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Crime and Punishment

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

   CAPTION: Title Crime and Punishment


       Author     Fyodor Dostoyevsky
   Original title Преступление и наказание
    Cover artist  Nikolai Yaroshenko
                  (drawing of "The Student")
                  Katya Evdokimova
                  (photograph)
      Country     Russia
      Language    Russian
      Genre(s)    Philosophical novel
     Publisher    Penguin Classics
      Released    1866
     Media type   Print ( Hardback & Paperback)
        ISBN      NA

   Crime and Punishment (Russian: Преступление и наказание) is a novel
   written by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. First published in a
   journal named The Russian Messenger, it appeared in twelve monthly
   installments in 1866, and was later published as a novel. Along with
   Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, the novel is considered one of the
   best-known and most influential Russian novels of all time.

   Crime and Punishment focuses on Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an
   impoverished student who formulates a plan to kill and rob a hated
   pawnbroker, thereby solving his money problems and at the same time
   ridding the world of her evil. Exhibiting some symptoms of megalomania,
   Raskolnikov thinks himself a gifted man, similar to Napoleon, but
   wishes to test himself. As an extraordinary man, he feels justified in
   his decision to murder, since he exists outside the moral constraints
   that affect "ordinary" people. However, immediately after the crime,
   Raskolnikov becomes ill, and is troubled by the memory of his actions.
   Crime and Punishment portrays Raskolnikov's gradual realisation of his
   crime and his growing desire to confess. Moreover, Raskolnikov's
   attempts to protect his sister Dounya from unappealing suitors, and
   also his unexpected love for a destitute prostitute demonstrate
   Raskolnikov's longing for redemption.

Background

   Dostoevsky began work on Crime and Punishment in the summer of 1865. He
   was in serious financial difficulty from gambling, and also from his
   efforts to help the family of his brother Mikhail, who had died in
   early 1864; the author owed large sums of money to creditors. He signed
   an agreement with the editor Katkov having explained to him that the
   novel was to be about a young man who kills a pawnbroker in cold blood,
   and then tries both to escape and to defend his act, but finally
   confesses.

   Dostoevsky had, at this point, two ideas for novels: one was to be
   called "The Drunkards", and chronicled the "problem of drunkenness";
   the other was based around the notion of a "psychological account of a
   crime". However, the two works soon merged into one; indeed, the
   Marmeladov family in Crime and Punishment were first conceived with the
   intention of being characters in "The Drunkards".

Structure

   Crime and Punishment is divided into six parts, with an epilogue. The
   notion of duality in Crime and Punishment has been commented upon, with
   the suggestion that there is a degree of symmetry to the book. The
   novel has 6 chapters, and "certain key episodes" are distributed in one
   half of the novel, and then again in the other half. Edward Wasiolek
   has likened the structure of Crime & Punishment to a "flattened X",
   saying:

   “   Parts I-III [of Crime and Punishment] present the predominantly
     rational and proud Raskolnikov: Parts IV-VI, the emerging "irrational"
          and humble Raskolnikov. The first half of the novel shows the
      progressive death of the first ruling principle of his character; the
     last half, the progressive birth of the new ruling principle. The point
                of change comes in the very middle of the novel.            ”

   Crime and Punishment is written from a third person omniscient
   perspective. It is told primarily from the point of view of
   Raskolnikov, however it does switch to the perspective of Svidrigailov,
   Razumikhin, and Dunya throughout the novel.

Wordplay

   Dostoevsky wrote various instances of wordplay, or double meanings,
   into Crime and Punishment.

   In the original Russian text, the names of the major characters in
   Crime and Punishment have something of a double meaning. However, these
   are not seen when translated to different languages.

                   Name                  Word     Meaning (in Russian)
       Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov    raskol     a schism, or split
          Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin         luzha          a puddle
        Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin      razum    reason, intelligence
      Alexander Grigorievich Zamyotov   zametit   to notice, to realize
       Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov   marmelad       marmalade/jam
       Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov  Svidrigailo  a Lithuanian prince

Plot summary

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   The novel portrays the murder of a miserly, aged pawnbroker and her
   younger sister by a destitute Saint Petersburg student named
   Raskolnikov, and the emotional, mental, and physical effects that
   follow.

   After falling ill with fever and lying bedridden for days, Raskolnikov
   is overcome with paranoia and begins to imagine that everyone he meets
   suspects him of the murder; the knowledge of his crime eventually
   drives him mad. However, he falls in love with the prostitute Sonya
   along the way. Dostoevsky uses this relationship as an allegory of
   God's love for fallen humanity—and the redemptive power of that
   love—but only after Raskolnikov has confessed to the murder and been
   sent to imprisonment in Siberia.

   Apart from Raskolnikov's fate, the novel, with its long and diverse
   list of characters, deals with themes including charity, family life,
   atheism, alcoholism, and revolutionary activity, with Dostoevsky highly
   critical of contemporary Russian society. Although Dostoevsky rejected
   socialism, the novel also appears to be critical of the capitalism that
   was making its way into Russian society at that time.

   Raskolnikov believed that he was a "super-human," that he could
   justifiably perform what society considered a despicable act—the
   killing of the pawn broker—if it led to his being able to do more good
   through the act. Throughout the book there are examples: he mentions
   Napoleon many times, thinking that for all the blood he spilled, he did
   good. Raskolnikov believed that he could transcend this moral boundary
   by killing the money lender, gaining her money, and using it to do
   good. He argued that had Isaac Newton or Johannes Kepler had to kill
   one or even a hundred men in order to enlighten humanity with their
   laws and ideas, it would be worth it. Thus he is thrown into a moral
   existential confusion over the death of the pawnbroker's sister. Never
   at any time in the novel is he repentant over the death of the
   pawnbroker.

   Raskolnikov's real punishment is not the labour camp he is condemned
   to, but the torment he endures throughout the novel. This torment
   manifests itself in the aforementioned paranoia, as well as his
   progressive realization that he is not a "super-human", as he could not
   cope with what he had done. His confessing to the prostitute, not his
   turning himself in, is the means to end his suffering.

Characters in "Crime and Punishment"

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov

   Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, (Russian: Родион Романович Раскольников)
   variously called Rodya and Rodka, is the protagonist from whose
   perspective the story is primarily told. He was a student, but due to
   his abject poverty, had to leave the university. He resides in a small
   and squalid top-floor flat in the slums of Saint Petersburg. Despite
   the name of the novel it does not so much deal with his crime and its
   formal punishment as with Raskolnikov's internal struggle. In the main,
   his punishment results more from his conscience than from the law. He
   commits the murder in the belief that he possesses enough intellectual
   and emotional fortitude to deal with a murder [based on his
   paper/thesis, "On Crime"], that he is a Napoleon, but his paranoia and
   guilt soon engulf him. It is only in the epilogue that his formal
   punishment is realized, having decided to confess and end his
   alienation. His name derives from the Russian word raskolnik, meaning
   “schismatic” or “divided,” an allusion to Raskolnikov's self-imposed
   schism from Russian society, as well as his own split personality and
   constantly changing emotional state.

Sonya Semyonovna Marmeladova

   Sonya Semyonovna Marmeladova, (Russian: Софья Семёновна Мармеладова)
   variously called Sonya and Sonechka, is the daughter of a drunk, Semyon
   Zakharovich Marmeladov, Raskolnikov meets in a tavern at the beginning
   of the novel. It is not until Semyon's death, and Sonya's thanks for
   Raskolnikov's generosity, that the two characters meet. She has been
   driven into prostitution by the habits of her father, but she is still
   strongly religious. Rodion finds himself drawn to her to such an
   extent, that she becomes the first person to whom he confesses his
   crime. She supports him even though she is friends with one of the
   victims (Lizaveta). For most of the novel, Sonya serves as the
   spiritual guide for Raskolnikov; she encourages him to take up faith
   and confess. He does, and after his confession she follows him to
   Siberia where she lives in the same town as the prison; it is here that
   Raskolnikov begins his spiritual rebirth.

