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Beccaria – “On Crimes And Punishments”

November 4, 2018 By Margit

Cesare Beccaria is seen by many people as the “father of criminology.” Here is a brief summary of his ideas and famous essay “On Crimes and Punishments,” both in video and text format.

Table of Contents

Discussions about Crime and Punishment

Cesare Beccaria is seen by many people as the “father of criminology” for his ideas about crime, punishment, and criminal justice procedures. He was an Italian born as an aristocrat in the year 1738 in Milan. At that time European thought about crime and punishment was still very much dominated by the old idea that crime was sin and that it was caused by the devil and by demons. And in part to punish the devil and the demons that were causing crime, very harsh punishments were used. At the time when Beccaria came along, the era of Enlightenment was in full swing, and scientists were starting to challenge the old views, but the people who had political power were not ready to leave those old ideas behind yet.

Beccaria didn’t start out as an intellectual. In fact, he wasn’t considered to be above average or interested really when it came to science or philosophy. But after he completed his law studies at the University of Pavia, he started to surround himself with a group of young men who were interested in all kinds of philosophical issues and social problems. And the intellectual discussions that Beccaria was able to have with these people led him to question many of the practices that were common in his time, including the way in which offenders were being punished for their crimes.

Publication of Beccaria’s “On Crimes and Punishments”

Beccaria’s famous work, “On Crimes and Punishments,” was published in 1764, when he was 26 years old. His essay called out the barbaric and arbitrary ways in which the criminal justice system operated. Sentences were very harsh, torture was common, there was a lot of corruption, there were secret accusations and secret trials, and there was a lot of arbitrariness in the way in which sentences were imposed. There was no such thing as equality before the law. And powerful people of high status were treated very differently from people who were poor and who did not have a lot of status.

Beccaria’s ideas clashed dramatically with these practices. And I’ll go through some of the central principles that his work is based on.

Only the Law Can Prescribe Punishment

According to Beccaria, only the law can prescribe punishment. It is up to the legislator to define crime and to prescribe which punishment should be imposed. It is not up to a magistrate or a judge to impose a penalty if the legislator has not prescribed it. And neither is it up to a judge to change what the law says about how a crime should be punished. The judge should do exactly what the law says.

The Law Applies Equally to All People

In addition, Beccaria said that the law applies equally to all people. And so punishment should be the same for all people, regardless of their power and status.

Making the Law and Law Enforcement Public

Beccaria also believed in the power of making the law and law enforcement public. More specifically, laws should be published so that people actually know about them, and trials should be public, too. Only then can onlookers judge if the trial is fair.

Beccaria: Punishments Should be Proportional, Certain, and Swift

Regarding severe punishment, Beccaria said that if severe punishments do not prevent crime, they should not be used. Instead, punishments should be proportional to the harm that the crime has caused. According to Beccaria, the aim of punishment is not to cause pain to the offender, but to prevent them from doing it again and to prevent other people from committing crime. In order to be able to do that, Beccaria believed that punishment should be certain and swift. He believed that if offenders were sure that they would be punished and if punishment would come as quickly as possible after the offense, that this would have the largest chance of preventing crime.

Beccaria Argued Against the Death Penalty

As another controversial issue, Beccaria argued against the death penalty. In his view, the state does not have the right to repay violence with more violence. And in addition to that, Beccaria believed that the death penalty was useless. The death penalty is momentary, it is not lasting and therefore the death penalty cannot be very successful in preventing crimes. Instead, lasting punishments, such as life imprisonment, would be more successful in preventing crimes, because potential offenders will find this a much more miserable condition than the death penalty.

No Right To Torture

Similarly, according to Cesare Beccaria, the state does not have the right to torture. Because no one is guilty until he or she is found guilty, no one has the right to punish a person by torturing him or her. Plus, people who are under torture will want the torture to stop and might therefore make false claims, including that they committed a crime they did not commit. So torture is also ineffective.

The Power of Education

Instead of torture and severe penalties, Beccaria believed that education is the most certain method of preventing crime.

Beccaria: Controversy and Success

Beccaria’s ideas are hardly controversial today, but they caused a lot of controversy at the time, because they were an attack on the entire criminal justice system. Beccaria initially published his essay anonymously, because he didn’t necessarily consider it to be a great idea to publish such radical ideas. And this idea was partly confirmed when the book was put on the black list of the Catholic Church for a full 200 years.

But even though his ideas were controversial back then, his essay became an immediate success. In fact, Cesare Beccaria’s ideas became the basis for all modern criminal justice systems and there is some evidence that his essay influenced the American and French revolutions which happened not long after the publication of the essay. His ideas were not original, because others had also proposed them, but Beccaria was the first one to present them in a consistent way. Many people were ready for the changes that he proposed, which is why his essay was such a success.

Beccaria ends his essay with what can be seen as a kind of summary of his view:

“So that any punishment be not an act of violence of one or of many against another, it is essential that it be public, prompt, necessary, minimal in severity as possible under given circumstances, proportional to the crime, and prescribed by the laws.”

You can find Cesare Beccaria’s full essay “On Crimes and Punishments” here .

An Essay on Crimes and Punishments

• Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria (author)
• Voltaire (author)

An extremely influential Enlightenment treatise on legal reform in which Beccaria advocates the ending of torture and the death penalty. The book also contains a lengthy commentary by Voltaire which is an indication of high highly French enlightened thinkers regarded the work.

• EBook PDF This text-based PDF or EBook was created from the HTML version of this book and is part of the Portable Library of Liberty.
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• Facsimile PDF This is a facsimile or image-based PDF made from scans of the original book.
• Kindle This is an E-book formatted for Amazon Kindle devices.

An Essay on Crimes and Punishments. By the Marquis Beccaria of Milan. With a Commentary by M. de Voltaire. A New Edition Corrected. (Albany: W.C. Little & Co., 1872).

The text is in the public domain.

• United States

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Excerpts from

An essay on crimes and punishments, by cesare beccaria translated from the italian, 1775 (original published in 1764), introduction, chapter i: of the origin of punishments, chapter ii: of the right to punish, chapter vi: of the proportion between crimes and punishments, chapter xii: of the intent of punishments, chapter xix: of the advantage of immediate punishment, chapter xxvii: of the mildness of punishments.

Why Did Dostoyevsky Write Crime and Punishment ?

He had no choice.

J esus meets Dostoyevsky . He takes one look at him, peers for a diagnostic instant into those tunnels-of-torment eyes, and performs an immediate exorcism. Brisk and bouncerly, no fuss, in the Jesus style: Party’s over, little devil. Out you go . A slight buzzing sound, and it’s done. And Dostoyevsky, with the infernal reveler ejected, is relieved that second of his hemorrhoids, his gambling habit, his seizures, his fevers, his depression, his hypochondria, his appalling futuristic intuitions and obsessions. He is freed from the cell of his own skull. And he writes no more books, ever.

The Sinner and the Saint , Kevin Birmingham’s inspired account of the genesis—philosophical and neurological—of Crime and Punishment , will leave you of two minds about Dostoyevsky, rather as the great Russian was of (at least) two minds about himself. On the one hand, you’ll be in awe of his writerly stamina, his dedication to the depths of experience, his artistic fidelity, his fragility/durability, his unprotected imagination, and so on. On the other, you’ll be wondering if a good chunk of Crime and Punishment —a baggy, sweaty book; a sprawl, a trial, as even its admirers will concede—might not be pure pathology.

You can scarcely call it a plot: The entirety of Crime and Punishment turns on one minute of violence. Raskolnikov, a haughty and penniless student flitting about the slums of St. Petersburg, brutally murders a nasty old lady—a pawnbroker—and her blameless, just-happened-to-be-there sister. Why does he do it? Why does he lift the ax? Not for money, not for kicks, and not for passion either, unless it be the cold passion of ideas, because Raskolnikov—in addition to being functionally insane—is kind of a philosopher: He ruminates upon the value (or not) of a single human life; the fallibility of criminals; and the power of an act, a decisive stroke, to transform reality. His disconnection from society, and from the matrix of human goodness, is complete. He’s a troll, a lone wolf. In other words, to quote Iggy Pop, he’s just a modern guy. He presents like a derelict out of Beckett; he prowls his own consciousness like someone from Kafka; he mutters to himself like Travis Bickle.

“To see only the cruel covering under which the universe languishes,” wrote Dostoyevsky, pre– Crime and Punishment , in a letter to his brother Mikhail, “to know that a single explosion of will is enough to smash it and merge with eternity, to know and be like the last creature … is awful!” But was he the last creature, or one of the first of a new age?

Read: The deeper truth of fiction

His biography is a sequence of events for which only the adjective Dostoyevskian will really do. The Geist seems to pursue him; the Hegelian world-spirit seems to have a cruel, experimental interest in him. His mother dies of tuberculosis when he is 15. Two years later, his father perishes mysteriously, probably murdered by restive serfs. Eking out a literary career in smelly St. Petersburg, the young Dostoyevsky falls into debt and personal squalor. Also into reformist politics, which are bubbling up all over ancien-régime Russia: secret meetings, ardent manifestos. In 1849 he is arrested in a sweep by the Czarist intelligence services and arraigned for sedition, conspiracy, the works. Hauled before a firing squad on the Semenovsky Parade Ground, in front of a large crowd, Dostoyevsky and his fellow freethinkers are theatrically reprieved (drumrolls, horsemen) by a last-minute gesture from Czar Nicholas I himself. With despotic generosity, with fierce absurdity, their sentence is commuted. Not death but exile: Siberia. Dostoyevsky does four years of hard labor in the Omsk prison camp, and another five as a soldier in the Siberian army.

And then, at age 38, he comes back to St. Petersburg . Birmingham is superb, in The Sinner and the Saint , on the intellectual environment, the vibrational stew, that greets him there. Nihilism, egoism, materialism … The human is being reconceived. A physiologist publishes an influential book called Reflexes of the Brain . Based on his experiments with a number of unfortunate frogs, he is prepared to say that mental activity is all reflexes. “Animation, passion, mockery, sorrow, joy, etc., are merely results of a greater or lesser contraction of definite groups of muscles.” Dostoyevsky sees where this is all going: the individual, trapped in his head, at the mercy of his neurons.

From the January/February 2015 issue: Fyodor’s guide

Meanwhile his own brain continues to give him seizures—temporal lobe epilepsy, what Dostoyevsky calls his “falling sickness.” And there’s something else. He’s been reading about the murder trial, in France, of a man named Pierre-François Lacenaire. Lacenaire is smooth, dandyish, unrepentant; he reads Rousseau; he writes poetry. He is a florid sociopath, a new kind of man. When they put him in the guillotine, he twists his torso around so he can watch the blade come down. Dostoyevsky publishes a 50-page essay, translated from the French, about Lacenaire—“a remarkable personality”—in his literary journal Vremya . Murder trials, he writes in an introductory note, are “more exciting than all possible novels because they light up the dark sides of the human soul that art does not like to approach.”

