Why should you read “Crime and Punishment”? - Alex Gendler
What drives someone to kill in cold blood?
What goes through the murderer’s mind?
And what kind of a society
breeds such people?
Over 150 years ago
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky
took these questions up
in what would become one of the
best-known works of Russian literature:
"Crime and Punishment."
First serialized in a literary
magazine in 1866,
the novel tells the story of Rodion
Romanovich Raskolnikov,
a young law student in Saint Petersburg.
Raskolnikov lives in abject poverty,
and at the start of the story has run
out of funds to continue his studies.
Letters from his rural home
only add to his distress
when he realizes how much his mother and
sister have sacrificed for his success.
Increasingly desperate
after selling the last of his valuables
to an elderly pawnbroker,
he resolves on a plan
to murder and rob her.
But the impact of carrying out
this unthinkable act
proves to be more than
he was prepared for.
Though the novel is sometimes cited as one
of the first psychological thrillers,
its scope reaches far beyond
Raskolnikov’s inner turmoil.
From dank taverns to dilapidated
apartments
and claustrophobic police stations,
the underbelly of 19th century Saint
Petersburg is brought to life
by Dostoyevsky’s searing prose.
We’re introduced to characters
such as Marmeladov,
a miserable former official who
has drank his family into ruin,
and Svidrigailov, an unhinged
and lecherous nobleman.
As Raskolnikov’s own family
arrives in town,
their moral innocence stands
in stark contrast
to the depravity of those around them,
even as their fates grow
increasingly intertwined.
This bleak portrait of Russian society
reflects the author’s own complex life
experiences and evolving ideas.
As a young writer who left behind
a promising military career,
Fyodor had been attracted to
ideas of socialism and reform,
and joined a circle of intellectuals to
discuss radical texts
banned by the Imperial government.
Upon exposure,
members of this group, including
Dostoyevsky, were arrested.
Many were sentenced to death,
only to be subjected to a mock execution
and last-minute pardon from the Tsar.
Dostoyevsky spent the next four
years in a Siberian labor camp
before being released in 1854.
The experience left him with a far
more pessimistic view of social reform,
and his focus shifted toward
spiritual concerns.
In the 1864 novella "Notes from
Underground,"
he expounded on his belief that utopian
Western philosophies
could never satisfy the contradictory
yearnings of the human soul.
"Crime and Punishment" was conceived
and completed the following year,
picking up on many of the same themes.
In many ways,
the novel follows a common
narrative thread
where a promising youth is seduced and
corrupted by the dangers of urban life.
But its social critique cuts far deeper.
Raskolnikov rationalizes that
his own advancement
at the cost of the exploitative
pawnbroker’s death
would be a net benefit to society.
In doing so,
he echoes the doctrines of egoism
and utilitarianism
embraced by many of Dostoyevsky’s
contemporary intellectuals.
And in believing that his intelligence
allows him to transcend moral taboos,
Raskolnikov cuts himself off from
his own humanity.
Yet although the book is deeply
concerned with morality,
"Crime and Punishment" never comes across
as merely moralizing,
with each character given their own
distinctive and convincing voice.
One of the most remarkable things about
"Crime and Punishment"
is its ability to thrill
despite the details of the central murder
being revealed in the first act.
Raskolnikov’s crime is clear.
But it’s only through Dostoyevsky’s
gripping account
of the ensuing social and
psychological turmoil
that we learn the true nature
of his punishment–
and the possibility of redemption.