Other characters

     * Porfiry Petrovich (Порфирий Петрович) - The detective in charge of
       solving Raskolnikov's murders who, along with Sonya, guides
       Raskolnikov towards confession. Despite the lack of evidence he
       becomes certain Raskolnikov is the murderer following several
       conversations with him, but gives Raskolnikov the chance to confess
       voluntarily. He is very interested in the psychology behind the
       motives of criminals. His eyes are his most expressive part,
       squinting, dripping, menacing and even winking, which drives
       Raskolnikov insane with guilt and eventually leads him to his
       confession.

     * Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikov (Авдотья Романовна Раскольникова) -
       Raskolnikov's strong willed and self-sacrificing sister, called
       Dunya, Dounia or Dunechka for short. She initially plans to marry
       the wealthy, yet somewhat smug and self-possessed, Luzhin to save
       the family from financial destitution but is followed to St.
       Petersburg by the disturbed Svidrigailov, who seeks to win her back
       through blackmail. She rejects both men in favour of Raskolnikov's
       loyal friend, Razumikhin.

     * Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov (Аркадий Иванович Свидригайлов) -
       Sensual, depraved, and wealthy former employer and current pursuer
       of Dunya, suspected of multiple acts of murder, who overhears
       Raskolnikov's confessions to Sonya. With this knowledge he torments
       both Dunya and Raskolnikov but does not inform the police. When
       Dunya tells him she could never love him (after attempting to shoot
       him) he lets her go and commits suicide. Whereas Sonya represents
       the path to salvation, Svidrigailov represents the other path
       towards suicide. Despite his apparent malevolence, Svidrigailov is
       similar to Raskolnikov in regard to his random acts of charity. He
       fronts the money for the Marmeladov children to enter an orphanage
       (after both their parents die) and leaves the rest of his money to
       his juvenile fiancée.

     * Dmitri Prokofich Razumikhin (Дмитрий Прокофьич Разумихин) -
       Raskolnikov's loyal, good-natured and only friend. Raskolnikov
       repeatedly entrusts the care of his family over to Razumikhin, who
       lives up to his word. He can be seen as a foil to Raskolnikov, they
       both studied at the university together, however Razumihin is
       energetic and optimistic in contrast to Raskolnikov's nihilism. He
       and Dunya ultimately fall in love and marry.

     * Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladov (Катерина Ивановна Мармеладова) -
       Semyon Marmeladov's sick and (understandably) ill-tempered (second)
       wife, step-mother to Sonya. She drives Sonya into prostitution in a
       fit of rage, but later regrets it. Following Marmeladov's death she
       becomes insane and dies shortly after.

     * Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov (Семён Захарович Мармеладов) -
       Hopeless but amiable drunk who indulges in his own suffering, and
       father of Sonya. In the bar he informs Raskolnikov of his familial
       situation and how he feels incapable of helping them. When
       Marmeladov is run over by a carriage and killed, Raskolnikov
       identifies the man's body in the street; Raskolnikov also donates
       all of his money (which was obtained by his mother as a loan for
       her pension and sent to Raskolnikov just prior to her arrival to
       Petersburg) to Marmeladov's family to help with funerary expenses.
       Marmeladov could be seen as a Russian equivalent of the character
       of Micawber in Charles Dickens' novel, David Copperfield.

     * Pulkheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikov (Пульхерия Александровна
       Раскольникова) - Raskolnikov's relatively clueless, hopeful mother.
       She informs him of his sister's plans to marry Luzhin. Following
       Raskolnikov's sentence, she falls ill (mentally and physically) and
       eventually dies. She hints in her dying stages that she is slightly
       more aware of her son's fate, which was hidden from her by Dunya
       and Razumikhin.

     * Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin (Пётр Петрович Лужин) - Despicable man who
       wants to marry Dunya so she'll be completely subservient to him.
       Raskolnikov does not take kindly to him and Luzhin is embittered.
       He embodies the evils of monetary greed, and after attempting to
       frame Sonya for theft, leaves St. Petersburg in shame.

     * Andrey Semyenovich Lebezyatnikov (Андрей Семёнович Лебезятников) -
       Luzhin's utopian socialist roommate who witnesses his attempt to
       frame Sonya and subsequently exposes him.

     * Alyona Ivanovna (Алёна Ивановна) - Old pawnbroker who is not
       particularly kind. She is Raskolnikov's intended target for murder.

     * Lizaveta Ivanovna (Лизавета Ивановна) - Alyona's simple, innocent
       sister who arrives during the murder, and is subsequently killed.
       She was a friend of Sonya's.

     * Zosimov (Зосимов) - A friend of Razumikhin and a doctor who cared
       for Raskolnikov.

     * Nastasya Petrovna (Настасья Петровна) - Raskolnikov's landlady's
       servant and a friend of Raskolnikov.

     * Nikodim Fomich (Никодим Фомич)- The amiable Chief of Police.

     * Ilya Petrovich (Илья Петрович) - A police official and Fomich's
       assistant, often referred to as "Lieutenant Gunpowder" in regards
       to his short temper.

     * Alexander Grigorievich Zametov (Александр Григорьевич Заметов) -
       Corrupt head clerk at the police station and friend to Razumikhin.
       Raskolnikov arrouses Zametov's suspicions by explaining how he,
       Raskolnikov, would have committed various crimes. This scene
       illustrates the argument of Raskolnikov's belief in his own
       superiority as übermensch.

     * Nikolai Dementiev (Николай Дементьев) - A painter and sectarian who
       admits to the murder, since his sect holds it to be supremely
       virtuous to suffer for another person's crime.

     * Polina Mikhailovna Marmeladova (Полина Михайловна Мармеладова) -
       Ten-year-old adopted daughter of Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov and
       younger step-sister to Sonya, sometimes known as Polenka.

Analysis

   Behaviour and beliefs similar to those of Raskolnikov can be found in
   other works of Dostoevsky, such as Notes from Underground and The
   Brothers Karamazov, (his behaviour is most similar to Ivan Karamazov
   from The Brothers Karamazov). He creates suffering for himself by
   killing the pawnbroker and living so destitutely despite his ability to
   get a good job. Razumikhin is in the same situation as Raskolnikov and
   lives to a large degree better off, however, when Razumikhin offers to
   get him a job, Raskolnikov refuses. Later, Raskolnikov arrogantly hints
   at being the murderer to the police for both the exhiliration of the
   mental game, as well as the fact that he needs to get it off his chest.
   He constantly tries to reach and defy the boundaries of what he can or
   cannot do to find out whether he is the extraordinary man as depicted
   in his own theory, or whether he is just a "louse" (throughout the book
   he is always measuring his own fear, and mentally trying to talk
   himself out of it), and he commonly interprets his depravity (referring
   to his irrationality and paranoia) as an affirmation of himself as a
   transcendent conscience and a rejection of rationality and reason. This
   is a theme common in existentialism; interestingly enough Friedrich
   Nietzsche, in Twilight of the Idols praised Dostoevsky's writings
   despite the theism present in it: "Dostoevsky, the only psychologist,
   by the way, from whom I had anything to learn; he is one of the
   happiest accidents of my life, even more so than my discovery of
   Stendhal." Walter Kaufmann considered Dostoevsky's works to be the
   inspiration for Franz Kafka's " The Metamorphosis". Dostoevsky also
   uses Sonya to show how only belief in God can cure man's depravity,
   which is where Dostoevsky differs from many other existentialists.
   Though this particular philosophy is unique to Dostoevsky, because of
   its emphasis on Christianity and existentialism (whether or not
   Dostoevsky was a true existentialist is debated), similar themes can be
   seen in writings by Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Herman Hesse and
   Franz Kafka.

   The novel makes several references to stories from the New Testament,
   including the story of Lazarus, whose death and reawakening parallel
   Raskolnikov's spiritual death and rebirth; and the Book of Revelation,
   mirrored in a dream Raskolnikov has of a nihilistic plague turning into
   a world-wide epidemic.

Major themes

Salvation through suffering

   Crime and Punishment illustrates the theme of attaining salvation
   through suffering, a common feature in Dostoevsky's work. This is the
   notion that the act of suffering has a purifying effect on the human
   spirit allowing for salvation in God. A character who embodies this
   theme is Sonya, who maintains enough faith to guide and support
   Raskolnikov despite her own immense suffering. While it may seem grim,
   it is a relatively optimistic notion in the realm of Christian
   morality. For example, even the originally malevolent Svidrigailov is
   able to perform extreme acts of charity following the suffering induced
   by Dunya's complete rejection. Dostoevsky holds to the idea that
   salvation is a possible option for all people, even those who have
   sinned grievously. It is the realization of this fact that leads to
   Raskolnikov's confession. Although Dunya could never love Svidrigailov,
   Sonya loves Raskolnikov and exemplifies the trait of ideal Christian
   forgiveness, allowing Raskolnikov to confront his crime and accept his
   punishment.

Christian existentialism

   A central idea in Christian existentialism is defining the moral
   boundaries of human action within a God ruled world. Raskolnikov
   examines the set boundaries and decides that an ostensibly immoral act
   is justifiable under the condition that it leads to something
   incredibly great, a hallmark of utilitarianism. This is the motive
   sketched in the first part of the novel, but later, when Raskolnikov
   confesses to Sonya and tries to explain the grounds for an act he now
   despises himself, he expounds the idea that he wanted to prove his
   independence of any morality by committing murder and assuring that his
   conscience would not trouble him: if this proved viable, he could see
   himself as one of the few men born to lead, standing high above the
   dumb masses. This thought points directly toward Nietzsche's " overman"
   and in turn, it had been foreshadowed by Vautrin's speech to Rastignac
   in Balzac's Le Père Goriot (written thirty years before Crime and
   Punishment). Already there, Vautrin makes plain the idea that someone
   like Napoleon can sweep morality aside and the strong man must do so,
   without moving an eyebrow. However, Dostoevsky rules against such
   ambitious thinking by having Raskolnikov crumble and fail in the
   aftermath of his crime.

Symbols

The Dreams

   Rodya's dreams always have a symbolic meaning, which suggests a
   psychological view. In the dream about the horse, the mare has to
   sacrifice itself for the men who are too much in a rush to wait. This
   could be symbolic of women sacrificing themselves for men, just like
   Rodya's belief that Dunya is sacrificing herself for Rodya by marrying
   Luzhin. Some critics have suggested this dream is the fullest single
   expression of the whole novel, containing the nihilistic destruction of
   an innocent creature and Rodion's suppressed sympathy for it (although
   the young Rodion in the dream runs to the horse, he still murders the
   pawnbroker soon after waking). The dream is also mentioned when Rodya
   talks to Marmeladov. He states that his daughter, Sonya, has to sell
   her body to earn a living for their family. The dream is also a blatant
   warning for the impending murder.

   In the final pages, Raskolnikov, who at this point is in the prison
   infirmiary, has a feverish dream about a plague of nihilism, that
   enters Russia and Europe from the east and which spreads senseless
   dissent (as said above, Raskolnikov's name alludes to "raskol",
   dissent) and fanatic dedication to "new ideas": it finally engulfs all
   of mankind. Though we don't learn anything about the content of these
   ideas they clearly disrupt society forever and are seen as exclusively
   critical assaults on ordinary thinking: it is clear that Dostoevsky was
   envisaging the new, politically and culturally nihilist ideas which
   were entering Russian literature and society in this watershed decade,
   and with which Dostoevsky would be in debate for the rest of his life
   (cp. Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done?, Dobrolyubov's abrasive
   journalism, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons and Dostoesvsky's own The
   Possessed). Just like the novel demonstrates and argues Dostoevsky's
   conviction that "if God doesn't exist (or is not recognized) then
   anything is permissible" the dream sums up his fear that if men won't
   check their thinking against the realities of life and nature, and if
   they are unwilling to listen to reason or authority, then no ideas or
   cultural institutions will last and only brute barbarism can be the
   result. Janko Lavrin, who took part in the revolutions of the WWI era,
   knew Lenin and Trotsky and many others, and later would spend years
   writing and researching on Dostoevsky and other Russian classics,
   called this final dream "prophetic in its symbolism".

The Cross

   Sonya gives Rodya a cross when he goes to turn himself in. This cross
   represents suffering. He takes his pain upon him by carrying the cross
   through town, like Jesus; in an allusion to the account of the
   Crucifixion, he falls to his knees in the town square on the way to his
   confession. Sonya carried the cross up until then, which indicates
   that, as literally mentioned in the book, she suffers for him, in a
   semi-Christ-like manner. Sonya and Lizaveta had exchanged crosses and
   become spiritual sisters, originally the cross was Lizaveta's - so
   Sonya carries Lizaveta's cross, the cross of Rodya's innocent victim,
   whom he didn't intend to kill. Also, Rodya sees that the cross is made
   of cypress, which is a cross that symbolizes the ordinary and plain
   population, and by taking that particular cross he then admits that
   he's a plain human being, not a Nietzschean übermensch (although this
   specific concept had yet to be developed by Nietzsche). Finally, the
   name Rodya itself resembles the English word "rood," still used for
   "cross" at the time the novel was written.

St. Petersburg

   This could be a symbol for Rodya's mind or his mental state. It is very
   confusing, dirty and disgusting. Even Rodya gets disgusted by the sight
   of it. The city is filled with prostitutes, symbolizing its utter
   social decadence. Sidney Monas likened its appearance to imagery found
   in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, another example of its grotesque
   demeanor. Indeed, the city plays such an important part in the novel
   that it is almost a character in itself.

   Many of the characters in the novel might be said to be symbolic
   doubles of Raskolnikov: they share some of his personal traits or
   something in his situation: his pride and sense of ambition (Dunya),
   his ongoing moral dilapidation (Svidrigailov), the threat of sinking
   into destitution and going under (Marmeladov), the loyalty to one's
   family (Sonya; this feeling is undermined in him by the crime, but the
   opening scene when Rodion reads the letter from home makes it clear
   that the bond between him and his mother and, in particular, his
   sister, has always been a strong one, and Dunya is, after Sonya, the
   second person to whom he confesses his crime).

English translations

   There have been several translations of Crime in Punishment into
   English.
     * Constance Garnett
     * David McDuff
     * Jessie Coulson
     * Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky
     * Joakim Ivarson
     * Sidney Monas
     * David Magarshack

Movie versions

   There have been dozens of film adaptations of the novel. Some of the
   best-known are:
     * Crime and Punishment (1935, starring Peter Lorre, Edward Arnold and
       Marian Marsh)
     * Crime et Châtiment (1935, France directed by Georges Lampin,
       starring Lino Ventura and Jean Gabin)
     * Eigoban Tsumi to Batsu (1953, Japanese animation by Tezuka Osamu,
       under his interpretation)
     * Преступление и наказание (USSR, 1969, starring Georgi Taratorkin,
       Tatyana Bedova, Victoria Fyodorova)
     * Crime and Punishment (1979, miniseries starring Timothy West,
       Vanessa Redgrave and John Hurt)
     * Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1998, a TV movie starring
       Patrick Dempsey, Ben Kingsley and Julie Delpy)
     * Crime and Punishment in Suburbia (2000, an adaptation set in modern
       America and "loosely based" on the novel)
     * Crime and Punishment mini-series (2002, starring John Simm)
     * Robert Bresson's Pickpocket is a loose adaptation of the novel
       which substitutes murder with the crime of pickpocketing.
     * Aki Kaurismaki's Rikos ja Rangaistus (1983; Crime and Punishment),
       the acclaimed debut film of the Finnish director with Markku Toikka
       in the lead role; the story is set in modern-day Helsinki and this
       hard-boiled version is convincingly close to the spirit of the
       original).

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