Analysis of The Novel `crime and Punishment’ Written by Fyodor Dostoevskys

The ‘Crime and Punishment’ is a novel written in the mid-1860s by a well known author named Fyodor Dostoevskys in Siberia. This novel has six parts with an epilogue, it has a serious, dramatic tone and Dostoevskys made use of a dual character-personality. This book presents a student with the shallow-type of beliefs on philosophy and convinced his mind of a super-being’s prowess, the main character called Rodian Romanovitch Raskolnikov. His conviction of his aid to humanity even if it entails committing a crime; He saw himself as someone on a mission with extra powers, so carefully he thinks of the crime, its execution which he categorized as a blameless act. In this excerpt, the narrator triggers the reader’s inquisitiveness and its linkage to the operation of the human mind; hence, the themes in this selection buttress its main subject: Sufferings, Morality-Reparation, Confession and Forgiveness - A renewed being.

Sufferings

“If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be his punishment - as well as the prison…” (474). Here was stated his amount of suffering which is as a result of him acknowledging guiltiness, dialogue was set that so long he has sense of right and wrong, he will suffer for his crime and being in prison too serve as a secondary level of inflicted suffering. For example, he experienced psychological and physical sufferings in which fear conquered the reasoning of Raskolnikov and then he lost his mind. This psychological torment led to his inevitable illness (305).

Morality - Reparation

“In the prison the second-class convict Rodion Raskolnikov has been confined for nine months. Almost a year and a half has passed since his crime. There had been little difficulty about his trial. The criminal adhered exactly, firmly, and clearly to his statement. He did not confuse nor misrepresent the facts, nor soften them in his own interest, nor omit the smallest detail” (939). Based on this fact, it revealed that despite his confinement to the prison and his awaiting trial, the criminal had obvious chance to review his original statement to limit his physical punishment by the law but then he stood his ground, this means he is not actually a bad person, he contained some level of morals in him but only chose a wrong approach to a right course. It shows his level of goodness but the wrong was the mindset of achieving good in association with crime. At the long run, he received the consequence of honesty - mercy, maybe the judge or people of the judiciary could read his mind and repentant spirit, possibly because he never subscribe to any form of defense.

Confession

Raskolnikov’s psychological torment can be attributed to his guilty consciousness and the need to gain freedom from these mental and physical sufferings became paramount, then he opted for confession to the concerned persons; for example, he confessed to Sonia, at the public square and to the law enforcers. Even he felt that the mind is a world greater than the physical environment, he made his sincere confession despite the fact that he will not gain immediate freedom from prison but led to even greater psychological freedom.

Forgiveness - A renewed being

“But all at once something seemed to seize him and fling him at her feet. He wept and threw his arms round her knees... They were both pale and thin; but those sick pale faces were bright with the dawn of a new future, of a full resurrection into a new life” (964).

At the initial stage, fear ran down her spine which reflected on her physique due to his confession but again his redemption lit the atmosphere. Despite the act of Raskolnikov to Sonya, she showed unrestricted love towards the criminal and willingly forgave him. You will agree with me that based on human capacity, forgiveness of the criminal act of Raskolnikov is very slim but there was this greater force that intervened, love from God. He followed an admirable path, let go of shame, ego and took up some amount of humility at Sonia’s feet; this depicts that apart from the determination to seek for forgiveness, one need to still put up some genuine step into achieving forgiveness and this staged a show of a renewed being. This was what led to his reborn.

At the end of this selection, Raskolnikov had had in his custody, the New Testament which he had asked of Sonia, who never pester him about faith or religion but her attitude towards his forgiveness gave him the conviction and that was enough to raise his curiosity to know the force responsible for Sonia’s act. “The book belong to Sonia; it was the one from which she had read the raising of Lazarus to him” (966). Then he had had a connection of this story to his’ believing that if a man declared dead and buried could be brought back to life by God; inasmuch he (Raskolnikov) is alive and so he has greater hope in God. That was the conviction that ushered him to redemption and fresh start at the entrance to a new life.