Reading Crime and Punishment was a really interesting experience for me since I knew the basic idea of the book: the main character murders someone and then eventually admits to it. Obviously, because of that premise, I thought the story was going to end depressing and condescending. The actual ending of the story, however, was not what I expected at all. The book ended with Raskolnikov realizing his mistake (in his own way) and looking towards the future with hope and excitement, especially with the idea of being with Sonia. It left me feeling a happy, satisfied, content feeling that I hadn't expected to have, for the idea that Raskolnikov could end up happy and at peace after all that he had done was absolutely fascinating to me. This idea, however, is just one among the other ideas I want to explore today in an attempt to decipher their meaning.
The first theme I want to discuss is isolation. Raskolnikov spends practically the entire book pushing away people who want to help him like Sonia, Dounia, Pulcheria, Razumihin, and others. He constantly is trying to be alone, especially after he murdered the two women and was sick. There is even a particular point in the book when Raskolnikov tells his mother and sister that he intends never to see them again since he wanted to go off and be on his own. I think a huge cause of this deep need for isolation is his fear of being discovered for the murder of the two women. A fear of Raskolnikov's for most of the book is that he will accidentally end up telling someone that he was the murderer. In this, he shows a deep distrust of his own self. Towards the end of the book, however, I think a big part of his new found joy was caused by him finally lowering his walls and desiring to be with Sonia.
I will briefly mention here that psychology and philosophy both are major players in this book, but I will not discuss them here as I have an entire post dedicated to that. Some major themes of these two ideas are nihilism, morality, consciousness, existentialism, and the idea that some people were born to be superior to other people.
The next theme I will discuss is religion. For most of the book, Raskolnikov doesn't really believe in an all-powerful God, in fact, he doesn't really believe in anything. This is one of the reasons on why he is able to ignore the morality of his actions. Throughout the book, he and Sonia often discuss the Bible and God as Sonia is highly religious. Raskolnikov, however, mostly just snarks at her beliefs and refutes everything she says. At the end of the book after Raskolnikov has spent much time in prison, he rediscovers God again and desires to read the Bible and discuss it with Sonia again. His new religious attitude at the end is contextualized by him slowly letting go of his philosophical ideas like nihilism, existentialism, and superiority and becoming more loving and emotional instead.
The next theme I will discuss is madness. A funny thing I noticed while reading Crime and Punishment is that Raskolnikov's psychological crisis is not the only crisis going on. There are points in the book where the main focus is on another character's down spiral into insanity. The main two characters who I am talking about are Katerina Ivanovna and Svidrigailov. Katerina loses her sanity after her husband dies and leaves her and their children in poverty. Later on, Katerina's step daughter is accused of thievery, and at that point, Katerina can't take it. She drags her younger children around on the street to perform for money in a crazed fury in probably one of the most horrifying scenes from a book I've ever read. After that, Katerina dies from a sickness she had been suffering from for a long time. The other character, Svidrigailov, starts off as a wealthy man with a family. Raskolnikov's sister, Dounia, was the governess at his house, and Svidrigailov tried to make a move on her. She refused, and eventually the event got revealed to everyone. Later, Svidrigailov's wife died, and he went to St. Petersburg where the main characters are to try and win Dounia. It didn't work, and Svidrigailov keeps going down a dark path. He is almost always in a particular tavern, and he gets himself engaged to a teenager as an upper middle-aged man. It is around this time when it is clear to the other characters that he is trying to get rid of his money by giving it away, but they did not yet understand why. They all later find out whenever Svidrigailov kills himself.
The next theme I will discuss is poverty. Almost all the characters in this story are constantly low on funds: Raskolnikov, Pulcheria, Dounia, Razumihin, Sonia, and Katerina Ivanovna to name a few. I think poverty really characterizes all of these characters in a big way. For example, Katerina ended up going insane and dying because of poverty. Raskolnikov first starting thinking about murder because of a need for money. Dounia was even thinking of marriage due to a need for money. These are just some of the ways the characters were impacted by their poverty.
The next theme I will discuss is criminality. A huge discussion topic between Raskolnikov and the detective Porfiry is the definition of criminality. This topic also leads into Raskolnikov's philosophy of extraordinary and ordinary people. These ideas play a huge role in the story as they serve for much of the philosophical debates, and also Raskolnikov's base for murder.
The last theme I will discuss is redemption. At the end of the story, I truly believe that Raskolnikov found redemption. He found love, he confessed the murder and regretted it, he had hope in the future, and he began to read the Bible again. The end had a very positive mood to it that just felt hopeful overall. This leads me to believe that Raskolnikov was able to find peace and salvation for the crime he committed and then rest and contentment to continue on with the rest of his life undeterred by this crime.
#themes #Crime and Punishment #it wasn't depressing #I was surprised #Raskolnikov #philosophy #psychology
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