Analysis Of Crime And Punishment By Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a harrowing account of a double murder, as committed by the mentally unstable Raskolnikov. Filled with complex imagery, intense character development, and deeply involved psychology, the novel is an incredibly rich source of literary wealth. The murder happens relatively early in the novel, which leaves the majority of its weight to be carried by the interactions and thoughts of characters as consequences of the murders. Dostoyevsky uses these interactions, the most involved of which occur between Raskolnikov and Sonia, to describe two significant aspects of crime. The first is that crime acts like a rippling effect, branching out from a single source and affecting things that are seemingly unrelated. The longer it is allowed to radiate, the more complex its ramifications become. The second is that when crime’s effects reach characters, they evoke responses that are surprisingly sympathetic, as opposed to just horrified or disgusted. These responses are meant to show a more human view of crime, and that it affects more than just criminals.

The titular crime in Crime and Punishment opens the novel as a catalyst for movement between characters and events. Mental chaos, strife, and agitation seem to emanate from Raskolnikov’s psyche, and they begin to creep into the personalities of every character he interacts with. From the very beginning, Raskolnikov’s dilapidated mental state is clear to the reader. Dostoyevsky describes, “he had been in a overstrained, irritable condition, verging on hypochondria . . . but the anxieties of his position had of late ceased to weigh upon him,” (Dostoyevsky, 1). Within the first page of the novel, Raskolnikov’s mental state is