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Crime and punishment character analysis essay
Crime and punishment character analysis essay
Crime and punishment character analysis essay
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A Study of the literary techniques used by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in
Crime and Punishment to convey the downfall and subsequent rise of
the main character.
"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is the story of a young
student Raskolnikov and his need to murder an old woman to prove one
of his many philosophies. The book begins with the murder, but the
primary focus is on his reasoning and reactions before and after the
act.
It is set in St Petersburg where the main character, Raskolnikov,
appears to be an ex-student living, in poverty, a life of lethargy.
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.
It was both this interesting plot and the philosophical nature of
Dostoyevsky's writing, which initially attracted me to this book. It
also features many themes and characters, as well as an effective
setting. As a result, I will examine the literary techniques used in
"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky to convey the downfall
and subsequent rise of the main character, Raskolnikov. I will begin
by looking at how the setting formed Raskolnikov's character, and then
discuss the structure and other characters of the novel.
The setting plays a primary role in forming Raskolnikov's character.
In mid-19th century Russia, an oppressive rule is a result of the
Romanov monarchy and this in...
... middle of paper ...
...ition to being important in portraying Raskolnikov's changing
personality. By making such dissimilarity between the two ways that
the two characters affect Raskolnikov, we are able to see his downfall
and subsequent rise much more clearly.
Dostoyevsky's writing in this book is such that the characters and
setting around the main subject, Raskolnikov, are used with powerful
consequences. The setting is both symbolic and has a power that
affects all whom reside there, most notably Raskolnikov. An effective
Structure is also used to show changes to the plot's direction and
Raskolnikov's character. To add to this, the author's word choice and
imagery are often extremely descriptive, and enhance the impact at
every stage of Raskolnikov's changing fortunes and character. All of
these features aid in the portrayal of Raskolnikov's downfall and
subsequent rise.
Often times in literature, we are presented with quintessential characters that are all placed into the conventional categories of either good or bad. In these pieces, we are usually able to differentiate the characters and discover their true intentions from reading only a few chapters. However, in some remarkable pieces of work, authors create characters that are so realistic and so complex that we are unable to distinguish them as purely good or evil. In the novel Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky develops the morally ambiguous characters of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov to provide us with an interesting read and to give us a chance to evaluate each character.
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 Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky gives the reader an inside look to the value system that he holds for himself, as well as the type of characteristics that he abhors in people as well as the characteristics that he admires in people. He uses characters in the novel to express his beliefs of what a person should be like in life to be a “good'; person. Specifically he uses Raskolnokv to show both good and bad characteristics that he likes in people. Also he uses Svidriglaiov and Luzin to demonstrate the characteristics that people should shun and his personal dislikes in people.
At the close of Crime and Punishment, Raskolinkov is convicted of Murder and sentenced to seven years in Siberian prison. Yet even before the character was conceived, Fyodor Dostoevsky had already convicted Raskolinkov in his mind (Frank, Dostoevsky 101). Crime and Punishment is the final chapter in Dostoevsky's journey toward understanding the forces that drive man to sin, suffering, and grace. Using ideas developed in Notes from Underground and episodes of his life recorded in Memoirs of the House of the Dead, Dostoevsky puts forth in Crime in Punishment a stern defense of natural law and an irrefutable volume of evidence condemning Raskolnikov's actions (Bloom, Notes 25).
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.
In every age we live, there is a constant struggle between finding a cure to our neurosis with the advent of urbanization and finding qualities in nature that supersede our abilities in enhancing modern man. With that kind of chaos come various forms of behaviors and actions, most of which stem to arguments of good versus evil. Dostoevsky insists that men have the choice between good and evil every moment of their lives; no matter the circumstance, they have the choice between moral and immoral. Crime and Punishment is a story of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov’s struggle with the ideologies of his time. The young and impoverished law student is torn between unifying and nihilistic cultures afflicting nineteenth-century tsarist Russia. Through a journey of crime, it becomes clear to Raskolnikov that his ultimate failure was caused by his transgression in murdering cold-heartedly, attempting to prove his self-worth by crossing the law. As Raskolnikov’s guilt overwhelms him and becomes unbearable, his only solace is confession to the crime. Serving his prison term in Siberia, Raskolnikov comes to the realization that reason cannot beat the human conscience.
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.
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...
“Sometimes, though, he is not at all morbid, just cold and inhumanely callous; it’s as though he were alternating between two characters” (Dostoevsky 206). In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the protagonist is depicted as struggling between two mental states – one of normality, and one that demonstrates extreme manic tendencies. In the past, scholars have mentioned schizophrenia as the cause of Raskolnikov’s behavior; however, bipolar disorder, characterized by increased speech, racing thoughts, delusional thinking, manic episodes, distractibility, agitation, and inflated grandiosity (Davision et al 124), is the fundamental cause of his perverse way of thought and the situations that he places himself in. In cases
Raskolnikov and Marmeladov from Crime and Punishment suffer from depression, which remains underrated by the general public today. The public remains uneducated on depression and mental illnesses, since only 3% of the adult population struggles with mental disabilities (qtd. BJS, Noonan and Trotter, 10). However, many criminals suffer from mental disabilities; the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported over 40% of inmates suffered a mental disorder (qtd. BJS, Noonan and Trotter, 10). Similar to prisoners today, Dostoyevsky’s characters, Raskolnikov and Marmeladov struggle with mental disabilities, which remain untreated in and out of prisons.
Reading this book makes you ill because from the beginning to the end you watch as psychological forces eat away at the thoughts and actions of their victim causing him to finally confess to the hideous crime he has committed. The story is basically the struggle between Raskolnikov's Napoleon-übermensch theory and his conscience which make him confess to his crime. Dostoevsky's genius is in describing how Raskolnikov struggles in his thoughts and actions. His thoughts become increasingly disjointed and desperate and his actions show that he has an increasing need to escape the uncertainty of being convicted, to talk about the crime, to confess, and to suffer for his crime. It is even at times humorous the extent to which Raskolnikov at times becomes confused in his bungled yet undiscovered crime. Here after the police call about a routine visit:
After the botched crime Raskolnikov is plagued his failures. "He was conscious at the time that he had forgotten something that he ought not forget, and he tortured himself." (107) After he carelessly kills both women, and allows for the evidence to be found, Raskolnikov realizes he did not commit the perfect crime. This devastates his ego, so he tries to cling to his previous self perception. He is also plagued with feelings of guilt. His guilt, combined with the mistakes he made during the crime, shatter his self perception of perfection.
Central to both The Stranger and Crime and Punishment is a senseless murder, however, the way each murderer feels about his own act of murder is quite different. Meursault in The Stranger has no personal value attached to things he does in life whether it be day-to-day activities or murder. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, on the other hand, feels that in certain cases values of society do not apply, however after the murder realizes that this is not the case for himself. These differences in thought not only provide more insight on the characters individually, but show that although society helps to guides it is up to the individual, based on values and morals, to decide how to live his or her life.
The search for justice and vengeance is a never-ending hunt in the human psyche, whether this search is noble or malevolent in nature, it is like a rash that continues to reemerge and agitate its host until it’s burning sting is neutralized by the burning and chilling sensation of vengeance and justice. This search for justice (or rather it’s meaning) is evident in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Magnum Opus Crime and Punishment. The novel is centered around a young Russian man named Raskolnikov, who is a disgraced student that now lives in a run-down tenement in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Raskolnikov during the early stages of the book has a personal crisis as he wonders who is truly able to seek out and carry justice, he attempts to color in a very grey area, this grey area is the difference between the noble
Raskolnikov, isolated from society, gains a distorted view of the human race. After spending his entire life pushing people away and all of his college career with only Razumikhin to call a friend, Raskolnikov completely cuts himself off. He