Crime and Punishment

Punishment is defined as the infliction of a penalty for an offense. The novel Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky took place in St. Petersburg, Russia, mid 1860s. The main character, Raskolnikov, committed the murder of a pawn broker and her sister which he became ill with guilt. He is accused as the murderer but denied it until the end where he eventually confessed and was sent to Siberia. In the novel, Raskolnikov had an unbearable amount of guilt, faced punishment by imprisonment, and gave his heart to God for forgiveness. Conflicts he was put through helped illuminate the meaning of the novel: For all crimes, there will be punishment. Throughout Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov's guilt got the worst of him. After the murder, he was called to the police where he overheard conversations about the murder which caused him to faint. When he recovered, he blamed fainting on the paint and hurried home because his guilt made him think "there will be a search at once." (pg 109) Rodya fell ill which was because he had to face a great deal of tormenting guilt. The amount of guilt he had in his heart sparked the meaning of the novel which was a form of punishment for his crime. At the end of Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov confessed to the murder and was imprisoned in Siberia for eight years. Sonia followed him as "link" between the family. Rodya felt that the conditions of his life in prison were not bad although the other prisoners didn't like him. He also felt that he had to "submit to the idiocy of a sentence" because he saw his crime as a "blunder" because it could happen to anyone. (pg 535) His imprisonment in Siberia was the real punishment he had to face for his crime. Because of the guilt and punishment Raskolnikov put him self through, he confessed his crime and became a "good Christian" by doing his time. Sonia had given him the book of the old testament which he kept under his pillow at prison but had not opened once in a year. He still did not open