Before and following Raskolnikov’s murder, he lives a life of anxiety and pride. Raskolnikov has no concern for anyone. But gradually Raskolnikov changes his attitude and actions. This alteration then leads him to confess and recognize his crime. This positive change is all thanks to Sonia. Throughout Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov meets with Sonia and at each meeting Raskolnikov advances in recovering his lost emotions. Sonia was necessary for Raskolnikov’s growth because without her Raskolnikov would have remained a prideful, miserable, man. Sonia’s actions and thoughts for Raskolnikov influence and move him. Yet Raskolnikov is the one who truly changes himself. But this transformation is only possible by Sonia. So she is a positive and …show more content…
By encountering Sonia, Raskolnikov begins to regain lost thoughts and feelings. When Raskolnikov helps Sonia, he begins to feel sympathy. Before committing the murder, Raskolnikov was malignant. At that point, he knew he must go through with the killing but he changes his mind when he meets Sonia and her family. At Marmeladov’s death, Raskolnikov gives them all of his money: “Allow me now…to do something […][h]ere are twenty roubles” (188). Raskolnikov recognizes how pitiful the family’s situation is. He is so concerned that he provides aid for them. Raskolnikov does so because beneath his present malicious thoughts, in his natural, true, mind he does not want these people to suffer. This event begins Raskolnikov’s reawakening of his sympathy. He as well aids Sonia when Pyotr accuses her of stealing money from him (396). Here Raskolnikov understands Pyotr’s true intentions …show more content…
Due to his murder, he had no concern or care for anyone. By killing two women and taking their lives away how could Raskolnikov possess sincere feelings for anyone? Raskolnikov’s lack of care influences how he views his family: “I hate them, I feel a physical hatred for them” (276). Raskolnikov has entirely lost love. If he has deep hatred towards those people most dear to him, then he must greatly lack love. But by Sonia’s actions, Raskolnikov is able to once again feel love. Sonia genuinely loves him. When confessing about the murder, Raskolnikov learns “how great [is] her love for him” (417). He begins to understand how Sonia feels and this realization strikes remorse in him. He becomes upset with himself because “he had made her more miserable” (420). Here Raskolnikov is concerned about Sonia. Earlier Raskolnikov had no feelings for anyone, but now he begins to regret his actions and feels bad about making her cry. Sonia’s deep love for him radiates off of herself and affects Raskolnikov which makes him feel compassion towards her. He begins to understand Sonia’s feelings and intentions even more when he returns for her cross: “ Raskolnikov at that moment felt and knew once for all that Sonia was with him forever and would follow him to the ends of the earth” (521). Raskolnikov recognizes how true and perpetual Sonia’s love and concern for him is and will be. Her love gives him hope for a bright future and thus he starts
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.
First, Dostoevsky gives the reader the character, Raskolnokov. He is the main character, whom Fyodor uses to show two sides of people their admirable side and their disgusting side. He loves Raskolnokov, which is why Fyodor uses Raskolnokov’s point of view throughout the whole novel. Personally, Fyodor dislikes some of his qualities but understands that all people are plagued with some bad traits, and that Raskolnokv is trying to make emends for some of his wrong doings, i.e. the murder of the pawnbroker and her sister. He knows that what he did was wrong and is willing to suffer for his crime, and he does throughout the whole book with his constant depression. Dostoesky believes in punishment for your crimes, this is why he shows Raskolnokov suffering through most of the novel, to show his great love for penance. Dostoevsky likes the kind giving nature of people; this is why he portrays the main character as a kind, gentle, and giving, person. Often, Raskolnokov thinks only of others benefits such as when he helped Katerina by giving her all his money for Marmelodov, as well as his caring about what happens to his sister with her marriage to Luzhin. Raskolnokov hates Luzhin’s arrogant and pompous attitude, which reflects Dostoevsky’s animosity of the same qualities in people in the real world.
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.
The character’s suffering is thrown in the readers face right from the beginning. Raskolnikov’s suffering has two apparent layers, “he was crushed by poverty, but the anxieties of his position had of late ceased to weigh upon him” (1). It seems that the suffering caused from his current state of mind is so great that he does not even feel the suffering caused by his poverty. Throughout Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov’s main point of suffering is caused by his inability to let others know of the crime he has committed and as a result he alienates himself from those who show him compassion (156). As the novel progresses he decides to tell Sonia because expressing his crimes would alleviate some of the suffering, however, her morals encompass the idea that it is inconceivable to “go on living” without suffering and “expiation” (416). At this confession, the reader is presented with a righteous character (probably the most) that does not judge Raskolnikov for what he has done but instead sympathizes and tells him that turning himself in and bearing the consequences will relieve him of the suffering caused mentally.
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.
Raskolnikov is obsessed with his “superman theory”. He is constantly trying to prove that he is part of the 10% of extraordinary people in the world. He wants to become an eminent figure such as Napoleon. At first he believed that the murders he committed would make him part of this elite class. Once he realized that he had made mistakes during the crime he began to question his theory. After much frustration he decided to go to the scene of the crime. This gave him a rush that made him feel invincible. He believed that this would prove if, or if not he was “super”. Once he realized that he wasn’t part of this class, he suffered a mental breakdown. This pushed him to confess his crime to Sonya. She helped him rationalize his crime and admit his guilt. The outcome of this conversation was that it helped him admit his fate.
