Archetypal Characters in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment

In his novel, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky creates many deep and intricate characters. Many of these characters follow certain archetypes, Raskolnikov, the main character, struggles with self-understanding and views the world with a very cynical outlook, but later realizes who he is and repents for the error of his way. This would make Raskolnikov fall under a variant of the hero archetype, he believed he was helping cleanse the world through his actions but later we find this isn’t so true. Razumikin who is Raskolnikov’s best friend, only wants the best for his companion and struggles seeing his friend go through something so horrible. This makes him fall under the companion archetype, without Raskolnikov his character would cease to have very much significance.

Sonya’s archetype would most likely relate to the healer, she aids Raskolnikov by making him realize what he needs to do to cleanse himself of his sins. All of these characters exhibit familiar archetypes, although they do change and progress as the novel reveals more intricacies their personalities. The main subject to be noted is the needs these characters have for each other, without one another these characters could not have developed with backgrounds and details they have. In the book many of these confidants arise, the most prominent being between Raskolnikov and Razumikin, although closely followed by that of Sonya and Raskolnikov. These confidents are the characters which provide good listening skills and provide the other character with a way to better