Fyodor Dostoevsky Influence On Crime And Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s background had an influence on his writing of Crime and Punishment. Having been pardoned from the death sentence, seconds from its being carried out and instead sentenced to 4 years of labor in Omsk, Siberia as well as 5 years of service in the Siberian regiment, Dostoevsky rejected many of the Western ideals of his youth during adulthood. He shifted his beliefs to a strongly conservative adherence to the Russian Orthodox faith. Dostoevsky’s beliefs are highlighted in the novel Crime and Punishment in its description of a man who falls victim to a corrupt Russian society, abandons all morals through murdering a woman, and eventually finds redemption through God. In this novel, death is a common occurrence: whether it be
Raskolnikov, the protagonist, out of poverty and a nihilistic philosophy, makes the decision to murder Alyona Ivanovna, the old pawnbroker. He hesitates over this decision for a long period of time, considering the moral implications as well as self-loathing for feeling unable to complete the task: “I shall strike her on the head, split her skull open(…)it was base, loathsome, vile, vile…the very thought of it made me feel sick and filled me with horror(…) I couldn’t do it,”(Raskolnikov, 49). Abandonment of morals leaves one with no clear purpose, even when it comes to murder, Raskolnikov goes between self-loathing for having the idea and self-loathing for being unable to go through with the task. His decision is catalyzed upon hearing that Lizaveta, Alyona’s sister, would be gone one day, leaving the old woman alone. Raskolnikov feels validated when he overhears a conversation between a two men at a tavern: “A hundred thousand good deeds could be done and helped, on that old woman’s money which will be buried in a monastery!”(student, 54). Hearing this speaks to the side of Raskolnikov which is not nihilist and believes that this action is for a moral cause. Nihilism advocates a total overhaul of all institutions and the pawnbroker represents an institution of a capitalist economy as she retains the wealth. However, upon murdering Alyona, Raskolnikov leaves most of her possessions behind, taking
Raskolnikov lives a life which ultimately leads to his imprisonment in Siberia which provides an escape from the hellish St. Petersburg. He could have ended his life, but was instead redeemed. In contrast to this, the character Svidrigailov, who also has abandoned many morals through the attempted rape of Dounia, commits suicide, before he can repent his immoral ways. Dounia could have been his salvation, but his realization that he did not love her proved too much for him to handle and he killed himself: “perhabs she would have made a new man of me somehow…”(397). In contrast to this, Raskolnikov, an immoral character who could have continued down this path and either killed himself or been killed like the other characters leading insustainable lives, was instead saved, by Sonia, a Christ figure. As the relationship progresses, she encourages him to confess: Go at once, this very minute, stand at the cross-roads, bow down to all the world and say to all men aloud, ‘I am a murderer!’ Then God will send you life again.”(Sonia, 330). She guides him to redemption that would otherwise have led to a wasteful life ending in death by accident or by