Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Feodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment share a common theme – the consequences of escaping punishment. This paper explores the authors’ views about psychological punishment as a much worse sentence...

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in his work Crime and Punishment, makes it clear from the beginning that Raskolnikov, his somewhat unconventional protagonist, is in a “disturbed state of mind” (Dostoyevsky, 13). Derived from the Russian word for “schism,”...

The main female characters of Sonia and Marie in Crime and Punishment and The Stranger, respectively, do more than faithfully support Raskolnikov and Meursault in their times of need. Their roles structure the men’s characters and ultimately help...

“Kill her, take her money and with the help of it devote oneself to the service of humanity and the good of all. Would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds? One death, and a hundred lives in exchange.” (Dostoevsky, 69)

At...

The novel Crime and Punishment is a lengthy debate on the topic of what constitutes crime and how it should be punished. Dostoevsky presents many differing opinions on the topic through the various characters. There is one central crime in the...

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment lets the reader into the mind of a murderer as he commits his crime and copes with the consequences. The novel grapples with many philosophical questions and challenges accepted ideas of right versus wrong....

“Which action would give the greatest number of people the greatest happiness?” is a question a utilitarian would ask him or herself before making a decision. Utilitarianism is the belief system in which an action is considered ethically...

A heroine can be defined in two different ways: the first, as the principal female character in a novel; or in the second way, as a woman noted for a courageous action or significant accomplishment. The heroines of King Lear, Crime and Punishment...

If different kinds of motivation were to be viewed on a spectrum, there would be quite a distance between instinct and reason. While instinct denotes an animalistic impulse, reason implies careful deliberation, a process that involves employing...

Setting traditionally provides a base for a writer to create a storyline and the characters that populate it. In Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky paints the picture of a dirty, polluted city filled with drunks and prostitutes. This setting...

In superstitions, a mirror is thought to be a reflection of one’s soul; this is why shattering a mirror was and still is considered bad luck. In Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the concept of the reflected soul is used as an important...

Though its many pages and complex themes and ideas may be frustrating to undergraduate students, it cannot be denied that Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment is anything less than a literary masterpiece. It explores a myriad of themes -...

In Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment he shows through Svidrigailov that there is potential goodness in even the most vicious men. Svidrigailov’s redeeming quality in the novel (similar to Raskolnikov with Sonya) is the pure female character that...

In absurdist fiction, authors and writers focus on characters who investigate the meaning of human existence in order to call into question existential notions. Some writers may utilize character’s confrontation with absurdism to either reject or...

In Feodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the protagonist, Raskolnikov, murders an old woman and her sister because he believes himself to be an extraordinary man. Throughout the rest of the story, Raskolnikov deals with the repercussions of...

The character of Raskolnikov is an interesting one in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. A failed visualization of the Ubermensch initially, there is leagues more depth to the character, not only in a psychological way but in the context of...

In “Part One” of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s famous 19th century novel Crime and Punishment, the beleaguered former-student Raskolnikov feverishly contemplates committing a “vile” crime, which is eventually revealed as the murder of local pawnbroker...

Can humans accept responsibility for their own deeds once they become aware that they have free will? Crime and Punishment is a platform for Dostoevsky’s own existentialist argument that attempts to answer the above question. Arguing against...

In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s renowned novel Crime and Punishment, the radical theories of Raskolnikov (the protagonist) are a principal point of interest. One theory in particular, that of the so-called superman (a modern appellation, not Dostoyevsky’...

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment explores the philosophies of nihilism and rationalism common in Russia during the period and their subsequent consequences through its characters. Dostoevsky presents Arkady Svidrigailov as a foil character...

Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment explores the inner turmoil of the protagonist, Raskolnikov, through his murder of an old pawn broker. Raskolnikov’s internal divide is displayed throughout the novel through his bipolar behavior and his...

A key tenet of existentialism is that as humans, we are all surrounded by absurdity. The very world we live in is absurd, and our actions are the only thing that we have complete control over. In Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov...

19th Century Russia saw immense economic, political, and ideological changes. With Western influence pervading Europe, Russian society became fiercely polarized between radicals who strove for rapid reform and reactionaries who opposed the...

The novel Crime and Punishment, written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and published in 1866, focuses on many philosophical and psychological themes. One of the themes is the distinction between rationalism and anti-rationalism. Rationalist ideas are based...