Heaven & Hell - Dostoevsky

This essay aims to analyse the representation of heaven and hell, both in form and content within Feodor Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’ and John Donne selected poems. We will see that the characters experience hellish nightmares, torment and feelings of longing in order to deliver the humanist message: we are all connected and that despite our perceptions or ideas of transcendence, it our place amongst others that restores our humanity. Those that place themselves in the part of a “superman” (whether of there own choosing or by happening), their isolation from the rest of society will inevitably lead them to experiencing the closest thing to experiencing a genuine Hell on Earth.
Within the Christian religion Hell is generally defined as the everlasting providence for sinners and wrong doers that have not repented for their ways on earth, denying themselves Christ and in turn been cast into desolation. Reflective of the above quote, Hell’s existence is inferred from the bible. Outlined as a literal location for the unrepentant, absent of God’s presence. In the Christian religion, sin is seen as a corruptive and tainting agent that affects the soul. There is an emphasis on the cleansing and repenting for committed sins entirely because sin cannot exist in heaven. Through death the soul transcends the body and through the divinity of Gods judgment a soul will either be raised to heaven or cast into the abyss. This logically makes sense when you consider that God vanquishes all sin and evil and if your soul is of sin or evil it cannot exist in Gods presence, thus you reside in a realm without Gods presence (Hell), without God’s warmth, lonely, in solitude with only the sins of your past. Although this definition may highlight key Christian ideas of hell, its use or representation within novels and poems is often quite different from its literal existence; instead it takes place in the mind or their environment. Experience hardship or torment in their daily