God exists. Although this opinion remains debatable to say the least, Dostoevsky needed to show that he thought of it as an absolute fact. Dostoevsky had converted from atheism before writing Crime and Punishment. While his previous work had shown Dostoevsky as a believer in the new philosophies of the time, Crime and Punishment has various religious influences and takes a stand against these philosophies, such as Nihilism. These religious influences show up often in Crime and Punishment in the form of inexplicable occurrences that stand out from the realistic aspects of the book. Throughout the novel Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky uses supernatural events to represent a godly force and prove his new belief in the existence of godly beings.
Dostoevsky uses supernatural forces to guide and control the characters’ lives. When Raskolnikov goes to see Razumihin, the idea pops into his head almost subconsciously. No plausible explanation exists for “what put the idea of going to Razumihin into [his] head,” and yet he has a very strong impulse to go (42). Following this impulse could have led Raskolnikov into picking up some extra money and not feeling the need to commit the crime. Razumihin’s influence on Raskolnikov later helps lead Raskolnikov to redemption as Razumihin helps Raskolnikov to pick up the pieces of his shattered life and get back up on his feet again. This urge to visit Razumihin therefore resulted due to a supernatural force. When he decides to commit the murder, Raskolnikov thinks “of nothing and [is] incapable of thinking; but he [feels] suddenly in his whole being that he [has] no more freedom of thought, no will, and that everything [is] suddenly and irrevocably decided” (51). Raskolnikov feels that he has no ...
... middle of paper ...
...ostoevsky to turn a complete one hundred and eighty degrees and wind up so against his original beliefs seems unlikely. Whether he had truly changed his way of thinking or not, Dostoevsky needed to prove to the government that he had. As long as the Tsar believed that Dostoevsky had become a new man, the chance of returning to exile lowered significantly. To write a book that shows an underlying belief in an all-powerful god shows that he has changed.
Whether he did it to spread the word of his own true beliefs or to make the government think he had really converted, Dostoevsky uses the novel Crime and Punishment to prove God’s existence. The book’s many religious references merely scratch the surface of how spirituality influenced Dostoevsky. He uses a supernatural force to represent a god and show how it really hangs over the world and affects people’s lives.
Life is a wheel rolling inexorably forward through the temporal realm of existence. There are those that succumb to its motion and there are a certain few, like Christ and Napoleon, who temporarily grasp the wheel and shape all life around them. "Normal" people accept their positions in life and are bound by law and morality. Extraordinary people, on the other hand, supersede the law and forge the direction and progress of society. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is the story of a group of people caught beneath the wheel and their different reactions to their predicament. One individual, Raskolnikov, refuses to acknowledge the bare fact of his mediocrity. In order to prove that he is extraordinary, he kills two innocent people. This despicable action does not bring him glory or prove his superiority, but leads to both his physical, mental, and spiritual destruction. After much inner turmoil and suffering, he discovers that when a person transgresses the boundaries of morality and detaches himself from the rest of humanity, faith in God and faith in others is the only path to redemption.
Deep down, Raskolnikov’s motives behind his deed amount to something profound in the end, how he rejects his past and learns much from it. Santangelo’s criticism touches on the meaning of Raskolnikov’s motives, but seems incomplete in terms of the impact their resolutions have on the end of the novel and Dostoyevsky’s message. This is where the motives transform into greater meanings. How does Raskolnikov redeem himself at the end? Is there one choice that explains the action? Each of his choices alone and together are gripping because seldomly is a person’s emergence from transgression the product of a single force. All results are intertwined with unfathomable levels of choice that begin subliminally but come down to a conscious decision. Dostoyevsky had the audacity to expose the root complexity of human emotion, then show how it can consciously choose its ending, happy or unhappy. Raskolnikov’s redemption was a public, pragmatic, individual, and ideological
Hansen, Bruce. “Dostoevsky’s Theodicy.” Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1996. At . accessed 18 November 2001.
Dosteovsky's novel Crime and Punishment depicts the Biblical account of Jesus' path to crucifixion burdened with a wooden cross through the character of Raskolnikov. After committing a cold-blooded murder he experiences mental anguish, and in a defeated state, confesses, and accepts the consequences of his crime.
In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Raskalnikov undergoes a period of extreme psychological upheaval. By comparing this death and rebirth of Raskalnikov's psyche to the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, Dostoevsky emphasizes not only the gravity of his crimes, but also the importance of acceptance of guilt.
Dostoevsky does not like all of Raskolnokv though. He hates his aloofness. Dostoevsky cannot stand anti-socialism and believes that people should be together and not dislike “meeting at any time'; with anyone. Constantly Raskolnokov alienates himself from all his friends and family to go alone about his way, which ends up getting him into trouble because of his radical thinking, like his theory that some people can transcend the law because of some extraordinary powers. The trouble that Raskolnokov gets into is Fyodor’s way of showing that continually parting yourself from society is unhealthy for a person and that they need other human contact to be complete.
Brothers Karamazov, written by the accomplished Russian novelist - Fyodor Dostoevsky, is an ambiguous and somewhat contradictory novel when it comes to the issue of belief and disbelief in God. The ambiguity seems to represent Dostoevsky’s constant spiritual struggle with the issue of faith. This struggle is best reflected in the enlightening interactions between the two Karamazov brothers, Ivan and Alyosha throughout the novel, each appears to embody a different side on the spectrum of religious belief in Dostoevsky’s mind. They are Dostoevsky’s ultimate depiction of the conflict of faith and reason in light of the suffering in the world.
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.
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...
Within the tortured mind of a young Russian university student, an epic battle rages between two opposite ideologies - the conservative Christianity characteristic of the time, and a new modernist humanism gaining prevalence in academia. Fyodor Dostoevsky in the novel Crime and Punishment uses this conflict to illustrate why the coldly rational thought that is the ideal of humanism represses our essential emotions and robs us of all that is human. He uses the changes in Raskolnikov's mental state to provide a human example of modernism's effect on man, placing emphasis upon the student's quest for forgiveness and the effect of repressed emotion.
Dostoevsky’s novels, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov Raskolnikov and Dmitri undergo mental agony that can be seen as a means of redemption, but without faith, they wouldn’t have been able to find that redemption. Both Raskolnikov and Dmitri lives changed after a murder, whether they committed it or not. Their lives took a turn for the worst as though they were having a bad dream that they couldn’t wake
In his book Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky explores the paths of two men, Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov. These two men encompass many similar problems and obstacles throughout their lives. Both commit murders and are faced with the long and mentally excruciating journey of seeking redemption. They also share many characteristics of their personalities. The reason that the outcomes of their lives are so drastically different is due to the fact that they have completely different perspectives on life.
Crime and Punishment and Notes from the Underground Fyodor Dostoyevsky's stories are stories of a sort of rebirth. He weaves a tale of severe human suffering and how each character attempts to escape from this misery. In the novel Crime and Punishment, he tells the story of Raskolnikov, a former student who murders an old pawnbroker as an attempt to prove a theory. In Notes from the Underground, we are given a chance to explore Dostoyevsky's opinion of human beings.
Dostoevsky, Feodor. Crime and Punishment. Trans. Jessie Coulson. Ed. George Gibian. New York: Norton, 1989.
In his novel Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky uses Raskolnikov as a vessel for several different philosophies that were particularly prominent at the time in order to obliquely express his opinions concerning those schools of thought. Raskolnikov begins his journey in Crime and Punishment with a nihilistic worldview and eventually transitions to a more optimistic one strongly resembling Christian existentialism, the philosophy Dostoevsky preferred, although it could be argued that it is not a complete conversion. Nonetheless, by the end of his journey Raskolnikov has undergone a fundamental shift in character. This transformation is due in large part to the influence other characters have on him, particularly Sonia. Raskolnikov’s relationship with Sonia plays a significant role in furthering his character development and shaping the philosophical themes of the novel.