Heros In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment

743 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Dostoevsky’s crime and punishment

Humans Vs. Heros The word “hero” is simple in connotation but complex in the feeling it evokes. The Oxford dictionary defines a hero as, “A person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.” This statement can be interpreted in many ways and thus creating a multitude of heros but heros that all share the same essential qualities, albeit in different manners. In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the protagonist Raskolnikov is depicted as a "Code" or Hemingway hero (Crime and Punishment). A proportional hero from a different literary classic would be Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984 (1984). In this story, Winston displays characteristics of a modern hero through both …show more content…

This hero is often brave but maintains a sense of comedic relief. This character also remains calm and keeps his bearings in high pressure situations. In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov fits this role perfectly. Although Rask has shown that in some tense positions he has been seen fainting or maybe showing a slight sense of error, it is always done strategically. Rask often battles himself, but to the outside world he is displayed as witty and cunning. Various situations arise that involve Raskolnikov using satire to cleverly maneuver through sticky situations. This is especially shown when Portify Petrovitch brings Raskolnikov in for questioning, and the scenes that follow immediately after. The man that was the supposed surprise for Raskolnikov proceeds to Raskolnikov’s room and apologizes. Raskolnikov ends Part Four by uttering, “It all cuts both ways, now it all cuts both ways.” followed by the narration of “and now he went out more confident than ever.” (311). Here, Raskolnikov exhibits his control of the …show more content…

Winston is shown to be a modern hero, defined as an normal, everyday man with a sense of defiance. Even though a modern hero is trying to defy all odds by displaying his abilities, he is often caught up in human emotions. His weaknesses are shown and more than likely taken advantage of in the novel. In 1984, Winston is an average, outer party citizen with ambition to change his dystopian society. Fear is an emotion that often haunts Winston, but Winston also gets caught in a sense of complacency. Complacency and content are a major problem in the nonfictional world’s society and is put to the test by Winston as he settles in and gets comfortable in the attic of a storeroom. This flaw of Winston’s turns out to become fatal as he is found out for his crimes and thrown into a jail and eventually killed by the thought police after a transformation by the party and a brainwashing activity that lasts years and forced Winston into loving Big Brother. The struggle of love is also infused into Winston as he vows never to betray his true love, Julia. As Winston is being tortured, he gives Julia up for all of her crimes, but this isn’t the endgame for O’Brien, as O’Brien wants Winston to stop loving Julia. This all comes to a head as Winston’s love is broken at the prospect of Winston facing his largest

Show More
Related

  • Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment

    1920 Words  | 4 Pages

    As Rodya analyzes Luzhin’s character, he realizes that intellect unrestrained by moral purpose is dangerous due to the fact that many shrewd people can look right through that false façade. Luzhin’s false façade of intellect does not fool Rodya or Razumikhin, and although they try to convince Dunya into not marrying Luzhin, she does not listen. Rodya believes that Luzhin’s “moral purpose” is to “marry an honest girl…who has experienced hardship” (36). The only way he is able to get Dunya to agree to marry him, is by acting as if he is a very intellectual person, who is actually not as educated as he says he is. This illustrates the fact that Rodya knows that it is really dangerous because he knows that people can ruin their lives by acting to be someone they are not. Rodya also knows that people will isolate themselves from others just so that no one will find out their true personality. This is illustrated in through the fact that Luzhin tries to avoid Dunya and her mother as much as possible. The way he writes his letter, exemplifies his isolation, for Luzhin does not know how to interact with society. He has no idea how to write letters to his fiancée and his future mother in law. This reflects on Rodya’s second dream because he is unable to get Dunya married off to a nice person. He feels isolated from everyone else because his intellect caused him to sense that Luzhin is not telling the truth about his personality. However, it was due to his lack of moral purpose that Rodya berates his sister’s fiancé. He is unable to control himself, and due to his immoral act of getting drunk, Rodya loses all judgment and therefore goes and belittles Luzhin. Although Rodya’s intellectual mind had taken over and showed him that Luzhin wa...

