Free Essays on Crime and Punishment - Suffering, Death, and Resurrection

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Crime and Punishment - Suffering, Death, and Resurrection

Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote the novel, Crime and Punishment, during a turbulent time in Russian history. Yet his work will speaks to any age. Dostoevsky wrote to warn against what he considered the negative effects of the trend of nihilism and rational egoism. He advances this objective by employing themes of suffering, resurrection, and death--all of these currents running through a surprisingly benevolent universe.

If Dostoevsky's fellow Russian Marx was correct in stating that religion is the opiate of the people, then suffering is the proverbial needle that injects it into a person. Suffering is the dominant theme of this work. It twists and contorts itself into so many aspects of the story, that any other classification of it would simply not do it justice. Immediately following Raskolnikov's crime, he begins to suffer. The inadvertent death of Lizaveta is a crushing blow to his conscience. Dostoevsky is conveying his message: a wanton act will lead to a deluge of suffering. A theory is no protection fro...

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