Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment - Book Report/Review Example

 Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment Introduction Reading the novel “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky everyone can’t but understand how intelligent and wise person the author was. Notwithstanding that he was from the nobility, he knew a lot about the life of the peasantry and understood poor people very well. In his novel he tells us about the despair of poor and helpless, about a great number of problems they have to struggle with. Choice and struggle represent two psychological issues of “Crime and Punishment”. These issues alarm the souls of the characters. This is the author’s view on the world and existence of humans in this world. A free-thinking character Rodion Raskolnikov wants to review the decisions on all the main life’s questions. In his crazy dream he creates his own world, strange and vague, but so attractive that he can’t help thinking about it. In the given paper we will consider and try to explain the most interesting issues raised by Dostoyevsky in his outstanding novel “Crime and Punishment”. Wrong strategic decisions made by the society and by the protagonist. Dostoyevsky is considered to be the one of the writers-strategists. Strategic approach implies working out the plan of actions to serve one idea. It is interesting to trace how these decisions were shown by the author in the novel. At first, Raskolnikov sees our world as a place of justice and good deeds. At first his own idea seems awful to him, when he hears the students’ conversation in the tavern in the first part of the novel: angry, sick, old and unnecessary woman on the one side and young power dying without any support on the other side; hundreds of good deeds, which would be possible to perform for her money (“Crime and Punishment”, p.2). This is the example of the first decision that belongs both to student and to the whole society. What ideas is the student talking about? What aim deserves such strategy? The main character of the novel is sure that all the people are divided into two groups: simple people and extraordinary individuals, who have a gift to say their own word. According to Raskolnikov, Lycurgus, Solon and Napoleon are “extraordinary” and he also wants to become a one of these great heroes who served one idea (“Crime and Punishment”, p.153). It is not by chance that he adverts to the figure of Napoleon as it was him who did not stop before killing thousands of people. He sacrificed a lot of lives in order to reach his goal. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people can be saved from poverty, depravity, death for old woman’s money. He just needs to kill her and then devote his life to help people. Thousands of lives for only one (Crime and Punishment, p.40). The nobility of the idea is obvious – to save people. And what is about means to realize it? In order to facilitate the implementation of his idea he starts communicate with such people as Svidrigailov who also values only his idea and feel no moral obstacles on the way to its realization (“Crime and Punishment”, p.164). In his attempts to think and act like Napoleon, the student in the tavern, Svidrigailov and many others, Raskolnikov begins to treat real life as strategic game of chess and people as chess-men. He decides what piece to eliminate in order to achieve one great goal. Unfortunately, many people in the society made and make such decisions sacrificing a life of people. These decision-makers forget the ten tables, they forget the real value of people’s life, pleasure of birth and pain of death. The strategic decisions of all these people are generated by the society they live in (“Crime and Punishment”, p.153). Such strategy can be traced also in modern society. It dooms us to one plan of actions that unfortunately can’t be changed through centuries. This strategy forces every man who wants to become rich and successful oppress and offend other people. Then he may be sorry of that, but it is too late, anyway he will be punished and he knows that. Dostoevsky deliberately makes Raskolnikov kind and good person who is touched by people’s trouble. He is not bad, but the pictures he sees in the society make him act in the same way that leads him to punishment. New strategic decision offered by the author Raskolnikov committed crime and became a murderer. He mistakenly thought that only one murder for the sake of many lives is not a big deal. Passing his hero through suffering, Dostoevsky demonstrated how wrong he was in his decision. The author showed that the idea, which made Raskolnikov shed human blood in spite of himself, appeared between him and the world making him separated from his mother and sister forever. And the number of victims is growing: a guy was caught and accused of Alyona Ivanovna’s murder. Pulheria Alexandrovna will be the next: she could not bear that happened to her son (“Crime and Punishment, p.312”). Svidrigailov’s suicide played the important role. His self-killing is not a simple self-sentence: I sinned, so I should pay for that (“Crime and Punishment, p.297 ”). He told Raskolnikov at once that he is going to have a long journey. It is easy to guess what he meant. His suicide is an act of despair of a man who understood that there is no God in his soul. That is why he liked Dunya. Svidrigailov is really awful, he committed a lot of crimes with ease. That is why Dostoevsky does not say straight about his murders: Svidrigailov did not think much about them himself, his life represented a mix of awful fantasies and real doing. However the ghosts of killed people finally started follow him… Finally, Raskolnikov, sees the dream: all the people are heroes concerned with supreme truth and intending to lead humans to the world of justice and happiness. But nobody wants to