    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

  • 1984 Conflict Essay

    933 Words  | 2 Pages

    Winston Smith is a thirty-nine year old man who participates in a group of the “outer-party,” which is the lower part of the two classes. Smith works in one of the four main government buildings. This building is called the Ministry of Truth; his job is to rewrite history books so those that read them will not learn what the past used to be like. The occupation Winston is the major factor that allows him to realize that Big Brother is limiting people’s freedom. He keeps these thoughts to himself as secrets because the totalitarian party will not allow those of rebellious thoughts around. The tensions between the two grow throughout the book because the Big Brother becomes very suspicious of Winston. The Big Brother becomes so suspicious of Winston that he sends a person by the name O’Brien, to watch over him. Mr. O’Brien is a member of the “inner party,” which in this book is the upper-class. Winston doesn't know of the trap that Big Brother had set tells O’Brien of his own idea and plans. He tells Winston of a rebellious leader that has been rounding up those that want to go against the totalitarian government. But like the Big Brother had done, he set a trap and O’Brien betrayed Winston. During the story the conflict between Big Brother and Winston climaxes when Winston is caught. He is taken to some sort of bright underground prison type

    Read More

  • Free Essay on George Orwell's 1984

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 2nd part of 1984 Winston is meets a girl named Julia. At first Winston believes Julia will turn him in for committing Thought Crime. Then Julia passes Winston a note and they meet each other. The Party also does not allow association that is not goverernd. This is the start of an affair between the two, because they are not married and free love is not allowed. Winston is rebelling fully by his association with Julia. The 2nd section Winston fully rebels, he joins an underground resistance, and he believes that his life is better because The Party is no longer controlling him. At the end of this section Winston learns that he has been set-up and followed by the Thought Police the whole time. He and Julia believed that they were resisting and rebelling but had actually been entrapped by the Thought Police.

    Read More

  • Winston’s Struggle in 1984

    1726 Words  | 4 Pages

    George Orwell creates a dark, depressing and pessimistic world where the government has full control over the masses in the novel 1984. The protagonist, Winston, is low-level Party member who has grown to resent the society that he lives in. Orwell portrays him as a individual that begins to lose his sanity due to the constrictions of society. There are only two possible outcomes, either he becomes more effectively assimilated or he brings about the change he desires. Winston starts a journey towards his own self-destruction. His first defiant act is the diary where he writes “DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER.” But he goes further by having an affair with Julia, another party member, renting a room over Mr. Carrington’s antique shop where Winston conducts this affair with Julia, and by following O’Brien who claims to have connections with the Brotherhood, the anti-Party movement led my Emmanuel Goldstein. Winston and Julia are both eventually arrested by the Thought Police when Mr. Carrington turns out to be a undercover officer. They both eventually betray each other when O’Brien conducts torture upon them at the Ministry of Love. Orwell conveys the limitations of the individual when it comes to doing something monumental like overthrowing the established hierarchy which is seen through the futility of Winston Smith’s actions that end with his failure instead of the end of Big Brother. Winston’s goal of liberating himself turns out to be hopeless when the people he trusted end up betraying him and how he was arbitrarily manipulated. It can be perceived that Winston was in fact concerned more about his own sanity and physical well-being because he gives into Big Brother after he is tortured and becomes content to live in the society he hated so much. Winston witnesses the weakness within the prole community because of their inability to understand the Party’s workings but he himself embodies weakness by sabotaging himself by associating with all the wrong people and by simply falling into the arms of Big Brother. Orwell created a world where there is no use but to assimilate from Winston’s perspective making his struggle utterly hopeless.

    Read More

  • Literary Techniques Used by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment

    2235 Words  | 5 Pages

    However, it soon emerges that he, despite the physical nature of his situation, has a very active mind. To reveal whether he is of a special "breed" of humans, he finds it necessary to kill, and the unfortunate subjects of his experiment are an old pawnbroker and her sister. After the murders, Raskolnikov is subject to a series of mental and emotional changes, eventually leading to his confession and, later, his arrest, trial and eight-year prison sentence.

