Thoughts on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

Anyone having read Crime and Punishment cannot but be left with their head spinning. This story of a young man, ideologically driven by radical ideas, who commits a crime he does not consider one and yet finds his conscience tormenting him until he can either atone for his sin or end his life, can be a cathartic experience. The novel is a psychological study, a detective thriller and a foray into the philosophy of life itself. It is by turns, gripping, horrifying, saddening, and in the end through a reaffirmation of faith in life, it is also revitalizing. Raskolnikov is an intelligent man, proud and even egoistic, but is beset with poverty as he studies at university, and has fantastic notions of his intellectual superiority, probably a result of new theories he has learnt in St.Petersburg. His desire to improve the lot of his mother and sister coupled with a visceral need to prove his own superiority to himself brings him through a convoluted logic, to commit a murder which he despises inwardly. He has a theory that men are divided into two kinds: one who simply live and others who control the living. The latter provide the law but to them the law does not apply. They are men who make the world in their images. Raskolnikov is obsessed with Napolean and constantly asks himself what Napolean would have done in his place. His oppressive and cramped surroundings further contort his thoughts and contribute to the murder of an old hag who, in his view, is of no use to anyone and only causes suffering to others. His idea is to murder her and take her money so that he can start on a completely different life wherein he can benefit mankind and in the process, expiate for the murder, if it were necessary to do so. He finds no logical flaw in his reasoning as he believes completely in his theory and wishes to establish himself as one of the law-givers. Yet, he cannot commit the crime boldly as he wanted to. His dithering leads him to torment himself as he perceives himself as a coward for his inability to carry out his plans without moral repugnance. For a man of obvious intellectual ability, his refusal to tame his ego proves to be his undoing. His conscience excoriates him every moment whereas his mind tells him that he has failed in his endeavour. How does he stop this mental agony? 

The answers he finds in the novel reveal Dostoevsky’s beliefs in life. The novel was influenced by Dostoevsky’s personal experiences and his eventual acceptance of a conservative and religious philosophy. As a young man, Dostoevsky described himself as a “dreamer.” He became a literary sensation at the age of 24 and came to participate in many liberal intellectual organizations of the time. Strangely enough, he went on to support the very institution of the Tsar that had imprisoned him for 5 years and caused him the immense suffering, but it only proves how influential those prison years were in shaping his thought. He abandoned the reactionary tendencies of his early youth in favour of a more sedate worldview which recognized that human nature could not change suddenly and drastically to facilitate the various kinds of utopia that revolutionaries and theorists in the Russia of then dreamed of. Though most characters in the novel are timeless since they essentially symbolize ideas, their reality is born out of the reality of the land they inhabit where Russian Nihilism and Utilitarianism threatened to take root. Dostoevsky portrayed major characters as men believing in some form of these theories and imaginatively brought them into the aggrieved and sometimes despicable state they reached in their lives by such beliefs. The novel primarily dealt with this specific issue; but its relevance has not diminished a bit as the genius of Dostoevsky created a vision which still finds echoes in world we inhabit. Apart from this philosophical aspect of the novel driven by social realities of the Russia of the 1860s, it is as thrilling a murder mystery as any in the way the detective Porfiry Petrovich psyches out Raskolnikov, having nothing but an indelible intuition to lead him to identify the latter as the murderer. The passages where they duel with each other knowing that their words can work both ways are the stuff of genius. Though it is unconventional in that the murderer is always known, it is enthralling to read whether or not Raskolnikov will submit to the legal law which acts as the bulwark of the moral code by which society lives. Another striking feature is the religious angle explored by Dostoevsky. The idea that suffering is necessary to become a better person appears many times and is responsible for the eventual transformation of Raskolnikov. Dostoevsky became an orthodox Christian after his travails, and his experiences are clearly mirrored in the narrative. However his religious view is less ecclesiastical and more in tune with the moral code and precepts that early Christianity taught. Indeed he parodies the practice of mediation by a priest when a Christian asks forgiveness on his deathbed. Perhaps the notions of fate and circumstance playing a huge role in the novel – where crucial events are attributed to simple chance – are also religious in nature. Eventually, the masterful telling of this epic tale, coupled with his profound insights into human nature make it a fascinating read, one of the best novels of all time.