Despite a guilty conscious, Raskolnikov cannot find any hint of remorse in his awful act and …show more content…
Incarceration means time is at a standstill, leaving extra room for self-reflection, especially of one’s own wrongdoings. Furthermore, with time to reflect during his imprisonment there is no way for him to escape his guilt-ridden conscious other than to constantly be reminded by it. If presented with execution, it wouldn’t have been fair to end this perpetuator’s life without inflicting any pain after such pain brought upon his two innocent victims. Although this punishment is not as severe, “the point isn’t that he won’t run away because he has nowhere to run to [now], but that psychologically he won’t escape” (Dostoevsky, 326). Physical punishment is not merely what counts towards forgiveness and justice, but it is remorse that counts greatly to our redemption and …show more content…
At first glance, Raskolnikov cannot accept Sonya’s love because he believes he is not worthy of it, however he later begins to acknowledge the power of her love and almost have faith again. Once accepting her love, he starts to reflect and finds that “everything, even his crime… his sentence and his exile, seemed to him now, in the first rush of emotion to be something external and strange” (527). He almost conceives the idea that he was at fault for his murders although he cannot fully state that indeed it was the wrong thing to do because her integrity, innocence and faith in God allows him to. Thereby exemplifying the idea, that one cannot find redemption for a better life alone, but instead with the help and affection of others. In the end, the reader sees that unity and “love had raised them from the dead, and the heart of each held endless springs of life for the heart of the other” (526). For one to find himself or herself again, a redemptive being is needed to purify us.
In the world, there is salvation through suffering if we choose to accept and believe in its genuine purpose. Raskolnikov’s ultimate punishment is not as severe as it would have been because the act of punishment does not always have to be cruel or physical since our thoughts often bring us misery. Imprisonment does not always contribute to the forgiveness of our sins, but