Guilt In Dostoyevsky's Crime And Puni

When faced between turning himself in or leaving the police station to be a free man, Raskolnikov chose to confess; the narrator said, “A ghastly, lost smile forced its way to his lips. He stood there and grinned. Then he turned back upstairs to the station” (Dostoyevsky 505). Instead of running away like he did during most of the novel, he listened to the innocent Sonia and his guilty conscience. As in the case of guilt in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, there are significant factors that leads to confessions in a crime investigation. In this study, the term confession will include not only confessions of crime by criminals, but false confessions by those who could be innocent. Extensive data in academic journals and notable literature

Many notable literature, including those of Dostoyevsky and Edgar Allan Poe, link confessions of crime to guilt. In Crime and Punishment, after committing the murders of the Ivanovna sisters, Raskolnikov wandered to the Neva and looked to his mental state. The narrator in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment reads out Raskolnikov’s thoughts and says, “…he somehow imagined it was still possible to think about what he had thought about before, or to interest himself in the same subjects and sights as before, not so long ago... it weighted on his chest till it hurt” (Dostoyevsky 109-110). The narrator explained in the passage that Raskolnikov had formerly felt wonder and excitement from seeing the view of St. Petersburg from the Neva. After his double of Aliona and Lizabeta Ivanovna, he was no longer able to feel the same inspiration he felt before. He had hoped to find relief in looking at the scenery that had given him inspiration, but his heart had changed from the burden of his guilt. From the realization of his guilty conscience, Raskolnikov felt pain. Raskolnikov’s conscience knew he had commited a crime, and his conscience wouldn’t allow a sinner like him to enjoy the simple wonders of life