Crime And Punishment
Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" is the
story of a poor man in
Russia who mentally destroys himself of his guilt
through pain and suffering. It
analyzes the mental and physical conflicts
brought upon himself by his crime.
His complications are put together by
the conflicting personalities which he
shows. The reader is encouraged to
characterize him by his cold, ravenous side.
Yet, without the warm
peaceful side of his nature and the people evolving around
him, Raskolnikov
never realizes the problems in his beliefs and actions.
Raskolnikov is
repeatedly emphasized for the alternating style of his
personality, which
both are very important. Raskolnikov's cold side leads him to
develop his
theory that extra ordinary men have the right to commit crimes, and
also to
commit murder. This side of him bases all decisions on reasonability,
rather
than on feeling. A person can be absolutely nothing without emotions.
The
other side of his character is kind and generous. Without this side
of
Raskolnikov being told in the novel, the reader can only see him as an
evil
murderer, and not an mislead victim, as Dostoevsky tries to show. In the
novel
"Crime and Punishment," Raskolnikov shows random acts of
kindness
whenever he finds a person in need. He gives money to the Marmeladov
family, he
attempts to aid Marmeladov when he dies, and he tries to get a
drunken girl home
and away from the stranger. All of these things were done
spontaneously. He
simply feels that at the time it is the right thing to do.
However, after a
short period of time his views can reverse dramatically. He
starts to sensibly
analyze what he has done, and then feels that his actions
were dumb and stupid.
This spontaneous change shows the return of his
cold side, and it occurs after
every kind thing that Raskolnikov does. These
changes and alterations between
two different personalities give Raskolnikov
separate visions on his
characteristics. The novel is focused on the
differences between the two points
of view, and the reader is able to see how
one person can change to another
person in a matter of seconds. Both
Raskolnikov's generous and evil actions are
essential to his character
because they allow the reader to identify the two
different points of view
and the two characteristics of his personality.