Mr.

Suwattananon
Tenth Grade Humane Letters 10C
Crime and Punishment Essay
Due 5/30/2013
In Fyodor Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment, Rodion Romanovitch plans to murder a
despicable pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, who wears out the lives of other and takes her money
to conduct good deed for mankind. Raskolnikovs consciousness of his eventful crime
rationalies his punishment in virtue of his personal philosophy. Dostoevsky has solved the
murder mystery! whether a crime is "ustified or not by revealing the criminal mentality
throughout the novel. #his interior view of criminality, a conviction that crime and its inevitable
punishment are deeply seated aspects of the human spirit.
Raskolnikov, an impoverished, haughty and very proud young student, is $superstitiously
impressed by one circumstance, which, though in itself not very e%ceptional, always seemed to
him afterwards the predestined turning&point of his fate' ()*+. ,e is obsessed and tormented by
this thought or dream. It loathsomely disgusts him and becomes more and more intense as if he is
able to implement this dream, even though, at first, he does not know what his motive is. #his
an%iety creates dense te%ture that gives a novel a mysterious comple%ity. Raskolnikov is
determined to be the hope, the central figure in business that his family would count on after
graduation because his family is fairly poor. -ulcheria, his mother, makes only twenty roubles a
year from knitting which is insufficient to support the family. #his miserable position,
helplessness, hopeless poverty stimulates Raskolnikov to carry out this hideous dream when he
comes to know a terrible and spiteful old woman, Alyona Ivanovna. ,e murders this worthless
figure, rob all her money and use it for the benefit of humanity in which theoretically he believes
that it is "ust to transgress the laws for hundred good deeds in e%change. ,owever, after he
commits this perfect crime, he makes no use of the pawnbrokers belongings but hides it away
from him instead.
.ince Raskolnikov fails to carry out his moral action for the universal benefits, he
subse/uently sinks into mental illness, a state of delirium in which he feebly fancies himself in
vain, becomes restless and unconscious of himself. $If it all has really been done deliberately and
not idiotically,0And here I wanted at once to throw into the water the purse together with all the
things which I had not seen either0 hows that1' (223+. It une%pectedly reflects, as that he is
uncertain about his ob"ective e%ecution as he is bitterly in/uiring himself in perple%ity. It
becomes obvious that he is unsuccessful in fulfilling his philosophy when he confesses to .onia,
a young lady who he considers to be in an e%ceptional case like him, that he is a murder. $I had
to endure all the agony of that battle ideas0I didnt do the murder to gain wealth and power to
become a benefactor of mankind' (424+ which completely disproves his theory. #his feeling
occurs to him as $the most agonising of all the sensations he had known in his life' (25)+.
Raskolnikovs mental derangement in the consciousness of his crime leads to a prideful
confession. $6nough, Ive done with fancies, imaginary terrors and phantoms7...And I was ready
to consent to live in a s/uare yard of space' (285+. It shows that even though he is mentally
weak, but his conscience gives him strength and self&confidence to put an end to all mental
illnesses inside him. 9oreover, he admits that he is contemptible in carrying out this crime as he
is conscious of the fundamental falsity in himself and his convictions, $I see clearly the
imbecility of my cowardice, now that I have decided to face this superfluous disgrace (:2*+.' It
shows that he is still proud and humble enough to encounter his gratuitous infamy as a
punishment.
Fyodor Dostoevsky is able to communicate the crime which is morally wrong in the
deepest sense through a noble&hearted characteristic, Raskolnikov. #he great concept for a man
of genius to commit such a crime, to overstep moral law for universal sake of mankind in which
it deliberately e%plains deep inside his own conscience, a conscience that is a practical
philosophy in life. -erhaps, a mans consciousness is $the promise of a future crisis, of a new
view of life and of his future resurrection' (:*;+.