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Raskolnikov's Mind

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In Feodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, Raskolnikov’s mind is being pulled between trying to justify his crime and being guilted into admitting to committing the crime. The internal struggle Raskolnikov is going through, is shown by using psychology of a criminal to prove that his mind is forever changed because of the crime. Raskolnikov’s split mind is shown in part three chapter six during to monologue Raskolnikov has while laying in bed. The monologue shows the reader what is going on inside of Raskolnikov’s brian as he not only tries to justify the crime but also as he feels guilty because of his crime. In this monologue, an abundance of ellipses are used to break up the text. This represents how Raskolnikov’s brain is broken and …show more content…

By calling himself a louse, the mindset of Raskolnikov changes yet again. This time he is beating himself down and really feeling the guilt pull him towards admitting to the crime. Raskolnikov believes that because of his crime, he no longer deserves the respect he gets from his mom and sister. They will do anything for him, yet he feels unworthy because he has a huge secret that can end his life as he knows it. We see the psychology of of Raskolnikov’s actions is not in balance because he not believes he deserves so much less than he is getting, even though he was trying to trick his brain into believing it was all ok. The only way that Raskolnikov can have peace with himself is if he turns himself in. Raskolnikov realizes, “ I myself am , perhaps, even worse and viler than the louse I killed.” He realizes that he killed two women, one on purpose and the other because she saw him kill the first, and that because he did that it makes him a worse person than the two women he killed. This goes along with the doubt and guilt because he feels as though he is the one who should be punished. He feels guilty for killing the woman because if he killed her because he thought she was a bad woman, he is now worse than she

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