Understanding Another's Wrongdoing Summary

One can never completely or completely accurately understand another person. In the article “Understanding Another’s Wrongdoing,” Christopher Cowley argues that a significant idea present in Crime and Punishment actually goes against this general psychological concept. He believes that the process of being understood and seeking to understand others drives this novel through the actions of Raskolnikov. By specifically analyzing the confession scene near the ending, he focuses on three of Raskolnikov's excuses and Sonia’s reactions to each in order to illustrate the development of “loving understanding” in the novel (Cowley 90). In order to understand someone, a person first searches for the beliefs and desires behind an action. As Raskolnikov rehearses his confession, …show more content…
Punishment becomes the only way that Raskolnikov can redeem himself in the eyes of Sonia and the moral rules of society. Once he understands that “crime must be punished because it was a crime” then he finds an understanding not rooted in “his future behavior or moral salvation” (Cowley 89, italics in original). Sonia accepts his actions and though she initially rejects what he has done, her “courageous goodness” leads her to what Cowley calls a “loving understanding” (89-90). This form of understanding does not rely on a basis of beliefs and desires, but rather on discovering something in “the justificatory economy of the situation….by turning one’s attention toward the object in a loving way, a transformative way” (Cowley 90). Sonia accounts for Raskolnikov’s actions through a transformative kind of loving understanding that the novel has been building towards. Even in the midst of heinous crimes, the characters still seek redeemability through others understanding their lives and actions in new