follow, because everybody wants to lead. This results in serious controversies, fights, even wars (“Crime and Punishment p. 316”). People start killing each other for the sake of human’s happiness, finally all the people die seized by the virus of Napoleon's idea. Empty earth, where people killed each other – this is the logical result of Raskonikov’s theory. And only after this dream Raskolnikov becomes free of his idea’s power and his way back to people begins. The final coming of the main hero on the way of repentance and atonement happens on his way to his office, where he is to make an awful confession. He is still full of doubts. His interrupted inner monologue full of self-reproaches testifies about disintegration of personality for parts, one of which performs actions, the second evaluates them, the third passes sentence, the fourth controls his thoughts. Raskolnikov suddenly meets a beggar-woman. Having given her the last coin, he hears the usual answer: “God bless you” (Crime and Punishment, 305). However, this answer means much to him. At last, Sonya’s advice to go the crossroad and tell all the people that he was a murderer seemed to be the only way to salvation. Raskolnikov followed that advice ready to get punishment and only this made him close to people again (Crime and Punishment, 305). Step by step Dostoevsky made us understand that the idea to have a power, even with the purpose to save human lives is destructive. Our society should try not to sacrifice but to save the life of every person, because no idea is worth killing people. The convincing arguments of the author The arguments of Dostoevsky as the arguments of very intelligent person are difficult to understand. It is a pity that many people could not understand the ideas of Dostoevsky he wanted to share with us in his outstanding work. I consider the ideas and arguments of Fyodor Dostoevsky to be very convincing. The question about life priorities is the main problem of our society and I think that the main hero of the novel, Rodion Raskolnikov, is sensitive and extraordinary person. He committed crime because could not see the suffering of poor people. He felt himself the one of them and tried to find a way-out. The main idea of this problem is the question: what is more important? What should be on the first place? During all the novel Raskolnikov’s personality is gradually changing, therefore his priorities are also changing. His conscience dictates him how to act, thus he comes to the conclusion that money and power are not the most important in our life, he understands that he had no right to kill (“Crime and Punishment”, p.304). His repentance is happening gradually and he fully repents only by the end of the novel. The very important problem of the society shoed by Dostoevsky is poverty. In the novel people can’t earn their life and this makes them degrade, become prostitutes and thefts. Marmeladov is the perfect example of that, because he spends all free time drinking and does not care about his hungry children and wife. Sonya Marmeladova, a person with very beautiful and wise soul, also degraded getting money working as a prostitute (“Crime and Punishment”, p. 90). However, in this world of cruelty still there are feelings of love and compassion. Sonya really loves Rodion Raskolnikov, trusts him and tries to help him even after he confesses to crimes. During the novel Sonya does not leave Raskovnilov and follows him to the prison (“Crime and Ounishment”, p.306). The next problem showed by Dostoevsky is the city St-Petersburg itself. The city symbolizes our society and plays a very important role in the novel. St. Petersburg is famous for its beauty, however in the novel we see the city that can’t but arouses compassion and disgust. We can’t but feel pity for people who fully degraded spending their last money in taverns. The city negatively influences people’s mentality, destroying it, urging them to suicides and murders. It is really impossible to read some places in text and it becomes clear that Raskolnikov is not really guilty of the crime he committed, it is society he lived in with all its cruelty and mud made him commit the crime. Sensitive and impressionable, he just could not see any more the suffering of his mother and sister as well as suffering of other people he just met in the street. He wants to change anything, to help, but unfortunately, he used the pattern of actions his society could offer him and failed (“Crime and Punishment”, p.116). Speaking about Dostoevsky’s strategic approach, with the help of which he makes us understand the deepness of his ideas, I can’t but mention the strategic names of the heroes in the novel. Raskolnikov: this surname springs from the Russian word 'raskol' that means “split”, “break”. That is why Raskolnikov is the novel is the person who wants to break the rules, make a serious step to find the end of trouble and poverty. The surname of Sonya – Marmeladova - springs from the word marmelad (jam). That is why she is so kind and nice. The surname of Dmitri Prokofich Razumikhin springs from the word "razum" that tells us about his reason and intelligence. These names help us understand the role of each character in the novel. Conclusion The lessons presented by Fyodor Dostoevsky in his novel “Crime and Punishment” are really invaluable. A writer-strategist does not reveal his most important idea at once, he leads us step by step to one important conclusion: every crime has its punishment. If a person committed at least one crime, he is already a criminal and it does not matter, what goal he pursued. And the punishment will find him maybe not at once, but in some weeks, days or years. It is enough to overstep the limit only once, everybody should remember that. Works Cited Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. trans. by Garnett, Constance, Echo Library, 2006 Read More