An Analysis of Intellectualism in Crime and Punishment
On December 22, 1849, at eight A.M., Fyodor Dostoyevsky was roughly tied to a wooden stake and blindfolded (Townsend). An opponent of tsarist autocracy and serfdom, the young writer had joined a progressive group known as the Petrashevsky Circle. He was soon arrested for subversive political activity against Tsar Nicholas I and condemned to death. As members of the firing squad raised their guns, a courier arrived and revealed the prisoners’ true sentence, four years of hard labor in an Omsk stockade. After this experience, Dostoevsky developed a fear of death and a distrust of rationalism. In fact, while writing to his brother, the author noted that there was nothing, “more beautiful, …show more content…
Raskolnikov’s motivation to kill the pawnbroker finds fertile soil in this theory, and he notes, “I killed a vile noxious insect, an old pawnbroker woman, of use to no one! ... Killing her was atonement for forty sins. She was sucking the life out of poor people. Was that a crime?’” (491). According to Rodion, the murder of Aliona is justified because of the harm she inflicted upon the poor and needy. Morality, as seen by Raskolnikov, is not a principle-based system of right and wrong, but a tool that stems from social utility. Dostoevsky’s writing, in defiance, “insists that moral imperative comes from the heart” (Cherkasova). The crimes committed by Raskolnikov arise from a desire, “to take the first step, to obtain means, and then everything would have been smoothed over by benefits immeasurable in comparison…” (492). Nevertheless, after the murder, he fails to find solace in social benefit. Instead, his guilt drives him to illness, hallucinations, and emotional and spiritual anguish. By illustrating Raskolnikov’s struggle between morality and social profit, Dostoevsky reveals the weakness of community-based ethics and the harmful effects of secular …show more content…
After the Enlightenment, European intelligentsia began studying the relationship between human consciousness and action. The inner mechanics of the human mind could be studied, interpreted, and generalized (Cherry). After observing Raskolnikov’s illness and half-lucid ravings, Zossimov offers the theory that physical circumstances induce mental health, and he advises Rodion to, “avoid the elementary, so to speak, fundamental causes tending to produce your morbid condition: in that case you will be cured, if not, it will go from bad to worse” (213-214). Furthermore, in his analysis of guilty men, Porfiry argues, “For if a man is guilty, you must be able to get something substantial out of him; one may reckon upon most surprising results indeed” (428). As seen by the investigator, mental status is no longer solely an indicator of guilt, but a tool useful for catching criminals. Finally, Lebeziatnikov reveals how innovations in science have included new treatments for mental health. After Katerina Ivanovna’s mental breakdown, the young Progressive privately states to Raskolnikov, “in Paris they have been conducting serious experiments as to the possibility of curing the insane, simply by logical argument” (402-403). Dostoevsky, however, argues through the character of Raskolnikov that the genuine path to
On December 22, 1849, at eight A.M., Fyodor Dostoyevsky was roughly tied to a wooden stake and blindfolded (Townsend). An opponent of tsarist autocracy and serfdom, the young writer had joined a progressive group known as the Petrashevsky Circle. He was soon arrested for subversive political activity against Tsar Nicholas I and condemned to death. As members of the firing squad raised their guns, a courier arrived and revealed the prisoners’ true sentence, four years of hard labor in an Omsk stockade. After this experience, Dostoevsky developed a fear of death and a distrust of rationalism. In fact, while writing to his brother, the author noted that there was nothing, “more beautiful, …show more content…
Raskolnikov’s motivation to kill the pawnbroker finds fertile soil in this theory, and he notes, “I killed a vile noxious insect, an old pawnbroker woman, of use to no one! ... Killing her was atonement for forty sins. She was sucking the life out of poor people. Was that a crime?’” (491). According to Rodion, the murder of Aliona is justified because of the harm she inflicted upon the poor and needy. Morality, as seen by Raskolnikov, is not a principle-based system of right and wrong, but a tool that stems from social utility. Dostoevsky’s writing, in defiance, “insists that moral imperative comes from the heart” (Cherkasova). The crimes committed by Raskolnikov arise from a desire, “to take the first step, to obtain means, and then everything would have been smoothed over by benefits immeasurable in comparison…” (492). Nevertheless, after the murder, he fails to find solace in social benefit. Instead, his guilt drives him to illness, hallucinations, and emotional and spiritual anguish. By illustrating Raskolnikov’s struggle between morality and social profit, Dostoevsky reveals the weakness of community-based ethics and the harmful effects of secular …show more content…
After the Enlightenment, European intelligentsia began studying the relationship between human consciousness and action. The inner mechanics of the human mind could be studied, interpreted, and generalized (Cherry). After observing Raskolnikov’s illness and half-lucid ravings, Zossimov offers the theory that physical circumstances induce mental health, and he advises Rodion to, “avoid the elementary, so to speak, fundamental causes tending to produce your morbid condition: in that case you will be cured, if not, it will go from bad to worse” (213-214). Furthermore, in his analysis of guilty men, Porfiry argues, “For if a man is guilty, you must be able to get something substantial out of him; one may reckon upon most surprising results indeed” (428). As seen by the investigator, mental status is no longer solely an indicator of guilt, but a tool useful for catching criminals. Finally, Lebeziatnikov reveals how innovations in science have included new treatments for mental health. After Katerina Ivanovna’s mental breakdown, the young Progressive privately states to Raskolnikov, “in Paris they have been conducting serious experiments as to the possibility of curing the insane, simply by logical argument” (402-403). Dostoevsky, however, argues through the character of Raskolnikov that the genuine path to