Reflective Statement During the discussion several ideas were brought up surrounding key ideas in Crime and Punishment, mainly focusing on the concepts of dreams and setting. Before the discussion I believed that Raskolnikov differed from society somehow, and often was portrayed as crazy within his dreams/hallucinations. I also thought that St. Petersburg was a dirty and disgraceful town located somewhere within Russia. Afterwards I learned that really, Dostoevsky was using dreams to show Raskolnikov’s differing perspective of the world, and that St. Petersburg is really a beautiful city (where the wealthy live) located in the west of Russia. Raskolnikov committed murder because he thought that the money he could gain through it would allow him to redirect the wealth to several other poverty stricken people, which is an allusion to socialism. However, his dreams show that he really committed the murder because he had a differing sense of reality, and believed himself to be extraordinary. Dostoevsky uses this to show that people who differ from social norms are often punished, and characterized as being inhumane. He tries to show this in Raskolnikov’s dreams by showing how Raskolnikov views the world. He is characterized as disobeying law and resisting social norms, and instead he becomes characterized as a more progressive figure because he cares about the well-being of women, whereas the common society does not. Ideas brought up concerning setting also helped me understand some of the author’s craft within the novel. The fact that St. Petersburg is a western city that is trying to mimic parts of Europe (particularly France) shows how it is cut off from the rest of Russia, and filled with the wealthy. This made the book make mo... ... middle of paper ... ...s a whole they help Dostoevsky point out problems within societal norms (such as the treatment of women) and allow him to further develop the characterization of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov. The technique implemented within the dreams even enable Dostoevsky to show how differing realities collide because each individual character has a different interpretation of what is right and wrong within the society. Ultimately he proves that the characters’ individualistic principles collide with that of societies and as a result the characters are punished for differing. This final idea gives the reader the reader the impression that alternative characterizations and realities must be crushed and eliminated so the system does not become corrupted. Work Cited Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. 1866. Trans. Constance Garmett. New York: Bantam- Random, 2003. Print.
In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov's dream about the mare can be used as a vehicle to probe deeply into his mentality to discover how he really feels inside. The dream suggests that Raskolnikov is a "split" man; after all, his name in Russian means "split". His personality has a cruel and thoughtless side as well as a caring, compassionate side. Through the dream and the symbols therein, a reader can cast Raskolnikov, as well as other characters from Crime And Punishment, into any of the various parts in the dream. Each part that a character plays leads to a different conclusion about that character. Raskolnikov himself "fits" into the positions of Mikolka, the child, and the mare.
Raskolnikov, the main character of the novel Crime and Punishment by Feodor Dostoevsky, actually possesses two completely contradicting personalities. One part of him is intellectual: cold, unfeeling, inhumane, and exhibiting tremendous self-will. It is this side of him that enables him to commit the most terrible crime imaginable - taking another human life. The other part of his personality is warm and compassionate. This side of him does charitable acts and fights against the evil in his society.
Dostoevsky's three great novels, Crime and Punishment, the Possessed, and the Brothers Karamazov, represent a continuum. That is, in those works, Dostoevsky traces the degenerative effects on the Russian psyche of the doctrines of radical and Nihilistic idealogues by beginning with a psychoanalytic study of one solitary man and then chronicles the movement of that crisis from the intelligentsia outward to the masses.
Raskolnikov, in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, concocts a plan to murder the town’s pawnbroker to prove a very flawed theory without a distinct motive. Prior to the formulation of his theory, Raskolnikov alienates himself from the rest of society. He lives his life in dire poverty, cut off from the rest of the world, and left to his own thoughts, “The question whether the disease gives rise to the crime, or whether the crime, due to its own peculiar nature, is always accompanied by something like a disease, he did not yet feel able to decide” (Dostoevsky 71). The disease is poverty and alienation. Out of desperation, perhaps, he devised this plan to help alleviate him and his family’s financial difficulties. The pawnbroker was wealthy and he did rob h...
Dostoevsky conveys Raskolnikov’s ongoing punishment to further exemplify a grander theme present in today’s world: the struggle of being human. In 1860s Russia, major changes took place. Serfdom came to an end and drastic economic reforms were implemented. Raskolnikov’s home of St. Petersburg, once upon a time the capital of Russia, represents the confusing mood that was felt throughout the country. His habitat is described as confined, depressed, stuffy and violent.
