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dostoevsky and psychoanalysis
19th century russian literature themes
dostoevsky and psychoanalysis
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The Literature of Fyodor Dostoevsky
If literature is a game, then Fyodor Dostoevsky is one of literature's most
talented and respected players. All of Dostoevsky's works are not only highly
regarded by his readers, but also scholars of literature. Sigmund Freud stated that
Dostoevsky's place in literature is "...not far behind Shakespeare" (Freud 972). The
novel most commonly referred to as his masterpiece is Crime and Punishment. This
novel is written with such genius that practically anyone could enjoy it (anyone who
would be willing to read a five hundred page novel, that is). Dostoevsky uses many
devices to keep his reader's attention. He uses the timeless intrigue of a detective
story but still produces an intellectually challenging novel. Crime and Punishment
can be read and enjoyed by the average reader, but also challenges the intellectually
superior reader by the use of psychological insights. Crime and Punishment's
characters are filled with deep psychological and spiritual questions that haunt the
reader long after the story is read.
Janko Lavrin stated that Dostoevsky tapped into "...the most hidden recesses
of man's soul and spirit, he was the first European novelist to explore the
unconscious and to annex it wholesale to modern literature..." (973-4). Victor
Terras elucidates one of the fundamental differences in the psychological
development of Dostoevsky's characters and other nineteenth-century novelists'
characters:
They are developed centrifugally rather than centripitally. As the novel
progresses, the reader keeps discovering new character traits in a
Dostoevskian hero, and some of these traits will come quite
unexpected. As a result the character in question k...
... middle of paper ...
...ng a belief in Christ. Dostoevsky also uses
his characters to describe the mental suffering and questioning that realizing the
truth of Jesus Christ caused him. Dostoevsky projected his own inner turmoil and
his doubting faith into his characters to "...achieve a kind of catharsis..." and
perhaps prevent himself from going mad (Lavrin 974).
In the game of literary composition, Fyodor Dostoevsky is still one of the
most talented and respected players. His works are still highly regarded by all
readers, including literary critics and scholars. Dostoevesky's masterpiece Crime
and Punishment is written with such propensity that anyone, from the average reader
to the superincumbent reader, can enjoy this novel. The psychological and spiritual
questions pondered by Crime and Punishment's characters will haunt any reader
long after the novel has been read.
As Rodya analyzes Luzhin’s character, he realizes that intellect unrestrained by moral purpose is dangerous due to the fact that many shrewd people can look right through that false façade. Luzhin’s false façade of intellect does not fool Rodya or Razumikhin, and although they try to convince Dunya into not marrying Luzhin, she does not listen. Rodya believes that Luzhin’s “moral purpose” is to “marry an honest girl…who has experienced hardship” (36). The only way he is able to get Dunya to agree to marry him, is by acting as if he is a very intellectual person, who is actually not as educated as he says he is. This illustrates the fact that Rodya knows that it is really dangerous because he knows that people can ruin their lives by acting to be someone they are not. Rodya also knows that people will isolate themselves from others just so that no one will find out their true personality. This is illustrated in through the fact that Luzhin tries to avoid Dunya and her mother as much as possible. The way he writes his letter, exemplifies his isolation, for Luzhin does not know how to interact with society. He has no idea how to write letters to his fiancée and his future mother in law. This reflects on Rodya’s second dream because he is unable to get Dunya married off to a nice person. He feels isolated from everyone else because his intellect caused him to sense that Luzhin is not telling the truth about his personality. However, it was due to his lack of moral purpose that Rodya berates his sister’s fiancé. He is unable to control himself, and due to his immoral act of getting drunk, Rodya loses all judgment and therefore goes and belittles Luzhin. Although Rodya’s intellectual mind had taken over and showed him that Luzhin wa...
The Brothers Karamazov - Thriller The Brothers Karamazov is an enthralling thriller about the struggle for self-redemption in the eyes of God as well as in the hearts of the Russians. The murder of Fyodor Karamazov, a foolish and heartless savage who betrays his own sons of a father's care, venomously seeps its way into Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha's lives causing innocence to request fault and suffering. With intricate characterizations, Dostoevsky magnificently presents the internal agony that derives from a wavering spirit. The religious teachings of the great elder Father Zosima engross the minds of the spiritually inadequate throughout the novel. Dostoevsky essentially carries these guidelines to peaceful immortality by means of the character Alyosha.
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.
Hansen, Bruce. “Dostoevsky’s Theodicy.” Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1996. At . accessed 18 November 2001.
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.
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.
identical. Both characters were in isolation prior to the initial plot of the books, but for
This essay examines the social, philosophical, and psychological elements that had affected the Russian Society as well as the world of Dostoevsky’s novel “ Crime and Punishment ˮ. This essay demonstrates the wild impact and clashes left by these theories on the life, choices, and mentality of the novel and the characters embodied, the most important of which is the character of Raskolnikov. Highlighting an “in-depth exploration of the psychology of a criminal, the inner world of Raskolnikov, with its doubt, fear, anxiety and despair in escaping punishment and mental tortureˮ.
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.
Because he has no respect for himself, he can have no respect for others, either.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground and the Grand Inquisitor, trans. R. E. Matlaw. New York: Dutton, 1960.
Fanger, Donald. Introduction. Notes From Underground. By Fyodor Dostoevsky. Trans. Mirra Ginsburg. NY: Bantam, 1992.
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.
In Notes from Underground, Dostoyevsky relates the viewpoints and doings of a very peculiar man. The man is peculiar because of his lack of self-respect, his sadistic and masochistic tendencies, and his horrible delight in inflicting emotional pain on himself and others. Almost instantly the reader is forced to hate this man. He has no redeeming values, all of his insights into human nature are ghastly, and once he begins the narrative of his life, the reader begins to actively hate and pity him.
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.