All of this, chaotically, courageously, goes into Crime and Punishment , which Dostoyevsky begins in September 1865 while half-starved and sleepless in a hotel in Wiesbaden, having lost all his money at the roulette table. It’s a novel of warrenlike buildings, sooty doors, small rooms that smell of mice and leather. Hallucinations nibble at the edge of reality. Drunken degenerates say limpid and beautiful things. Interior monologues become audible. Above all it’s a novel of subjectivity : the oppression of it, the turgid wrangle of it, the screaming loneliness of it. “Completely unneeded and unexpected details must leap out at every moment in the middle of the story,” wrote Dostoyevsky in his notebook. Raskolnikov’s motives, his redemption or lack thereof, the twists and turns of the plot—red herrings, in the end. Crime and Punishment is about your brain, your poor brain, being the seat of modern consciousness. It’s about how that actually, really, feels .

“What is Hell?” Father Zosima asks in The Brothers Karamazov . “I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” Seeking deliverance from terminal you-ness, from utter cranial confinement, you can either get your head chopped off like Lacenaire or abandon yourself to love—as Raskolnikov does in the not-very-convincing epilogue to Crime and Punishment . The love of his wife, Sonya, reaches him at last, redeems him, and his mind is transformed: “Now he was not deciding anything consciously; he was only feeling. Instead of the dialectic, life itself had arrived, and in his consciousness something altogether different had to be worked out.” As is generally the case with Dostoyevsky, Jesus is in here somewhere—smiling, cryptic. Raskolnikov has the Gospels under his pillow, and he remembers how Sonya once read him the story of Lazarus. Love, you lunatic. Love, and be raised from the death-state.

And if you don’t? In that same epilogue, Raskolnikov, lying in a Siberian prison hospital, has a fever dream: He sees a great plague coming “out of the depths of Asia.” But wait—it’s a mental plague. “People who were affected immediately became possessed and insane. But never, never did these people consider themselves so intelligent and so infallible about the truth as when they were infected.” Individualism has reached its apex; the atomization is total. “Everyone was anxious, no one understood anyone else, each one thought that truth resided in him alone and, regarding all the others, suffered, beat his chest, wept, and wrung his hands.”

This article appears in the November 2021 print edition with the headline “Why Did Dostoyevsky Write Crime and Punishment ? ”

​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

An Essay on Crimes and Punishments

By cesare beccaria.

A shy and retiring man prone to unpredictable moods and educated in the law as well as economics, [1] Cesare Beccaria (1738 – 1794) was perhaps an unlikely figure to trigger a veritable revolution in criminology. As a young man, he fell in with brothers Pietro and Alessandro Verri and their “academy of fists,” [2] a Milanese organization referred to variously as an “intellectual circle” [3] and a “literary society,” [4] through which Beccaria was initiated into Enlightenment thought. [5] The Verri brothers supplied the assignment and the insider knowledge of the criminal justice system of the day, and at the behest of this group, Becarria completed his famous essay On Crimes and Punishments in 1764. [6]

In the time of its writing, Beccaria’s propositions that onerous punishments like torture and execution were unnecessarily cruel, disproportionate, and unlikely to serve as effective deterrents were novel. Although they owed a debt to his intellectual forebears, [7] these ideas were both radical and attractive to the European political and intellectual elite. [8] On Crimes and Punishments was rapidly translated into a host of other languages. [9] As well as informing a number of state statutes in the United States, [10] in insisting upon a balance between fidelity to the social contract and the need to ensure that criminal punishment is useful and beneficial to society, the work can be said to prefigure one of today’s two dominant schools of penological thought—utilitarianism—as well as the death penalty abolition movement. [11]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Dean's Memo [12] includes the 1767 English edition of An Essay on Crimes and Punishments based on a reference in William Clarkin's biography of Wythe. In discussing Thomas Jefferson's education under Wythe, Clarkin states "[w]e do know that Jefferson studied ... Beccaria's Crime and Punishment " but Clarkin provides no source of corroborating evidence. [13] Brown's Bibliography [14] lists Beccaria's work in a choice of three languages (Italian, French, and English) and multiple editions. The Wolf Law Library purchased the first English edition as listed in Dean's memo.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Marbled boards with leather corners rebacked in period-style calf with blind tooling and red label to spine. Purchased from Meyer Boswell Books, Inc.

Images of the library's copy of this book are available on Flickr. View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog .

• An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (7MB PDF)
• George Wythe Room
• Wythe's Library
• ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica Online , s.v. " Cesare Beccaria ," accessed October 10, 2013.
• ↑ Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , s.v. " Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) ," accessed October 10, 2013.
• ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica Online , s.v. "Cesare Beccaria."
• ↑ Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , s.v. "Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)."
• ↑ Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , s.v. "Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)".
• ↑ Memorandum from Barbara C. Dean , Colonial Williamsburg Found., to Mrs. Stiverson, Colonial Williamsburg Found. (June 16, 1975), 9 (on file at Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary).
• ↑ William Clarkin, Serene Patriot: A Life of George Wythe (Albany, New York: Alan Publications, 1970), 42.
• ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433 .

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An essay on crimes and punishments.

APA Citation Beccaria, Cesare, marchese di. (1778). An essay on crimes and punishments. Printed for Alexander Donaldson, and sold at his shops in London and Edinburgh. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5479/sil.36417.39088001520584

MLA Citation Beccaria, Cesare, marchese di. An essay on crimes and punishments. A new edition corrected., Printed for Alexander Donaldson, and sold at his shops in London and Edinburgh, 1778, https://doi.org/10.5479/sil.36417.39088001520584

Chicago Beccaria, Cesare, marchese di. An essay on crimes and punishments. Printed for Alexander Donaldson, and sold at his shops in London and Edinburgh, 1778. doi: https://doi.org/10.5479/sil.36417.39088001520584

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Crime and Punishment

Fyodor dostoevsky, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Crime and Punishment: Introduction

Crime and punishment: plot summary, crime and punishment: detailed summary & analysis, crime and punishment: themes, crime and punishment: quotes, crime and punishment: characters, crime and punishment: symbols, crime and punishment: theme wheel, brief biography of fyodor dostoevsky.

Historical Context of Crime and Punishment

Other books related to crime and punishment.

• Full Title: Crime and Punishment (In Russian: Prestuplenie i nakazanie )
• When Written: 1865-1866
• Where Written: St. Petersburg
• When Published: 1866 (serially, in twelve installments)
• Literary Period: Realism
• Genre: Psychological realism
• Setting: St. Petersburg, Russia; 1860s
• Climax: Raskolnikov confesses to Sonya his murder of the pawnbroker and Lizaveta
• Antagonist: Porfiry Petrovich
• Point of View: Third-person omniscient

Extra Credit for Crime and Punishment

The Problem of Translation. The Russian language is filled with prefixes, suffixes, and forms of words that allow for numerous shades of meaning, depending on circumstances, and which allow certain ideas to recur throughout a text. For example, the Russian word for crime used often in the novel can be translated as “stepping over”—and the idea of “overstepping” the bounds of civilized society becomes a fixation of Raskolnikov’s throughout the work. Dostoevsky has been translated into English many times over the past one hundred-odd years, with the most recent version (the version used as the basis for this guide) being Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s 1992 translation. This latter version, in the words of the translator, attempts to capture both the “roughness” of Dostoevsky’s language and the repetitions and echoes that are a hallmark of his prose.

Crime and Punishment

Introduction to crime and punishment.

Crime and Punishment was written by Fyodor Dostoevsky . It is the tour de force that presents the post-reform Russia through the character of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. The novel first started appearing in series in The Russian Messenger, a literary journal, during the year 1866 and impacted many readers. Later, when the single-volume hit the shelves, it proved an instant success for Dostoevsky. Often referred to as the Russian masterpiece, Crime and Punishment continues to fascinate generations both in the East as well as in the West. The book was translated into various languages.

Summary of Crime and Punishment

Rodion Raskolnikov is living in St. Petersburg, facing acute poverty despite having handsome looks and an intelligent mind. After some thought, he plans to kill the pawnbroker widow, Alyona, to have her money. However, finds himself involved in the familial issues of Marmeladov after he has had a brawl with his wife, Katerina, and sees their messy life. On the following day, he receives information from his brother Pulcheria Alexandrovna about his sister’s marriage, Duyna, and his family’s migration to the same city. Instead of paying attention to this familial issue, he overhears some people talking about the death of the same pawnbroker. After this, he visits her to kill her and tries to find money instead he finds her sister. Rodion kills her, too, and escapes empty-handed.

The next day Rodion tries to wash all traces of the blood of the old woman whom he murdered a day before when the police call him. Though the call is not relevant to the murder, it is his landlady trying to extort money from him. The police suspect him of any crime and they do not find any clue either. He also hides things he has taken from the widow. Meanwhile, Rodion visits Dmitri, his friend, who has offered him work but he rejects his offer, comes back home, and faints. When he comes to his senses, he finds his landlady and his friend taking care of him. They inform him about the arrival of the doctor and a police detective. Although they sense his discomfort at the mention of the murder, they do not suspect him.

Later, Rodion’s sister and her fiancé visit him after which he meets Zamyotov, the police detective, before whom he almost admits his hand in the murder yet it doesn’t raise any kind of suspicion. Unfortunately, he finds Marmeladov killed in an accident while he assists Sonya and his mother. When his sister and brother-in-law come again to meet him, he asks them to part ways, while his friend Dmitri also tries to explain his involvement with them. After some thought, he seeks an apology for his behavior and admits having given money to Marmeladov, expressing his fury over his sister and his fiancé for marrying her. When he meets Sonya after that he agrees to join her father’s final rituals. Soon Rodion meets the investigator and talks about the murder. However, again it comes to naught, as a stranger follows him whom he found in his room in that morning. He suspects him having discovered his secret but the stranger shares another plan, talking to him about his sister’s fiancé whom he does not like, and offers a huge sum to him to leave his sister.

Following this, Rodion meets his friend Dmitri who tells him about the police and their suspicion about him being the assassin while discussing the affair of Dunya’s marriage. To their luck, Luzhin, whom Dunya is going to marry, insults everybody, causing the dissolution of the engagement. Both Rodion and Dmitri talk about establishing the business as well as helping Dunya. After a while, he leaves for Sonya where she narrates to him the story of Jesus and Lazarus when Svidrigailov spies on them. Following this incident, he meets the eavesdropping police officer Porfiry to discuss the murder but Nikolai, a suspect, arrested for that murder, breaks in and confesses his involvement, leaving him confused. Later, he comes to know that the confessor has no clues about his crime. Then, he bumps into Sonya and Luzhin after which he confesses the murder before Sonya and his motives for killing the lady. He also finds himself mixed up in the affairs of Sonya who encourages him to confess before the authority. She soon leaves and Svidrigailov informs her that he knows about the murder too.

Dmitri goes to meet his friend to tell him about Rodion’s mental condition and the situation his mother and sister have gone through because of him. The police officer, Porfiry, arrives and explains Nikolai’s situation and also tells him that he knows his crime but has no evidence to arrest him. Instead of confessing, Rodion goes after Svidrigailov who tells him about his involvement with a young girl. Then, he goes to meet his mother and comes to know that Svidrigailov has committed suicide after which Rodion goes straight to the police station. He finds Sonya and confesses his crime after which the police arrest him. Finally, they send Rodion to Siberia for the murder.

Major Themes in Crime and Punishment

• Alienation: Crime and Punishment shows the thematic strand of alienation of an individual from society through Rodion Raskolnikov. Although he struggles to work hard, he falls low. He commits the crime and kills the pawnbroker lady. That makes him paranoid with the suspicion that he may face arrest at any time. This also leads him to feel estranged from Dunya, his sister, as well as Sonya, his lover, whom he could not marry. His extreme self-reflective nature causes him to have delirious fits of temperament. However, he soon comes to the point that he is alien in a society where he should join the others by confessing his crime after Sonya forces him to do the right thing. Finally, he feels that he has alienated not only his friend, Razumikhin but also Sonya whom he loves, and admits it by the end of the story.
• Crimes and Morality: The novel shows the world of crime and the feeling of moral sense through Raskolnikov and his act of murdering the pawnbroker lady. He thinks it is his right to murder if that contributes to his greatness or having good career prospects. This seems that he has lost the moral sense of doing right or wrong. His justification of the murder does not hold weight until Sonya point’s that to him. Rodion then breaks down realizing his mistake. However, Nikolai enters the scene and confuses the police. Though, Rodion has committed the murder and even starts by confessing. Finally, when he faces the punishment of exile to Siberia, his atonement starts, making him morally satisfied.
• Free Will: Free will is a secondary theme of Crime and Punishment. The first instance of this free appears with Rodion’s action when he kills the pawnbroker lady. It has never occurred to him that it the mind that made him do that and he had a choice. From this act of free will to his next acts of taunting his sister, Dunya, seducing Sonya and letting her go and even his confession before Pirfory are all examples of his free will. Yet it seems coincident that Nikolai does confess even before him. These things mix up the concept of free will, yet they show that human beings commit acts on their own, showing they are having free will.
• Madness: The novel highlights the theme of madness through the character of Rodion Raskolnikov and how it impacts him first when he decides to kill the pawnbroker lady and then experiences fit of madness, and then further severe hallucinations when the police try to get evidence on him. Sonya also suffers from depression while his friend, Marlmeladov’s drinking leads him to another type of madness. Svidrigailov also experiences madness after facing rejection from Dunya.
• Suffering: The novel not only highlights suffering but also the ways to redeem oneself from the causes. Rodion murders the old lady, a crime that haunts him throughout his life until he confesses it before the police officer. He suffers after the act, impacting all his near and dear ones. When he finally goes to Siberia to take his punishment, he experiences peace.
• Nihilism: The theme of nihilism is apparent through the resigned attitude of Rodion Raskolnikov after he murders the old lady, Alyona, and his sister, though the second murder is purely coincident. His comments about the lady as a good-for-nothing show his nihilism, including his indifferent attitude toward his mother and sister.
• Moral Framework: The theme of a moral or ethical framework through the murder is observed in this story. When Rodion kills the lady, he has not given any attention to the moral framework, though, there is one in the Russian context . Leaving this moral framework causes him a moral as well as a mental dilemma .
• Psychology of Crime: The novel shows the theme of the psychology of crime through its main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, who kills the pawnbroker lady merely because he needed money, after learning that the lady has money and resources. As soon as he commits the crime, he is paranoid, thinking that every policeman is after him. He keeps trying to get caught and escape the police, thinking that the police already know about his crime. He believes they are after him. At one point, Rodion breaks down and confesses his crime. Porfiry shows him Nikolai who has already confessed the crime despite having no clue of the actual murder. Finally, when he confesses, it is too late. Rodion accepts his fate after he is dispatched to Siberia to serve his punishment.
• Superiority Complex: The novel also shows the theme of the superiority complex as opposed to the inferiority complex. As Rodion Raskolnikov suffers from it. He thinks that he is superior to all others around him, including his sister, Dunya, and his friend Razumikhin, who tries to stay with him until the end when Rodion is punished after he confesses the crime. However, this becomes complex when he starts having fits of hallucination after he loses his own ethical framework after the murder. The guilt of committing murder and the ensuing mental conflict leads him nowhere. Finally, he’s sent to Siberia where the police send him after the confession of his crime. This makes him let go of his superiority complex as he resigns to his fate.
• Utilitarianism: Rodion’s justification for murdering Alyona is based on his utilitarian thinking of having money enough to lead a comfortable life.

Major Characters of Crime and Punishment

• Rodion Romanych Raskolnikov: Rodion is the protagonist and the central figure of the storyline. The story starts with his obsession to earn money followed by his act of crime, murdering Alyona, the pawn broker lady, and her sister. This double murder further leads him to experience a mental breakdown when the police pursue the case. While trying to escape the punishment, he also has to take care of his mother and Dunya, his sister, including his sweetheart, Sonya, and his friends, and acquaintances. He becomes paranoid and depressed, and he continuously falls sick and even falls unconscious due to the impending fear of the police and punishment. He continues to hide from the police and his confession is not given serious consideration either. The police can’t arrest him without evidence. He falls apart and becomes indifferent towards Sonya and his sister, including her brother-in-law. Finally, with Sonya’s encouragement, he confesses his crime and is sent to Siberia to serve his punishment, which he accepts with peace.
• Sonya Marmeladov: Sonya meets Rodion immediately after he wants greatness following the death of the pawnbroker lady, Alyona, and her sister. She provides Rodion necessary emotional and monetary support. Sadly, she doesn’t see a future with him, as he stays engaged with the dilemma of his crime he had committed. She is poor but holds high moral standards. Thus playing a very important role in Rodion’s transformation in the end. She persuades him to confess his crime and free himself from the mental torture he has been undergoing since the day he had murdered both women. She stands by Rodion despite his difficult times and accompanies Rodion to Siberia even though she knows that he has to be away to endure his punishment.
• Dmitri Razumikhin: Dmitri is a close friend of Rodion and knows that he would not abandon the idea of greatness. Despite his inept thinking and action, Dmitri is quite generous and assists his friend in many ways including providing support to his sister and mother. A down-to-earth humble person, he does not take much care of the mental predicament that his friend is undergoing. He remains loyal by marrying Dunya, Rodion’s sister by the end of the novel.
• Dunya Romanovna: Dunya is Rodion’s sister. She is taunted by him and even goes after her when she is engaged to Luzhin. She finally comes to know about her brother’s crime, murdering two women. She asks him to give himself over to the authorities. However, it is interesting that she saves herself from Svidrigailov and Luzhin with Rodion’s help. Finally, she marries Rodion’s loyal friend, Dmitri.
• Svidrigailov: Svidrigailov is a manipulator and works for Dunya. He pursues Dunya and becomes bitter when he can’t marry her. However, it is interesting to note that he assists the family several times which can be interpreted as parts of his seductive efforts toward her. He commits suicide after he fails to win her.
• Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailov: Marfa is Svidrigailov’s wife. She comes to his financial rescue. Despite knowing his promiscuous nature, she stays loyal and later assists Dunya to meet Luzhin. Her goodness of heart stays after her death when it becomes apparent that she has willed her entire property to Dunya.
• Zakharovich Marmeladov: Marmeladoy is an alcoholic and an ex-civil servant. Rodion and Semyon suffer from the same ailment poverty and guilt. In spite of his awareness of his addiction, he continues to ruin his life and his family’s and three children until his death.
• Katerina Marmeladov: Katerina is Semyon’s wife. She suffers from tuberculosis as well as her husband’s addiction. She remains honest and hardworking. Although she is from the upper class, she suffers from an abusive husband first. Out of love and kindness , she leaves all her savings to Sonya and her daughter.
• Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin: An arrogant rich person, Luzhin tries his best to deceive Dunya into marriage but Rodion’s timely interference saves her from his deceit.
• Pulcheria Alexandrovna: Pulcheria is Rodion’s mother. She has premonitions about the doom of her son. She later briefs him about the harrowing situations both, she and her daughter, have gone through.

Writing Style of Crime and Punishment

The story is written in third-person narrative and dramatic form. Crime and Punishment exhibit Dostoyevsky’s dexterous use of drama in fiction , using short as well as long sentences and alluring syntax . The most important passages related to philosophy, mental dilemmas, and the moral predicament of all characters are not only catchy but also highly seductive in terms of diction and formality. For literary devices , Dostoyevsky turns to similes, metaphors , and personifications to make his fictional prose vibrant and lively.

Analysis of the Literary Devices in Crime and Punishment

• Action: The main action of the novel comprises the murder of Alyona, a pawnbroker widow, by the protagonist, Raskolnikov, and his post-murder life until his confession and subsequent punishment. The falling action occurs when confesses and is subsequently sent to Siberia as punishment, while the rising action occurs when he kills Alyona and her sister in Alyona’s apartment.
• Allusion : The sentences are examples of allusions, i. The sky was cloudless and the water was almost bright blue, which is so rare in the Neva. The dome of the cathedral, which is seen at its best from the bridge about twenty paces from the chapel, glittered in the sunlight, and in the pure air every ornament on it could be clearly distinguished. (Part -2, Chapter -3) ii. “Oh, damn . . . these are the items of intelligence. An accident on a staircase, spontaneous combustion of a storekeeper from alcohol, a fire in Peski . . . a fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . another fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . and another fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . Ah, here it is!” (Part -2, Chapter -5) Both of these examples allude to the Neva, cathedral, and the Petersburg quarters.
• Anaphora : The following sentence are good examples of anaphora , i. The essential question was settled, and irrevocably settled, in his mind: “Never such a marriage while I am alive, and Mr. Luzhin be damned!” (Chapter -4) ii. Hm . . . So it is finally settled; you have determined to marry a rational business man, Avdotia Romanovna, one who has a fortune (has already made his fortune, that is so much more solid and impressive), a man who holds two government posts and who shares the ideas of our most rising generation, as mother writes, and who ‘seems to be kind,’ as Dunechka herself observes. That seems beats everything! And that very Dunechka is marrying that very ‘seems’! Splendid! splendid! (Chapter -4) iii. He walked on without resting. He had a terrible longing for some distraction, but he did not know what to do, what to attempt. A new overwhelming sensation was gaining more and more mastery over him every moment; it was an immeasurable, almost physical repulsion for everything surrounding him, a stubborn, malignant feeling of hatred. (Part -2, Chapter -3) These examples show the repetitious use of “settled”, “fortune”, “seems” and “what to.”
• Antagonist : There is more than one antagonist in the novel. For example, Luzhin, the fiancé of his sister Dunya, Ilya Petrovic, and the landlady try their best to obstruct Rodion from realizing his dream of achieving greatness.
• Conflict : The novel shows both external and internal conflicts. The external conflict is going on between Rodion and the police about the murder he has committed. However, the internal conflict is his mental conflict about the morality of his action.
• Characters: The novel, Crime and Punishment, shows both static as well as dynamic characters. The young man, Rodion, is a dynamic character as he shows a considerable transformation in his behavior and conduct by the end of the novel after he confesses his crime and goes to Siberia for punishment. However, all other characters are static as they do not show or witness any transformation such as Dunya, Svidrigailov, and Razumikhin including his own mother.
• Climax : The climax in the novel occurs when he accepts his punishment and feels peaceful after he kills the widow, Alyona, and her sister, in their apartment.
• Foreshadowing : The novel has many instances of foreshadows. A few examples are given below, i. On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the tiny room which he rented from tenants in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. Bridge. (Chapter -1) ii. He woke up late next day after a troubled sleep. But his sleep had not refreshed him; he woke up bilious, irritable, ill-tempered, and looked with hatred at his room. (Chapter -3) iii. Instantly he thrust them all under his overcoat and fixed his eyes intently upon her. Far as he was from being capable of rational reflection at that moment, he felt that no-one would behave like that with a person who was going to be arrested. “But . . . The police?” (Part -2, Chapter -1) The mention of the hot evening, hesitation, sleep, and his character traits point to something sinister that Rodion is going to do.
• Imagery : The following sentences are examples of imagery , i. He was, by the way, exceptionally handsome, above average in height, slim, well-built, with beautiful dark eyes and dark brown hair. Soon, though, he sank into deep thought, or more accurately speaking into a complete blankness of mind; he walked along not observing what was around him and not caring to observe it. (Chapter -1) ii. His nervous shudder had passed into a fever that made him feel shivering; in spite of the heat he felt cold. With a kind of effort he began almost unconsciously, from some inner necessity, to stare at all the objects before him, as though looking for something to distract his attention; but he did not succeed, and kept lapsing every moment into brooding. (Chapter-5) iii. He was in full possession of his faculties, free from confusion or giddiness, but his hands were still trembling. He remembered afterwards that he had been particularly cautious and careful, trying all the time not to get stained . . .He pulled out the keys at once, they were all, as before, in one bunch on a steel ring. He ran at once into the bedroom with them. (Chapter -7) These examples show images of length, height, movements, and feelings.
• Metaphor : Crime and Punishment shows good use of metaphors. The following sentences are examples of metaphors, i. It was a long while since he had received a letter, but another feeling also suddenly stabbed his heart. (Chapter -3) ii. A gloomy sensation of agonizing, eternal solitude and remoteness took conscious form in his soul. (Part -2, Chapter -!) These examples show that several things have been compared directly in the novel such as the first shows feeling compared with a knife, isolation compared with the driver of control, and sleep with a lake.
• Mood : The novel, Crime and Punishment, shows a commonplace dull mood in the beginning but turns out highly absurd as well as tragic when Rodion kills the widow. The mood turns to be confusing and ironic when Rodion tries to dodge the police and cope with the confusion and mental torture he comes across after the murder.
• Motif : Most important motifs of the novel, Crime and Punishment, are poverty, vision, mental dilemma, and morality.
• Narrator : The novel, Crime and Punishment, is narrated by the third-person narrator , who happens to be Fyodor Dostoevsky himself.
• Parallelism : The novel shows the use of parallelism in the following examples, i. The landlady who provided him with the room and with dinner and service lived on the floor below, and every time he went out he was obliged to pass her kitchen, the door of which was always open. (Chapter -1) ii. He had given up attending to matters of practical importance; he had lost all desire to do so. (Chapter -1) iii. It would have been difficult to sink to a lower ebb of slovenliness, but to Raskolnikov in his present state of mind this was even agreeable. (Chapter -3) iv. He drove away thought; thought tortured him. (Part -2, Chapter -5) These three examples show the parallel structure of the sentences used by Dostoevsky.
• Paradox : The following sentences show examples of paradox from the novel, i. Almost from the first, while he read the letter, Raskolnikov’s face was wet with tears; but when he finished it, his face was pale and distorted and a bitter, wrathful and malignant smile was on his lips. (Chapter -3) ii. Yes, he remembered that he began laughing a thin, nervous noiseless laugh, and went on laughing all the time he was crossing the square.” (Part -2, Chapter -2) iii. “Evidence against him! Evidence that was no evidence, and that’s what we have to prove. (Part -2, Chapter -4) These examples show that the writer has put paradoxical ideas or things together.
• Personification : The following sentences are examples of personifications, i. The letter was quivering in his hand; he did not want to open it in her presence; he wanted to be left alone with this letter. (Chapter -3) ii. At last he was conscious of his former fever and shivering, and he realized with relief that he could lie down on the sofa. Soon heavy, leaden sleep came over him, as though crushing him. (Chapter -6) iii. “Good evening, Aliona Ivanovna,” he began, trying to speak as casually as possible, but his voice would not obey him, it broke and shook. “I have come . . . I have brought something . . . but we’d better go over here . . . to the light . . .”. (Chapter -7) iv. At first he thought he was going mad. A dreadful chill came over him; but the chill was from the fever that had begun long before in his sleep. (Part -2, Chapter -1) v. At the end of the courtyard, the corner of a low, seedy stone shed, apparently part of some workshop, peeped from behind the hoarding. (Part -2, Chapter -2) These examples show if the letter, sleep, voice, chill, and shed have life and emotions of their own.
• Protagonist : Rodion is the protagonist of the novel. The novel starts with his entry into the story, his family situation, his own problem, and above all the murder he commits.
• Rhetorical Questions : The following examples of rhetorical questions are given below, i. “Why am I not at the office? Does not my heart ache to think what a useless worm I am? A month ago when Mr. Lebeziatnikov beat my wife with his own hands, and I lay drunk, didn’t I suffer? Excuse me, young man, has it ever happened to you . . . hm . . . well, to ask hopelessly for a loan?” (Chapter -2) ii. But why had he happened to hear just such a discussion and such ideas at the very moment when his own brain was just conceiving . .. the very same ideas? And why, just at the moment when he had brought away the embryo of his idea from the old woman had he happened upon a conversation about her? (Chapter -6) Both examples show the use of rhetorical questions that mostly Rodion does to question his own ideas and situation.
• Repetition : The novel has many examples of repetition . A few are given below, i. In the first place, it was evident, far too evident, actually, that Peter Petrovich had eagerly used his few days in the capital to buy himself a new set of clothes in which to greet his fiancée—which was in fact an entirely innocent, permissible thing to do. (Part -2, Chapter -5) ii. “Oh, damn . . . these are the items of intelligence. An accident on a staircase, spontaneous combustion of a storekeeper from alcohol, a fire in Peski . . . a fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . another fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . and another fire in the Petersburg quarter . . . Ah, here it is!” (Part -2, Chapter -5) These examples show the use of repetitions such as “evident” and “a fir” in which the writer has emphasized the idea.
• Setting : The setting of the novel, Crime and Punishment is St. Petersburg and Siberia in Russia.
• Simile : The following sentences are examples of similes, i. Meanwhile Razumikhin sat down on the sofa beside him, as clumsily as a bear put his left arm round Raskolnikov’s head, although he was able to sit up, and with his right hand gave him a spoonful of soup, blowing on it so it would not burn him. But the soup was only just warm. (Part-2, Chapter-3) ii. The murderer was upstairs, locked in, when Koch and Pestriakov knocked at the door. Koch, like an ass, didn’t stay at the door; so the murderer popped out and ran down, too, because he had no other way of escape. (Part-2, Chapter-4) These use of words “like” and “as” show the comparison between Razumikhin and bear and Koch and an ass.

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Crime and Punishment

By fyodor dostoevsky.

'Crime and Punishment' is a work of gripping intensity that delights not only because of its surface-level thrilling detective story but also because of its psychological insight and philosophical import.

About the Book

Article written by Israel Njoku

Degree in M.C.M with focus on Literature from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

In ‘Crime and Punishment’ there are elements of the gothic, horror, comedy, and the psychological within its pages.

Key Facts About  Crime and Punishment

• Book title : ‘ Crime and Punishment .’
• Author : Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Publication Date : Published serially in 1866 in The Russian Messenger.  Published in book form in 1867
• Literary Period : Russian Imperial period.
• Point of View : Third-person perspective.
• Genre : Philosophical novel, Crime novel, Detective novel.
• Setting : 19th Century Russia
• Climax : When Raskolnikov murders Alyona.
• Antagonists : Raskolnikov’s evil side, Luzhin, Svidrigailov, Nihilist ideas.
• Protagonists : Repentant Raskolnikov, Sonya, Razumikhin, Porfiry.

Fyodor Dostoevsky and  Crime and Punishment

‘Crime and Punishment’ is the first of Dostoevsky’s so-called major works. Dostoevsky had rough ideas for making a novel about the psyche of a criminal while in prison in Siberia. This idea would however be combined with another work he was developing that was about a drunk, tying Raskolnikov’s storyline with the irresponsible Marmeladov and subsequently, Sonia.

‘Crime and Punishment’ is in large part Dostoevsky’s philosophical response to the radical ideas he encountered among the Russian intelligentsia dominating the Saint Petersburg cultural and intellectual scene when he returned from his imprisonment and forced exile in Siberia. Dostoevsky sought to address what he perceived to be ridiculous and dangerous nihilist ideas by placing them in an extreme form within characters like Raskolnikov, Luzhin, and Svidrigailov. They are opposed by bastions of conservative thought like Porfiry, Sonia, Razumikhin, and Dunya. The intellectual battle is a hard-fought one which the conservatives win, showing the clear supremacy of their position- and by extension, Dostoevsky’s thoughts.

Books Related to  Crime and Punishment

There are several books throughout history that accurately and poignantly capture the breadth of human experience and psychological motivations under an overarching proselytizing philosophy. Dostoevsky’s own “The Idiot ” and “Brothers Karamazov” are similar in the sense that both books explore the corruption of society through detailed psychological reconstruction of specific characters. A wider cultural or sociological problem is dissected through the case study of an individual, or a few individuals. Oscar Wilde’s “ The Picture of Dorian Grey” also captures the darkness of a character’s unsavory eccentricities manifesting in pathological narcissism in this instance. A detailed look at Dorian Grey’s life opens up wider-reaching questions about morality. Although Camus is best-known for absurdism, there are other writers who also engaged with this philosophical idea. For example, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka in which Kafka presents an absurd scenario without explanation or reason–because there isn’t one. Kafka’s  The Castle  and The Trail  are also good examples.

The Lasting Impact of Crime and Punishment

‘Crime and Punishment ‘ is lauded today for its psychological depth, Sociological insight, philosophical value, and literary excellence. Its incredibly realistic style set the tone for the ascendance of the realistic style over romantic literature which had erstwhile been the mainstay.

Crime and Punishment Themes and Analysis 📖

‘Crime and Punishment’ features salient themes that are relevant today as they were in Dostoevsky’s Russia.

Crime and Punishment Historical Context 📖

‘Crime and Punishment’ was written during Russia’s most potent literary period, with significant ideological conflicts provoking insightful literature.

Crime and Punishment Character List 📖

The characters in ‘Crime and Punishment’ serve as capable placeholders for Dostoevsky’s thoughts and ideas.

Crime and Punishment Review ⭐

‘Crime and Punishment’ is Dostoevsky’s crowning achievement and most lauded work for a variety of reasons. In this review, we look at some of them.

Crime and Punishment Quotes 💬

‘Crime and Punishment’ is a goldmine for insightful quotes about the human condition.

Crime and Punishment Summary 📖

‘Crime and Punishment’ is about an individual’s failed attempt to assert himself to society as a superior man.

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The Classic Journal

A journal of undergraduate writing and research, from wip at uga, an analysis of crime and punishment.

by Paris Whitney

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a novel that has been deemed controversial, yet notable over the course of centuries. This novel was influenced by the time period and setting of 19 th century St. Petersburg, Russia. Society was transitioning from medieval traditions to Westernization, which had a large impact on civilians, specifically those in poverty. Dostoevsky writes this novel centered around a poor man whose poverty drives him to test an ideology that results in his own detriment. Although this is important, the plot is only part of what makes this novel significant. What continues to make this novel memorable centuries after it was written is how Dostoevsky uses the concept of time to progress the plot and establish information, how his use of symbolism contributes to the message and meaning of the story and its characters, and how his writing has unintentionally embraced and related to different philosophies.

symbolism, nature, time, philosophy, existentialism, ego transcendence

Fyodor Dostoevsky is perhaps the most controversial author of the nineteenth century. His best-known work is Crime and Punishment , a novel that explores the psychological depths of man. At the center is Raskolnikov, a character who inflicts and experiences a great deal of suffering, all because he perceives himself to be superior to the average man.

Crime and Punishment takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia. The time is 1860, Alexander II holds reign, and consequently political skepticism is abundant. In addition to skepticism, the country’s economic state has disproportionate effects on its citizens, as the increasing wealth gap parallels the increase of turmoil in the streets. The novel follows Rodion Raskolnikov, a man of lower class whose poverty leads him to forming an idea and testing its validity. This theory is that certain men are exempt from laws created by society, as their actions against these laws are done for the greater good. In order to test this theory, Raskolnikov forms a plan to murder Alyona Ivanovna, an old pawnbroker whom he has had many exchanges with. After killing Ivanovna, he ends up killing her sister Lizaveta as well, when her appearance at Ivanovna’s apartment startles his original plan. In a frenzy, he leaves their bodies at the crime scene, and on his way out his mental state begins to spiral leading the readers to follow his psychological decline. 

Around the world, philologists and psychologists alike have studied Crime and Punishment to understand what makes this work essential to literature. Through studies of symbolism, philosophy, and psychology, it is recognized how Dostoevsky uses the concept of time to develop the story, how he uses symbolism to reflect underlying emotions and intentions of characters, and how different ideologies may be related to the meaning behind Crime and Punishment. These components used together showcase how Dostoevsky’s work remains notable for centuries.  

Crime and Punishment is a novel symbolic of the drawbacks that society can have on individuals, specifically those who are at a disadvantage as a result of their class or mental state. When Dostoevsky penned this novel, the time was 1866. 19 th century Russia was a transition period from medieval traditions to Westernization. During this transition, many people struggled to accommodate to the changing times. There was unrest in the streets, conflict amongst the classes, economic upheaval, and a lack of concern for those suffering by the government. Those who were of higher class were better able to navigate this complex transition, while those in poverty lacked the materials necessary to accommodate to the coming changes. Previously Westernized countries exhibited unrest fromtheir populations while progressing in societal advancement. There was concern about this potentially translating into Russia’s development. Russia was not exempt from these issues, and Dostoevsky was no help in assuring that peace would be maintained. Dostoevsky’s work concerned people in power when he indirectly made an association between violence and societal progression, and how this may prompt the masses to revolt against their government. Localized current events, such as a rise in domestic violence and murder, also influenced this novel. Due to these real-life events that inspired Dostoevsky’s work, it can be said that Crime and Punishment is an accurate representation of its time period [ 1 ] .

Not only was time period an influence on his work, but Dostoevsky would manipulate the concept of time itself to convey the meaning behind his stories. In Crime and Punishment , Dostoevsky writes Raskolnikov as a character continuously in a fever of thoughts. His mind is constantly running rampant, unrelenting even in slumber. Before significant events Raskolnikov would either flashback or dream of memories foreshadowing future moments. An example of this is before committing to murder Alyona Ivanovna, his subconscious takes him and the reader back to a moment where he and his father witnessed the cruel killing of a mule at the hands of a crowd for being too weak to pull a wagon . From a third person perspective, young Raskolnikov’s reaction to this moment is described hither, “But by now the poor boy is beside himself. With a shout he plunges through the crowd into the sorrel, embraces her dead, bloodstained muzzle, and he kisses her, kisses her on the eyes, on the mouth…” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 57). By preceding Raskolnikov’s murderous intentions with his younger self’s mournful reaction to the mule’s death shows the audience how Raskolnikov has developed over time, and the degeneration resulting from his experiences in life.Time also seems to slow down when Raskolnikov is in moments of heightened emotion , because as he loses the ability to conceptualize, the more feverish his mind becomes. Towards the end of the novel, Raskolnikov reflects on the events that have occurred, saying “after a long time had passed, he thought his consciousness must have kept flashing on and off, with several dim, dark intervals, right up to the final catastrophe. He was absolutely convinced he had been mistaken about many things at the time; the duration of time of certain events, for example.” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 417). This feverish mindset also manifests into physiological symptoms, giving Raskolnikov the appearance of being sick. “He was not completely unconscious all the time he was sick, but rather delirious, in a feverish state of half consciousness. He could recall a good deal later. Once in his room seemed full of people… They had all gone out. They were afraid of him.” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 112). Dostoevsky uses syntax and diction to write these occurrences in a way that mimics Raskolnikov’s thinking. The transitions between events are frenetic, reflecting the tumultuous thoughts that plague Raskolnikov as a result of his actions. Choosing to modify the chronology of the novel in this way, he emphasizes the severity of situations by making the readers feel like they are experiencing the event as well.

In addition to this, Crime and Punishment contains levels of symbolism to enhance the mental conditions of characters . George Gibian explored traditionalsymbolism [2] within Crime and Punishment , and came to find that many motifshave religious roots. Ranging from Christianity to Paganism to Russian Orthodoxy, Dostoevsky’s implementation of images such as water, vegetation, air, and earth come together to express the mental state of the characters immersed in a particular setting. For example, Gibian described how water is used as a symbol of rebirth or regeneration. In Crime and Punishment , Raskolnikov would aimlessly walk about the setting in moments where his mind and thoughts were chaotic. He would end up in symbolically important nature scenes, for instance beside a river that ran through his town, or on the ground surrounded by bushes and trees. When near the water, he would feel the weight of guilt coming from the crimes he has committed. “He stared at the darkening water of the canal. He seemed to be scrutinizing this water. At last red circles danced before his eyes, the buildings swayed, the passersby, the embankments, the carriages- everything around him began to swirl and dance. All of a sudden he shuddered. A wild and grotesque scene saved him, perhaps, from another fainting spell.” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 163). In this scene, Raskolnikov’s physiological symptoms begin to arise as his consciousness fights for contrition. This is important because Raskolnikov’s proximity to water when these feelings arise is representative of the good side of his conscience, trying to push him in the direction of what is right.

While water and vegetation are symbols that typically have a positive connotation, their presence can be used to emphasize the degeneration of one’s mental state . An example would be Svidrigailov, a character whose presence is nothing short of problematic. He strives to satisfy his erotic desires regardless of who may be harmed in the process, solidifying his position as one of the antagonists in Crime and Punishment . Svidrigailov also possesses a dislike for nature. This is shown when he visits St. Petersburg, and in his final night of life he ends up spiraling in his hotel room. During this downward spiral, he hears the sound of trees rustling outside of his window combined with rain. Instead of comforting him, they drive him further towards insanity. “‘The trees are sighing. I must admit I don’t care for the sighing of trees on a dark, stormy night- it gives me the creeps!’” He takes time to contemplate his life, saying, “ ‘I never in my life liked water… You’d think now, of all times, I’d be indifferent to these fine points of esthetics and comfort, whereas actually I’m fussier,’” (Dostoevsky, 1866, pg. 480). He resents the sound of vegetation when having a mental breakdown, and he ends up committing suicide in the midst of a fog that has emerged after a thunderstorm- showing his opposition to growing as a person. The use of nature as a way to reflect internal torments and emotions of different characters shows Dostoevsky’s proficiency in storytelling. Having the character’s surroundings speak the unspoken about what they may be feeling adds a level of meaning to the novel. This implementation of pathetic fallacy strengthens the story while aiding the reader in understanding the message of the text. When looking at the novel as a whole, it is clear nature bridges a connection between the audience and the author, by contextualizing events using the description of the setting where they take place. The narrator establishing the environment before delving into details about actions is a way to indicate to the reader potential outcomes of events, or foreshadow underlying emotions.

Symbolism in this novel does not stop with traditional aspects. Janet Tucker [3] explored the significance of clothing in respect to a character’s religious prospects and how their clothing reflects their beliefs or state of mind. When being worn by someone who has dedicated their life to Christ, clothing is modest and kept to the best of their ability. Sonya is a character in Crime and Punishment who serves as a deuteragonist, being one of the women that only have pure intentions when it comes to helping Raskolnikov. She tries to help Raskolnikov find faith and become a better person, and she does her best to comfort him in his worst moments of mental distress. Sonya even follows Raskolnikov to Siberia when he is imprisoned, despite his resistance to loving her. After analyzing this description of character, it can be said that Sonya’s clothes reflect the graciousness of her soul. She conceals her body in rags because she is poor, although she tries her best to keep them from becoming tattered, showing her values and how she maintains her composed state of mind. Comparing her to Raskolnikov, his mental state is too far distracted for him to care about trivial matters such as his appearance. His clothes are riddled with holes, and he lacks the incentive to fix the damage. An interesting point that Tucker made is how Raskolnikov uses his clothes in his crimes. He wears an overcoat that he uses to conceal his murder weapon and the items he has stolen from Ivanovna after killing her. Considering this, Tucker’s point is validated by the quality of clothing matching the quality of the person who bears it. Dostoevsky using clothing to portend the mental state and values that characters hold is a creative and effective way to give the readers insight as to how they will be progressing throughout the novel. Astute members of the audience will be able to recognize the differences among presentation of characters and base predictions about their actions off of their clothing. It is also interesting to see how characters’ religious affiliations can be observed through their attention to quality of clothing, reflecting how they choose to preserve and care for their items. In contrast to nature’s reflection of emotions, clothing gives insight about personal traits and the morals that shape a character into who they are.

While symbolism is important to developing the meaning behind Crime and Punishment , what makes this novel so notable are the philosophies it both challenges and embraces unintentionally. Existentialism [4] is a philosophy maintaining the belief that as individuals, there is a right within everyone to determine quality of life through acts of free will. It is easy to see how Crime and Punishment can be regarded by many existentialists as representative of this philosophy, but overall Dostoevsky is not one many would like to consider an archetype for existentialism. And, in retrospect, he is not. Dostoevsky’s main character in Crime and Punishment spends a lot of his time soliloquizing his belief that certain men are greater than others. Raskolnikov thinks men like this come to be by exercising their free will in ways that defy the common laws of life, but with the intention that what they are doing will better the world in the end. This idea is the reason behind Raskolnikov’s eventual murder of Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker, and her half-sister Lizaveta. He kills Ivanovna as a way to test if he can be one of these people, but quickly discovers in the throes of his crime that he is not. This misconstrued idea of free will presented in Crime and Punishment can be where many begin to wonder if Dostoevsky was an existentialist. But a conclusion can be made that Dostoevsky’s free will is psychologically based and pushes the boundaries between what is right and what is wrong. Existentialism, on the other hand, is a philosophy centered around creativity and authenticity of the self.       

