Crime and Punishment: Crime without Compunction Crime Punishment Essays

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Crime and Punishment: Crime without Compunction Raskolnikov has committed the crime of premeditated murder. Only one of his two murders was actually premeditated, the one committed against Alyona Ivanova. Lizaveta, her tortured sister is an inadvertent death--he is forced to kill her when he fails to shut the door and she is able to come in. The crime of the rapscallion Raskolnikov also reverberates on a much deeper, moral level inside his own head. He ignores the ultimate rule of good and evil, the principles of justice, and feels that if he wantonly kills this person no one will be injured because Alyona is a waist to society. Raskolnikov coolly and easily contemplates his future deeds, conducting "experiments", and feeling that there is no way he'll be able to make a mistake in carrying out the crime. He feels that because of the fact that what he is doing "really isn't a crime", then he won't forget details and that he will be able to carry it out with making any errors that will allow him to be eventually caught. We eventually see that Raskolnikov grossly overestimates his abilities to maintain himself and all the details of the murder. We see that he leaves a preponderance of details up in the air, leaving way too much in his plan to chance--from the very first act of acquiring an ax. Raskolnikov is a smart man who overestimates his abilities in carrying out a murder; Dostoevsky is presenting to us a picture of a man who in now way can carry out his crime without compunction and error.

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