Raskolinov’s dreams are continual conflicts between his dark and hateful mind and his conscience. His mind drives him to murder and inflates his ego to make him feel as an “extraordinary man.” On the other hand, his conscience struggles to hinder these violent motives. Raskolinov’s mind is at battle with itself in a conflict of morals and corruption that is manifested into the dream of the mare. Dostoevsky uses the dream as evidence of Raskolinov’s psychic illness. Raskolinov can be identified as all of the characters in his dream: Mikolka, the jeering crowd, the beaten horse, and the innocent child. Raskolinov’s confusion and obvio...
Raskolnikov's internal conflict between reason and conscience results in his alienation from society. In the beginning, Raskolnikov relied entirely on logic and reason. He also believes that his theory will sound completely logical to those with a, "broad and completely independent mind" (Dostoevsky 459). It is this firm conviction in his logic and his theory that prompts him to commit the murder for the 'common good of the society'. It is also the same conviction that sets him apart from society since he considers himself to be superior or "extra-ordinary" like Napoleon or Mahomet compared to the "ordinary" people.
Readers are given full access into his psychological state and we are able to to see his personal thoughts and dreams throughout the murder case. Although at the end of the chapter Raskolnikov becomes at peace with what he does and the paranoia and guilt go away, he is still rationalizes his crime, as though he had valid reasons to commit the murder. As readers, we can see Raskolnikov's crime as an act of evil because we know it is detrimental to society to have people that come up with their own rationale to justify murder, but Raskolnikov saw it as a way to confirm to himself his power in society, to better society, and that he was just disposing of a bad person. Raskolnikov's actions left him in jail, however it is here where Raskolnikov finally realizes and comes to peace with what he
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis once wrote, “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind” (Freud 1). This remark appears in Freud’s work named, “The Interpretation of Dreams”. Freud’s comment demonstrates that because dreams are such an unconscious activity, they give a direct intuition into the workings of the senseless mind, meaning that a dream shows a person’s unrestrained feeling that an individual cannot show to others easily. The idea that dreams can give a direct insight into a person’s mind is seen clearly throughout Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky uses dreams as a symbol to portray the internal conflicts of Raskolnikov through his four dreams.
It is important to understand Raskolnikov’s character before the crime takes place. Although the reader might be tempted to give importance to the aftermath of the crime and observe the effects committing the crime had on Raskolnikov’s physic and psyche, it is necessary to know what kind of person Raskolnikov was and what circumstances led to his being that way before he decided to commit the crime. What preceded the crime is more crucial to unraveling and comprehending Raskolnikov’s motivations. Just as we do not learn Raskolnikov’s name until another character utters it in dialogue to him, likewise the reader comes to build a character profile of Raskolnikov through the observations others offer regarding Raskolnikov. His friend Razumikhin.provides a candid description s...
In Crime and Punishment, we see Raskolnikov caught between reason and will, the human needs for personal freedom and the need to submit to authority. He spends most of the first two parts stuck between wanting to act and wanting to observe. After he acts and murders the old woman, he spends much time contemplating confession. Raskolnikov seems trapped in his world although there is really nothing holding him back; he chooses not to flee and not to confess, but still acts as though he's suffocation (perhaps guilt?)In both novels defeat seems inevitable. Both characters believe that normal man is stupid, unsatisfied and confused. Perhaps they are right, but both characters fail to see the positive aspects of humans; the closest was the scene between the narrator of Notes from the Underground and Liza. In this scene he almost lets the human side show, rather than the insecure, closed off person he normally is.
Often in works of fiction there exists a clear distinction between characters who are meant to be seen as good and those as evil. The hero saves the day by way of thwarting the villain's evil plan. However, in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment we are introduced to the characters of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov and Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladov who display acts of moral ambiguity and are neither fully hero nor villain. These character’s acts are not black and white, but fall in a gray area of uncertainty. They each show signs of villainy and heroism and their stories can be parallelled. In the final chapter of part five, the reader is given a summary of the overarching storyline via Katerina Ivanovna’s actions leading up to her death. This scene contributes to the argument of morality because it reiterates the uncertainty of the distinction between right and wrong of Raskolnikov's crime which run through the pages of this novel by showing a condensed recount of how the combination of the desire to help others and the inability to do so because of poverty have tainted both character’s moral actions.
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.
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
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a psychological novel from the 19th century in Russia. This novel gives us a sense of the social, political and economic turmoil which Russia and its people were living through during that time period. During this period of hardship people would take the decisions that they would consider necessary for survival and this novel exposes some of the decisions that people had to make to keep on living. The decisions taken by the individuals of this novel may be a result of despair or just an overdose of power and masculinity. The main character Raskolnikov makes his decisions because he has a high level of masculinity and power.