On a more granular level, while Dostoevsky was not an existentialist, his work shows his agreement with the philosophical concept of ego transcendence [5] . Transcendence of the ego is described as an advancement of the “authentic self” through experiences that result in a greater awareness. Once this awareness is achieved, this person usually begins to see themselves as greater than the average human. This is easily relatable to Raskolnikov’s philosophy that he reiterates often throughout the novel. The way that Dostoevsky sets his characters up for transcendence is through suffering. Richard Chapple analyzed the way Dostoevsky progresses Crime and Punishment by noting the use of the prism of the divine [6] . The prism of the divine includes 6 reasons that people suffer, and Dostoevsky provides different scenarios for representations of each reason. Raskolnikov suffers as a result of “recognition of transgression,” which is his guilt overpowering him after killing two women. It is even more stressful because in this guilt he realizes that he is not the monumental person he thought he was. In turn, he suffers because of “involvement in the torments and suffering of others,” as a result of brutally murdering his victims, followed by “greed and ambition.” Once failing to follow through with his entire plan beyond murdering Ivanovna, the weight of his ambition becomes heavy as it never had a chance at being attained. This dissatisfaction with himself contributes more to his depression than the fact that he is a murderer.

The last three prisms of the divine are “lack of faith,” “pride,” and the “inability to love.” Here, it is important to note Chapple’s perspective on how pride stems into all categories of suffering. Chapple discussed concepts such as clothing, a previously mentioned symbol, and how its relation to pride can be interpreted. He states, “The proud often suffer because of poverty or other seemingly external circumstances such as name, clothing and position. Pride generates a façade, and characters wear masks to conceal an inner reality…” (1983, p. 97). While Raskolnikov’s hubris is his biggest torment, Raskolnikov suffers for all of these reasons, and these intersections are where Sonya tries to ease his pain. When Raskolnikov is in his apartment with Sonya and is attempting to explain his crimes, she reassures him that she will not forsake him as he believes she will, going as far as to promise to follow him wherever he goes, even to prison. When he asks her what he should do, she advises him to go back to where he committed these atrocities, kiss the earth and kneel on the ground, then confess aloud that he is a murderer. By doing so, he is confessing to God and has a chance of being forgiven for his sins.

While religion plays a big role in Crime and Punishment , Dostoevsky’s implementation of Lazarus is predominately referencing the song rather than the biblical story- though that is mentioned. The Lazarus song [7] is a song that encapsulates the belief that the relationship between the rich and the poor should include the rich helping those in poverty by almsgiving. When Raskolnikov is preparing to face Porfiry Petrovich, a detective in the case of Ivanovna and Lizaveta’s murders, he says to himself “I’ll have to play the part of Lazarus for him too,” ( Crime and Punishment , 237). When Raskolnikov says this, he means that he is going to have to embrace his situation as a poor, college dropout, as a way to appear more innocent to Petrovich. This manipulation is seen from the side of poor people such as Raskolnikov, but also from those of wealth.

Raskolnikov’s sister, Dunya, was engaged to a man of the name Luzhin who expected her to marry him out of desperation. When Dunya backs out of the marriage, Luzhin scolds himself for not using his money to manipulate her into staying by purchasing expensive gifts, as opposed for thinking he should have treated her better. It is through secondary characters like these when many underlying messages are being portrayed. While Raskolnikov is the central character of Crime and Punishment , Dostoevsky uses secondary characters as a way to reflect certain aspects that Raskolnikov may be lacking, such as consciousness and an ability to recognize and admit to one’s mistakes. With Sonya, she was a part of a family that forced her into prostitution because they were too poor to provide for her, with a father who was too drunk to care. Marmeladov was the father’s name, and he is who Raskolnikov first meets in a bar and confesses to his shame about the situation he has put his daughter in. Similarly, Raskolnikov’s mother reduces his sister to working in uncomfortable scenarios in order to be able to send Raskolnikov to college. She feels guilt at this when Dunya becomes the center of town drama, after the husband in the family she works for begins to lust after her. These characters have made mistakes, but what parallels them to Raskolnikov is the fact that they acknowledge their wrongs, whereas he has to find the courage to do so .

Raskolnikov’s struggles with admitting that he can make mistakes like anybody else stem from his beliefs that there are two types of people in the world. He references Napoleon throughout the novel, because he believes him to be an example of how things considered to be bad have to happen in order for progress to be made. Pearl Niemi defines this as “power-cult [ 8] ,” the part of Raskolnikov believing in certain people’s superiority to regular laws. The part of Raskolnikov that cripples him once he tries exercising this belief can be referred to as “child-cult.” The child-cult is Raskolnikov’s emotions and thoughts that challenge the power-cult and ultimately overtake it. This duality within Raskolnikov has an interesting relation with his name. “Raskolot,” is the Russian verb meaning division, or split. When analyzing the schism between Raskolnikov’s feelings and actions, it gives his name a greater meaning and shows how Dostoevsky was very intentional with his work.

Considering what makes a novel notable, Hugh Curtler [9] elaborated on the idea that a novel which can be widely interpreted is what makes it memorable. Curtler referred to the part of the writer that allows for this to happen as the “poet,” because they write without clarification. In this respect, they acknowledge how Dostoevsky was successful at this throughout the majority of Crime and Punishment. Where Curtler thought Dostoevsky failed with this novel is in the epilogue. Instead of leaving the audience to gather their own opinions about certain aspects, he writes an epilogue that confirms what would have been better left unsaid, specifically Raskolnikov’s ability to feel emotions such as sadness, love, regret,etc .

In retrospect, Dostoevsky’s use of time, symbolism, and philosophical aspects in Crime and Punishment each provide different levels of meaning to the story. When incorporating the concept of time in terms of context and story progression, it allows the reader to grasp the importance of the events being foreshadowed, in addition to understanding the influences on decisions of characters. His attention to detail using motifs to communicate underlying emotions and intentions of his characters creates another layer of meaning for this novel, as the interpretation of these motifs make Crime and Punishment different for every reader. And lastly, Dostoevsky’s novel embraces different philosophies, while simultaneously maintaining its individuality from any one ideology. He writes this novel in a way where it applies to different ideals, wherein itself it is exclusive from being categorized, due to its unique central message. This message is one that can be applied to many time periods in history, including the 21 st century. The inevitable progression of societies tends to commonly leave those who are underprivileged to fend for themselves. When this isolation persists, is it unexpected to have people who attempt to create a life for themselves trying to prove that they are worth something, when their government treats them like nothing? Crime and Punishment provides a variety of perspectives for the audience’s consideration. Despite the many ways that this novel can be read and interpreted, one thing is clear, Crime and Punishment is illustrious.

Bourgeois, P. (1980). Dostoevsky and Existentialism: An Experiment in Hermeneutics. Journal of Thought, 15(2), 29-37. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42588842

Chapple, R. (1983). A Catalogue of Suffering in the Works of Dostoevsky: His Christian Foundation. The South Central Bulletin, 43(4), 94-99. doi:10.2307/3187246

Curtler, H. (2004). The Artistic Failure of Crime and Punishment.  Journal of Aesthetic Education,   38 (1), 1-11. doi:10.2307/3527358

Dostoevsky, F. (1866). Crime and Punishment. Signet Classics.

Gibian, G. (1955). Traditional Symbolism in Crime and Punishment.  PMLA,   70 (5), 979-996. doi:10.2307/459881

Harrison, L. (2013). THE NUMINOUS EXPERIENCE OF EGO TRANSCENDENCE IN DOSTOEVSKY. The Slavic and East European Journal, 57(3), 388-402. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43857534

Ivanits, L. (2002). The Other Lazarus in Crime and Punishment.  The Russian Review,   61 (3), 341-357. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3664132

Kohlberg, L. (1963). Psychological Analysis and Literary Form: A Study of the Doubles in Dostoevsky. Daedalus, 92(2), 345-362. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20026782

Niemi, P. (1963). THE ART OF “CRIME AND PUNISHMENT”.  Modern Fiction Studies,   9 (4), 291-313. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26278717

Tucker, J. (2009). Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”: Stopping History’s Clock. Russian History, 36(3), 443-453. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24664577

Tucker, J. (2000). The Religious Symbolism of Clothing in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The Slavic and East European Journal, 44(2), 253-265. doi:10.2307/309952

[1] Tucker, J. (2009). Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”: Stopping History’s Clock. Russian History, 36(3), 443-453. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24664577

[2] Gibian, G. (1955). Traditional Symbolism in Crime and Punishment. PMLA, 70(5), 979-996. doi:10.2307/459881

[3] Tucker, J. (2009). Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”: Stopping History’s Clock. Russian History, 36(3), 443-453. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24664577

[4] Bourgeois, P. (1980). Dostoevsky and Existentialism: An Experiment in Hermeneutics. Journal of Thought, 15(2), 29-37. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42588842

[5] Harrison, L. (2013). THE NUMINOUS EXPERIENCE OF EGO TRANSCENDENCE IN DOSTOEVSKY. The Slavic and East European Journal, 57(3), 388-402. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43857534

[6] Chapple, R. (1983). A Catalogue of Suffering in the Works of Dostoevsky: His Christian Foundation. The South Central Bulletin, 43(4), 94-99. doi:10.2307/3187246

[7 ] Ivanits, L. (2002). The Other Lazarus in Crime and Punishment. The Russian Review, 61(3), 341-357. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3664132

[8 ] Niemi, P. (1963). THE ART OF “CRIME AND PUNISHMENT”. Modern Fiction Studies, 9(4), 291-313. Retrieved May 8, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26278717

[9] Curtler, H. (2004). The Artistic Failure of Crime and Punishment. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 38(1), 1-11. doi:10.2307/3527358

Citation style: APA 6 th edition

Utilitarianists’ Ideology in “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Research Paper

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A great Russian writer and thinker Dostoevsky illuminates the impact of distorted utilitarianists’ ideology on a simple Russian student in his novel Crime and Punishment . Implementing his own views concerning the progress and happiness, the author proves the inconsistency of the misinterpreted and not successfully adapted Western European conception, developing the themes of suffering and universal values.

The main character of the novel Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky was influenced by the ideas of West European utilitarianism, based on the theories of correct actions and values. “New, “strange, unfinished ideas’ ‘ of Western origin take a hold in his mind” (Hudspith 104). Raskolnikov tried to evaluate his every decision mathematically, considering the worth of its possible impacts, attempting to measure even the things, which can not be measured. “He draws up his theory to the Napoleonic superman, permitted to step across conventional moral boundaries in pursuit of glory, while the ordinary masses are compelled to live within the restrictions of these boundaries” (Hudspith 104). Regarding himself a superman, Rodion thought that his unique intellectual abilities allowed him to break not only the moral rules, but the society laws as well. It was characteristic of the utilitarian ideology, according to which “Mankind… obtains a greater sum of happiness when each pursues his own” (West 213). Still, Raskolnikov’s decisions can not be regarded the consequences of the utilitarian influence, they rather reflect the misrepresented propositions of European theory in the consciousness of a haughty Russian man. The main character misinterpreted the main points due to his personal views and adapted them to his intentions so as to find in them support and theoretical basis for his reasoning. “Raskolnikov’s scheme to rebuild Petesburg, based on the same principles of utilitarianism and superior will that underlie the crime, should have buttressed his conviction that the murder is justifiable” (Peace 46). His reasoning, though spoken mostly to himself, was not sincere, the whole city improvement was not his main goal. Being isolated and discriminated by the society, Rodion could not think of making it happier, this idea could not occur to him, this was only a plausible pretext for committing the crimes. “He committed his crime not to help them, but to tower above them” (Hudspith 104). Thus, Raskolnikov’s mathematical evaluation of the moral dilemma can not be regarded empirical implementation of the ideas of European utilitarianism, being misinterpreted at the discretion of an arrogant young man, claiming to have extraordinary abilities and the right to rule the destinies.

Describing the consequences to which the young man’s passion for the utilitarian philosophical theories led, Dostoyevsky opposed his conception of the human happiness to that accepted by European philosophers. “The whole meaning of progress, Dostoyevsky had written as early as 1861, comes down to ‘self-enlightenment in the name of love of one another’” (Scanlan 191). While the European standards of progress emphasized the importance of the personal happiness of every individual, Dostoevsky proclaimed the priority of brotherhood and love for others. He regarded Chernyschevsky’s utilitarianism to be “an unintended distortion of such English utilitarianists as Bentham and Mill” (Hudspith 78). Chernyschevsky’s theories were rather popular among the young people, but Dostoevsky found misconceptions in them. For example, Chernyshevsky believed that “Good is superlative of utility, a very useful utility. Evil consists in what is not useful, and theoretical miscalculations have caused humanity more misery than the plague” ( Hudspith 188). But the reasons for Rodion’s plans failure are not only his miscalculations, his failure demonstrates inability of common people to calculate the universal values mathematically and the imperfection of the human nature in general. Proclaiming the importance of the spiritual side of life, Dostoevsky regarded the earthly period of life to be transitional and developing before the paradise of Christ. (Scanlan 191). Putting individual interests on the first place and realizing all wishes of the earthly life were out of the question for him. Dostoevsky’s attempt to criticize the misconceptions of the utilitarians’ ideology is reflected in the novel Crime and Punishment. Certainly, the main propositions of European theories are intentionally exaggerated and distorted demonstrating the possible impact of this distortion. The crime was followed by the punishment and the moral suffering of a man who was assured that he would manage to calculate everything mathematically. But such categories as psychic pain and remorse can not be measured or calculated. The plot of the novel is aimed to contrast the European standard of progress to its Russian unsuccessful implementation.

The theme of suffering, that runs the entire novel thorough, reflects Dostoevsky’s ideas of an ideal man opposed to the Napoleonic ideas of a superman. “He insisted that to make progress the individual must strive toward an ideal that is ‘opposed’ to his nature and which he must continually ‘negate’” (Scanlan 191). Every character of the novel goes his/her path of suffering. Every member of the Marmeladov’s family suffers much. Living in poverty Sonia was induced to go on the streets to support her family. Raskolnikov himself suffers from the feeling of remorse having committed the murders. At the beginning of the novel Rodion follows the postulates of utilitarianists’ ideology, trying to change this world for the better, having the false idea of his extraordinary abilities and his exceptionality. But the miserable condition of the main character at the end of the novel leads the readers to the conclusion that his choice was wrong notwithstanding his calculations and reasoning. Dostoevsky denies the right of the individuals that got a false idea of their superiority, to rule the destinies and neglect the interests of the minority whatever calculations they may be guided. Suffering of the main character was inevitable for the progress, according to Dostoevsky’s views. A person, ignoring the spiritual side of life, guided by the material profits only was sure to suffer a defeat. Not taking into consideration the moral values which are one of the compulsory propositions of the utilitarianists’ ideology, the main character suffers from his lack of education, which could help him to interpret the European conceptions and lack of self-efficiency, which resulted in the desire to tower above the society in which he was isolated.

Another theme that helped the author to implement most of his philosophical views was the theme of moral values. Though the universal values in their accustomed sense are denied during the characters’ conversations, the ending of the novel proves the failure of the life position deprived from spirituality. The main character is contradictory and it is noticeable that two sides of human nature or different ideologies are struggling inside of him. It is obvious, that the spiritual side was to win in Dostoevsky’s character. In some episodes it seems that Raskolnikov does not believe in his words himself. “One death and a hundred lives in exchange – it’s simple arithmetic!” (Dostoevsky 157). But the arithmetical calculations did not seem so simple to the main character as he said. He was misled by the wrong ideas, got carried away by the philosophy that seemed convenient to him at some moment and forgot about the importance of moral values. But this was not characteristic of Rodion, as he was kind and sensitive by nature, in several episodes he was able to empathize with others, though criticizing himself after calculating the worth of his actions, he did not realize his own motivation and it was only impulse that guided him.

He wants to help the girl that who has been seduced, but then pours scorn on the feebleness of the necessary “percentage” that must go to rack and ruin; he leaves some money at the Marmeladovs’, but scolds himself for a gesture that in economic terms is a useless drop in the ocean (Hudspith 105).

In other words, Dostoevsky’s main character suffers from the inner struggle of the distorted interpretation of the utilitarianists’ ideology and moral values which were cultivated to him by Russian culture.

The inner struggle in the soul of the main character represents the opposition of two doctrines. Intentionally distorting the main propositions of the utilitarianists’ ideology Dostoevsky demonstrates the inconsistency of the conception of progress as it floated around Western Europe in Russia due to differences in the people’s mentality and different historical ways of development.

Bibliography

Dostoyevsky, Fedor. Crime and Punishment. EasyRead Large. 2006: 512.

Hudspith, Sarah. Dostoyevsky and the idea of Russianness: A New perspective on Unity and Brotherhood. RoutledgeCurzon. 2004: 228.

Peace, Richard. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment: A casebook. Oxford University Press. 2006: 198.

Scanlan, James Patrick. Dostoyevsky the Thinker. Cornell University press. 2002: 251.

West, Henry. The Blackwell Guide to Mill’s Utilitarianism . Blackwell Publishing. 2006: 275.

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• climate change

I Hate Summer—and You Should Too

W ake me when it’s over—summer, that is. I know, I know, you just love it: the long days, the warm evenings, the trips to the beach, the afternoons at the ballpark when your favorite team is playing and the pennant race is tightening—and the temperature is skyrocketing, and your skin is blistering, and the beer is $6, and the drive home will be in 88° heat, which is fine if you don’t mind running the air conditioner, except that you’re burning through $4–a-gallon gas, because it’s summer-driving season and the giant oil companies didn’t get to be the giant oil companies without knowing the right time of year to hike their prices. 

And that’s hardly all of it. Summertime is the season of horribles, from higher crime rates, to increased warfare, to spikes in asthma, to raging wildfires, to swarms of bugs, to a rise in traffic accidents—and even to a bump in divorces, because how could a 100° heat wave, a busted A.C., and the kids out of school not spell domestic bliss?

What’s more, it’s only getting worse. Last summer was the hottest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the 10 warmest years were all from 2010 to 2022. So with a lousy part of the year becoming lousier still, here, in no particular order, are nine reasons summer is the suckiest season of them all.

Road wrecks

There’s nothing like long days, no school, and lots of teen drivers to make the highways a safe place to be. Not . It’s no coincidence that the Automobile Association of America (AAA) labels the stretch between Memorial Day and Labor Day “the 100 deadliest days.” There are over 11.7 million U.S. drivers between the ages of 15 and 20, and if you know what’s good for you you’ll stay out of their way—especially when they’re out as a group, driving recreationally. “We know that when teens are joyriding as opposed to driving with a specific destination and time in mind, there is a heightened risk,” said Diana Gugliotta, senior manager of public affairs for AAA Northeast, in a statement last year.

Read More : What It's Like To Be Deathly Afraid of Feet

AAA’s numbers back that up. When a teen driver has only other teens in a vehicle, the risk of fatality for the driver and all passengers increases 51%. When at least one passenger is over 35, the overall fatality risk declines 8%. From 2011 to 2020, there were 7,316 deaths in summertime teen-related traffic accidents—nearly half the total of all teen-related traffic accidents for the year.

This means war

Napoleon Bonaparte could tell you a thing or two about what it’s like to pick a fight with Russia in the dead of winter. In 1812, the French army suffered half a million casualties in battles that climaxed in December—a rout that led to Napoleon’s abdication and exile in 1815. Any general worth his steed would prefer to fight in the summer when there’s plenty of light, the roads are clear, and soldiers aren’t bundled up against the cold. As far back as 55 BCE , the Roman army’s “campaigning season” would end when summer wound down and the soldiers would retreat to their winter quarters. It’s probably not a coincidence that World War I began in August 1914, World War II on Sept. 1, 1939, and Nazi Germany’s invasion of Russia in June 1941. More recently , in August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and in August 1991, the old Soviet Union nearly fell into civil war when communist hardliners tried to oust President Mikhail Gorbachev. America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan typically saw its fiercest fighting in the summer months, and the same is true of the war in Ukraine .

Hot-weather warfare is likely only to get worse. A 2009 paper in PNAS found that rising temperatures exacerbated by climate change could lead to a 54% increase in the risk of civil war in Africa by 2030. A 2011 study in Nature found that warmer weather during El Niño years doubled the risk of civil war in 90 tropical countries and could have accounted for 20% of conflicts around the world over the past half century. Meantime, what’s the season of peace on Earth and goodwill toward men? Wintertime, baby. Wintertime.

Going buggy

Summer advertises itself as the season of birdsong and butterflies. Don’t believe it. It’s the season of pests—particularly ticks, mosquitoes, flies, fleas, bees, and wasps. Ticks, mosquitoes, and fleas in particular can spread diseases that include malaria, yellow fever, Zika, dengue, Lyme, and chikungunya. Bees, wasps, and yellowjackets—with their infernal stings—are similarly creatures of the summer. And you think you know flies? You don’t know flies. There are 110,000 species of them —most more active in hot weather—making up a global population of 17 million flies for every living human. Pssst ! They’ve got us surrounded.

Read More : Long Dismissed, Chronic Lyme Disease Is Finally Getting Its Moment

Season of wheeze

Ah, summer, it takes your breath away. Literally. More than 25 million Americans have asthma, and 4.7 million of them are children— according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If that means suffering during the temperate months, it’s much worse when the oven that is summer turns the dial up to broil. Heat and humidity constrict and narrow airways , trap ozone, and cause the air to entrain more particulate matter from cars, trucks, and smokestacks. What’s more, stagnant summer air—especially in homes with poor air conditioning or none at all—can exacerbate the presence of mold, dust, and pollen. And then—and stop me if I’ve mentioned this before—climate change is making things more punishing still for people with asthma. A 2023 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report found that rising temperatures could increase the incidence of childhood asthma by anywhere from 4% to 11%, due partly to worsening pollution and allergies, and the growing problem of wildfire smoke .