Crime and Punishment at first is a daunting novel. With its sheer size alone, at 551 pages, combined with the dense writing style of Dostoevsky the initial sitting can leave one wonder how anyone ever finishes this hefty novel. However, the reasons soon become clear as you breeze through anxious to see where the next turn will take you. This psychological thriller aspect is also what leads to such a close examination of Raskolnikov's thoughts. It is not until part three that we are given the core idea that drives him to murder. Prior to his encounter with Porfiry beginning on page 248 the reader is left only with conjecture as to what drove him to murder of Alyona and Lizaveta Ivanovna. We see that he is ill and destitute, both good reasons to murder for money. We also have the dream with the horse starting on page 54 that at the very least gives rise to his brutal method of murder. It is clear in the exchange between Porfiry and Raskolvikov that Porfiry believes this idea hinted at in Raskolnikov's article is what drove him to murder. P...
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.
Raskolnikov gives lots of reasons for the murder, and it is obvious from the sheer number of reasons that he gives that Raskolnikov is innocent. He can't even make up a realistic motive! No one is fooled. I sure wasn't. Raskolnikov is surely a messed up character. He is upset because he can't get any work, so he decides to plead guilty to a murder he knows nothing about just so he can get some hard labor in Siberia. Oh, sure, he want back to the apartment and questioned where the body was. Sure he could relate the entire murder in realistic detail. These are merely coincidences, just like his meeting with Marmeladov. C&P was often criticized for its overuse of coincidence. Perhaps the most confusing scene in that it leads many unwary readers astray is the actual description of the murder itself. This of course was just a dream. Dostoevsky was very fond of dream symbolism and used it often in C&P.
The main character in Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov, has nihilistic ideas, which ultimately lead to his own suffering. Raskolnikov, an impoverished student, conceives of himself as being an extraordinary man who has the right to commit any crime. He believes that as an extraordinary man that he is beyond good and evil. Since he does not believe in God, he cannot accept any moral laws. To prove his theory, he murders an old pawnbroker and her step sister. Besides, he rationalizes that he has done society a favor by getting rid of the evil pawnbroker who would cheat people. Immediately after the murders, he begins to suffer emotionally. Raskolnikiv “[feels] a terrible disorder within himself. He [is] afraid of losing his control…” (Dostoevsky 95). He becomes ill and lies in his room in a semi-conscious state. As soon as he is well and can walk again, he goes out and reads about the crime in all the newspapers of the last few days. The sheer mention of the murder...
From the moment when Raskalnikov murders the old woman, his personality begins to change drastically. Dostoevsky challenges the reader to understand the madness which ensues by first demonstrating that the ideas and convictions to which Raskalnikov clung died along with the women. While the reader struggles with this realization, Dostoevsky incorporates the Biblical legend of Lazarus as a symbolic mirror for Raskalnikov's mind. By connecting the two, the reader encounters the foreshadowing of a rebirth of morals and beliefs, though what form this may assume remains cryptic. As references to Lazarus continue to occur, the feeling of parallelism increases in intensity. Just as Raskalnikov slowly struggled through madness, Lazarus lay dying of a terrible disease. When Lazarus eventually dies, Raskalnikov mimes this by teetering on the edge of insanity, the death of the mind. Eventually Sonya begins to pull Raskalnikov back to reality by relieving a portion of his guilt. As his Christ figure, she accomplishes this by providing the moral and spiritual sturdiness which Raskalnikov lost after his debasement during the murders. Sonya affects him not by active manipulation, but via her basic character, just as Christ personified his beliefs through the manner in which he lived his life. No matter what Raskalnikov says or does to her, she accepts it and looks to God to forgive him, just as Jesus does in the Bible. This eventually convinces Raskalnikov that what he did was in fact a crime and that he must repent for it and"seek atonement".
It is apparent that the love between Sonia and Raskolnikov plays a crucial role in Crime and Punishment, pushing Raskolnikov in a direction he otherwise would not have gone. Dostoevsky uses their relationship as a tool to develop the philosophical themes in the novel and prompt profound changes in Raskolnikov’s character. Through their love, Dostoevsky demonstrates the importance of human relationships in finding and maintaining happiness. He also seeks to condemn nihilism and disprove the idea that one cannot make one’s own meaning in life by having Raskolnikov adopt Christian existentialism and find his purpose through Sonia.
Sonia and Raskolnikov are two characters that interact with each other in the novel, Crime and Punishment. They interact on multiple levels, sharing several likenesses. Both of these characters are at-times self-sacrificing, both are struggling for meaning in a dreary existence, and both are generally unhappy people, but brighten and seem to enjoy each other's presence--even when Raskolnikov is berating her religion. What is self-sacrifice, for which these characters and so many people around the world engage in? It is a desire to help those around us more than we wish to help ourselves. This is not normal human state, although it can be brought about easily by societal pressures, and sometimes even political societies can compel this attitude. Sonia practices a form of altruism for her family however. She acquires a yellow card and takes her body off to the moral slaughter by sacrificing it to others for money--money that will go to her starving, poor family. Though not his predominant state of mind or action, Raskolnikov does have temporal tendencies towards self-sacrifice. It seems that part of his state of mind when considering the murder of the pawnbroker is that he will be helping society as a whole--definitely a motive that comes from outside the self. Sonia and Raskolnikov share many characteristics that make them an interesting encounter for each other. A tendency to self-sacrifice for one, and a life of it for another, provides for an amalgam of psychological likenesses which help the characters relate.
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.
Raskolnikov kills the pawnbroker ,Alena Ivanovna, not for the money or the valuables she had in her apartment.The reasoning behind Raskolnikov wanting to kill Alena is because she is immoral, who cheats the poor and considers her as a creature. She would brutally beat and abuse her step-sister, and pressure her do all the dirty work for her. After killing Alyona Ivanovna, Raskolnikov steals her possessions. Instead of selling the items , Raskolnikov hides the objects under a rock. Raskolnikov reasons this murder was for the greater good for the people, because Alyona’s money could go to help the people of the town. Raskolnikov knew no one would have the strength or means to get rid of “this creature” referring to Alyona Ivanovna. Raskolnikov thoug...