saachiuuu

[saachiuuu]

There was a time

I taste it still

like citrus pressed against my tongue,

sweet, sharp, golden in the dusk.

The warmth of it lingers in my ribs,

a soft ache I cradle but never release.

I remember them all by their hands.

One, with fingers long and knowing,

tracing idle maps in dust on the table.

Wrists flecked with ink, smudged stories

left behind in a half-finished script.

His grip firm, like he held things

before they could slip away.

Another, small-palmed and restless,

pressing orange peels into my skin,

squeezing the rind till oils kissed my wrist.

Her touch was laughter, fleeting,

a brush of knuckles against my own

and then gone, always gone.

One with calloused fingertips,

hands that hummed against the air,

plucking invisible strings,

pulling melodies from silence.

A thumb that swiped absently across my palm,

like tuning an instrument

that wasn’t his to play.

And then yours.

Yours, with their warmth

cradling the back of my neck,

cupping my jaw when words unraveled.

The curve of your palm against my spine,

where I swear the past still echoes.

Your hands, the only ones that held me

like I was something they had built,

not just something passing through.

I close my own around the air now,

as if I could still hold them all

every touch, every citrus-drenched second

before they fade into something softer,

something almost lost.

But memory lingers in the fingertips.

And some hands never leave.

[saachiuuu]

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Introduction

Crime And Punishment, by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, was published during 1866 in the literary journal and later published in a single volume.

The novel follows the mental anguish and moral dilemma of the protagonist Rodion Raskolnikov, a former law student in St. Petersburg who plans to kill a pawnbroker, an old woman who stores money and valuable things in her house.

Raskolnikov thinks that he would use her money to liberate himself from the poverty and seeks to convince himself that some crimes are justifiable if it’s committed in order to remove some obstacles to the higher goal of men.

When the deed is done, he finds himself confused, paranoid and disgusted by himself and all his theoretical justification loses all their power as he struggles with guilt and is confronted with both internal and external consequences of his deeds. 

Character buildup

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov

He is the protagonist and the story focuses on his perspective. He is 23 yr old law student, now destitute; Raskolnikov is described in novel as “exceptionally Handsome taller in height, slim body with bark eyes and brown hair”.

He is cold, apathetic and sometimes he is warm and compassionate. He commits a murder and the act of impulsive charity.

In the novel it also shows the internal struggle of Raskolnikov the torments of his own consciousness rather than the legal consequences of committing the murder.

He murders with the idea that he possesses enough intellectual and emotional fortitude to deal with the issues, but his sense of guilt soon overwhelms him to the point of illness and psychological issues.

Raskolnikov’s internal conflict intensifies as he interacts with others, especially Sonia Marmeladov, a poor but deeply spiritual woman forced into prostitution to support her family. Sonia becomes a moral compass for him. Through her suffering, humility, and devout Christian faith, Raskolnikov begins to confront the spiritual dimensions of his crime.

Sonia Marmeladova

She is the daughter of Zakharovich Marmeladova whom Raskolnikov meets in a tavern at the beginning of the story. She is often characterized as self-sacrificial, shy, and innocent, despite being forced into prostitution to help her family.

Raskolnikov discerns in her the same feeling of shame and alienation that he experiences and then she becomes the first person to whom he confesses all his crimes to.

Sensing his sadness, she decides to support him even though she was the friend with Lizaveta who was the victim of Raskolnikov.

Through this whole story she is the moral strength and supporter for Raskolnikov throughout this novel.

Sonia Marmeladova’s evolution is not one of shifting values, but of ever-deepening spiritual resilience. She begins as a symbol of suffering and ends as a symbol of help.

In a world filled with cruelty and despair, Sonia remains uncorrupted, showing that the power of love, humility, and faith can bring about profound transformation in others even if her own path is marked by silent suffering rather than outward glory, in the same way she helps and gives her all unconditional love to Raskolnikov despite his crimes.

Razumikhin

He is Raskolnikov’s loyal friend and a law student. The character is represented as a reconciliation of faith and reason.

 He is upright, strong, intelligent and resourceful and naïve which helps Raskolnikov in his desperate situation.

He always admires Raskolnikov’s intelligence and character and refuses to give any credits to other’s suspicion and always supports him all the time.

Razumikhin falls in love with Dunya, and this love helps refine and solidify his character. His affection is not possessive or lustful, but respectful and protective. He admires her strength and dignity and genuinely wants to support and uplift her. Through Dunya, Razumikhin's raw goodness is tempered with responsibility, modesty, and emotional depth.

As the novel progresses, he begins to act with greater restraint and seriousness.

He stops drinking, starts planning for a more stable future, and expresses a desire to establish a business; a sign that he is evolving from an impulsive student to a reliable man with aspirations rooted in love, family, and morality.

Dunya

She is the beautiful and headstrong sister of Raskolnikov who works as a governess. She plans to marry the wealthy lawyer Luzhin thinking it will enable her to ease her family desperate in financial situation and escape her former employer Svidrigailov. Her situation comes around cause of Raskolnikov decision to commit the murder.

A major stage in her evolution comes in her confrontation with Arkady Svidrigailov, the libertine who lusts after her and tries to manipulate her into submission. She agrees to meet him in secret to protect her family, knowing the danger he poses.

When Svidrigailov attempts to trap her, even threatening rape, Dunya draws a pistol and almost kills him. Her courage is undeniable. But more importantly, when she has the opportunity to shoot him and escape, she chooses not to, after he reveals his vulnerability.

In this moment, Dunya demonstrates moral control and emotional clarity. She does not let herself become either a victim or an executioner.

She exercises restraint not out of fear, but from a deeply internalized ethical compass. This moment crystallizes her development; she is no longer simply defending herself or her family.

She is affirming her own humanity and moral agency.

Luzhin (Pyotr Petrovich)

He is a well-off lawyer who is engaged to Dunya in the beginning of the story. His motives for the marriage are dubious.

Luzhin first appears as a prosperous, self-satisfied bureaucrat who plans to marry Dunya Raskolnikova. At first glance, he seems rational, pragmatic, and socially respectable. He claims to believe in order, morality, and philanthropy.

 His ideology aligns with a cold utilitarianism because he sees women as his tools for his own personal enjoyment.

He slanders and falsely accuses Sonia of theft in an attempt to hurt Raskolnikov relations with his family. Luzhin represents immorality in contrast with Svidrigailov’s amorality and Raskolnikov’s misguided morality.

Though we could see that he was neither tragic like Raskolnikov, nor redeemable like Sonia or Dunya but he is a cautionary figure, stripped of illusions and left to fade into insignificance.

Svidrigailov

He is a wealthy former employer and former pursuer of Dunya.

As the novel progresses, Dostoevsky peels back layers of his character to reveal a man haunted by guilt, loneliness, and a yearning for something greater than pleasure.

He speaks to Raskolnikov not just as a fellow outsider, but as a philosophical counterpart who has walked further down the path of nihilism.

He is plagued by dreams and hallucinations, especially of the young girl he once abused and of his deceased wife. These visions suggest that his conscience, while long buried, is still alive.

Unlike Raskolnikov, who intellectualizes guilt, Svidrigailov experiences it, through subconscious torment.

Soon, we get to know that Svidrigailov’s evolution is not about redemption or moral triumph, but about revelation and collapse.

He begins as a libertine predator, gradually reveals the stirrings of a lost conscience, and ends in existential despair. He is a man who sees the truth that love, morality, and connection matter, but is too spiritually dead to act on it.

 In this sense, he serves as a dark warning by asking that what happens when intelligence and self-awareness exist without humility, belief, or moral conviction.

