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Crime And Punishment By Fyodor Dostoyevsky

969 Words4 Pages

In the text Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the setting plays a strong role in the development of the characters and portrayal of their views on societal issues. These depictions and personal opinions project how the characters undertake the challenges presented in their community and whether they feel as though their philosophies are so abstract that it is best they stay alienated from the public. The feeling of superiority amongst the men creates a further separation between the individual beliefs within the text which is punctuated on through the distinct variations of settings. Dostoevsky uses the character Raskolnikov to display the connection between setting and character while further implementing the relevance between the …show more content…

For instance, Raskolnikov’s apartment is descripted as a “closet of a room [that] was under the roof of a high, five-floor house and was more like a cupboard than a place to live” (Dostoyevsky 1). This visualization of such a small housing that Raskolnikov helps to support the idea of his alienation from society because the symbolization of the small room represents the inability for people to enter his life as he beliefs there is not enough room include someone who is not going to serve him any personal benefit. His close-minded psychological state is depicted through the use of diction within the setting of the story as Raskolnikov only allows a small percentage of people to enter his living space, as well as his social community. Adding onto this point, the fact that his room is one of the highest in the building supports the idea of alienation within the text as Raskolnikov feels a sense of superiority amongst his peers and as though he is higher on the social ladder than everyone else. This feeling forced him to separate himself from others in fear that he will be looked down upon as weak and create an isolated state between himself and society. His personal belief on the idea that he is one of the extraordinary characters within society and as though he is above the rest of mankind is displayed within the setting and in the apartment complex that Raskolnikov is situated in. This is due to the idea that not only is the room compact to represent the small amount of people who Raskolnikov allows into his life, but is also towering above many other rooms as well as buildings, suggesting that he feels superior and higher on the social ladder in comparison to the rest of the

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