CRIME AND PUNISHMENT BY FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

Reviewed By: Owais Hussain Farooqi A.S. 218 Academic Group IV

SEQUENCE OF PRESENTATION

About the Author General Summary of the Work Authors Conclusion Critical Analysis General recommendations

About the Author

Russian writer of realist fiction and essays.
Author of fifteen novels and several

short stories. Pioneers of the school of thought of existentialism. One of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature.

 Dostoyevsky's literary works explored human

psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. On November 16 1849, Dostoyevsky, along with other members of the Petrashevsky Circle, was sentenced to death. Dostoyevsky's sentence was commuted to four years of exile with hard labor at a katorga prison camp in Siberia. Dostoyevsky was released from prison in 1854, and was required to serve in the Siberian Regiment for five years.

 This experience inspired him to write The House of the

Dead. Other books by same author:

The Gambler Notes from Underground The Idiot

The Brothers Karamazov

The Possessed

SUMMARY OF THE BOOK

Novel is the depiction of the life of Raskolnikov.

A person who though is a very able individual but does not or is not able to use his gifted abilities for his own and social good. Being a loner he gradually slips away from humanity and gets alienated to a large extent.
He commits murder of two women.

Conscience of Raskolnikov speaks to him that the crime would be a heinous thing to do but he still commits it.

 Writer very artistically depicts the feelings of

Raskolnikov before and after committing the crime. The post crime phase of the novel reflects that Raskolnikov who killed expecting that it would ease his life, had failed to do so. The police officers suspect him only because he fainted when the murders were talked of at the police station.

 Raskolnikov confesses at the very later part of the novel.

His ultimate confession is a matter of how remorse ,

search to reconnect with the society, love, happiness, family, affection and social belongingness remold Raskolnikov into a social animal. Raskolnikov s regret, his confusion, his fear, his love for Sonya for whom he confesses and his rediscovering his love for his mother and sister Dunya are painted as very powerful emotions of pull and push on a human soul.

 Raskolnikov is a case of split personality. On one hand Raskolnikov felt the urge of helping a

girl who was raped, but he does not do anything for her just because he considers the social evils impediments in his way of virtue and feels he should not concern himself at all. At one time he is sympathetic and other second he is becomes inhuman.

AUTHORS CONCLUSIONS
The author has embarked upon delivering a message that in those times was new to the reader i.e. existentialism. Writer vitalizes the mind with a new ideology that reason is not the justification of whatever an individual or group of individuals does. It was love that embraced Raskolnikov and reseeded humanity in him.

 He concludes that it is our relations and the

affection we enjoy in them which keep alive our connection with the entire society and keep the human instincts alive in us. Reasoning according to writer is a very subjective matter and hence can never be the source of law or law itself.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Dostoyevsky has the convincing force in the details of every happening.

Depiction of how soliditary intelligence can prove to be a social malady is admirable.

But at some points author gets overly ruthless and

unfeeling towards certain events. Depiction on occasions becomes so very full of agony and hatred that an ordinary reader has to have the nerves to digest such inhuman and scornful behavior.

 The author has good command on using the very appropriate style of writing such that he helps the reader portray the entire picture. Author has dealt magnificently with criminal psychology and behavior in this novel.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
It is an exciting novel, in that it keeps the

interest of the reader intact and alive till the very last page. Book may not be recommended to anyone who wants to read for pleasure, but has to be an essential part of ones home library if the purpose of ones reading is understanding many harsh realities and bitter truths of mans life.

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