He is not evil in the traditional sense, but empty with a soul who has looked into the abyss and found nothing staring back.

Porfiry Petrovich

The head of the investigation department in charge of solving the murders and confession of Raskolnikov. He does the procedure by psychological approach seeking to provoke and confuse Raskolnikov into a voluntary confession.

He seems deceptively mild and somewhat eccentric. He is not the intimidating detective figure common in crime novels; instead, he uses psychological strategy, irony, and patience. He gently needles Raskolnikov, creating an unsettling atmosphere of intellectual cat-and-mouse.

He understands Raskolnikov’s theory of the “extraordinary man” and engages with it seriously. He debates Raskolnikov’s ideas with intellectual respect, but also with quiet conviction that such a philosophy is dangerous and false.

Porfiry believes that no one can escape the psychological consequences of murder, not even someone who thinks himself above conventional morality.

Marfa

Marfa Petrovna is the well-to-do country landowner who marries Svidrigaylov after bailing him out of debtors’ jail.

When Svidrigaylov begins to get serious about their beautiful governess Dunya, Marfa Petrovna blames Dunya and ruins her reputation through vicious gossip.

Themes of the Story

The Nature of the Story

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is not merely a psychological thriller or a murder mystery but it’s also a profound philosophical and moral inquiry into the human soul, the nature of justice, and the dangerous seduction of utilitarian logic, raising the basic question,

“do certain extraordinary individuals have the right to commit crimes if their actions serve the greater good of humanity?”

The answer here takes turns as Dostovesky’s ideas slowly takes turn through the ideas of psychological and moral challenges which Raskolnikov faces.

As we go further, we get to know that his theme is most explicitly embodied in the protagonist, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a destitute former student who murders a pawnbroker.

He rationalizes his crime with the belief that some lives like that of the greedy, exploitative pawnbroker are worthless, and that eliminating such a person could be justified if it enables someone greater to rise and contribute positively to the world.

He compares or likens himself to historical figures such as Napoleon; men who, according to his theory, are permitted to misbehave moral boundaries for the sake of progress.

This ideological stance that extraordinary individuals may stand above conventional morality forms one of the story’s central philosophical dilemmas. Raskolnikov’s theory, however, does not stand untested.

Through a brilliantly structured narrative and psychological depth, Dostoevsky deconstructs this belief, exposing its flaws and revealing its moral and spiritual costs.

Redemption and the Power of Suffering

Fyodor Dostoevsky constructs a powerful narrative in which suffering is not merely a consequence of crime, but a pathway to redemption.

The novel presents a deeply spiritual vision of human existence, in which pain, guilt, and humility serve as necessary steps toward moral awakening and salvation.

Far from portraying suffering as meaningless, Dostoevsky inspires it with transformative power, showing how it purifies the soul, breaks down pride, and reconnects the individual with truth, compassion, and divine grace.

He believes he can transcend moral laws without having to bear the consequences, especially if his actions serve a greater good. He justifies the murder of the pawnbroker through this reasoning.

However, almost immediately after the act, he is plagued by guilt, anxiety, and inner torment, signs that suffering has begun to undermine the intellectual foundation of his beliefs.

He feels off and maybe he did something so wrong that he feels guilt but maybe his ego is that much that he feels repent about it.

As we continue the story, we get to see that in the character of Sonia Marmeladov serves as the novel’s moral and spiritual anchor.

 She endures deep suffering poverty, social shame, and the burden of supporting her family through prostitution. Yet, she faces her suffering not with bitterness, but with humility and quiet strength. Sonia’s suffering is not destructive but redemptive, it brings her closer to God and deeper into compassion for others.

Sonia’s faith, grounded in Christian ideals of love, sacrifice, and forgiveness, becomes the bridge to Raskolnikov’s eventual redemption. When she reads him the story of Lazarus from the Bible, it is more than symbolic but is a direct invitation to spiritual rebirth. She represents the idea that only through love, self-denial, and acceptance of suffering can the human soul be renewed.

Raskolnikov resists the idea that his suffering has value. He views it as weakness or punishment, not purification. However, through his growing bond with Sonia and his encounters with other suffering characterssuch as Marmeladov and the deeply religious Porfiry, soon he gradually comes to see that true redemption lies not in escaping punishment, but in embracing it.

His final decision to confess and accept his sentence in Siberia marks the beginning of his transformation. At first, even in prison, he remains spiritually numb. But by the end, he experiences a profound inner changenot because of the law, but because of his spiritual suffering and Sonia’s persistent love.

In a moment of emotional breakthrough, he weeps and realizes he wants to live and love again. His suffering has done its work. It has stripped away his arrogance and opened the door to grace.

Dostoevsky suggests that redemption is only possible through human connection, humility, and suffering. Raskolnikov’s transformation begins when he opens himself up to Sonya, a humble and self-sacrificing figure who accepts suffering out of love and faith.

Unlike Raskolnikov, she has no grand theory but just compassion.

Through Sonya and the Christian message that she carries, Raskolnikov starts to re-engage with his moral and spiritual self. In the epilogue, he confesses and is sentenced to Siberia.

Though still distant at first, his time in prison and Sonya’s unwavering presence initiate a spiritual awakening.

His ultimate path to redemption lies not in ideology, but in accepting the moral law within himself, the value of every individual life, and the possibility of grace.

Fyodor Dostovesky’s Crime and Punishment is a profound psychological and philosophical investigation into the human capacity for free will against the seemingly deterministic forces of poverty, ideology, and psychology.

Roskolnikov initially believes in the supremacy of rational will. He convinces himself that he is intellectually and morally capable of transcending conventional law which was, his infamous “extraordinary man” theory.

Expert :-

“I only wanted to have the daring….and I killed her. I wanted to find out then and quickly whether I was a louse like everybody else or a man.”

Raskolnikov frames the murder not as a crime of desperation and madness, but also to test the freedom, a deliberate act of self-definition. He wants to prove his autonomy by asserting a moral exception. 

This also reflects the idea of human beings are condemned to be free, responsible for defining themselves through their actions.

Raskolnikov slowly tries to attempt this, but Dostoevesky ultimately rejects the lines of autonomy and interrogates the limit of free will and especially when it’s rooted in pride and ideology.

Dostovesky loads the novel with force that shapes and restrict Raskolnikov’s actions, suggesting a deterministic undercurrent.

Psychology of Guilt and Alienation

Ø The Guilt

Raskolnikov’s guilt is not merely legal but existential and moral. After murdering Alyona Ivanovna and her sister Lizaveta, he becomes increasingly consumed by guilt not simply because he fears getting caught, but because the act clashes violently with his internal moral compass.

He initially believes in the Superman theory, that certain extraordinary individuals have the right to transgress moral boundaries for a greater good. He convinces himself that killing Alyona, would free others from her cruelty and allow him to do greater good with the stolen wealth.

However, this rationalization collapses after the murder.

“I killed the old pawnbroker woman and her sister Lizaveta with an axe and robbed them.” (Part V, Chapter 4)

His confession to Sonya marks a pivotal moment where Raskolnikov begins to confront the depth of his guilt. His mental torment escalates through delirium, paranoia, and self-loathing, indicating how guilt manifests not just emotionally but somatically and psychologically.

Symptoms of Guilt

Paranoia: Raskolnikov constantly fears discovery, yet his guilt is inward-facing more than it is about external judgment.

Illness: He experiences feverish episodes that coincide with moments of intense psychological stress.

Hallucinations: He imagines the pawnbroker laughing at him or returning from the dead, classical Freudian symptoms of repressed guilt.

His guilt alienates him from society but also from himself, creating a fragmented identity that he struggles to reconcile throughout the novel.

Ø Alienation

Existential Isolation

From the outset, Raskolnikov is isolated emotionally, socially, and philosophically. He lives in a cramped, dark room symbolic of his mental confinement. He withdraws from friends and family, believing himself to be intellectually superior and morally unbound by societal norms.

“I did not bow down to you; I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity.” (Part IV, Chapter 4)

This line, spoken to Sonya, encapsulates his contradictory desire: to transcend humanity while simultaneously feeling crushed by its suffering.

Social Alienation

Raskolnikov is physically and emotionally distant from society. He avoids contact with others, lives in a tiny garret, and detests reliance on his mother or sister. This separation reflects his belief that he is not like ordinary people, but rather someone "extraordinary"—beyond conventional morality.

Yet his isolation becomes a prison, not a platform for greatness. His inability to connect, even with those who love him like Razumikhin or his mother—leaves him emotionally adrift and increasingly fragmented.

 Philosophical Alienation

Raskolnikov's theory, influenced by utilitarian and Nietzschean ideas of the "superman," alienates him from his own humanity. He tries to detach from empathy, compassion, and remorse in order to fit the mould of the "great man" who can kill for an idea. However, his conscience resists dehumanization.

The result is deep existential confusion: he no longer knows who he is. Is he a murderer?

A revolutionary?

A failed hero?

This loss of self is more terrifying to him than even the prospect of arrest.

Structure Of the Novel

The novel is meticulously divided into six parts and an epilogue, each contributing to the thematic and psychological arc of Raskolnikov. This segmented structure mirrors his psychological fragmentation and gradual journey toward self-awareness and redemption.

Part I- Introduces Raskolnikov’s theory and crime.

Parts II–IV- trace his physical and psychological decline.

Part V- It includes the ideological confrontation with other characters (especially Svidrigailov and Porfiry).

Part VI - Brings about the internal climax and confession.

The Epilogue - resents his punishment and tentative moral rebirth.

This structure allows Dostoevsky to alternate between intense inner monologue, dramatic interactions, and philosophical debate, reflecting the fractured and often contradictory state of Raskolnikov’s psyche.

Despite its length, of over seven hundred pages, and philosophical depth, the events of Crime and Punishment unfold over a very short period, approximately three weeks. This tight time frame contributes to the novel’s claustrophobic atmosphere. The compressed timeline enhances the sense of urgency and disorientation, making Raskolnikov’s descent into guilt more palpable.

Running parallel to Raskolnikov’s story are subplots involving characters like Sonia Marmeladova and Arkady Svidrigailov. These plots are not distractions but rather moral and philosophical counterpoints as:

Sonia represents suffering, selflessness, and Christian redemption.

Svidrigailov represents nihilism and hedonism, showing a different (and ultimately self-destructive) response to guilt and moral isolation.

These subplots reflect, challenge, and illuminate Raskolnikov’s psychological journey, giving the structure both coherence and thematic depth.

By closely examining the internal conflicts of its protagonist, Raskolnikov, the novel Crime and Punishment explores themes of guilt and redemption. Using a third-person omniscient narrator, Dostoyevsky is able to delve deeply into Raskolnikov’s troubled psychology, presenting Raskolnikov’s thoughts, emotions, and reactions as he plans, executes, and then confesses to the murder of the pawnbroker and her sister. This examination of Raskolnikov emphasizes Dostoyevsky’s idea that even the thought of harming others will subvert the human spirit, damaging the minds of perpetrators. Redemption, events suggest, is possible only through confession of guilt and an acceptance of personal responsibility for one’s thoughts and actions alike.

Raskolnikov’s internal conflict surfaces in the tension between his feelings of superiority over others and his sense of guilt over his own thinking and actions. At the beginning of the novel, he contemplates committing the heinous act as he walks around his squalid neighbourhood (extremely dirty and unpleasant, often because of lack of money), feeling physically disgusted at the notion of killing someone. He renounces the thought, yet it has recurs, and that thought alone is harmful. He heads to a dark and dingy bar and stumbles into an alcohol-induced stupor, signalling a figurative descent into depravity. 

Raskolnikov, in the novel’s inciting incident, reveals that his thoughts, his imagination alone, are enough to subvert the spirit: he decides that he will murder the pawnbroker. It is, he thinks, his destiny. He believes, as a matter of overcoming his own sense of inferiority, that he is a “superman,” someone who transcends the laws and rules that govern others. He wants to murder Alyona Ivanovna because he considers her inferior, someone crude, shabby, and with “eyes sparkling with malice.” 

At the novel’s rising action begins, Raskolnikov’s thinking leads to the murder. However, out of necessity he finds himself killing Alyona’s sister Lizaveta as well. She is a simple woman who keeps her sister’s home clean. Raskolnikov, despite his twisted reasoning, cannot justify her murder to himself. No matter how morally justified he once might have considered his actions, they have devastating collateral effects, harming acknowledged innocents.

As the rising action continues, Raskolnikov descends into mental and physical degradation; guilt over the murders increasingly occupies his thinking. Almost immediately, he starts to feel paranoid, nervous, and restless, driven by a desire to get away with his crime. His mental and spiritual anguish is a conflict between his desire to confess and desire to escape, mark the start of his punishment. He has fainting spells whenever someone mentions the murders, and Porfiry Petrovich, a character with which Dostoevsky presents a psychological study of criminal behaviour, begins to suspect him of the killings. 

As the novel progresses, events reveal Raskolnikov’s increasing level of mental degradation. He becomes increasingly emotional, erratic, and reckless, as his compulsion to confess is at odds with his instinct for self-preservation. On multiple occasions, such as at the scene of the crime and at the Crystal Palace, he almost blurts out a confession, which further arouses Porfiry’s suspicions. 

At the novel’s climax, Raskolnikov can no longer avoid the compulsion to find redemption, a fact foreshadowed through Dostoevsky’s use of the allegory of Lazarus, which signals a desire to return to life. He starts caring for others, wants to save his mother and sister from the pain of knowing what he has done, and finally confesses to Sonya. Like Lazarus’s return to the living, Raskolnikov starts slowly recovering his mental composure, resolving his inner conflict by recognizing himself to be human, not “superhuman.” He begins a return from self-imposed isolation from human society, forming a meaningful relationship with Sonya. 

In the novel’s falling action, Raskolnikov continues on his redemptive journey by confessing to the police. He falters and even turns back once from the police station, but he sees Sonya and decides to follow through. Sonya’s righteous, selfless, and morally sound character serves as a foil to Raskolnikov, and it is through her that his redemption becomes complete. After his confession, Raskolnikov is tried and sent to a prison in Siberia. 

The novel’s resolution finds Raskolnikov discovering love for Sonya while in prison. Ironically, it is in the forced isolation of his punishment that he forges a meaningful human connection for the first time in his life. Though Raskolnikov remains conceited and thinks of his actions more as mistakes than morally repugnant behaviours, Dostoevsky ends the story on a positive note, suggesting that the protagonist is on his way to a final redemption through his love for Sonya.

THEMES

The novel builds on multiple underlying themes.

Alienation from Society

Alienation is the primary theme of Crime and Punishment. At first, Raskolnikov’s pride separates him from society. He sees himself as superior to all other people and so cannot relate to anyone. Within his personal philosophy, he sees other people as tools and uses them for his own ends. After committing the murders, his isolation grows because of his intense guilt and the half-delirium into which his guilt throws him.

Over and over again, Raskolnikov pushes away the people who are trying to help him, including Sonya, Dunya, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Razumikhin, and even Porfiry Petrovich, and then suffers the consequences. In the end, he finds the total alienation that he has brought upon himself intolerable.

