Preview

Love In Crime And Punishment

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2045 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Love In Crime And Punishment
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Intro:
In the novel Crime and Punishment
Thesis: Fyodor Dostoevsky uses romantic love, filial and familial love (family), religious love and humanitarian love in Crime and Punishment as the vehicle for complete moral and spiritual redemption. While both Raskolnikov and Sonya demonstrate love and in turn redemption, Svidrigailov’s life is void of love and eventually results in his death. FINISH THIS
Despite being closely associated with evil, sin and crime, Rodion Raskolnikov shows the four major types of love throughout Crime and Punishment including familial love, humanitarian love, romantic love and eventually religious love. These demonstrations of love become the principal cause of the eventual redemption of his character.
…show more content…
Even after Svidrigailov offers money to the family and Raskolnikov, he denies the visitation of Svidrigailov and it becomes clear once again that the safety and well-being of the family is far more important than Raskolnikov’s welfare. Finally Raskolnikov establishes his connection with religion throughout Crime and Punishment in a more subtle manner than the other forms of love. The first example of Raskolnikov’s silent love for religion is during the murder scene at the pawnbroker’s apartment. When Raskolnikov kills Elizaveta and Alena he works incredibly hard not to damage the cross necklace that they are both wearing. He takes a significant amount of time to remove them carefully the necklaces from their necks without damage and without showing disrespect. This act demonstrates that while Raskolnikov feels that he may be able to transcend the law, he is not able to transcend God in his life. An additional time when Raskolnikov reveals not just love but utter need for God is when he is talking to his mother and asks for her to “pray for me(Raskolnikov)”(Page INSERT PAGE NUMBER). This is a very important passage in the novel because Raskolnikov is about to turn himself into the police and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Crime and Punishment

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Because of the guilt and punishment Raskolnikov put him self through, he confessed his crime and became a "good Christian" by doing his time. Sonia had given him the book of the old testament which he kept under his pillow at prison but had not opened once in a year. He still did not open…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment centers on Raskolnikov, a man who chooses to murder a common pawnbroker while he struggles with guilt, alienation, and pride. The choice to commit murder creates a division between Raskolnikov and society because he violates the moral laws governing society. In Crime and Punishment, the rift between Raskolnikov and society is both alienating and enriching for his character and demonstrates Dostoevsky’s opinion of an individual’s place in society.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rasconikov Duality

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the novel Crime and Punishment, Rasconikov is the main character who is a relatively poor ex-student in Saint Petersburg facing mental issues and struggling with the battle between his pride and conscious. Rasconikov often acts one way one minute, and another the next which makes it very difficult to distinguish Rsconikov’s true and actual personality. It is said that Rasconikov is a dual character, one being a very isolated, detached, sneaky, and disconnected, the other being very kind, giving, considerate, and sincere.…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    To begin, St. Petersburg serves as a symbol of the corrupt state of society and its influence on Raskolnikov’s actions. For instance, in the first pages of Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov describes the atmosphere of St. Petersburg as “terribly hot [...] with an intolerable stench from the taverns, especially numerous in that part of the city, and the drunkards kept running into even though it was a weekday, completed the loathsome and melancholy coloring of the picture” (Dostoevsky 4). In this case, the imagery of the dirty and disorient city of St. Petersburg is a symbol for the current state of society; imperfect, unequal, and full of corruption. The dysfunctional society of St. Petersburg clearly takes a toll on Raskolnikov, as he quickly finds himself poverty-stricken. In a corrupt society where the wealthy thrive and the poor suffer, he has no choice but to resort to crime in order to make ends meet. Similarly, Raskolnikov’s theory of the extraordinary versus the ordinary serves as a symbol of the imbalance of power in society. For instance, social inequality becomes increasingly apparent as Raskolnikov…

    • 1695 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, riddles its characters with physical, sexual, and psychological violence. Thomas C. Foster asserts in the chapter “More than it’s Going to Hurt You: Concerning Violence” of How to Read Literature like a Professor that no violence exists for its own sake; Rather, violence is useful in contributing to the novel’s overall message. Crime and Punishment is powerful demonstrating the control of conscience, guilt and otherwise, over the life of man. Quite typically violence erupts due to a sick combination of id and ego. The relationship between Semyon Zaharovitch Marmeladov, a town drunk of St. Petersburg, and his children and spouse, Katerina Ivanovna, is built upon a myriad of violence catalyzed by guilt. This relationship is the quintessence of lives tyrannized by guilt resulting in a vicious circle of ferocity.…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, the protagonist in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment is a penniless Russian ex-student who undergoes a psychological breakdown which lead to him committing the murder of his landlord Alyona Ivanovna and her sister Lizaveta Ivanovna. In the novel the numbers two, four and eight represent Raskolnikov’s attempt to achieve redemption. While the ages of Raskolnikov and Sonya, Raskolnikov’s love interest, reveal the current mental state and relationship between the characters. Also, the small amount of pension which Raskolnikov’s mother, Pulkheria receives indirectly affects Raskolnikov. The use of specific numbers in relation to age, details, and financial status correlate with the different psychological…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    1. Trace the psychological process of Raskolinkv's mind from the planning stages of the murder to the final realization of love.…

    • 1582 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After Raskolnikov confesses to the murder of Alyona and Lizaveta, he is sentenced to eight-years in a prison camp in Siberia, where he is forced to perform hard labor. Despite his confession, he still has not repented for his actions and refuses to surrender his heart, body, and soul completely to God. Even now, he still believes he did not commit anything inherently wrong or sinful. At this point, nothing has really changed significantly other than his environment--simply, same old feelings, just a different place. Due to his pride, he is obsessed with the idea that he is superior and “extraordinary” (249).…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a dark novel about the suffering of a man named Raskolnikov who kills two innocent women with an axe. Suffering is not only seen through Raskolnikov, but can be seen in almost every characters role in the novel. Although every character in the novel experiences some type of suffering, Raskolnikov’s suffering is unlike anyone else’s.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Through speaking with Marmeladov's daughter, Polenka, Raskolnikov realizes that life is worth living, and that it can still hold an important meaning. This sheds light on the fact that Raskolnikov realizes that even if a person is not capable of doing good, their life should not be ended.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gun Control

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages

    2. Dostoevsky remarks that Lebeziatnikov is a “scrofulous little man” which means he is morally corrupt.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book “Crime and Punishment”, Dostoevsky explores the path of Raskolnikov who has faced many difficulties and obstacles throughout his life. He commits murder and is faced with the long and extremely painful journey of seeking redemption. Raskolnikov believes that by the law of nature, men have been divided into two groups of “ordinary” and “extraordinary”.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Guilt

    • 295 Words
    • 1 Page

    Guilt is a force in all that has the ability to bring people to insanity. When guilt becomes great enough, the effects it has on people go much deeper than the surface. People's minds and body's are overpowered by the guilt that consumes them every second they live with their burden. The devastating effects of guilt are portrayed vividly in Dostoevsky's fictional but all to real novel Crime and Punishment. In the story, the main character Raskolnikov commits a murder and suffers with the guilt throughout. Eventually his own guilt destroys himself and he is forced to confess. Through Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky bestows on the reader how guilt destroys Raskolnikov's physical and mental well being, which, in time, leads to complete alienation from society.…

    • 295 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fyodor Dostoevsky

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Raskolnikov the genius and Raskolnikov the louse, Sonya the devout Christian and Sonya the yellow-ticket prostitute, Napoleon the idealized historical figure and Napoleon the man – Fyodor Dostoevsky carefully constructs the central figures in Crime and Punishment as multifaceted and a product of two conflicting halves. This leaves the reader with the problem of having to decipher how we ought to understand these characters and what Dostoevsky is trying to say through the presentation of doubled characters. Does Dostoevsky force us to choose to identify Raskolnikov as either a genius or a louse and Sonya as a pious women or a defiled prostitute? Why does Dostoevsky allow Sonya, a Christ-like figure that also happens to be a sex worker, to be…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Love Vs Hate Crimes

    • 3111 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Nelson Mandela once said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” What is it that we show the whole world when we accept a crime so vicious in nature that they are seen as hate crimes? The United States is only 5% of the world’s population, but we have 25% of the world’s prisoners. This is very unfortunate for us all, and a very true reality. It’s a very clear picture that the symbol we show the world, is that we do not tolerate crime. When it comes to hate crimes though, they are not always so black and white and things…

    • 3111 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics