As I studied Dostoevsky's life and read Crime and Punishment, it was easy to notice the similarities between the two. In this post, I will discuss these similarities. An important note on this matter is that I've already extensively compared Raskolnikov and Dostoevsky's psychology on my Instagram account, so I will not be doing that here.
The first similarity is Raskolnikov and Dostoevsky's family and early life. Both Raskolnikov and Dostoevsky's fathers passed away when they were young. Also despite being somewhat in poverty, both Raskolnikov and Dostoevsky had a good education and were even able to have a full one.
The next similarity is there early to mid-life situations. Both lived in St. Petersburg for a time, both were arrested and sent to Siberia, and both experienced financial trouble that kept them from success.
The last similarity is Dostoevsky and Raskolnikov's religion. Both had Christian beliefs and had strong philosophies about these beliefs. To be fair, for the majority of the book until the end, Raskolnikov did not view himself as religious.
All these similarities say the same thing to me: Dostoevsky portrayed himself in Raskolnikov's character. This is a common thing writers do. Writers will often put little aspects of themselves into their characters simply because that is what the authors know best. To me, it seems as if Dostoevsky portrayed in Raskolnikov all of his hardships and frustrations into a single character who was able to succeed in his life where perhaps Dostoevsky felt that he had failed in his own.
#Raskolnikov #Dostoevsky #comparison #mid-life crisis #similarities #family #lit education & dumb bills #religion
Comments