CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881)

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CRIME AND PUNISHMENTFyodor Mikhailovich
Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
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Nineteenth-Century Russia

• major upheaval, political uncertainty and war
• Napoleonic Wars 1803-1815
• Fyodor Dostoevsky born 1821
• Czars Nicholas I and Alexander II
• Nihilists

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Biographical Information

• family background- middle class (had once
  achieved nobility but then fallen into decline)
• poverty, gambling addiction (Marmeladov?)
• strained relationship with father
• temperamental "He was almost pathologically high
  strung, morose, suspicious... either sullen and
  silent or else outspoken and polemical.
• epileptic- man as "the sick animal
• joined a group of Christian socialist
  intellectuals, arrested, sentenced to 8 years of
  hard labor in Siberia, then death by firing
  squad, reprieved by the czar, then 4 years of
  Siberia and 4 years in Russian army

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The Mystery of Man

• Romantic vision of man as a unique creature
  composed of conflicting elements
• "Our world is the purgatory of heavenly spirits
  darkened by sinful thoughts."
• sanctification through suffering
• the concept of the double
• Romantic hero presented qualities of revolt,
  cynicism, and moral flaw in intelligent and
  attractive light

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Crime and Punishment

• published in 1866 as a monthly serial in a
  Russian literary journal
• Can evil means justify honorable ends?
• Who is the real criminal?
• Character as mystery

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Purposes

• Expose of social conditions in 19th cent. Russia
• Satirical analysis of liberal and radical
  politics
• Religious call for redemption through suffering
• Study of the nature of good and evil, intellect
  and emotion
• Psychological account for crime, search for motive

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Robert Louis Jackson Dialogues with Dostoevsky.
"Dostoevsky," he continues, "has become an
icon--in some respects a cliche--for
twentieth-century self-consciousness to know him
has been to know ourselves and our century."
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Author Profile

• Inherent in Dostoevskys literary canon is the
  primacy of the freedom of the individual.
• He argued in The Double and other works that the
  problems of society were caused by the absence of
  freedom humankind had been overcome by the
  impact of human institutionsthe church, the
  state, and economic structuresand by the assumed
  beliefs in God and in economic and social values.

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Author Profile cont.

• SO - Dostoevsky advanced a radical philosophy in
  which he condemned encumbrances to freedom.
• He maintained that the so-called laws of nature
  did not exist sustaining a belief in these laws
  would inevitably result in the restriction of
  freedom.
• It was only through unbridled and anarchical
  freedom that the individual would be totally free
  and thus recognize his or her own identity.

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Author Profile cont.

• This condition would preclude all forms of ethics
  except for a hedonistic ethics based on the
  interests of the self.
• Dostoevsky recognized the anarchical
  ramifications of his argument and attempted
  unsuccessfully to address them in Crime and
  Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.
• If truth does not exist, there is no basis for
  ethical principles.

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Crime and Punishment

• In this novel Dostoevsky brings to a high pitch
  the intellectual and emotional conflicts of human
  beings.
• Raskolnikovs way of thinking, his sense of
  superiority over other human beings, is
  brilliantly dramatized at the same time that
  Dostoevsky reveals his isolation, his moral
  vacuity, and his inability, despite possessing
  great intellect, to attain a sense of humanity.
• In this novel Dostoevsky profoundly questions the
  value of human intellect apart from emotional,
  indeed religious, feelings.

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Intellect- Raskolnikov and Luzhin

• Both men have projects that fail and both blame
  the failure on a blunder a mere mistake and
  see nothing else blameworthy in what they have
  done.
• In both men, pure intellect dominates without the
  softer human emotion.

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After Crime and Punishment

• In much of his subsequent work Dostoevsky probes
  deeply into human compulsiveness and into the
  sins that human beings commit against one
  another.
• Distrustful of purely rationalistic and political
  panaceas (an attitude that was, in part, a
  reaction against his early radicalism), he
  stresses compassion for human beings and the
  inevitability of suffering.

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Nietzsches Superman
See notes for explanation.
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nihilism

• 1. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all
  existence.
• 2. A doctrine holding that all values are
  baseless and that nothing can be known or
  communicated.
• A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid
  19th-century Russia that scorned authority and
  tradition and believed in reason, materialism,
  and radical change in society and government
  through terrorism and assassination.

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nihilism

• It is a philosophical position developed in
  Russia in the 1850s and 1860s, known for
  negating more, in the words of Lebezyatnikov.
• It rejected family and societal bonds and
  emotional and aesthetic concerns in favor of a
  strict materialism, or the idea that there is no
  mind or soul outside of the physical world.

