Crime and Punishment - Madness

A detailed Summary of Crime and Punishment - Madness

Demur, you're straightaway dangerous

- Emily Dickinson

Knowing the difference between insanity and intense clarity is often difficult when dealing with eccentric characters. Comedians such as Johnny Carson, while at times appearing utterly mad, are extremely self-controlled at all times, even when pouring liquids down their pants. Raskolnikov, a less humorous example, is thought by many characters in Crime and Punishment to be batty on several occasions, Zossimov and Zametov being only a few examples. His madness, however, his delusion and monomania, are disguising a real and sane objective. Wisdom can appear in the midst of lunacy, and Raskolnikov's spiritual journey that is the heart of Crime and Punishment explores this idea.

The most defining eccentricity of Raskolnikov's character is his obsession with theory. His own theory of the ordinary and the extraordinary becomes the framework of his whole existence, in that he views everything he does through the twisted lens of his idea. I

There is a deeper side to how his crime can have sense, however, when looked at from the literally divine standpoint. Raskolnikov sinks as low as a human can, destroying what makes him human consciously even while he tries to salvage it unconsciously. He violates the most precious moral, the value of human life, and becomes an unfeeling monster willingly and purposefully. Even as he "benefits humanity," he puts its very structure at risk by defying its most basic beliefs and principles. From this lowest point, however, he rises to a new understanding in the Epilogue, a connection with God and with his human side. Destroying his humanity may have been the only way to reach this salvation and attain his true destiny. So, there was a "divine sense" in his theory in that it allowed him to obtain what he lacked the whole time: religion. Even immediately after his crime, he does not admit that what he has done is wrong, but rather the feeling builds up like a smoldering pile of oily rags inside him until it Sonia kindles it with her eternal love for him. Raskolnikov's spiritual journey that is the heart and theme of Crime and Punishment ends with the redemption that would not have been possible without the theory and its resultant transgression, without his madness.

As Dickinson writes, however, Raskolnikov's madness is divinest sense, if looked at correctly. The aspects of his theory and his crime, however mad they might appear, have some merit. After all, the basis of his theory is that the suffering of the few will benefit the many. "The great benefactors of humankind throughout time have all been prepared to make sacrifices, although Raskolnikov's example of Napoleon isn't exactly

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Approximate Word count = 1148
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels