Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment" by F. M. Dostoevsky

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

"Crime and Punishment" is a famous work by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published by the Russky Vestnik magazine in 1866. The work is considered the first great novel in the period of the already mature work of the author. It becomes popular not only among contemporaries. Today it is included in the school curriculum. Young readers are engaged in a thorough analysis of the act of the main character and write an essay on the topic of Raskolnikov.

Why the crime was committed

The narrative focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemma that the main character Rodion Raskolnikov was trying to solve. "Crime and Punishment" is about an impoverished student who not only devised but executed a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker because of her condition.

Raskolnikov claims that with the money from the pawnshop he will be able to do good deeds. To somehow justifycrime, the character talks about ridding the world of a useless parasite. Moreover, he commits murder in order to test his hypothesis that some people are not only able to do this, but even have the right to do so. Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment" several times compares himself with Napoleon Bonaparte. Rodion believes that killing is permissible if it is committed in pursuit of a high goal.

The meaning of the work, or Theory of the protagonist

The novel "Crime and Punishment" is quite complicated. Strictly speaking, this work is a detective story. But one where the reader knows who killed from the very beginning. There is no intrigue associated with the search for the killer. Here, the solution to the crime has not a criminal, but a philosophical and psychological meaning. The killing itself is not easy. It is rather theoretical.

What is the theory followed by Rodion Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment"? There are two categories into which the human race is divided. Some people are great, leading all of humanity to the goal, carrying out big plans and moving history forward. They can afford absolutely everything. Even a crime - in order to achieve their bright goals.

Other small and insignificant, unremarkable people. Their life is of no interest to anyone and is not important. History rams them mercilessly into its own foundation. And then Raskolnikov asks himself what category of people he himself, RodionRomanovich, belongs. In an effort to answer him, the hero goes to the crime.

The sympathy of the reader and other characters of the work for Rodion

Is Raskolnikov a negative character in the novel "Crime and Punishment"? Even when everyone knows that he is a killer, he does not lose the favor of his loved ones: neither his mother, nor his sister, and even more so Sonya. Even Rodion is not deprived of reader sympathy. Despite his crime, he still appears as a pure soul.

This is a person who is very susceptible to the pain of the whole world, to social injustice. Rodion Romanovich is responsive. But the worst thing is that he is the theorist. His thought seems to suppress life itself, entering into conflict with it and even trying to impose some kind of its own scheme on it.

Charity, or Mechanism of self-deception

All events in the work "Crime and Punishment" take place on the threshold - on the verge of life and death, common sense and madness. This is one of the characteristic features of the poetics of Fyodor Dostoevsky. The mechanism of self-deception is very clearly described in the novel. After the crime, Raskolnikov tries to convince himself that he committed it in order to become a benefactor, save his family, sister and mother.

He's actually kidding himself. Rodion Romanovich committed this crime for himself, in order to prove not only the likelihood of his theory, but also that he can do this, because he is not a "louse", as Raskolnikov himself puts it. His quotes from the work are also filled with the meaning of the theory thatthe character is so stubbornly brings to life. But in order to understand the fallacy of Rodion's opinion, it is enough to consider, for example, Sonya, who is his antipode in the novel. She also crossed a certain line, but at the same time the girl really sacrificed herself for others.

Rodion Raskolnikov. Crime and Punishment, or the Fall of Personality

Dostoevsky's novel is a work about the fall and resurrection of a person. About the struggle in her soul of a false idea with her conscience. And conscience for Fyodor Dostoevsky is the voice of God, a messenger of higher meaning and truth. It would seem what it is to kill a harmful old woman, useless and spiteful. But it turned out that, having killed her, Rodion Raskolnikov killed himself. He has driven himself into a corner of seclusion, isolation and loneliness.

And the way out is possible only on the way to overcoming a false idea. And the heroine of the novel Sonechka Marmeladova helps Rodion Romanovich in this. It is she who is the bearer of the highest truth in this work. The truth of love, self-sacrifice and forgiveness. With her help, the personality of the murderer Rodion Raskolnikov can be revived.

Possible resurrection of the main character

The reader sees how Marmeladova and Raskolnikov in the novel "Crime and Punishment" are transferred to the banks of the great Siberian river. This happens at the end of the piece. It is no longer stone Petersburg under the feet of the characters, but ordinary earth, soil. Around greenery, forest and river. And this is very important. It is here that the resurrection of the hero is possible. But he is not yetrepented.

The only thing Rodion Romanovich regrets is that he made a confession. The convicts feel this and hate him, but love Sonya. Because for any Russian person, according to Fyodor Dostoevsky, it is important to know that although he has sinned, the very concept of sin does not refute. There is a higher court. And Raskolnikov would like to cancel it. For this, the convicts hate him.

Cure of Rodion Romanovich with the help of Sonechka

Further in the work follows Raskolnikov's dream about an ulcer that has engulfed the whole earth, about murders, about the fact that people cannot agree among themselves. And this is all a consequence of the idea of Rodion Romanovich. In the event that it covered the whole earth. It is after this dream that the recovery of the main character begins.

As Fyodor Mikhailovich himself says, his heroes were resurrected by love. But the work remains open. The novel ends with words about a new story that is yet to come. The author does not say the last word about the hero and the world. The text space remains open. Apparently, just as the fate of Dostoevsky himself was discovered.

History of writing the work

"Crime and Punishment" is a turning point for Fyodor Mikhailovich both in his personal life and in his literary life. Dostoevsky conceived his novel in the summer of 1865. At that time, he lost most of his fortune, could not pay his bills and even afford proper food.

During that period, the author owed large amounts of money to his creditors, but neverthelessat the same time he tried to help the family of his brother Mikhail, who died at the beginning of the previous year. And it was at this difficult moment that Fyodor Mikhailovich met Anna Snitkina, who at first was his stenographer. And later became the second wife.

After marrying her, Dostoevsky goes abroad to escape his creditors. He also takes on his brother's huge debts. They spend four years abroad, and all this time Fedor Mikhailovich continues to create his new works. Nevertheless, the novel "Crime and Punishment" can be considered the most fateful for the writer.