Similarities Between Crime And Punishment Dostoevsky

Decent Essays
Crime and Punishment is a reflection of human nature. Dostoevsky is very understanding about human nature. One of Dostoevsky's understandings, in my opinion, is about the power and danger of man's capability to lie to himself. Raskolnikov convinced himself that he was not committing a crime when killing the pawnbroker, he just performed what society considered a wicked act. Raskolnikov believes that a different rules applies to leaders than to common men. He feels like the leader would not regret killing the pawnbroker for the greater good. Throughout the book there are examples: he mentions Napoleon many times, thinking that for all the blood he spilled, he did good.
Raskolnikov motivation for the murder is based off his philosophy on ordinary

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In this excerpt from Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky expresses different emotions and conflicts of his main character, Raskolnikov, as he questions and condemns the wicked ways of man. Dostoevsky describes the inner turmoil of Raskolnikov, who wishes to help those in need, but his experiences with mankind’s corruption has strayed him to his current belief: no amount of sacrifice can lessen impoverishment, suffering, nor vice. This passage reveals Raskolnikov’s utter disgust with not only the brute who’s trying to pursue the young girl, but society’s justification towards why a percentage of the people are inevitably destined to misfortune. Dostoevsky interprets Raskolnikov’s conflicts with the use of diction, tone, and rhetorical questions.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov, the protagonist, is an outstanding example of a morally ambiguous character. In order for a character to be considered purely evil, the character must be acting out of complete aggression and anger; on the contrary, in order for a character to be considered purely moral, the character must constantly perform actions that not only aid him/her self, but also aid his/her external surroundings. Hence, it would be just to state that Raskolnikov has pervasive moral ambiguity because his actions depict him both as compassionate and misanthropic. Therefore, Raskolnikov’s moral dichotomy reflects his schism in his behavioral personality, and these two sides of the character are crucial to the…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    But even though he knows about Raskolnikov’s crime, he does not report it but instead waits to see Raskolnikov goes to self-confession. • "Redemption" of Raskolnikov in some way. 5. List contradicting behaviors apparent in Raskolnikov. • Opposes Dounia’s marriage with Luzhin vs. reveals to Dounia that she can totally select her husband based on her preference • 19th Russian intellectual supposed to care about social development vs. his dislike of radical ideas • Views crime as the "extraordinary"'s privileges vs. conscience and confession…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Raskolnikov's Guilt

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov’s sense of guilt serves as his primary motivation for finally confessing and serving his punishment. After murdering Alyona the pawnbroker and Lizaveta, Raskolnikov hides from the law, trying his best to avoid punishment. He would have been successful if not for his sense of guilt. Porfiry figures out Raskolnikov is the murderer because Raskolnikov “went to rent the apartment… and asking about blood… because [he is] sick of these stupidities and suspicions” (Dostoevsky 344). Instead of safely staying away from the scene of the crime, Raskolnikov’s guilty conscience force shim to return to witness the aftermath, even making him ask about the blood on the floor, which only the murderer could have…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One side of Raskolnikov is warm and compassionate while another side of him is cold, unfeeling, and self-willed. Raskolnikov’s moral ambiguity is a vital role in the novel because Dostoevsky uses Raskolnikov to make the readers question the validity of a black and white world. Raskolnikov is caught between two contradicting situations. On one hand he is warm and compassionate, like in the second chapter of Part 1 Raskolnikov leaves money for Marmeladov and his family since one of his kids is selling herself to bring money in for the family while the other kids are going hungry because Marmeladov drinks their money away. On pages 45-47, while Raskolnikov is walking in town he comes across a fairly young but drunk girl.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Spilt Sense In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, This insight will focus more on the death of Lizaveta as it more notable to how the killer is affected by it. Thus, the killing of Lizaveta with an axe and the subsequent inner struggle of the protagonist reflects his dual personality dilemma more than the killing of Alyona Ivanova. First, Raskolnikov's name means schism which refers to a divided sense that occurs between two entities based on opinions or beliefs. The fact that Raskolnikov is named as such is meant to reflect his split between his emotions and his actions and the way he thinks.…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book crime and punishment raskolnikov who is the main character of the book has a theory that he comes up with which he thinks will make him more superior than everyone else and that everyone should listen to him then if he can pull of the crime properly. His theory is that he can commit a deadly crime in killing an pawnbroker who he at first tried to steal from and if he could kill her and deal with the guilt he had properly, he will be more superior than the average man. His theory is called the superior man theory, and in this theory he attempts to kill a pawnbroker and does so but is unable to deal with the guilt that comes along with it ending with him turning himself in towards the end of the book. In this superior man theory it is said that a man who can kill someone or commit a certain level crime and that man can then deal…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Culture, the beliefs and custom of a group of people, begins to shape a person from the second that they are born on to the rest of their life. Customs can affect how a child is raised, which in turn affects their thoughts and actions. In the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky the main character, Raskolnikov, is pushed to commit a murder due to his beliefs on power and class. The strict class and power based Russian society directly affected Raskolnikov’s psychological and moral traits.…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Raskolnikov Foil

