Let Love In

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Criminals are widely regarded as evil people. They are shunned from society and punished for violating the laws designed to protect the good of humanity. In Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Raskolnikov, a young man in his early twenties and the protagonist, commits two murders and isolates himself from his friends and family who only have the best intentions of helping him with his ongoing illness. At the end of the novel, Raskolnikov is exiled to a prison in Siberia as his conviction. The author attempts to explain the psychology of a criminal like Raskolnikov. Dostoyevsky emphasizes that Raskolnikov’s mental punishment is the true factor in his exile from society and that one needs the love, nurture, and support from loved ones to enjoy life.

Raskolnikov’s guilt builds up in the aftermath of his crime. Interestingly, Dostoyevsky reveals that it is not necessarily the murders that is causing his guilt, but the constant risk of danger of conviction. This can explain why Raskolnikov refuses his friend from university, Razumihin’s help in nursing Raskolnikov’s illness. Raskolnikov delicately dismisses his doting mother and sister as well when they appear to improve his living conditions with the little money they possess. Raskolnikov’s form of exiling himself from his loved ones causes his alienation, perhaps for the reason that he does not wish to bring them harm from associating themselves with a criminal. In distancing himself, Raskolnikov finds isolation to be at first peaceful and helpful because he is alone with his thoughts. He does not need to worry over an accidental confession to anyone and he can calmly strategize how to escape his punishment by himself. However, over time, the isolation is maddening and he c...

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...t that he perhaps can be a leader, but he soon realizes that leaders like Napoleon are often lonely and without love and happiness.

When Raskolnikov is literally exiled to a prison in Siberia, Sonya moves to Siberia with him. Because of her sacrifice as a prostitute for her family, Raskolnkov respects and admires her goodness, and she convinces him to confess to the police. There at the prison, Raskolnikov reaches the epiphany that he loves Sonya, and that love was the beginning to letting go of his desire to be Napoleon and starting a new life filled with love, peace, and happiness with Sonya. He is a criminal in a literal sense, but he is not evil, not without compassion and love. His guilt, fear and illness, and dream to be superior can be forgiven and forgotten in the past, and he will no longer self-exile himself from the one thing he needed all his life—love.

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