Only in the Epilogue, when he finally realizes that he loves Sonya, does Raskolnikov break through the wall of pride and self-centeredness that has separated him from society.

The Psychology of Crime and Punishment

The manner in which the novel addresses crime and punishment is not exactly what one would expect. The crime is committed in Part I and the punishment comes hundreds of pages later, in the Epilogue. The real focus of the novel is not on those two endpoints but on what lies inbetween them, an in-depth exploration of the psychology of a criminal. The inner world of Raskolnikov, with all of its doubts, deliria, second-guessing, fear, and despair, is the heart of the story. Dostoevsky concerns himself not with the actual repercussions of the murder but with the way the murder forces Raskolnikov to deal with tormenting guilt.

Indeed, by focusing so little on Raskolnikov’s imprisonment, Dostoevsky seems to suggest that actual punishment is much less terrible than the stress and anxiety of trying to avoid punishment. Porfiry Petrovich emphasizes the psychological angle of the novel, as he shrewdly realizes that Raskolnikov is the killer and makes several speeches in which he details the workings of Raskolnikov’s mind after the killing. Because he understands that a guilt-ridden criminal must necessarily experience mental torture, he is certain that Raskolnikov will eventually confess or go mad. The expert mind games that he plays with Raskolnikov strengthen the sense that the novel’s outcome is inevitable because of the nature of the human psyche.

The Idea of the Superman

At the beginning of the novel, Raskolnikov sees himself as a “superman,” a person who is extraordinary and thus above the moral rules that govern the rest of humanity. His vaunted estimation of himself compels him to separate himself from society. His murder of the pawnbroker is, in part, a consequence of his belief that he is above the law and an attempt to establish the truth of his superiority.

Raskolnikov’s inability to quell his subsequent feelings of guilt, however, proves to him that he is not a “superman.” Although he realizes his failure to live up to what he has envisioned for himself, he is nevertheless unwilling to accept the total deconstruction of this identity. He continues to resist the idea that he is as mediocre as the rest of humanity by maintaining to himself that the murder was justified. It is only in his final surrender to his love for Sonya, and his realization of the joys in such surrender, that he can finally escape his conception of himself as a superman and the terrible isolation such a belief brought upon him.

Nihilism

Nihilism was a philosophical position developed in Russia in the 1850s and 1860s, known for “negating more,” in the words of Lebezyatnikov. It rejected family and societal bonds and emotional and aesthetic concerns in favour of a strict materialism, or the idea that there is no “mind” or “soul” outside of the physical world.

Linked to nihilism is utilitarianism, or the idea that moral decisions should be based on the rule of the greatest happiness for the largest number of people. Raskolnikov originally justifies the murder of Alyona on utilitarian grounds, claiming that a “louse” has been removed from society. Whether or not the murder is actually a utilitarian act, Raskolnikov is certainly a nihilist; completely unsentimental for most of the novel, he cares nothing about the emotions of others. Similarly, he utterly disregards social conventions that run counter to the austere interactions that he desires with the world. However, at the end of the novel, as Raskolnikov discovers love, he throws off his nihilism. Through this action, the novel condemns nihilism as empty.

IS RASKOLNIKOV A HERO?

Thats the question one is left with after we finish reading the epilogue.

If a hero is defined as a man or woman with noble attributes who carries out difficult and frightening tasks, then at first glance Raskolnikov seems the opposite of a hero. He murders a defenceless old woman, then insists he has done nothing wrong. Still, his conscience torments him: He worries about his actions, his family, and the nation in which he lives. Because he thinks deeply about moral problems, Raskolnikov is ultimately able to commit brave acts, turning himself into the police and atoning for his sinful past. Though Raskolnikov spends most of the novel in a decidedly non-heroic state, his keen, searching conscience allows him to attain grace in the closing epilogue and he ends the novel a hero.

To be sure, Raskolnikov engages in numerous unheroic thoughts and deeds. Toward the beginning of the novel, he attacks and kills the moneylender Alyona Ivanovna. He tells himself he has behaved admirably; by his perverse logic, moneylenders are so cruel that they do not deserve to live.

“Crime?”

he says.

“What crime?”

He likens Alyona Ivanova to a “louse” that has “sucked the life-sap from the poor,” and claims that killing her was a virtuous act that should earn him forgiveness for forty sins. Raskolnikov also develops a worldview in which some men are so farsighted and brilliant that they may kill anyone who displeases them, counting himself as one of these men. This pattern of selfish thoughts and actions certainly does not seem heroic.

On the other hand, Raskolnikov’s active conscience distinguishes him from most people. The guilt he feels after killing Alyona Ivanovna is the most brutal punishment in the novel. Even the police investigator, Porfiry Petrovich, admires Raskolnikov for his finely-tuned sensibilities. His conscience causes him to worry not just about his own sins, but also about the sins of nineteenth-century Russia.

He refuses to marry, seeing the institution as deeply flawed and imbalanced, and he forbids his sister to marry Luzhin because such a marriage would reduce her to a servant. The status of Russian women enrages him and his heart aches for Sonya, who prostitutes herself to feed her family. Tormented, he dreams of a poor, weak horse that gets crushed in the street. To Raskolnikov, the horse represents Russia’s starving masses, sacrificed in the name of progress. These moments of bitterness and idealism show that Raskolnikov has an extraordinary conscience. The symbolism used by Dostovesky is dark and cruel, quite in line with the wider Russian literature.

Raskolnikov’s active, well-developed conscience ultimately enables him to commit heroic acts. These acts of heroism occur toward the very end of the novel, after the psychological torment proves too much to bear and he turns himself in. Sentenced to hard labour in Siberia, the young man accepts his fate with surprising courage and grace.

Though it doesn’t happen immediately, Raskolnikov eventually renounces his selfish thoughts and realizes that he had allowed himself to become alienated from the human community. The resolute loner even declares his love for the steadfast Sonya, an act of pure faith from a man who has despised marriage for so long.

“Instead of dialectics,”

Dostoyevsky writes, Raskolnikov realizes that “there was life, and something different to work itself out in his consciousness.” He changes from a self-pitying criminal into a generous, compassionate man, capable of loving another person.

QUOTES

There are numerous quotes that have been repeated frequently, as is the tradition with Russian literature.

“I don’t believe in a future life,”

... Raskolnikov.

Svidrigailov tells Raskolnikov that he has been seeing his dead wife’s ghost, and reflects that ghosts represent “shreds and fragments of other worlds.” Raskolnikov replies that he doesn’t believe in an afterlife, Svidrigailov’s “other worlds.” Raskolnikov’s belief that no life exists outside of the body and his rejection of the idea of a soul represent a nihilistic viewpoint. Nihilism favors a strict materialism, a belief that reality exists only within the bounds of the material world.

“What do you think, would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds?”

... a random student

Raskolnikov overhears a conversation between a student and an officer in which the student makes case for justifying the theft and homicide of Alyona, the pawnbroker. The student argues that the immorality of murdering an old woman near death who actively harms people seems far outweighed by the benefit in the countless lives her money would improve. His argument applies an ethic of utilitarianism to determine right conduct by usefulness therby making moral decisions outside of religious value system links utilitarianism with nihilism and both with socialism.

“Don’t torture me!” he said with a gesture of irritation.

This type of short and rude response comes from Raskolnikov often.

He treats people, even family members, as an annoyance. After he commits murder and conceals the crime, Raskolnikov’s mental state rapidly deteriorates, a condition that distresses both his sister and mother.

The two women try to help and comfort him, but he orders them out. Raskolnikov says he loves his family, and he does, but he also isolates himself emotionally, out of feeling superior. Raskolnikov’s unsentimental behaviour and lack of concern for others’ feelings make him a good example of a nihilist.