Crime and Punishment 3

Crime and Punishment
A Critical Analysis

Beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.  
- Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a world-renowned 19th century mystery/murder novel that has captivated readers for generations. With the identity of the murderer revealed from the very beginning, but his intentions far from being clear, the novel keeps the reader at the edge of their imagination. Every chapter is full of uncertainties, but no other element of the novel causes greater irritation and annoyed curiosity than what drove Raskolnikov to commit the murders in the first place. This classic novel has an unusual appeal, which is very different from other legendary texts, and it is the densely emotional and constantly evolving themes, motifs, and symbols. This paper examines in detail the themes of alienation from society, the very psychology of the novel, the idea of extraordinary humans, and nihilism; the symbols that represent abstract concepts such as the city and the cross; and of course one of the motifs of the novel that represent the environment and social condition of St. Petersburg, and of course Russia as a whole, during 19th century – poverty.
Alienation from society is the primary theme of Crime and Punishment that continuously evolves and reappears in every chapter of the novel. Raskolnikov believes that certain superior people within society stand out above the other ordinary humans and their moral law. From the very beginning Raskolnikov’s pride alienates him from the rest of the society. He sees himself as a different, perhaps superior, compared to all the other people, so he cannot relate to them in any way. It is his philosophy that consists of two groups of people in a society, the ordinary and the extraordinary. Raskolnikov believes that both have an equal right to exist, that without one the other would fail, so they are...