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Crime and punishment fyodor dostoevsky journal
Fyodor dostoevsky crime and punishment analysis
Crime and punishment fyodor dostoevsky journal
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Crime and Punishment written by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a Russian novel about a handsome, yet very poor man in his twenties who believes that all men are separated into two groups, “ordinary” and “extraordinary.” The “extraordinary” man owns the right to commit any felony he wishes upon. The “ordinary” man is forced to live his life strictly in obedience, has no right to violate the law, and his only purpose is to merely exist. The reasoning for these “extraordinary” men to have the right to break the law is because if they are not alleged to a greater standard, they will no longer be great. To be great means that one is capable of breaking free from common laws. Raskolnikov shows his theory throughout the book, starting when he commits two murders and he feels that this is an acceptable thing for him to do because he believes he is an “extraordinary” man. But soon after Raskolnikov commits the crime, guilt quickly creeps up on him. His mind becomes surrounded with paranoia and he feels as if he will be caught any minute of any day. Even though Raskolnikov wants to see himself as an extraordinary man, he is faced with two sides: the giving/caring side and the “extraordinary” side. Symbolization, diction, repetition, and allusion are various aspects of Dostoevsky’s style that helps support one of crime and punishment’s major themes, identity crisis that’s caused by two conflicting views of oneself.
Allusion
Raskolnikov believes that “ordinary” people’s purpose is to just exist, in order to form the world and the society. The second group is those who are “extraordinary” and a step above those who are simply ordinary. Raskolnikov cites such “extraordinary men” as Newton, Mahomet, and Napoleon. He tells us that Newton had the right to...
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...or his twisted mind.
Another very important symbol of restoration for Raskolnikov was the cross that Sonya gives to him before he goes to the police station to confess. The cross symbolizes Jesus’ unselfish sacrifice of himself to forgive humanity’s sins. Raskolnikov rejects any feeling of sin or spirituality even after he receives the cross but he begins to subconsciously recognize that he has sinned. It symbolizes that he is on the path to recognition of the sins that he has committed.
The axe that Raskolnikov used to commit the murders, symbolizes the two halves of Raskolnikov's nature. These contrasting sides are in conflict during the course of the book and are reflected in his two victims, Alyona and Lizaveta. He uses the dull side to murder the old woman and the sharp edge to kill Lizaveta, symbolizing that he has additionally killed himself in the action.
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.
Life is a wheel rolling inexorably forward through the temporal realm of existence. There are those that succumb to its motion and there are a certain few, like Christ and Napoleon, who temporarily grasp the wheel and shape all life around them. "Normal" people accept their positions in life and are bound by law and morality. Extraordinary people, on the other hand, supersede the law and forge the direction and progress of society. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is the story of a group of people caught beneath the wheel and their different reactions to their predicament. One individual, Raskolnikov, refuses to acknowledge the bare fact of his mediocrity. In order to prove that he is extraordinary, he kills two innocent people. This despicable action does not bring him glory or prove his superiority, but leads to both his physical, mental, and spiritual destruction. After much inner turmoil and suffering, he discovers that when a person transgresses the boundaries of morality and detaches himself from the rest of humanity, faith in God and faith in others is the only path to redemption.
In his book Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky explores the paths of two men, Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov. These two men encompass many similar problems and obstacles throughout their lives. Both commit murders and are faced with the long and mentally excruciating journey of seeking redemption. They also share many characteristics of their personalities. The reason that the outcomes of their lives are so drastically different is due to the fact that they have completely different perspectives on life.
Dostoyevsky's writing in this book is such that the characters and setting around the main subject, Raskolnikov, are used with powerful consequences. The setting is both symbolic and has a power that affects all whom reside there, most notably Raskolnikov. An effective Structure is also used to show changes to the plot's direction and Raskolnikov's character. To add to this, the author's word choice and imagery are often extremely descriptive, and enhance the impact at every stage of Raskolnikov's changing fortunes and character. All of these features aid in the portrayal of Raskolnikov's downfall and subsequent rise.
The prostitute, Sonya, helps Raskolnikov take a step toward redemption by discussing with him the Biblical account of Lazarus' revival from death. This scene depicts his inability to comprehend Sonya's God, and epitomizes his refusal to cling to a higher being. Raskolnikov's incessant pursuit of hindering Sonya's faith characterized the frustration and struggle he experienced because of spiritual issues. However, his path to confession progressed during their conversation because of his hidden desire to understand Sonya's faith. With her aid, he took a step toward redemption foreshadowing her action in raising him from the "dead." Sonya pleads with him to wear her cross and confess to his heinous crime. However, he refuses to accept this burden. This directly parallels with Jesus' refusal to die before his proper time.
From the moment when Raskalnikov murders the old woman, his personality begins to change drastically. Dostoevsky challenges the reader to understand the madness which ensues by first demonstrating that the ideas and convictions to which Raskalnikov clung died along with the women. While the reader struggles with this realization, Dostoevsky incorporates the Biblical legend of Lazarus as a symbolic mirror for Raskalnikov's mind. By connecting the two, the reader encounters the foreshadowing of a rebirth of morals and beliefs, though what form this may assume remains cryptic. As references to Lazarus continue to occur, the feeling of parallelism increases in intensity. Just as Raskalnikov slowly struggled through madness, Lazarus lay dying of a terrible disease. When Lazarus eventually dies, Raskalnikov mimes this by teetering on the edge of insanity, the death of the mind. Eventually Sonya begins to pull Raskalnikov back to reality by relieving a portion of his guilt. As his Christ figure, she accomplishes this by providing the moral and spiritual sturdiness which Raskalnikov lost after his debasement during the murders. Sonya affects him not by active manipulation, but via her basic character, just as Christ personified his beliefs through the manner in which he lived his life. No matter what Raskalnikov says or does to her, she accepts it and looks to God to forgive him, just as Jesus does in the Bible. This eventually convinces Raskalnikov that what he did was in fact a crime and that he must repent for it and"seek atonement".
“That men are in general divided by a law of nature into two categories, inferior (ordinary) . . . and men who have the gift or talent to utter a new word. . . . The second category all transgress the law. . . . for the most part they seek in very varied ways the destruction of the present for the sake of the better.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment begins with Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov living in poverty and isolation in St. Petersburg. The reader soon learns that he was, until somewhat recently, a successful student at the local university. His character at that point was not uncommon. However, the environment of the grim and individualistic city eventually encourages Raskolnikov’s undeveloped detachment and sense of superiority to its current state of desperation. This state is worsening when Raskolnikov visits an old pawnbroker to sell a watch. During the visit, the reader slowly realizes that Raskolnikov plans to murder the woman with his superiority as a justification. After the Raskolnikov commits the murder, the novel deeply explores his psychology, yet it also touches on countless other topics including nihilism, the idea of a “superman,” and the value of human life. In this way, the greatness of Crime and Punishment comes not just from its examination of the main topic of the psychology of isolation and murder, but the variety topics which naturally arise in the discussion.
Crime and Punishment and Notes from the Underground Fyodor Dostoyevsky's stories are stories of a sort of rebirth. He weaves a tale of severe human suffering and how each character attempts to escape from this misery. In the novel Crime and Punishment, he tells the story of Raskolnikov, a former student who murders an old pawnbroker as an attempt to prove a theory. In Notes from the Underground, we are given a chance to explore Dostoyevsky's opinion of human beings.
One of the aspects of Crime and Punishment that stands out is that it is much more than a simple crime story. It is in fact a great study of the mind of a murder. Raskolnikov is a terrifying but sympathetic main character precisely because he is just twisted enough, just ill enough, for the reader to believe anyone is capable of such atrocities. The jumping off point for Raskolnikov is his idea of extraordinary and ordinary people. Looking at his theory and applying it as a tool for analysis of Raskolnikov himself leads not only to a deeper understanding of this idea but also of Raskolnikov. It also explains to some degree how seemingly benign ideas can lead a believer to do unspeakable things.
In his novel Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky uses Raskolnikov as a vessel for several different philosophies that were particularly prominent at the time in order to obliquely express his opinions concerning those schools of thought. Raskolnikov begins his journey in Crime and Punishment with a nihilistic worldview and eventually transitions to a more optimistic one strongly resembling Christian existentialism, the philosophy Dostoevsky preferred, although it could be argued that it is not a complete conversion. Nonetheless, by the end of his journey Raskolnikov has undergone a fundamental shift in character. This transformation is due in large part to the influence other characters have on him, particularly Sonia. Raskolnikov’s relationship with Sonia plays a significant role in furthering his character development and shaping the philosophical themes of the novel.
When Raskolnikov surrenders he accepts his mistakes and rejects his self-centered attitude. "It was I who killed the old woman and her sister, Lizaveta, with an axe, and robbed them," Raskolnikov confesses. (476) With his surrender he not only accepts his methodical mistakes in the execution of the crime, but he sees something beyond himself. He begins to see the magnitude and horror of his act. He had taken a life. By realizing the immorality of his crime and rejecting his self glorifying mind set, Raskolnikov accepts his own humanity.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, Jessie Senior Coulson, and Richard Arthur. Peace. Crime and Punishment. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
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.
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,