Speaking of wildfires…

When it comes to dust, haze, and a mustard-colored sky, Mars has got nothing on Earth—at least during the summer fire season. Last year’s Canadian wildfires , sparked by lightning and fueled by high temperatures and drought, torched more than 71,000 square miles of land in Canada—an area the size of North Dakota—and yellowed out skies in the U.S. from the Midwest to the Northeast to the mid-Atlantic states. But the U.S. is playing with matches too. California’s wildfire season runs from April through October—peaking in the summer—with megadroughts and heat waves driving the flames. Of the state’s 20 largest fires, half occurred from 2017 to 2022. Climate change, of course, plays a regrettable role in all of this.

Crime and punishment

Nothing puts bad guys in a bad mood like hot weather—or so it seems. A 2019 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that on days with a maximum temperature above 85°F, all crime increases by 2.2% and violent crime by 5.7%. A 2023 study in PLOS One attributed this to what is known as the Theory of Routine Activities, which postulates that for crime to occur, three factors must be present: a motivated offender, a suitable target, and an absence of guards or surveillance. Of these, it is the second one—the suitable target—that is especially common in summer, according to the 2023 study, with greater numbers of people out on the streets. 

As for the first variable, a motivated offender, well, even criminals don’t   want to be outside commiting a crime in a 20°-below polar vortex. During a particularly deep freeze in 2015, Boston saw a 32% drop in burglaries, a 35% drop in larceny, and 46% drop in vehicle theft. Over the same period, New York City set a modern-day record , going 12 days without a homicide.

Summer’s contribution to violent crime in particular may be due at least in part to the common experience of hot weather leading to hot tempers, with even the most even-keeled people more inclined to blow a seam if they can’t cool off. One 2020 study found that people playing competitive video games in a hot room were more aggressive toward their gaming partner than they were when the room was cooler.

Daylight Saving Time

Don’t get me started on Daylight Saving Time. There is just nothing to like about this spring-forward inanity. For starters, it increases energy consumption (when it was supposed to decrease it) due to greater use of air conditioning. The changes in sleep patterns it causes contribute to heart attack , stroke , inflammation , and suicide , not to mention a 6% increase in fatal traffic accidents due to circadian scrambling and overall sleepiness. Small children and teens suffer particularly when the change in the clocks affects sleep cycles.

Read More : What to Know About the Latest Advances in Managing Severe Asthma

Finally, the atmospherics are all wrong. Nighttime is nighttime, people; the sun is the party guest that won’t go home if it’s still out at 9 p.m. I say send it packing no later than 8 p.m. and then race back to a nice wintertime sundown at cocktail hour. Cheers.

Trouble on the homefront

If you want to stay married, it might be wise to sleep through summer. That’s the finding of a 2016 study out of the University of Washington showing that August, along with March, are the two peak months for divorce in the U.S. The reason in both cases is more or less the same: couples tend to see winter and summer vacations as untouchable family time and, even in highly stressed marriages, will make it a point to hold the ship together for those treasured stretches. Once the good times are over, however, the marriages might be too.

“People tend to face the holidays with rising expectations, despite what disappointments they might have had in years past,” said sociology professor and the study’s co-author Julie Brines, in a statement at the time the research was released. “They’re very symbolically charged moments in time.”

When those expectations are dashed, a bust-up is likelier to follow. And while both early spring and late summer were implicated equally in that study, other research by Stowe Family Law in the U.K. found that September—the tail end of summer—is the peak divorce month on the other side of the pond, with total-immersion family time throwing financial, interpersonal, and other issues into relief. 

It kills your skin

No matter how good it might feel to bake in the sun, your skin really, truly does not want a tan. In a rapidly warming world, it should come as no surprise that the sun is murder on your skin—drying it, aging it, cracking it, and much more importantly, leading to cancer. A 2022 paper in the journal Cureus found the highest rates of skin cancer diagnoses occurring from July to October. 

Simple steps like wearing sunscreen , avoiding the sun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and wearing protective clothing can all help reduce the risk. Sunshine in the winter, of course, can cause similar damage, but in the summer you're out a whole lot more and wearing a whole lot less. That—like summer as a whole—spells trouble.

Correction: The original version of this story misstated the date of Napoleon Bonaparte's abdication. It was 1815, not 1914.

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Write to Jeffrey Kluger at [email protected]

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Novel — Analysis Of The Novel `Crime And Punishment’ Written By Fyodor Dostoevskys

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

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Published: Jun 20, 2019

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Guilty: Trump becomes first former US president convicted of felony crimes

N EW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

Trump sat stone-faced while the verdict was read as cheering from the street below could be heard in the hallway on the courthouse's 15th floor where the decision was revealed after more than nine hours of deliberations.

“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” an angry Trump told reporters after leaving the courtroom. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people. They know what happened, and everyone knows what happened here.”

Judge Juan Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where GOP leaders, who remained resolute in their support in the aftermath of the verdict, are expected to formally make him their nominee.

The verdict is a stunning legal reckoning for Trump and exposes him to potential prison time in the city where his manipulations of the tabloid press helped catapult him from a real estate tycoon to reality television star and ultimately president. As he seeks to reclaim the White House in this year’s election, the judgment presents voters with another test of their willingness to accept Trump’s boundary-breaking behavior.

Trump is expected to appeal the verdict and will face an awkward dynamic as he returns to the campaign trail tagged with felony convictions. There are no campaign rallies on the calendar for now, though he’s expected to appear Friday at Trump Tower and to hold fundraisers next week.

The falsifying business records charges carry up to four years behind bars, though Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg would not say Thursday if prosecutors intend to seek imprisonment, and it is not clear whether the judge — who earlier in the trial warned of jail time for gag order violations — would impose that punishment even if asked.

The conviction, and even imprisonment, will not bar Trump from continuing his White House pursuit.

Trump faces three other felony indictments , but the New York case may be the only one to reach a conclusion before the November election, adding to the significance of the outcome. Though the legal and historical implications of the verdict are readily apparent, the political consequences are less so given its potential to reinforce rather than reshape already hardened opinions about Trump.

For another candidate in another time, a criminal conviction might doom a presidential run, but Trump’s political career has endured through two impeachments , allegations of sexual abuse , investigations into everything from potential ties to Russia to plotting to overturn an election , and personally salacious storylines, including the emergence of a recording in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitals .

The case's general allegations have also been known to voters for years and, while tawdry, are widely seen as less grievous than the allegations he faces in three other cases that charge him with subverting American democracy and mishandling national security secrets.

Ahead of the verdict, Trump’s campaign had argued that, no matter the jury's decision, the outcome was unlikely to sway voters and that the election would be decided by issues such as inflation.

Even so, the verdict is likely to give President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats space to sharpen arguments that Trump is unfit for office, though for now the White House offered only a muted statement that it respected the rule of law. Conversely, the decision will provide fodder for the presumptive Republican nominee to advance his unsupported claims that he is victimized by a criminal justice system he insists is politically motivated against him.

Trump maintained throughout the trial that he had done nothing wrong and that the case should never have been brought, railing against the proceedings from inside the courthouse — where he was joined by a parade of high-profile Republican allies — and racking up fines for violating a gag order with inflammatory out-of-court comments about witnesses.

Republicans showed no sign of loosening their embrace of the party leader, with House Speaker Mike Johnson lamenting what he called “a shameful day in American history.” He called the case "a purely political exercise, not a legal one.”

The first criminal trial of a former American president always presented a unique test of the court system, not only because of Trump’s prominence but also because of his relentless broadsides on the foundation of the case and its participants. But the verdict from the 12-person jury marked a repudiation of Trump’s efforts to undermine confidence in the proceedings or to potentially impress the panel with a show of GOP support.

“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today in this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors, by following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor,” Bragg said after the verdict.

The trial involved charges that Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels , the porn actor who said she had sex with the married Trump in 2006.

The $130,000 payment came from Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer Michael Cohen to buy Daniels’ silence during the final weeks of the 2016 race in what prosecutors allege was an effort to interfere in the election. When Cohen was reimbursed, the payments were recorded as legal expenses, which prosecutors said was an unlawful attempt to mask the true purpose of the transaction.

Trump’s lawyers contend they were legitimate payments for legal services. He denied the sexual encounter, and his lawyers argued at trial that his celebrity status made him an extortion target .

Defense lawyers also said hush money deals to bury negative stories about Trump were motivated by personal considerations such as the impact on his family and brand as a businessman, not political ones. They also sought to undermine the credibility of Cohen, the star prosecution witness who pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to the payments, by suggesting he was driven by personal animus toward Trump and fame and money.

The trial featured weeks of occasionally riveting testimony that revisited an already well-documented chapter from Trump’s past, when his 2016 campaign was threatened by the disclosure of an “Access Hollywood” recording that captured him talking about grabbing women sexually without their permission and the prospect of other stories about Trump and sex surfacing that would be harmful to his candidacy.

Trump did not testify, but jurors heard his voice through a secret recording of a conversation with Cohen in which he and the lawyer discussed a $150,000 hush money deal involving a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who has said she had an affair with Trump. Trump denies that affair.

Daniels herself testified , offering a vivid recounting of the sexual encounter she says they had in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite. The former publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, testified about how he worked to keep stories harmful to the Trump campaign from becoming public at all, including by having his company buy McDougal’s story.

Jurors also heard from Keith Davidson , the lawyer who negotiated the hush money payments on behalf of Daniels and McDougal. He detailed the tense negotiations to get both women compensated for their silence but also faced aggressive questioning from a Trump attorney who noted Davidson had helped broker similar hush money deals in cases involving other prominent figures.

The most pivotal witness, by far, was Cohen, who during days of testimony gave jurors an insider’s view of the hush money scheme and what he said was Trump’s detailed knowledge of it.

“Just take care of it,” he quoted Trump as saying at one point.

He offered jurors the most direct link between Trump and the heart of the charges, recounting a meeting in which a plan to have Cohen reimbursed in monthly installments for legal services was discussed.

And he emotionally described his dramatic break with Trump in 2018, when he decided to cooperate with prosecutors after a decade-long career as the then-president’s personal fixer.

“To keep the loyalty and to do the things that he had asked me to do, I violated my moral compass, and I suffered the penalty, as has my family,” Cohen said.

The case, though criticized by some legal experts who called it the weakest of the prosecutions against Trump, took on added importance not only because it proceeded to trial first but also because it could be the only only one to reach a jury before the election.

The other three — local and federal cases in Atlanta and Washington alleging that he conspired to undo the 2020 election, as well as a federal indictment in Florida charging him with illegally hoarding top-secret records — are bogged down by delays or appeals.

Associated Press journalists Ruth Brown, Joseph B. Frederick, John Minchillo, Mary Conlon, Ted Shaffrey, Ceder Attanasio, Julie Walker, Seth Wenig and Julia Nikhinson in New York and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

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Trump is found guilty on 34 felony counts. Read the counts here

Ximena Bustillo

Hilary Fung

Jurors in the New York criminal trial against former President Donald Trump have convicted him of 34 felony counts of falsified business records.

Former President Trump is found guilty in historic New York criminal case

This is the first time a former or sitting U.S. president has been convicted of criminal charges.

The jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

Here are the details of those 34 felony counts: