Crime and Punishment

A detailed Summary of Crime and Punishment

In war, a general has no room for his own personal feelings and emotions. He has to make logical decisions that will ensure his side victory, and relies on his intelligence, not his morals, to succeed. If he were to make decisions based on his desire not have people get hurt or killed, his goals would most likely not be met. In the same way, Raskolnikov, in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, tries to do what he knows to be logical and ignores his emotions, throwing away his own morals for the sake of a mere idea. Raskolnikov's struggle to listen to his mind and not his heart is portrayed through his thoughts and monologues that occur as he faces many hardships. Thoughts about the strangers he meets, the people close to him, and himself, in particular, illustrate his struggle most clearly, and demonstrate Dostoevsky's idea that people sometimes adhere to logic to avoid their true feelings.

Raskolnikov's reactions to the people that he meets in Petersburg shows how he tries to listen only to his own reasoning rather than his emotions. For instance, when he meets Marmeladov and leaves money on their windowsill, he suggests that he has done " a stupid thing"...since "they have Sonia and

I want it myself." By giving Marmeladov's family money, Raskolnikov shows a moment of emotional spontaneity, but then the intellectual side of him makes him regret it. Also, later a similar situation occurs when Raskolnikov gives a policeman money to help a sixteen-year-old girl, saying to himself, "He has carried off my twenty copecks...And why did I want to interfere?" Once again, he is torn between his true feelings and how he thinks he should be reacting to such situations. The intellectual part of Rasko's mind tells him such people are insignificant and have no relation to him, while his heart fells compassion for those same individuals. His differing conflict of logic and emotion is also shown when Rasko meets a man who calls him a murderer. His first feeling was that he was "chilled all over", but later he laughs to himself, saying "Napoleon, the pyramids, Waterloo, and a wretched skinny old woman, a pawnbroker...that's a nice hash for Porfiry Petrovitch to digest!" He is hiding behind the vanity over his knowledge about the idea of "extraordinary" people when he is in actuality afraid of the consequences behind his murder. Rasko prefers to see himself as a steadfast person instead of a frightened one, so he protects himself from the reality of his feelings by putting on a sad smile. Similarly, during his interview with Porfiry, he was indirectly proclaimed to be a murderer but was unaffected by the statement, as he thought "the details of the interview were of little consequence. By thinking this thought, he shows that he is once again trying to remain unaffected by Porfiry's words when actually he is in fact frightened. Also, he thinks Svidrigailov can provide him with "information, or a means of escape," but at the same time thinks "how sick he was of it all!" Rasko is showing again his attempt to act intellectual, much like his idea about "extraordinary" people, when actually he is afraid, desperate, and tired of all the hardships he has endured. Many of the strangers that Raskolnikov meets causes him to mentally struggle, as he tries to avoid his true feelings with logical thinking. Raskolnikov not only attempts to ignore his true feelings towards the people he doesn't personally know, but also towards his family and the people he becomes close to. For instance, when he was determining whether to visit Razumihin for lessons and work, he says to himself, "That's not what I want now. It's really absurd for me to go to Razumihin...." He tries to look at the idea intellectually, that he will have no use for the little money that he would make, but in actuality he longs to see Razumihin for some sort of help, whether it be for work or for his troubles. The fact that he later visit

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Approximate Word count = 1836
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels