Crime and Punishment

1
Crime and Punishment

• Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Written in 1865-1866
• St. Petersburg, Russia

2
The Life of Dostoevsky

• Born one of six children in Moscow in 1821
• Fyodor was emotionally troubled and alienated
  friends with his moods
• After quitting the military, he began writing
  about his own youth which was full of misery,
  isolation and insecurity.
• First bestseller was Poor Folk- it was admired
  for its character study and romantic socialism

3
Troubled Times

• Arrested in 1849 for his reckless socialistic
  articles and condemned to die by firing squad
• Saved by the tsar, he was instead sentenced to 4
  years of hard labor in Siberia.
• This further contributed to his fears and
  alienation and he developed epilepsy.
• In 1853 he experienced a religious conversion.
• He began a socialist newspaper and once more
  received unfavorable criticism

4
Crime and Punishment

• Poor and reduced to begging, Fyodor began writing
  C and P.
• It was serialized in The Russian Messenger and
  appeared in English 4 years later.
• Became a literary idol.
• Died in 1881 of a epileptic seizure.

5
About the Novel

• Setting 1860s - Russian city of St. Petersburg
  and a prison in Siberia
• Third person omniscient
• Psychological novel- Raskolnikovs tortured
  psychological punishment

6
Main Characters

• Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov variously called
  Rodya and Rodka, is the protagonist from whose
  perspective the story is primarily told.
• Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova variously called
  Sonya and Sonechka, is the daughter of a drunk,
  Semyon Zakharovich, Raskolnikov meets her father
  in a tavern at the beginning of the novel.
• Porfiry Petrovich the detective in charge of
  solving Raskolnikov's murders
• Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova Raskolnikov's
  sister, called Dunya for short, who plans to
  marry the wealthy, yet morally depraved, Luzhin
  to save the family from financial destitution.
• Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov wealthy former
  employer and current pursuer of Dunya, torments
  Dunya and Raskolnikov but never goes to the
  police.
• Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin Raskolnikov's
  loyal, good-natured and only friend. He and Dunya
  ultimately become romantically involved.

7
Russian Translations

• Raskolnikov raskol means schism or split
  in Russia
• Razum reason, intelligence
• Russian word for crime is prestuplenie
• Directly translated means -stepping over the
  line

8
Themes

• Alienation from Society at first Raskolnikov is
  separated by his PRIDE, and later by his GUILT
  and its intense psychological and physical effects

9
Superman theme

• An extraordinary person above moral laws
• steps beyond and has no conscience
• Nietzsche In Beyond Good and Evil, 2 types of
  morality master-morality and slave-morality.
• The higher type of man creates his own values and
  the meek and powerless are at their mercy.

10
Nihilism
                                                
             Portrait of Friedrich Nietczhe

• Philosophical idea developed in Russia
  1850-1860
• Rejected family, societal bonds and emotional and
  aesthetic concerns
• Favored strict materialism- no mind or soul
  outside of the physical
• Nietzches nihilism active vs. passive
• Active nihilism seeks to destroy what it no
  longer believes in .

11
Be careful when you fight the monsters,
lest you become one. Friedrich Nietzsche
In heaven all the interesting people are
missing. Friedrich Nietzsche