In the book, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the protagonist of the novel, Raskolnikov a former student who out of an act of long time loneliness commits murder, creates the perception of the morally ambiguous character and leaves us questioning whether Raskolnikov is purely good or purely evil.
A mentally ill person can do things that seem right and normal to them but different and wrong to others such as the purely good and purely evil. Raskolnikov in the year before committing his crime, became rather mentally ill because his act of rejecting society and socialization. He was not in a state of mind to be able to make this sort of decision, or even be left alone for long lengths of time. His illness is just one of many reasons that prove Raskolnikov as being a morally ambiguous character. Another reason is his belief in the superman theory, which means he believes in making the world right and saving society. In Raskolnikov’s mind the pawnbroker was ruining society. These reasons lead to the answer that Raskolnikov can be purely good.
Raskolnikov is mentally ill, and that explains a lot, but other than his illness he had the intent and drive to personally murder the pawnbroker. Raskolnikov didn’t just happen to kill the pawnbroker, although that was the case with pawnbroker’s sister, he legitimately seeked her out and planned his murder. He wanted to murder her for no good reason either. He came upon the perfect chance to perform his task and he took advantage without even looking back. Also Raskolnikov never truly felt guilt for killing the pawnbroker until people started asking him what he knows. This right here makes him a morally ambiguous character with the purely evil side to it.
Many people have different thoughts on Raskolnikov as a morally ambiguous character, some people think he was just delusional and that he is purely good. Some people think that he is mad and is purely evil. But that’s the point of a