Crime and Punishment analysis

A detailed Summary of Crime and Punishment analysis

Everyone in his or her life experiences some type of mischief or wrong doing in

which causes some type of mental disturbance. In Crime and Punishment, Fyodor

Dostoyevsky uses the five basic literary elements in order to show the atrocities of crime;

that crime is an unnecessary evil that only brings about suffering such as guilt, illness,

loneliness and punishment. The five basic literary elements utilized by Dostoyevsky are

setting, plot, characterization, style and theme.

For instance, Dostoyevsky uses the literary element of setting to show that crime

is consequentially followed by guilt, and only causes a negative effect on that person who

is culpable of the crime. The setting of Crime and Punishment takes place in St.

Petersburg, the capital of Russia, in the midst of its troubled transition to the modern age.

Through Dostoyevsky use of setting we see that crime causes suffering and guilt. For

example, he uses normal occurrences at a police station to exacerbate the protagonist's

(Roskolnikov) guilt. Furthermore, we see the suffering of Roskolnikov through

Dostoyevsky's vivid descriptions of his impoverished room; "He woke up tense, bilious,

gets sicker. "Yet he was morose, distraught and quite pale. He looked wounded, ...his

he shows his magnanimous and sympathetic attributes. "As he was leaving [Sonia's

them"(511), Roskolnikov was still burdened with the physical punishment of illness.

imprisonment in Siberia for eight years.

there was no longer anyone to talk to or anything to say."(228)

Approximate Word count = 912
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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