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In his stirring psychological thriller novel, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky subtly manifests how one cannot live without the compassion and concern of others. Dostoevsky’s use of Raskolnikov’s closest friend as a foil character balances Raskolnikov’s seemingly incorrigible ways with Razumikhin’s solicitous personality by the contrast shown in Dostoevky’s choice of words, which further validates how Raskolnikov needs a person who is compassionate so that he refrains from committing more heinous crimes. Of the numerous characters in the novel, Dostoevsky exemplified the most contrast between Raskolnikov and his only friend, Razumikhin. This serves as a way to define Raskolnikov’s blasphemous personality. It is reasonable that Dostoevsky established Razumikhin as the foil character because he spends the most time with Raskolnikov throughout the novel.…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Raskolnikov Guilt

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Development of Guilt in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment Ideally, when committing a felony, the criminals main concern is not getting caught. In Dostoyevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment, the poverty-stricken, ill man Raskolnikov proves otherwise; it is not the punishment that provokes fear, it is the guilt and psychological instability that will drive the convict to insanity. Set in the late eighteenth century in St. Petersburg, Russia, Raskolnikov is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to murder his pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanova. After convincing himself that he is a “superman”, a man who is so exceptional that moral law does not apply to him, Raskolnikov murders Alyona and her sister, Elizaveta and spends the rest of the novel facing…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Whether or not anyone in their “right minds” could ever kill another human being is a topic discussed every time someone goes to court convicted of murder. While not explicitly discussed in the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Rodion Raskolnikov may have suffered from mental illness long before the guilt of his two murders forced him into insanity. As a result, one can deduce that crime is directly linked to mental illness when factors such as the economy and the environment are accounted for, as shown in the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Epidemiology, the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases, can be used to study the link between crime and mental…

    • 1684 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Due to the fact that he views himself as a superior being, Raskolnikov believes he has the right to murder the pawnbroker, but after doing so he is consumed by a guilty conscience and starts to rethink his superiority. Raskolnikov becomes unwilling to accept the fact that he might not be extraordinary, so he constantly tries to convince himself that the murder was justified. In this part of Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov represents the ideals of Nihilism and Utilitarianism. His relation to Nihilism makes him reject all meaning in life and create his own moral code, which leads him to carry out the murder. He doesn’t value family or relationships, and he rejects values and emotions.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Raskolnikov: A Freudian Psychoanalysis of the “Extraordinary Man” Raskolnikov is the type of character that Freud would have obsessed over: a man with a perceived sense of mental stability but with a realm of repressed desires — all the more reason to explore the unconscious, the uncharted realms of the human psyche. Contrary to Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious, the dreams in Dostoevsky’s novel function as something beyond the characterization of archetypes common to multiple individuals. Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, proves to be more concerned with Raskolnikov’s perceptions regarding his crime, and the effects of self-instituted punishment, rather than the punishments inflicted by the institutions or the nature…

    • 1601 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dostoevsky portrays Sonya, who is herself flawed, in a better light the calculating murderer Rodya. Because of this, Crime and Punishment seems to be a criticism of the type of nihilistic belief system Rodya holds. Rodya, while a bright former law student, falls short of wisdom. In Rodya’s own words, ironically enough, “It takes more than intelligence to act intelligently” (p. 235). This is Rodya’s flaw — he believes he is ‘extraordinary’ and can thus use criminal means to achieve his visions (p.…

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Crime and Punishment Essay Imagine coming home one winter day barefoot and barely clothed and hearing your siblings crying of hunger and coldness because there wasn’t enough food and blankets. More than 1.3 billion people live in poverty today, and 1 billion of those individuals are innocent children (Unknown). Knowing the struggle of poverty, these children obtain enough motivation to strive for success or in times of desperation commit crimes such as stealing: food, clothes, or anything they need. In the novel Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Raskolnikov, a young man, murders two women and is tormented by keeping it a secret. He as well as his family struggle to get out of poverty as well as his soul mate, Sonya Semyonovn.…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays