Analysis of Raskolnikov’s Character in Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s iconic novel ‘Crime and Punishment’ is set in St. Petersburg, Tsarist Russia in the 1860s. Orthodox Christianity to this day is the leading religion of the country, with an extremely faithful population of Christians. Religion was significant for people to have hope for during times of turmoil in a restricting society; its true meanings meant that there was a focus on morality. 

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, the protagonist of the novel, was raised in the Christian faith. However, a series of events including poverty and mental illness result in his decision to gradually abandon his faith and adopt a nihilist view. Raskolnikov’s decline alienates him further from everyone around him, as he begins to turn away from traditional value systems such as family, religion, and society. The ethical expectations imposed on him cause the decision to murder a pawnbroker based on utilitarian ideas that her death will benefit others. Raskolnikov is surprised to find that after committing a murder he feels it has justified for the betterment of humanity; however, it is not too long before he finds that he also craves redemption for what he has done. From the murder onwards, the novel focuses on Raskolnikov’s gradual breakdown and deconstruction of his identity as well as his alienation from his original morals. The ways in which his guilt is represented by his increasing madness and loss of identity shows his true realisation of his actions. The epilogue concludes the book by showing Raskolnikov’s transformation into a human being. His alienation from society due to the murder is ended when he realises he is not above moral law and admits his love for Sonia, resolves Raskolnikov’s inner struggle of his superiority and morality. 

Raskolnikov Character Analysis: Complex, Tormented and Deeply Conflicted

Raskolnikov is represented as a complicated character from the very beginning of the novel. The very meaning of the name Raskolnikov derives from the Russian word ‘raskolnik,’ meaning schismatic or divided. He is an extremely proud and contemptuous character, yet emotionally split from humanity. The beginning of the novel outlines the initial ideas of isolation in which his use of his so-called exceeding reputation masks his halt in his career. He is a person with a focus on reputation, his appearance and impression on others significant to him. His pride is fostered by his natural good looks: ‘…exceptionally handsome, above the average in height, slim, well built, with beautiful dark eyes and dark brown hair.’ The writer uses his appearance to exaggerate the contrast to his situation. Described as a poor ex-student who is barely struggling to get by, living in poor conditions, he still seems himself in a light of importance and intellect. 

Fyodor Dostoevsky also portrays Raskolnikov as a man torn between two worlds. In one is his ability to be cold and calculating; at such, he has the arrogance to believe that he has the superiority of a god-like position. The other half demonstrates perspectives of kindness and humility, where he is able to recognise “…the boundaries created by the laws of God and men.” This divide in his character is significant in provoking the self conflict between himself and morality. He struggles to find his way of being what he truly is; signs of an internal battle can be recognised from the early stages of Raskolnikov’s character development. The idea of masking his struggles in his personal life through appearance and narcissism foreshadows his feeling of duty to murder someone of less worth than himself. His encounter with the pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna, a 60 year old weak woman, proves his troubled morality as he shocks himself with the concept of murdering for money. However he is convinced that he is intelligent enough to go through with such a horrific plan; he truly believes that he could escape legal punishment, undermining the moral punishment that he must suffer. The battle between Raskolnikov’s morals begins to take over him to the point where it plays a role in his subconscious. He has the first of 4 dreams about himself as a child accompanying his father to a requiem service for his grandmother and a visit to the grave of his brother. On the road to the church, they encounter a group of drunken peasants led by a man named Mikolka, who calls to his friends to get on his cart and have an old, thin mare pull them. When the horse is unable to pull the weight of all the men in the cart, Mikolka and his men beat her to death before young Raskolnikov. He is only awoken from his dream after the mare has been killed by whips and crowbars: “The blow fell; the mare staggered, sank back, tried to pull, but the bar fell again with a swinging blow on her back and she fell on the ground like a log.” Behind Mikolka’s act of violence is the larger plan to kill the pawnbroker. Despite the differences in crime, the act of murder is equal to both murderers. Dreams convey one’s most deeply guarded secrets or hidden hints about inherent dangers. The imagery of the peasant standing over the mare with an axe foreshadows Raskolnikov’s fatal blows. Awake in the shock of the moment, Raskolnikov has a complete change of perspective on Alyona, in his mind, for a moment, he thinks of her as his innocent victim: “God!’ he exclaimed, ‘but can it be, can it be that I will really take an axe and hit her on the head and smash her skull…slip in the sticky, warm blood, break the lock, steal, and tremble, and hide, all covered with blood…with the axe…Lord, can it be?” 

In the dream, Dostoevsky uses the dreams to portray Raskolnikov’s abnormal psychological mind. He sees himself in more that just the murderer. There are four ‘Raskolnikovs’ in this dream: the Mikolka-Raskolnikov who seeks to assert power over and ownership of others through the irrational extinguishment of human life; the mare Raskolnikov who feels helplessly trapped and beaten down; the boy Raskolnikov, who compassionately leaps forth to try to spare a life; and finally the father Raskolnikov, who swoops in to squelch the child’s heartfelt, heroic benevolence. Here the most important Raskolnikov in the quadrille is the boy, who takes responsibility and tries to right a wrong. Raskolnikov fights to figure out how he feels and therefore what he wants; he relates to death and mercy. His ultimate realisation is that he is heading down the Mikolka path and might actually “take an axe” to go through with his plan. The dream, however, is even more of a prescription of his lean to the murderous persona: it admonishes Raskolnikov to confront his own Mikolka-like instincts, to come clean, to ultimately “hug the knees” of and accept love. As such, even before he kills Alyona, Raskolnikov craves confession deep inside. The end of part one of the novel describes Raskolnikov outside the pawnbroker’s door; despite his decision to finally murder, he is aware of how careful he must be. As Alyona opens the door slightly he pushes his way in, fearing that she may not let him enter. His panic fuels his fear of errors in his plan and he does not want to risk losing this precious opportunity. Raskolnikov has plotted his crime repeatedly, but his nervousness creates a clouded judgement as his carefully obsessive plan becomes a flow of paranoid motions, especially when Alyona is very wary of Raskolnikov’s business. He waits until she begins to open her promised gift of a cigarette case; as he distracts her, he seizes the moment to withdraw the axe from his pocket: “Then [Raskolnikov] dealt [Alyona] another and another blow with the blunt side and on the same spot. The blood gushed as from an overturned glass, the body fell back.” Raskolnikov hits the old woman repeatedly and brutally and she is dead within seconds. From there, the crime becomes less and less “reasoned,” less planned. He grows confused, and even the nature of the blows themselves (struck with the blunt end of the axe) indicate that Raskolnikov has proceeded with haste and emotion. 

Furthemore, Raskolnikov’s narrative point of view objectifies his victim as “glass;” not only highlighting his full focus on the mechanical motion of the hacking action, but the meaninglessness of her death to him in that moment as he portrays her as a mere object. Raskolnikov’s weapon of choice for the murders also reflects his internal chaos. He considers using a knife but decides that he does not want to rely on strength or precision to complete the act. The narrator notes that with each of Raskolnikov’s decisions: “…the more final they were, the more hideous and the more absurd they at once became in his eyes.” Even Raskolnikov believes that being an axe murderer is ridiculous. It is bulky and messy, yet there is a part of Raskolnikov that believes this is the only option. His disorganisation also reflects in the spontaneous murder of Lizaveta, the pawnbroker’s mentally challenged half-sister. She is referred to as “submissive” and is described as: “such a soft, gentle creature, ready to put up with anything, always willing, willing to do anything.” Raskolnikov is put into the position of having to murder Lizaveta; despite her insignificance to most of the characters including himself, his paranoia changes his perspective on her. Suddenly a weak character is a threat to an ‘intelligent student,’ and Raskolnikov knows that he must be completely unseen stealing the pawnbroker’s belongings when escaping the scene of the crime. After the murder, Raskolnikov’s battle between his conscience becomes very one-sided. Paranoia takes the better of him when he also decides to kill Lizaveta for good measure. At this point he wants to make sure that there is nothing or no one that can catch him. The fear is driving him to destruction as conscience has taken the better of him. ‘Surely it isn’t beginning already! Surely it isn’t my punishment coming upon me? It is!’ Raskolnikov obsesses over possible evidence of his crime. The phrase ‘coming upon me’ suggests two interpretations of the passage: that the beginning phase of Raskolnikov’s punishment is being meted out by a force of justice (sometimes interpreted as God) and that Raskolnikov is personifying punishment as a force of justice of itself. The surge of guilt and paranoia manifests itself into sickness. Besides Raskolnikov’s feverishness and lack of consciousness at times, his mental instability causes him to lose all sense of reason. 

His Pride and Complicated Relationships With Sonia

Dostoevsky shows the frantic nature with which Raskolnikov sees himself, and sees that his reason is failing and his mind uncontrollable: “In the dark of the evening he was jolted back to consciousness. God, what shouting it was! Never before has he heard such unnatural noises!” Raskolnikov’s symptoms of bipolarity and psychosis prove his true instability due to the murder, the loss of interest in daily actions, anxiety and problems with sleep show that he has swallowed in his guilt. His pride and narcissism have momentarily disappeared and it has brought out Raskolnikov’s true fear of doing what is wrong in the eyes of “God.” Here the true power of religion and morality has overcome him; his attempt to establish the ‘truth’ of his superiority has only lead to failure of what he had envisioned himself as. During Raskolnikov’s mental torture, Zamyotov, a clerk with the St. Petersburg police department encounters Raskolnikov still in his ill state after stumbling into a tavern. He leads Zamyotov through a half-mocking conversation where he appears to be on the verge of confessing: “Raskolnikov’s eyes were flashing; he became terribly pale … A terrible word was trembling on his lips, like the hook on that door: another moment and it would jump out; another moment and it would let go; another moment and it would be spoken!” Raskolnikov is thinking about what he’s about to say, aware of the risk of blurting out a confession. However, this highlights his desire to be free of the guilt that is impossible to ignore, and he appears crazy to Zamyotov. Dostoevsky also uses anaphora when he repeats the phrase “another moment.” This further emphasises how uncontrollable Raskolnikov’s urge is to confess, whether that is because he feels guilty or has simply allowed the constant conversation about the murders to overwhelm him. Reaching the peak of his guilt, Raskolnikov is in pure isolation; he knows that he is on the brink of madness and in desperation needs the pressure lifted off his shoulders. Taking a first step towards rebuilding his soul and rejoining humanity by finally confessing the truth to someone, he decides to visit Sonya, a merciful suffering prostitute. His choice of confidant highlights his everlasting pride; being able to speak to someone who will have mercy on him means he can manipulate his image and maintain his reputation. 

Furthermore, Raskolnikov’s underlying love for Sonya signifies the trust that he must have within her, his emotions towards her means she is somewhat worth a reason for confession, despite his battle between what is right and his reputation: ‘I have to tell her. No, I can’t tell her. But I have to. But I can’t.’ On meeting her he attempts to justify his murder to Sonya before he admits to it. He argues that, in some circumstances, it is better to kill one person than to allow many people to suffer. But Sonya, invoking Christian teachings, says that to kill is always wrong, even if the killing would save others. She argues that killing cannot make one extraordinary: ““Oh hush, hush,” cried Sonia, clasping her hands. “You turned away from God and God has smitten you, has given you over to the devil!” The moment of revelation is oblique. Raskolnikov still doesn’t have the fortitude to say aloud the truth of what he’s done. But he knows that Sonia understands implicitly, the cost of what Raskolnikov has done. She understands that, while he is still alive, a part of him is just as dead as the two women he murdered. In that moment though Sonia lives a harrowing life of struggle, working as a prostitute so her family can eat, that her life is a paradise compared to the hell Raskolnikov has made for himself. Dostoevsky explains that no amount of poverty and physical suffering can compare to the suffering of the soul. True happiness doesn’t come from one’s social station, that it matters very little if you’re a poor prostitute or a wealthy baron, but the integrity of the soul “‘There is no one,’ she shouts at Raskolnikov, ‘no one in the world now so unhappy as you!’” Even though Sonia has nothing, her life is one of misery and pain, she immediately feels intense pity for Raskolnikov, because she can look at him, see how he’s destroyed the good in him, and know that his unhappiness is far worse than hers. Having taken on his suffering as her own, Sonia has given Raskolnikov permission to be honest with himself about the nature of what he’s done, and, for the first time in the novel, he sees himself clearly. He says aloud all the rationalisations he gave himself for his act of murder and hears, for the first time, how trite and awful they sound. In choosing to separate himself from society, and declare himself a superior man, he has destroyed his soul. 

Conclusion

Raskolnikov comes to recognise that, although he has acted believing himself to be an extraordinary individual, his remorse and subsequent mental instability prove he is ordinary after all. As he isolates himself further and further in his guilt and madness, he comes to realise that he is nothing with his moral needs such as family and close friends. His loss of identity, more than anything, convinces him to confess his guilt to the authorities. The novel describes Raskolnikov’s attempted abandonment of humane morals. However he battles between becoming the most superior through continuously ruling out his conscience and his deterioration from society. His inner struggle and self control to make decisions about all of the murders is the cause of this significant flaw and eventually lead to his sentence to eight years’ hard labour in Siberia, where Sonya joins him.