Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Theme in Dostoevsky's novels
Character of Raskolnikov
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Beginning Questions 1.Does Raskolnikov see himself as one above the law? 2.Is Raskolnikov a hypocrite? He kills a lady he deems is worthless yet is quite worthless himself. 3.Is murder ever a justifiable crime? 4. Is Dunia doing the right thing by marrying Luzhin against her brother’s wishes? 5.Is Raskolnikov’s dream /past a stimulus for the killing of the pawnbroker? 6.How does Marmaledov live with himself knowing that his family is starving and his daughter has been tainted? 7.Why would Dunia be ruined by her employer’s advances at her? Would it not be the other way around? 8.Why is Zosimov so interested in Raskolnikov? 9.Is Sonya’s sacrifice a necessity for the family? 10.If Raskolnikov’s guilt is so evident, how come he has not been charged …show more content…
He thinks he would have no problem doing it. 8.”Blood will be less noticeable on red”. The panic has gotten to Raskolnikov. He is now thinking really simply after killing the pawnbroker. 9.”What if there’s a search already? What if they’re there now waiting for me?” Raskolnikov suffers excess paranoia. He thinks everyone is after him. 10.”In the hour of death you must forgive. That’s a sin, madame”.(178) Katerina hates her husband for all he’s done. She won’t even forgive him when he’s dying. Notes Part 1 Chapter 1 Raskolnikov is scared of his landlady because he owes several months of rent. He ponders over committing a certain act. However, he believes himself unable to do it. He looks down on the prostitutes, and evildoers in the village while being a poor and unkempt man himself. He arrives at the pawnbroker’s Alyona Ivanovna. Lizaveta keeps all of her furnishings tidy. He sells a watch for a smaller amount while gathering information for his scheme. After drinking some beer, he musters strength to commit his …show more content…
He is married to Katerina Ivanovna who married him after her first marriage didn’t work out. He regained his job, but lost it 5 days before. Because of this, he’s been neglecting his family. His daughter Sonya was forced into prostitution. Raskolnikov leaves a few kopecks out of pity. Chapter 3 Nastasia the maid brings Raskolnikov some tea and soup. He receives a letter from his mother. She tells him that the landlady is about to evict him. The letter tells him that Svidrigailov , Dunia’s Employer, tried to get closer to her which ruined her reputation. She went and accepted Luzhin's marriage proposal. This will help him get a job. Also, his sister and fiance are going to St.Petersburg. Chapter 4 Raskolnikov does not want the marriage to happen because he thinks Dunia is sacrificing herself for him. He stops and old man from touching a young drunk girl. He tells an officer and gives him some money for cab fare. However, the police and man keep walking which makes Raskolnikov think the police will do nothing. Raskolnikov notices he is walking to his friend’s Razumikhin's
After killing Lizaveta, Raskolnikov feels a sense of guilt and disappointment. He begins to realize maybe he is not above society, and that he is not the great savior he believes he is. Sonia has betrayed
Part 1: In Chapter 5, Raskolnikov 's dream represents his internal conflict about whether he should commit the murder or not and his feeling of regret towards the crime. After awakening from the dream, Raskolnikov is horrified about the killing of the mare and rethinks his decision about wanting to kill Aliona. Here, he is feeling the emotions he will encounter after committing murder and is seriously reconsidering his thoughts after seeing the gore. Therefore, his conscious is telling him that committing murder is a bad decision by reliving a similar memory that terrified him in his childhood. Also, this dream is very similar to many other actions in Part I like Raskolnikov leaving some money for Marmeladov 's family and him murdering Aliona.
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.
Unconscious motivation is a powerful tool in uncovering the motives of Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov was largely affected by his subconscious mind, as seen through his dreams. Chronologically, Raskolnikov first dreamt of a poor old mare “gasping and shrinking from the blows of the three whips which were showered upon her like hail” (Dostoyevsky 48). The violent nature of this dream alludes to the inner debacle Raskolnikov is experiencing due to his thoughts on murdering the old pawnbroker. The crowd is split between horror and awe at the brutal whipping of the mare, much like Raskolnikov’s feelings on murdering Alyona. Upon waking up, “darkness and confusion were in his soul” as he is one step closer to murdering the pawn broker. (Dostoyevsky 52). In addition to the vicious and conflicting images in the dream, Raskolnikov was “walking into the country with his father” in this dream (Dostoyevsky 47). His father urged Raskolnikov that the horse’s fate was “not [their] business”, and to move on from the spectacle (Dostoyevsky 52). In the drea...
After killing the old pawnbroker, Raskolnikov is riddled with the guilt despite having resigned her to a “deserved” death. He sees the pawnbroker as “a mistake perhaps, but she's not the point! The old woman was merely a sickness...And I didn't even manage that, as it turns out” (). Raskolnikov’s split conscience obliged both the side that was weighed down by guilt and the side that believed extraordinary men were not held to the same moral standards as ordinary men. His pride made it impossible for him to question his theory, and thus he concluded that he, as someone who couldn’t “even manage that”, must not be an extraordinary man.
Raskolnikov commits a murder. He has a theory. Porfiry is an investigator. He too has a theory. Porfiry's is getting closer and closer to winning. Porfiry Petrovich believes many things about criminal nature--and therefore he believes these things will happen to Raskolnikov, the man that he has pinned as the perpetrator or the murder. He uses the comparison of a butterfly moving closer to a candle, the fact that if he lets the criminal wallow in mixed freedom and terror he will be able to complete a mathematical proof of the crime, and that the criminal's best move is to tell the truth, during which endeavor he will ultimately lie and fumble his plan. Perhaps Porfiry Petrovich is an excellent wax maker. He also has some very powerful and resilient matches. He uses these skills to light and let burn a candle that keeps Raskolnikov coming to him, so far twice, on the naive pretense of seeing about his father's watch. We know that Raskolnikov no longer has any care for things in the material world. He deposits all that he stole under a rock. He gave Katerina's family 25 roubles. Money and goods are not a concern for Raskolnikov. He is there because of the undeniable force of the light which Porfiry is relentlessly shining on him. Raskolnikov fits this aspect of Porfiry's theory expertly. Unlike Porfiry did to Raskolnikov's theory, Raskolnikov can find no holes to pick in Porfiry's.
Due to his murder, he had no concern or care for anyone. By killing two women and taking their lives away how could Raskolnikov possess sincere feelings for anyone? Raskolnikov’s lack of care influences how he views his family: “I hate them, I feel a physical hatred for them” (276). Raskolnikov has entirely lost love. If he has deep hatred towards those people most dear to him, then he must greatly lack love. But by Sonia’s actions, Raskolnikov is able to once again feel love. Sonia genuinely loves him. When confessing about the murder, Raskolnikov learns “how great [is] her love for him” (417). He begins to understand how Sonia feels and this realization strikes remorse in him. He becomes upset with himself because “he had made her more miserable” (420). Here Raskolnikov is concerned about Sonia. Earlier Raskolnikov had no feelings for anyone, but now he begins to regret his actions and feels bad about making her cry. Sonia’s deep love for him radiates off of herself and affects Raskolnikov which makes him feel compassion towards her. He begins to understand Sonia’s feelings and intentions even more when he returns for her cross: “ Raskolnikov at that moment felt and knew once for all that Sonia was with him forever and would follow him to the ends of the earth” (521). Raskolnikov recognizes how true and perpetual Sonia’s love and concern for him is and will be. Her love gives him hope for a bright future and thus he starts
Marmeladov asks Raskolnikov to take him home. Rodion does so, and witnesses how Katerina Ivanovna falls on her husband and drags him about by his hair. She kicks Raskolnikov out, assuming him to be a drinking partner of her husband's. As he leaves, he places a handful of change on their windowsill unnoticed. Outside, he regrets this action, but knows he cannot go back to get the money.
The source of hope that Raskolnikov places reveals and influences his thoughts throughout the story. From the beginning of Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov places his hope in the Übermensch ideal, which convinces him to act in any means because he is superior to others, influencing him to “want to attempt a thing” as horrific as murder (2). Throughout his years of living in solitude in “his little room” (420) that is degraded and tattered, Raskolnikov develops a utilitarian character, in which he believes the sacrifice of “one death” (68) is justified for “a hundred lives in exchange” (68). Many times, this character t...
Raskolnikov struggle with guilt specifically is evidenced both in his external surroundings and actions as well as his internal thoughts and commentary. His room is described as having a “poverty-stricken appearance with its dusty yellow paper peeling off the walls, and it was so low pitched that a man of more than average height was ill at case and felt every moment that he would knock his head against the ceiling” (22). Raskolnikov’s setting directly reflects his thoughts and feelings as well as his external circumstances. His room is small, cramped, and confining, representative of the oppression Raskolnikov associates with society and with his own poverty. His yellow wallpaper is significant, as it represents the literal filth and squalor in which he lives, a constant reminder of his poverty and the limitations it places upon him. Raskolnikov’s evident surroundings contrast the pawnbroker’s environment, which indicated cleanliness but was a façade. His now dusty, decayed yellow wallpaper, likely once white, is significant on another level as well as it figuratively represents the uncleanliness that he feels internally as a result of his actions. This uncleanliness that overtakes Raskolnikov becomes guilt and anxiety over the murder. This guilt is then further manifested physically as he becomes ill due to the unease and anxiety. He feels trapped not only by the external conditions of poverty and society, but also by the inevitable consequences and unrelenting guilt that are the result of his sins. He is not only surrounded by filth, but has become filthy
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
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...
He “is nothing but a poor half-crazed creature, soft in temperament, confused in intellect” (Waliszewski), a maverick who believes he must deliver society from mediocrity. Deluded, he murders Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker, and her unsuspecting half-sister, Lizaveta. Throughout the story, Raskolnikov undergoes transformations in all facets of his life, many of which are attributed to his infatuation with Marmeladov’s humble daughter, Sonia. Forced into prostitution, she is seen by Raskolnikov as a fellow transgressor of morality, but also as a savior that will renew him. This new development causes him to decry his nihilistic lifestyle as desolate and insufferable and to expiate, ending his self-imposed alienation and long suffering.
After burying the goods he stole from the pawn broker, Raskolnikov is walking around and decides to visit his friend Razumihin. At first it is almost as if Raskolnikov planned on asking his friend for advice about what he should do about the murders he committed. However, he becomes very nervous and leaves his friend’s home as quickly as possible.
...nfess his crimes in front of everyone. By admitting to his crimes, God would forgive his sins. Sonya is an important individual in Raskolinkov’s life because she gives him strength to confess and redeem himself.. As they both found in love at the ending, Raskolinkov starts following the theory of the ordinary men. He has a relationship with another ordinary person who helps him understand morals.