentions from reading only a few chapters. However, in some remarkable pieces of work, authors create characters that are so realistic and so complex that we are unable to distinguish them as purely good or evil. In the novel Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky develops the morally ambiguous characters of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov to provide us with an interesting read and to give us a chance to evaluate each character.
Countee Cullen’s poem ‘Tableau’, which was published in 1920 when racism was at its peak, it describes how whites and blacks were expected not to converse with each other. Cullen’s poem, though, challenges this as it details a close friendship between two young boys: one black and one white. The community in which they live, however, disapproves, as demonstrated when Cullen writes that “From lowered blinds the dark folk stare” while “fair folk talk,/ Indignant that these two should dare/ In unison to walk” (Cullen 5-8). This shows the universal disapproval from both black and whites, and the fact that the two boys continue their friendship demonstrates that they know that friendship has no colour. The message that Cullen is trying to convey is that friendship has no boundaries, and colour. By having the boys continue to walk together despite the criticisms reinforces and conveys Cullens message clearly. Cullens use of rhyme scheme, imagery, and metaphor facilitates his message.
Crazy Horse was born in the fall of 1841 to the Hunkpatila band of the Oglala tribe of the Sioux Nation. At the time of his birth, his band was camped near a stream called Rapid Creek in the Black Hills. Sioux babies were often given names based on their physical appearance. Later in life, they would receive a formal name after an act of bravery or a spiritual experience. Crazy Horse was affectionately called Curly Hair. Curly Hair looked Different from other Sioux children. He had a narrow face, light skin and soft curly light-brown hair. People said he got his light skin from his mother, a Brule who died when he was still young. The Brules were a tribe within the Sioux Nation. Crazy Horse, the boy's father, was the holy man of the Hunkpatila band, or subgroup, of the Oglala tribe. He was respected for his good advice and wisdom. It was common for a Sioux male to have two wives. When Curly Hairs mother died, Crazy Horse's second wife became his mother.
In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky gives the reader an inside look to the value system that he holds for himself, as well as the type of characteristics that he abhors in people as well as the characteristics that he admires in people. He uses characters in the novel to express his beliefs of what a person should be like in life to be a “good'; person. Specifically he uses Raskolnokv to show both good and bad characteristics that he likes in people. Also he uses Svidriglaiov and Luzin to demonstrate the characteristics that people should shun and his personal dislikes in people.
...s of Lolita and Humbert to show the isolation and loneliness they feel, and to show just how different and immoral the situation is. By stressing the dissonance between one persona to the next, he portrays a view of his characters that is sad and shocking, for the public seen is also the reader; the unaware, innocent, “moral” group. By letting us into the different faces of Lolita and Humbert, Nabokov reveals the tragedy in the novel, and allows the reader to vividly feel what is morally right and wrong with Humbert, Lolita, and ourselves.
...e wide grey world, merely in order to have my way with her child (Lo, Lola, Lolita)” (Nabokov 70). While these were only his ideas he actually married a women, he even disgusted thinking about having any kind of erotic relationship. He even says humorously that anything sexual could only happen “under torture” (Nabokov 70). He was even thinking of killing Charlotte, but he could not do it, until Charlotte was accidently killed by a car and he got Lolita all for himself until Quilty took her from his claws.
Maya Angelou is an author and poet who has risen to fame for her emotionally filled novels and her deep, heartfelt poetry. Her novels mainly focus on her life and humanity with special emphasis on her ideas of what it means to live. The way she utilizes many different styles to grab and keep readers’ attention through something as simple as an autobiography is astounding. This command of the English language and the grace with which she writes allows for a pleasant reading experience. Her style is especially prominent in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", where the early events of Angelou’s life are vividly described to the reader in the postmodern literary fashion.
Plato's The Apology is an account of the speech. Socrates makes at the trial in which he is charged with not recognizing the gods recognized by the state, inventing new gods, and corrupting the youth of Athens. For the most part, Socrates speaks in a very plain, conversational manner. He explains that he has no experience with the law courts and that he will instead speak in the manner to which he is accustomed with honesty and directness. Socrates then proceeds to interrogate Meletus, the man primarily responsible for bringing Socrates before the jury. He strongly attacks Meletus for wasting the court¡¦s time on such absurd charges. He then argues that if he corrupted the young he did so unknowingly since Socrates believes that one never deliberately acts wrongly. If Socrates neither did not corrupt the young nor did so unknowingly, then in both cases he should not be brought to trial. The other charge is the charge of impiety. This is when Socrates finds an inconsistency in Meletus¡¦ belief that Socrates is impious. If he didn¡¦t believe in any gods then it would be inconsistent to say that he believed in spiritual things, as gods are a form of a spiritual thing. He continues to argue against the charges, often asking and answering his own questions as if he were speaking in a conversation with one of his friends. He says that once a man has found his passion in life it would be wrong of him to take into account the risk of life or death that such a passion might involve.
In the novel, Crime and Punishment, the principle character, Raskolnikov, has unknowingly published a collection of his thoughts on crime and punishment via an article entitled "On Crime." Porfiry, who is trying to link Raskolnikov to a murder, has uncovered this article, read it, and tells Raskolnikov that he is very interested in learning about his ideas. Porfiry brings Raskolnikov into this conversation primarily to find out more about Raskolnikov's possible involvement in the crime. Raskolnikov decides to take him up on the challenge of discussing his theory, and embarks into a large discussion of his philosophy of man.
In Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov's initial crime, failure, and acceptance of mistakes are his road to overcoming his ego, as well as self discovery.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, the theme of duality and the conflict between personal desires and morals is present throughout much of the novel. There are dual conflicts: one external between a disillusioned individual and his world, and the other internal between an isolated soul and his inner thoughts. It is the internal conflict in the main character, Raskolnikov, that is the focused on for much of the novel. The first of Rodya’s two sides is his intellectual side. This side of rodya is inhumane, and exhibiting extreme self-will and power. This is the side of him that comes up with his theory. The crime was a result of his theory that some people possess extraordinary abilities while others have no ability. It's this intellectual side of him that caused him to conceive and execute his murder. Through the authors use of setting tone, diction, and allusion, the readers get a better understand if what type of character, rodya is.
In his "On a Book Entitled Lolita", Vladimir Nabokov recalls that he felt the "first little throb of Lolita" run through him as he read a newspaper article about an ape who, "after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage." The image of a confinement so complete that it dominates and shapes artistic expression (however limited that expression may be) is a moving and powerful one, and it does, indeed, reflect in the text of Lolita. Humbert Humbert, the novel's eloquent poet-narrator, observes the world through the bars of his obsession, his "nympholepsy", and this confinement deeply affects the quality of his narration. In particular, his powerful sexual desires prevent him from understanding Lolita in any significant way, so that throughout the text what he describes is not the real Lolita, but an abstract creature, without depth or substance beyond the complex set of symbols and allusions that he associates with her. When in his rare moments of exhaustion Humbert seems to lift this literary veil, he reveals for a moment the violent contrast between his intricately manipulated narration and the stark ugliness of a very different truth.
The beauty of Crime and Punishment is that there are no absolutes. It is a 19th century murder mystery, with the identity of the murderer clear, but the murderer's reasons far from being so. Although each chapter was replete with uncertainty, no other facet of the novel caused greater vexation both during the reading and even after its conclusion than what drove Raskol'nikov to commit the murder. That is not to say that he committed murder without purpose or reason, that he was just a cookie cutter villain with no purpose; instead, he is a multi-faceted character that is both likable and a scoundrel at once. The protagonist himself is unsure why he plans and carries out what he does. As he went to bury what he had stolen, he asked himself: "If it all has really been done deliberately and not idiotically, if I really had a certain and definite object, how is it I did not even glance into the purse and don't know what I had there, for what I have undergone these agonies and have deliberately undertaken this base, filthy, degrading business?" (Part II, Ch. 2, pgs. 92-93). The reader is not left completely in the dark, however, as motives were established. The caveat being that motive is plural, and motive is usually a mutually exclusive term. The first motive to be presented, and the strongest in the novel during Raskol'nikov's planning stages, was the issue of poverty. He was destitute, living in squalor, and in need of money to crawl out of his grave-like flat. After the murder was committed and Raskol'nikov came under suspicion, he came face to face with the inspector general, Porfiry Petrovich. Their discussion made the cut-and-dried appearance of the motive tu...