Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime And Punishment Analysis

1980 Words4 Pages

Jared Knoepfel
Professor Thurber
Introduction to Literature
5 March 2014
Crime and Punishment
Throughout the book, “Crime and Punishment,” by Fyodor Dostoevsky, we see key words that play major roles in the plot and development of the story. Five words, in particular, act as front-runners in symbolic themes; they are crime, punishment, poverty, suffering, and child. There is no doubt that these words play a major factor in the novel because not only do we see these words often, but also we experience the words as they are lived through by many of the major characters. What some readers might not realize is that Dostoevsky does not let only one of the words dominate a scene in the book; they are intermingled concepts. Where there is one of the five major words of the novel, Dostoevsky usually accompanies it with another. All five of the words are dependent of each other and without one of them, the novel would not demonstrate the story and powerful themes that Dostoevsky was looking to present.
Our first example of this is at the very beginning of the book when Dostoevsky is introducing the main character, Raskolnikov. Rodion Raskolnikov’s predicament is having a higher education without legitimate employment. So he is suffering in not being able to use his education which thrusts him into a state of poverty. “He was crushed by poverty, but the anxieties of his position had of late ceased to weigh upon him” (Dostoevsky, 1). In this quote, we see the comparison and correlation between the poverty that Raskolnikov is in and the suffering that comes with that poverty. He believes that he is above this level of society that he finds himself forced to live in. There are many similar scenes in the book that exemplify th...

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...tory meaning and depth as the reader continues to pull back the layers of each character and situation. Without these five words, Dostoevsky would not be able to portray the dark, universal, and timeless themes that are hidden deep between each line. Each word is co-dependent of each other in making the novel a tale that has been told for hundreds of years. Without one of these five structural words, the book would be lost in the shelves of libraries many years ago. Since all five words depend on each other and complement themselves, classrooms everywhere are still reading this book to this day. There is no telling when this novel will lose its popularity, but thanks to the themes Dostoevsky buries in the novel and secures with these five words, it is safe to say that “Crime and Punishment” will continue to educate and manipulate anyone that puts their hands on it.

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