    Read More

  • Winston's Major Changes In The Novel 1984 By George Orwell

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion as time passed in the story Winston change. Winston became brave, careless, and he started to act rather than talk. Most of these changes are because of Julia, Winston’s foil. Julia sparked the change in Winston he never expected, knew how to control, or handle. Winston’s change came mostly because it was what he wanted. The changes he went through help but also hindered him. However, Winston’s change was good for Oceania. The people of Oceania finally had someone who cared and wanted to fight for them but Winston’s careless actions he got caught.

    Read More

  • Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

    1270 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • 1984 Human Nature Analysis

    1806 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the novel 1984 Winston, the protagonist attempts to stay human despite living under a totalitarian regime. The novel 1984 by George Orwell depicts a regime that has 24/7 surveillance of its citizens and attempts to dehumanize the citizens to become better “party” members. Throughout the novel, Winston attempts to redeem his human characteristics that the party has stolen from him. The party is responsible for using human emotions and tendencies and uses those qualities in an attempt to “dehumanize” their population into members of the party. In the novel, the party uses human nature as a tactic in their political oppression. Winston’s love for Julia was the biggest weapon the party used against him. The party uses human nature for

    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

  • 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

  • 1984 George Orwell Betrayal Essay

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    Winston does not understand that his misdeeds must not be left exposed as they are too perilous. His betrayal towards Julia is the situation that causes his own self-betrayal. This is made evident when the novel states, “There was only one and only one way to save himself. He must interpose another human being, the body of another human, between himself and the rats” (299). In Room 101 Winston is placed in a difficult position and he knows that he must betray Julia in order to survive. Winston sees no solution to the torture in Room 101, which leads him to use his last option and betray Julia. This is noteworthy as it was something that he never planned to do. Alongside the physical torture used on the captured rebels, the Party uses psychological torture as well. Both of these leave Winston in a tough spot, so he breaks through. Additionally, after Winston’s betrayal to Julia he idolizes Big Brother and disregards his once disloyal views on Big Brother and the Party. This is demonstrated when the novel states “He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right,

    Read More

  • Conflict in Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

    652 Words  | 2 Pages

    The moral side of Raskolnikov's mind requires absolution in a Christian manner. This need obliviates his claim to be a Nietzchean superman, and illustrates that all humans have a desire for morality. Throughout the book, he constantly desires to confess, even when visiting the police station. "I'll go in, fall on my knees, and confess everything" (p.84), he thought; later, he considered if it was "better to cast off the burd...

    Read More

  • Winston Smith Human Nature

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    He posses all the qualities of human nature which tend to challenge the ideas of Big Brother. When first introduced, Winston is described as having “a smallish, frail figure, the meagerness of his body merely emphasized by the blue overalls which were the uniform of the Party” (2). He appears to be an average worker of the Party. It is later revealed, however, that he is having doubts about the authenticity of the Party. He feels as though his freedoms are not available to him and this stirs a sense of rebellion and violence inside him. Because of this, multiple times in the novel Winston is shown to have a violent attitude towards other people. When Winston wants to sit by Julia, but another man waves him over to sit at a different table, “Winston had a hallucination of himself smashing a pickaxe right into the middle of [his face]” (99). Along with violence, Winston possesses another trait undesired by the Party, rebellion. Writing in a journal is Winston’s first steps towards rebellion. Although it is small, this is the spring towards his rebellious streak. He O’Brien preys on Winston’s rebelliousness and convinces him to join the fictitious “Brotherhood”, a supposed rebellion group. Winston possesses many of the negative humanity traits which the Party hopes to rid their population of, violent thoughts, rebellious ideas, and slightly naïve ideas. These traits make it significantly more

    Read More

  • The Role Of Redemption In Dostoevsky's Crime

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    As humans, we’re all sinners. Our psychological makeup and our position in society controls the way we act. Some of us have committed atrocious acts that we’re not proud of and those people have found themselves turning towards faith to turn their lives around so they can find redemption for what they have done. In both Fyodor

    Read More

More about Heros In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment

Open Document