Crime And Punishment Analysis

1111 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on crime and punishment

In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov is a developing character who embarks on a personal journey throughout the contents of the novel, which centers on the compelling nature of his environment. Raskolnikov is man who is consumed by the thoughts in his head, and receives quite a few omens that compel him to make certain choices. The issue of compulsion and persuasion can be observed in his inner and external environment, and affects Raskolnikov’s decisions. The topic of compulsion deeply affects Raskolnikov’s character development and personal journey throughout the course of their respective novels as seen through unconscious motivation, compulsion from his ideology, and from persuasive characters.
Unconscious motivation is a powerful tool in uncovering the motives of Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov was largely affected by his subconscious mind, as seen through his dreams. Chronologically, Raskolnikov first dreamt of a poor old mare “gasping and shrinking from the blows of the three whips which were showered upon her like hail” (Dostoyevsky 48). The violent nature of this dream alludes to the inner debacle Raskolnikov is experiencing due to his thoughts on murdering the old pawnbroker. The crowd is split between horror and awe at the brutal whipping of the mare, much like Raskolnikov’s feelings on murdering Alyona. Upon waking up, “darkness and confusion were in his soul” as he is one step closer to murdering the pawn broker. (Dostoyevsky 52). In addition to the vicious and conflicting images in the dream, Raskolnikov was “walking into the country with his father” in this dream (Dostoyevsky 47). His father urged Raskolnikov that the horse’s fate was “not [their] business”, and to move on from the spectacle (Dostoyevsky 52). In the drea...

... middle of paper ...

...life that he has a difficult time comprehending that other people’s actions aren’t on behalf of him, so he only draws on the evidence that supports his conceited assertions.
Compulsion is a powerful force, coming from many different directions. Family, friends, love interests all affect the decisions of Raskolnikov. Along with their external influences, he is internally influenced by his subconscious mind and belief system. These internal and external influences manipulate the Crime and Punishment’s protagonist to choose a certain path, and to make decisions that contribute to his personal journey to enlightenment against the incorrect path and way of life he was pursuing. The compulsion that Raskolnikov experiences impacts his journey of personal discovery throughout the course of the novel and contributes to the growth and development of his dynamic character.

Show More
Related

  • Crime and Punishment - Raskolnikov's Extraordinary Man Theory

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Morally Ambiguous Characters in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Literary Techniques Used by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment

    2235 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Gender and Evil in Crime and Punishment and The Master and Margarita

    2109 Words  | 5 Pages

    The conflict between good and evil is one of the most common conventional themes in literature. Coping with evil is a fundamental struggle with which all human beings must contend. Sometimes evil comes from within a character, and sometimes other characters are the source of evil; but evil is always something that the characters struggle to overcome. In two Russian novels, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, men and women cope with their problems differently. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and the Master in The Master and Margarita can not cope and fall apart, whereas Sonya in Crime and Punishment and Margarita in The Master and Margarita, not only cope but pull the men out of their suffering.

    Read More

  • Resurrection of Lazarus in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

    452 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Raskalnikov undergoes a period of extreme psychological upheaval. By comparing this death and rebirth of Raskalnikov's psyche to the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, Dostoevsky emphasizes not only the gravity of his crimes, but also the importance of acceptance of guilt.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky

    2263 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dostoyevsky, a Russian novelist and writer, gave a great contribution to the exploration of human nature as well as development of deep and profound psychological character profiles. Usually this means that Dostoyevsky puts great emphasis on what an individual experiences and relationships between an individual and the society. In his master piece Crime and Punishment the author goes beyond just asking primordial questions like what is right and what is good. Dostoyevsky pleads us to go inside the mind and try to understand the reasoning process behind the crime of the main character Rodion

    Read More

  • Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment

    2299 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparing Crime and Punishment and Notes from the Underground

    490 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Crime and Punishment, we see Raskolnikov caught between reason and will, the human needs for personal freedom and the need to submit to authority.  He spends most of the first two parts stuck between wanting to act and  wanting to observe.  After he acts and murders the old woman, he spends much time contemplating confession. Raskolnikov seems trapped in his world although there is really nothing holding him back; he chooses not to flee and not to confess, but still acts as though he's suffocation (perhaps guilt?)In both novels defeat seems inevitable. Both characters believe that normal man is stupid, unsatisfied and confused.  Perhaps they are right, but both characters fail to see the positive aspects of humans; the closest was the scene between the narrator of Notes from the Underground and Liza.  In this scene he almost lets the human side show, rather than the insecure, closed off person he normally is.

    Read More

  • Crime and Punishment: Raskolnikov's Room

    2951 Words  | 6 Pages

    Dostoevsky's 1865 novel Crime and Punishment is the story of an expelled university student's murder of an old pawnbroker and her sister. The idealistic ex-student, Raskolnikov, is ultimately unable to live up to his own nihilistic theory of what makes a "Great Man" and, overcome by fits of morality, betrays himself to the police. Exiled to Siberia, suffering redeems the unfortunate young dreamer. Crime and Punishment is similar in many ways to Balzac's Pere Goriot, especially in respect to questions of morality. In Balzac, the master-criminal Vautrin lives by an amoral code similar to Raskolnikov's theory of Great Men--unrestrained by conscience, Vautrin holds that laws are for the weak, and those clever enough to realize this may overstep any boundaries they wish and dominate the rest of mankind. But where Balzac's characters act on this idea without repercussion, Raskolnikov makes a transgression and then begins immediately to question it. The result is a psychological inner battle between rationality and sentimental moralism which is as much a contest between Empiricism and Romanticism as it is a contest between good and evil, or God and the Devil.

    Read More

  • Character Development in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    1278 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the most profound and obvious changes in Raskolnikov’s character can be seen in the newfound appreciation for other people and human relationships he discovers at the end of the novel. When the reader is first introduced to Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky quickly makes it apparent that he has little to no regard for others, writing on the very first page that Raskolnikov was “so completely absorbed in himself, and isolated from his fellows that he dreaded meeting, not only his landlady, but anyone at all” (1). Indeed, in Raskolnikov’s mind, “to be forced to listen to [the landlady’s] trivial, irrelevant gossip […] and to rack his brains for excuses, to prevaricate, to lie” is the most loathsome thing imaginable (1). His disdain toward other people is so great that the mere thought of interacting with anyone for any length of time repulses him. On some occasions...

    Read More

  • Conflict in Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    652 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within the tortured mind of a young Russian university student, an epic battle rages between two opposite ideologies - the conservative Christianity characteristic of the time, and a new modernist humanism gaining prevalence in academia. Fyodor Dostoevsky in the novel Crime and Punishment uses this conflict to illustrate why the coldly rational thought that is the ideal of humanism represses our essential emotions and robs us of all that is human. He uses the changes in Raskolnikov's mental state to provide a human example of modernism's effect on man, placing emphasis upon the student's quest for forgiveness and the effect of repressed emotion.

    Read More

  • Crime Analysis

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Rachel Boba, “Crime analysis is a law enforcement function that involves systematic analysis for identifying and analyzing patterns and trends in crime and disorder” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime analysis).The information on these patterns can assist law enforcement agencies in the deployment of resources in a more effective manner; it can also help detectives to identify and catch suspects. Crime analysis also plays a role in improvising solutions to crime problems, and developing crime prevention strategies. There are various types of technology that is used in crime analysis. Crime analysis relies heavily on computer technology, and over the past fifteen years there has been a significant improvement in computer hardware and software that has led to tremendous developments in this field. One form of hardware that is used by Crime analysts to complete most of their work is Desktop personal computers, laptop computers are also used by crime analysts for fieldwork and presentations. Other forms of hardware that are used include color laser printers that can produce high-quality documents quickly, plotters which are printers that can produce large poster size color maps, scanners, and digital cameras, these specific types of hardware is mostly used by police departments when analyzing crime.

    Read More

  • Egoism in Crime and Punishment

    423 Words  | 1 Pages

    Raskolnikov commits his initial crime out of arrogance.  "The old hag is nothing.... I killed not a human being," he says. (245)  Raskolnikov feels that he has justification for killing the pawn broker.  He thinks that the woman has no reason to live.  He believes that the woman is less than a human, and that he is a superior being.  Raskolnikov thinks that he has a right to kill.

    Read More

  • The Subconscious Mind in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the period of time that Raskolnikov spends planning the crime that will transform him into one of Nietzshe’s supermen, Dostoevsky visits him with a dream that signifies his inability to reach his goal. Raskolnikov forces himself to be...

    Read More

  • Crime and Punishment and Raskolnikov's article, On Crime

    3487 Words  | 7 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Crime And Punishment Analysis

Open Document