Preview

Crime and Punishment Essay Example

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
381 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Crime and Punishment Essay Example
2003: Crime and Punishment
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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment centers on Raskolnikov, a man who chooses to murder a common pawnbroker while he struggles with guilt, alienation, and pride. The choice to commit murder creates a division between Raskolnikov and society because he violates the moral laws governing society. In Crime and Punishment, the rift between Raskolnikov and society is both alienating and enriching for his character and demonstrates Dostoevsky’s opinion of an individual’s place in society.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both characters reject ordinary standards and morals; good and evil are ambiguous, and they are pressured both socially and emotionally. “ … I am eking out my days in my corner, taunting myself with the bitter and entirely useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot seriously become anything; that only a fool can become something.” as indicated in this quote, the underground man believes that “an intelligent man” is incapable of becoming prominent. “Yes, sir, an intelligent nineteenth century man must be, is morally bound to be, an essentially characterless creature; and a man of character, a man of action-an essentially limited creature.”, the quote is an elaboration on the character’s previous statement; he defines “an intelligent man” that is contrary to the norm. Correspondingly, “‘The old woman was only an illness.... I was in a hurry to overstep.... I didn't kill a human being, but a principle!’”, as stated in the novel, Raskolnikov has a different moral perspective on humans too. Being a killer, to justify his actions, Raskolnikov considers his victim as “an illness” and “principle”; she was merely a human to him. They both possess distinct views on humans, contrasting the standard…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Study Guide Lesson 1

    • 5830 Words
    • 24 Pages

    Raskolnikov's name means “divided,” which is appropriate since his fundamental character trait is his alienation from human society. His pride and intellectualism lead him to disdain humanity. Raskolnikov is split between an emotion ego and a logic ego. The conflict between these two sides of his character drives him insane and causes him to sink into apathy until one personality wins out over the other.…

    • 5830 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rasconikov Duality

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the novel Crime and Punishment, Rasconikov is the main character who is a relatively poor ex-student in Saint Petersburg facing mental issues and struggling with the battle between his pride and conscious. Rasconikov often acts one way one minute, and another the next which makes it very difficult to distinguish Rsconikov’s true and actual personality. It is said that Rasconikov is a dual character, one being a very isolated, detached, sneaky, and disconnected, the other being very kind, giving, considerate, and sincere.…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Razumihin acts as a good man and helps out Raskolnikov despite Raskolnikov being extremely hostile towards him sometimes. Razumihin is defined as a good man because of his beliefs. Through his beliefs of telling truth, accepting errors, and accepting suffering Razumihin is good. Additionally, Razumihin has a strong dislike for socialites and a like for the true goodness of mankind.c Razumihin is defined as good and uses this definition to define mankind as good.…

    • 1999 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    For as long as humans have existed, they have always found some way to entertain themselves. Even the earliest societies have left evidence of some sort of activity or hobby that they used as a form of entertainment. Perhaps the most famous building that was used as a form of entertainment is the Roman Colosseum, also known as the Flavian amphitheater. In ancient Rome, the most popular form of entertainment was the gladiator fights. These fights, usually among animals and trained public fighters, were staged in open arenas in a city's forum. There is evidence that the gladiator fights were originally staged in Rome's main town square because of a remark by the first-century B.C. Roman architect Vitruvius. He once wrote: "The custom of giving gladiatorial shows in the forum has been handed down from our ancestors." As the years passed, the fights became more and more popular so they drew more spectators. Since these spectators needed seating, games officials put up wooden seats around a forum just prior to a public show and dismantled them afterward. The name amphitheater is given to a public building of the Classical period which was used for spectator sports, games, and displays. Before the Colosseum was built, oval-shaped amphitheaters that could seat thousands of people were constructed of wood. However, many of them burned down and some collapsed. In A.D. 27, in a town not far north of Rome, an ancient wooden amphitheater collapsed because its foundations were not rested on solid ground and the wooden supports were not securely fastened. Fifty thousand people were crushed in the disaster. This made Romans realize that it was time to start building stronger, more permanent amphitheaters, ones made of stone. Building such a tremendous stone structure was no easy task. It was time…

    • 5673 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Raskolnikov's dream of the murder of a mare demonstrates his split personality. The dream revolves around three very different main characters (the child, Mikolka, and the horse); all of these characters are versions of Raskolnikov. The character that Raskolnikov identifies as himself is a small child who is moved by the violence of the murderous mob to "put his arms round her bleeding dead head and [kiss] it, [kiss] the eyes and [kiss] the lips" (57). When he wakes up he is still in the persona of the little boy, his emotional side, who is horrified by the violence he has been contemplating, saying that "I knew that I could never bring myself to it" (57), but his other, more intellectual side can and does bring himself to murder Alyona Ivanovna. Mikolka, who beats his mare to death on the theory that he can destroy what is his own, represents this side of Raskolnikov. He makes his theory clear by repeatedly shouting, "My property!" (56). This supposedly logical theory does not,…

