In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, there are a multitude of spiritual references. With Sonia, the love interest of protagonist Raskolnikov, reading aloud the entire Lazarus passage in the gospel of John, and Sonia herself a Christ figure, spiritual references are prominent throughout the novel. Raskolnikov kills the pawnbroker, Aliona Ivanovna and her sister Lizaveta Ivanovna, early in the narrative. That act plagues him for the rest of the novel. In the epilogue of Crime and Punishment, his sentence is exile to Siberia for this crime, but he experiences a spiritual rebirth brought on by Sonia which once again puts him in the moral right. Raskolnikov’s spiritual rebirth seen in the epilogue of Crime and Punishment is foreshadowed
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He has a high sense of right and wrong, which allows him to logically justify the murder in his head. By killing Aliona, he would be making the world a better place since she would not be there robbing the poor of their treasures. Morally, Raskolnikov does not believe that. Raskolnikov is constantly second guessing himself throughout the novel. One example is the girl harassed by the older man on the street, first he helps her by telling a police officer, then he changes his mind after thinking about it and tells the cop to forget he ever said anything. “‘He has carried off my twenty kopecks,’ Raskolnikov murmured angrily when he was left alone. ‘Well, let him take as much from the other fellow and let him have the girl and so let it end. And why did I want to interfere? Is it for me to help? Have I any right to help? Let them devour each other alive-what is it to me? How did I dare to give to him twenty kopecks? Were they mine?’” (Dostoevsky 51). Raskolnikov is split whether or not if he should have helped the girl. Logically, no, he should not have, but morally, yes, he should help the girl in need. The murder amplifies these feelings a tenfold. “Raskolnikov still holds inflexibly to the idea that the murder is justifiable. And yet his whole being, his entire moral nature is shaken precisely by the moral aspect of the murder.” (Bem par. 13). The murder follows the logic he has to make it justifiable, but shattered the …show more content…
Raskolnikov, from the beginning of the narrative, struggles with committing the murders, feeling physically ill because of what he feels he has to do. But this stumbling block does not stop him, as he still murders the two women. Raskolnikov’s disgust with himself in the beginning of the novel is a manifestation of the guilt he feels. “The feeling of intense repulsion, which had began to oppress and torture his heart while he was on his way to the old woman, had by now reached such a pitch and had taken such a definite form that he did not know what to do with himself to escape from his wretchedness.” (Dostoevsky 11). This repulsion before he actually commits the murder shows how even before he executes the crime he feels the guilt of his actions. Only after the murder is that repulsion gone for a little while, having been appeased. That guilt is still present when he wakes from his exhaustion after the deed is done. However, the guilt he has now is for actually going through with the crime, not just thinking about it. “These neurotic tendencies lead to guilt feelings that cannot be eradicated and explain Raskolnikov’s desire for punishment even before he commits the crime. He does everything to reveal himself because he wishes to suffer in order to alleviate the feelings of guilt. This guilt and subsequent desire for punishment become so strong that he commits the
He has a high sense of right and wrong, which allows him to logically justify the murder in his head. By killing Aliona, he would be making the world a better place since she would not be there robbing the poor of their treasures. Morally, Raskolnikov does not believe that. Raskolnikov is constantly second guessing himself throughout the novel. One example is the girl harassed by the older man on the street, first he helps her by telling a police officer, then he changes his mind after thinking about it and tells the cop to forget he ever said anything. “‘He has carried off my twenty kopecks,’ Raskolnikov murmured angrily when he was left alone. ‘Well, let him take as much from the other fellow and let him have the girl and so let it end. And why did I want to interfere? Is it for me to help? Have I any right to help? Let them devour each other alive-what is it to me? How did I dare to give to him twenty kopecks? Were they mine?’” (Dostoevsky 51). Raskolnikov is split whether or not if he should have helped the girl. Logically, no, he should not have, but morally, yes, he should help the girl in need. The murder amplifies these feelings a tenfold. “Raskolnikov still holds inflexibly to the idea that the murder is justifiable. And yet his whole being, his entire moral nature is shaken precisely by the moral aspect of the murder.” (Bem par. 13). The murder follows the logic he has to make it justifiable, but shattered the …show more content…
Raskolnikov, from the beginning of the narrative, struggles with committing the murders, feeling physically ill because of what he feels he has to do. But this stumbling block does not stop him, as he still murders the two women. Raskolnikov’s disgust with himself in the beginning of the novel is a manifestation of the guilt he feels. “The feeling of intense repulsion, which had began to oppress and torture his heart while he was on his way to the old woman, had by now reached such a pitch and had taken such a definite form that he did not know what to do with himself to escape from his wretchedness.” (Dostoevsky 11). This repulsion before he actually commits the murder shows how even before he executes the crime he feels the guilt of his actions. Only after the murder is that repulsion gone for a little while, having been appeased. That guilt is still present when he wakes from his exhaustion after the deed is done. However, the guilt he has now is for actually going through with the crime, not just thinking about it. “These neurotic tendencies lead to guilt feelings that cannot be eradicated and explain Raskolnikov’s desire for punishment even before he commits the crime. He does everything to reveal himself because he wishes to suffer in order to alleviate the feelings of guilt. This guilt and subsequent desire for punishment become so strong that he commits the