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utilitarianism

• Linked to nihilism is utilitarianism, or the idea
  that moral decisions should be based on the rule
  of the greatest happiness for the largest number
  of people. (56)
• Raskolnikov originally justifies the murder of
  Alyona on utilitarian grounds, claiming that a
  louse has been removed from society.
• Whether or not the murder is actually a
  utilitarian act, Raskolnikov is certainly a
  nihilist completely unsentimental for most of
  the novel, he cares nothing about the emotions of
  others.
• Similarly, he utterly disregards social
  conventions that run counter to the austere
  interactions that he desires with the world.
  However, at the end of the novel, as Raskolnikov
  discovers love, he throws off his nihilism.
  Through this action, the novel condemns nihilism
  as empty.

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Setting-a social narrative

• St. Petersburg misery
• Raskolnikov is a child of that misery, patently
  belonging to the world of the insulted and
  injured, though in him the humility and
  submissiveness of that worlds human mixture are
  turned inside out.
• He is the first of its inhabitants to attempt its
  redemption by making a bid, in however futile and
  hideous a fashion, for freedom and power.

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Russian meanings
Name Word Meaning (in Russian)
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov raskol a schism, or split "raskolnik" is "one who splits (doppleganger)
Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin luzha a puddle
Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin razum reason, intelligence
Alexander Grigorievich Zamyotov zametit to notice, to realize
Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov marmelad marmalade/jam
Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov Svidrigailo a Lithuanian prince
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More than just one crime

• The novel contains many examples of crime or
  transgression translated from the Russian
  prestuplenie
• Raskolnikov, Sonya, Luzhin, Svidrigailov
• All of these characters engage in transgressions
  as a means to an end

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Plot structure

• Parts I-III present the predominantly rational
  and proud Raskolnikov
• the progressive death of the first ruling
  principle of his character
• point of change in the middle of the novel
• Parts IV-VI the emerging "irrational" and humble
  Raskolnikov
• progressive birth of the new ruling principle

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Monomania and malaise and ennui

• Monomania pathological obsession with one idea
  or subject intent concentration on or
  exaggerated enthusiasm for a single subject or
  idea (re murder of pawnbroker and Lizaveta) (23)
• Malaise a vague feeling of bodily discomfort,
  as at the beginning of an illness a general
  sense of depression or unease (Rs pathological
  condition or soul-sickness?)
• Ennui (Fr. boredom) listlessness and
  dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest
  boredom (sensuality as a flight from it
  Svidrigaylov)

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Three thematic elements

• Primary theme of Raskolnikovs crime and its
  consequences
• Minor theme of the lowly and good Marmeladovs
• Minor theme of the wealthy immoralist
  Svidrigaylov
• Latent theme right to violent rebellion

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Sacrifice

• Many examples of sacrifice / self sacrifice
• In general, Dostoevsky emphasizes the ironic
  ineffectuality of the sacrifices being made.
• Sonya for the Marmeladovs, Lizaveta for her
  sister, Dunya for her mother and brother,
  Raskolnikov for the sake of a theory

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Suffering

• Suffering is a major component of the novel.
• The characters are citizens of St. Petersburg
  poor and miserable and almost without
  exception, they suffer
• Some of the characters seem to need to suffer
  Marmeladov (18-19), Katerina (martyr?), Mikolka
• There is a connection between piety and the
  acceptance of suffering Sonya, Lizaveta,
  Mikolka
• What does suffering have to with Raskolnikov in
  the Epilogue?

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Suffering

• Porfiry says to Raskolnikov, Do you, Rodion
  Romanovich, know what some of these people mean
  by suffering?. . . It is not suffering for
  somebodys sake, but simply suffering is
  necessary the acceptance of suffering, that
  means, and if it is at the hands of the
  authorities, so much the better (VI, 2).

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Moral Standards

• The moral standards in the novel are Christian.
• They are represented by Sonya, Razumikhin, and
  Porfiry although never stated directly by any
  of them.
• Christian morality / these characters recognize
  crime and find no excuse for wrongdoing. No
  class of man is exempt all men must accept
  responsibility.

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Lazarus

• After learning that Alyona will be home alone at
  7 oclock, he goes like a man condemned to
  death (I,5).
• On his way to murder Alyona, he compares himself
  to a man going to execution
• Before his encounter in the tavern with Zamyotov,
  he thinks of a condemned man given the choice to
  die or live on a hands breadth of ground
  (II,6).
• The story of Lazarus brought back from the dead
  becomes an important part of the story.

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Lazarus

• Porfiry first mentions Lazarus A-a-and, do you
  believe in the raising of Lazarus? (III,5)
• Raskolnikov asks Sonya to read the story of
  Lazarus
• Raskolnikovs resurrection / return to life /
  renewal occurs in the Epilogue or at least ends
  there. Like Lazarus, it may be connected to the
  fourth day.

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A modern case

• Porfiry a modern contemporary case (385)
  a spiritual and mental self-division and
  self-contradiction
• Problematical nature of modern personality and of
  its tortuous efforts to stem the disintegration
  threatening it
• The search for the true cause (1) ideas
  bearing on the nature of crime and its relation
  to psychic illness (2) ideas about two kinds of
  human beings (ordinary and extraordinary) (3)
  ideas concerning the supernal value of suffering
  and the promise of deliverance in Christ

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TEXT - CRIMINALITY

• PART ONE CHAPTER SIX (p. 54-7 in my book)
• Superstitious events
• PART ONE CHAPTER SIX (p. 60-1 in my book)
• Nature of crime/criminal
• PART THREE CHAPTER FIVE (p. 216-225 in my book)
• Is there such a thing as crime?
• PART FOUR CHAPTER FIVE (p. 286-290 in my book)
• Porfiry on crime

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CHARACTERS
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Characters

• Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov (ROH-dyon
  roh-MAH-noh-vihch ras- KOL-nih-kov), called
  Rodya, a psychologically complex young law
  student who murders not for wealth but as an
  experiment, to see if he is one of those who can
  circumvent societys restrictions.
• Impoverished and weakened by illness and hunger,
  he decides to rid society of a worthless person
  in order to preserve his genius for posterity, to
  relieve his devoted mother and sister from
  compromising themselves, and to prove that he is
  above conscience.

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Characters

• Pulcheria Alexandrovna (pewl- CHEH-ryah
  ah-lehk-SAHN-drov-nah), his long- suffering
  mother, whose faith in her son sustains her but
  whose mind gives way under the strain of his deed
  and guilt.
• A handsome, middle-aged woman of distinction, a
  widow who has supported her family and urged her
  son to make his way in life, Pulcheria is a study
  of motherhood thwarted, a woman tortured by her
  inability to fathom her favorites depravity.

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Characters

• Avdotya Romanovna (ahv-DOT-yah roh-MAH-nov-nah),
  called Dounia (DEW-nyah), her daughter and the
  younger sister who has aided in her mothers
  effort to make something of her brother through
  working and skimping.
• A mirror of her mothers fortitude and faith,
  Dounia is the beautiful, impoverished, clear-
  sighted savior of her family.

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Characters

• Dmitri Prokofitch Razumihin (DMIH-tree
  proh-KOH-fihch rah-zew- MEE-hihn), Raskolnikovs
  devoted friend.
• Enamored of Dounia, he is the savior of the
  family honor. Like Dounia, he has all the normal
  responses of a generous nature and works
  unceasingly to discover and repair the tragic
  situation of his friend. Affianced to the
  beautiful Dounia, he founds a publishing company
  to aid the hapless girl, mother, and brother.
• He is one of the few characters with a sense of
  humor his good deeds lighten a psychologically
  gloomy and depth-insighted plot.

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Characters

• Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov (soh- FYAH
  seh-MYOH-nov-nah mahr-meh- LAH-dov), called
  Sonia, the daughter of a drunken clerk and
  stepdaughter of the high-strung Katerina
  Ivanovna.
• From gratitude, the benevolent though soiled
  child of the streets comforts the murderer and
  supports him in his transgressions so that he
  finally will confess. Forced to support her
  father, her stepmother, and their three children,
  she remains unsullied, and her spirit transcends
  these morbid conditions.

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Characters

• Arkady Ivanovitch Svidrigailov (ahr- KAH-dee
  ee-VAH-noh-vihch svih-drih- GAY-lov), the
  sensualist in whose house Dounia had been a
  governess. He is both the would-be seducer and
  savior of Dounia, and through her of Sonias
  orphaned half sisters and brother, when he gives
  her money as atonement for his conduct.
• A complicated character, sometimes considered,
  with Raskolnikov, one of the alter egos of the
  writer, he is obsessed by guilt and driven by
  libido.

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Characters

• Porfiry Petrovitch (pohr-FIH- ree
  peh-TROH-vihch), a brilliant detective more
  interested in the rehabilitation than the
  prosecution of the murderer.
• Somewhat disturbed and neurotic himself, Porfiry
  seconds Sonias influence and causes Raskolnikov
  to confess his crime and thus begin his
  redemption.