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Raskolnikov confesses to the murder of Alyona and Lizaveta, he is sentenced to eight-years in a prison camp in Siberia, where he is forced to perform hard labor. Despite his confession, he still has not repented for his actions and refuses to surrender his heart, body, and soul completely to God. Even now, he still believes he did not commit anything inherently wrong or sinful. At this point, nothing has really changed significantly other than his environment--simply, same old feelings, just a different place. Due to his pride, he is obsessed with the idea that he is superior and “extraordinary” (249).…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The two sharply contrasted settings in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky are symbolic of how turbulent Raskolinikov’s mind becomes after he murders Alyona Ivanov. In the bustling and disgusting Saint Petersburg, Raskolinikov has to suddenly battle the guilt that comes with Alyona’s demise yet once Raskolinikov confesses to his crime and serves his sentence in the lonely and removed Siberia; his mind relaxes. Similar to The Stranger, most of Crime and Punishment takes place during the summer, when the hot sun muddles Raskolinikov’s mind as it did to Meursaults’s. While Meursault uses the sun as an excuse to why he committed murder, Raskolinikov tried to justify his actions to Sonya; but ultimately Raskolinikov definitely comprehended his own guilt and spent most of the novel attempting to ease his shame.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Unraveling of Sanity

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Raskolnikov’s guilt stems from the confliction of his humanity with the atrocity that he committed when he murdered “‘the old pawnbroker woman and her sister Lizaveta with an axe and robbed them.’” (Dostoevsky 526). Raskolnikov was motivated not only by his greed and lust for money, but by many other factors. Raskolnikov was “crushed by poverty” (Dostoevsky 1) and was barely able to buy food. Another motivation for Raskolnikov was his idea that he is a “superman” and that he was allowed, even supposed, to harm others and kill for the good of society. These factors: greed, hunger, the idea of “supermen” etc. all contributed to the fall of Raskolnikov.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Raskolnikov, a poor former student living in quite disturbing surroundings, kills two women. His motive wasn't even quite clear. He then lies to everyone around him about the crime he committed. Even though the character I just described sounds like an awful human being, I found myself being attracted to and even feeling pity for him, as well as being repulsed by him. I credit these feeling to the ambiguity of his character, I could feel his guilt and shame, but then I would feel his superiority to society and almost an unnerving response to the death of the pawnbroker and her sister. His slight schizophrenia about the situation is what caused me to feel uncertain about how I should react to his character. The reader's expected reaction to Raskolnikov will never be set in stone, just a mere imprint in the ever changing…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Utilitarianism is, “a thinking process with the objective of determining whether an idea is right or wrong” (Rosen et al.,“How” 746). This theory follows the notion that the greatest good for the greatest number of people should be the principle of conduct. Raskolnikov accepts this theory in order to justify the murder of Ivanovna. Mill said, the best action is the one that maximizes utility, or total benefit, and reduces suffering (746). I chose to use utilitarianism to some up moral reasoning and how Raskolnikov based his murder on the idea of utilitarianism.…

    • 273 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book “Crime and Punishment”, Dostoevsky explores the path of Raskolnikov who has faced many difficulties and obstacles throughout his life. He commits murder and is faced with the long and extremely painful journey of seeking redemption. Raskolnikov believes that by the law of nature, men have been divided into two groups of “ordinary” and “extraordinary”.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Although it’s hard to know what he was like before the novel started, it can be inferred that he wasn’t always insane. Poverty and anger drove a man who used to be a hardworking university student to commit a murder and lose his sanity. From the opening of the book, his paranoia is evident. Raskolnikov seemed to have no other objective besides worrying about the thoughts of others. This paranoia is part of what makes him so impulsive. In many parts of the book, he allows his insanity to think for him. Raskolnikov’s dreams and hallucinations come after the paranoia and impulsiveness. They truly show how alone he is. The real-life connection between sanity and interaction with people is evident in Crime and Punishment. As Raskolnikov begins to talk to people again, his mental state gets better. His mind is at its worst when he is alone. If Raskolnikov had friends to rely on from the beginning, Crime and Punishment might have been a very different…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Crime and Punishment

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    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.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays