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Summary: Death, Noir and the Thirty Roubles...
Review: Whoa! Look out, this one's scary!! Just kidding. Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is a dark or noirish story of Rodian Raskolnikov's journalist life. He's portrayed as some what of a "wishy-washy" main character/protagonist who lives his life in the attempt to do good. However, since he lives in bleak times and is under pressure (he's the early form of manic depression) Rodya takes out his aggression on his old pawnbroker and her sister so to speak. The story takes form as Rodya attempts to hide the truth about his ax-murdering tendencies through his good deeds. Functionally, Dostoevsky's piece is very long winded. Many scenes are drawn out to the point of monotony and yet others go by almost too fast as the reader gets involved in the story. My views of this piece would go as far as to say, "It's a dark film noir thriller of the 19th Century..." and I emphasize the 19th Century. Thematically, the piece is very melodious, bits and pieces coming together slowly. Metaphor and imagery are used extensively to show a dark side of life in the late 1800s Russia. Symbolism is rich but story line lacks any great coherence. But enough of that, What is it? You might ask... Well, simply put, Crime and Punishment is a story about a man on a mission of redemption through his acts and the way he treats people. Rodya is truly sorry for the things he's done but at the same time isn't very remorseful of the deaths. It's a hard read, no doubt, but is it worth it? I should say, if you like thriller novels and don't think you'd have a hard time with this one, go for it! Dostoevsky very readily set about to write a story with his biblical-bashing background and did indeed manage to pull it off again. His characters are very proud and very emotional, and even though its and older piece, its worthy of a little more scrutiny.
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Summary: Redemption through suffering.
Review: In Crime and Punishment Dostoyevsky explored the complex workings of a person's mind and eventually came to the conclusion that the character Raskolnikov's only redemption was to accept suffering and be cleansed by it. The work covers a great many things but basically, he wanted to say that this move to pure reason is nihilistic and has no place in Russia and probably the world at large. I centered in on Sonya Marmeladov. Sonya comes across as attractive and repelling. Raskolnikov is attracted to her deep sense of faith and compassion. She is, however, an enigma to him. He has created a philosophy or mindset that somehow is a misreading of utilitarianism. It has allowed him to take it to a logical conclusion. He is allowed to kill. Somehow, I don't think he is convinced that his model is redeeming. She is a contradiction. She represents an inner peace despite the suffering. He represents the lack of inner peace in the avoidance of suffering. Sonya, moreover, does not conform to the ideation of his a world run by pure reason. In the scene where he questions her beliefs about god. Questions her belief in god. Finding it the ultimate irony that she a harlot, of all people, actually believes in god. Hunched over a bible the harlot and the murderer are, in their own way, looking for redemption. In the end, he embraces the very mindset that he had rejected to begin with. He begins to feel. Passion serves as a check on reason and vice versa. A world of pure reason could lack the compassion that makes us human. A world devoid of reason lacks for a sense of order and direction. If one frames reason as a sense of order and passion as a sense of chaos, Sonya embodies as sense of order within chaos and Raskolnikov as a sense of chaos within order. Sonya, grounded on deep (some would argue un-reasoned position) faith, embodies a sense of order and is not seen to be irrational but has found "ground" and is centered. On the other hand, Raskolnikov in his conscious denial of faith, seems to harbour an unconscious need to find Sonya's (although he has identified her as non-reasoned and non-intellectual) sense of inner peace. In this light, Sonya embodies once more, the passion of compassion, a redemption in faith. Not unlike Mary Magdalen's situation, Sonya as well as Raskolnikov are sinners in need of saving. I would ask the question, would Sonya have the deep well of compassion if she did not have faith. Is her deep religious grounding or a real sense of self delusion? Is she addicted to the "opium of the masses"? Sonya, is then, to me a reconciliation of the dichotomy of the delusion of religion, and the freedom within limits that the judeo christian modality provides. She has saved the sinner. She has taught him to feel. All this creates Raskolnikov as a character with no hope for redemption. Sonya is one-dimensional. She is a one dimensional but highly important character to the plot and Dostoyevsky's philosophy but not very developed as a character. Sonia is observed by Dunya as "too good" or saint like in her humility, silence and submission. She was merely a metaphor and not a flesh and blood character. She embodies the redemption through suffering. Don't you find it interesting that Dostoyevsky decided to utilize a "whore" or "prostitute" as the means to the salvation. Simone de Beauvoir has an intersting take on Sonia. Sonia is an archetype that she examines in her book the Second Sex - in the Dreams, Fears, Idols chapter around the section on Myth. de Beauvoir examines Sonya in the section "la fille perdue": "Since she is a kind of pariah, living at the margin of a hypocritically moral world, we can also regard the "fille perdue" as the invalidator of all the official virtues; her low estate relates her to the authentic saints; for that which has been downtrodden shall be exalted. Mary Magdalen was a favorite of Christ; sin opens heaven's gate more readily than does a hypocritical virtue. Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov sacrifices at Sonya's feet the arrogant masculine pride that led him to the crime; he has aggravated by the murder that will to separation which is in every man: a humble prostitute, resigned abandoned by all, can best receive the avowal of his abdication." Sonia embodies for Raskolnikov, the "irrevocable decision" The attraction/repulsion serves as the dynamic tension that springs back and forth to accept the suffering and to be redeemed by it. Raskolnikov wishes but he is torn. She does not conform to his reason. She is mad! or is he? We don't really meet Sonya until the end of Book 2. We begin to hear of her in the tragic tale from Marmeladov. We then here of Dunya's impending prostitution. Raskolnikov then encounters the prostitute on the street. Funny, everyone who read the book tells me they anticipated her to be Sonya. Sonya is offered as an essential woman-as-redemption symbol. Sonya is a manifestation of what one possible scenario awaited the bourgeois woman of the day. When you finally meet her at her father's death, she forgives him, foreshadowing the redemption she has to offer, to offer Raskolnikov and us all. She is accepted by Dunya. Raskolnikov's mother would "gladly take her as my daughter." She then turns and saves the Siberian colony. She is Raskolnikov's redemption, Russia's redemption and our redemption. When it comes to Raskolnikov, I have to say who is more dangerous to the "common good," the person who does evil (or at least in the David Hume's sense, the consensus of what is evil), knowing it is evil or one who does evil thinking it is good. As simple as it sound, that I feel that what is the embodiment Raskolnikov's and his tragic flaw. The truth is despite the need to transcend, despite the need to be better than the common person, is the inherent delusion that we are doing good when we are actually doing harm or evil. I agree that in certain times and places, the law serves to limit. Murder, in this case does not. There such things as unjust laws, unjust people and unjust situations. Power makes us so. The outright exploitation without recourse to human rights is a classic example, does it justify murder, No. To say that Raskolnikov killed because he felt it was his duty to kill - he felt he was placed in a situation of self defense of the common good, that the pawnbroker was expendable. We can debate around this issue forever. However, she was in no way a direct threat to him physically - he did not have the right to kill. Was he an eagle? Was he better than all the rest? No on both counts. It was not a sense of transcendence that drove him to kill, it was reason gone awry. According to Mr. Dostoyevsky, the only way out is to recognize that redemption will only be found in suffering, The redemption he got by accepting responsibility for his action. The redemption he got from Sonya. Don't believe me - read it for yourself. It might not be the Grand Inquisitor but it is Dostoyevsky at his finest!
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Summary: Read it more than just once
Review: I was 17 when I first read this magnificent novel, ever since, I always return to this book finding in it endless treasure of human intellect. Dostoyevsky is a very special writer, and this novel is a very special novel, it's on the verge of modern novel and yet it's classic, both with epic elements and begining of the psychological novel wich questiones moral,supreme justice, and a human nature itself. Raskolnikov as a character is a paradigm of every man surching for his ideals and for himself in this cruel and unjust world. I recommend it to anyone and especially to young people that surch for their ideals.
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Summary: Understanding the Criminal Mind
Review: This is the classic psychological novel of our time! Dostoevsky examines every inch of the human mind at its most horrific moment. It will take a good hour before you are fully taken in by the story. Once you are there - you anxiously await the outcome. At the end - you will probably feel more sympathy for the murderer than the murdered, because the author gave us so much insight into the criminal mind. Dostoevsky made us believe that the main character could even be you or I.
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Summary: Worth the Challenge
Review: Crime and Punishment is an exciting novel that explored ideas that were way before its time. It is the story of a troubled young man, Raskolnikov, who commits a double murder, and how he deals with the ramifications of his act. Dostoevesky gives his readers a full and complex view of all of the characters, and in the end, you can't help sympathizing with Raskolnikov. Though the russian names are at first puzzling, once you get the hang of them it is easy reading. There are many characters who seem minor, but many develop into important pieces of the plot. Whether or not you end up forgiving Raskolnikov, this is a pyschological novel that forces the reader to look at all aspects of a person's life and then make a final judgement.
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Summary: Psychological Masterpiece
Review: I first read this book when I was fifteen years old and absolutely loved it. Dostoyevsky's depiction of Raskolnikov made him like no other character that I have come across in a novel. The author made Raskolnikov's fear and guilt come alive in a way that no other author could have. I could not help but become anxious along with Raskolnikov as he realized the enormity of the crime that he had committed. Dostoyevsky was truly a master of the psychological thriller.
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Summary: So much depth
Review: This book is amazing in the depth of its characters. I for one, dont care what social statement is being made ( to me there is no clear statement - but one is definetly being atempted). Every caracter in this book is drawn with every intimate detail. Doestoyevsky's painstaking character development is unique in literature. If you cant take depression dont bother picking this one up, but if you stick it out you get a surprising ending (not meant to be happy but nevertheless most people feel better)
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Summary: An immortal crime novel
Review: "Crime and Punishment" is arguably the most exciting and the most philosophically complex crime novel ever written. It is also a meditation on retribution and guilt. Raskolnikov, a law student submerged by poverty and despair, dreams of becoming an overman, a Napoleon, and this provides the rationale for the murder of the old woman. He asks himself why must one, miserly old woman live on while thousands of gifted people, who are deprived of the resources that she enjoys, must toil ceaselessly without reward? Thus, Raskolnikov commits a murder on principle. It is interesting how Dostoevsky prefigured Nietzsche, as in the essay written by Raskolnikov and later discussed in the police station with Porfiry. In this discussion, Raskolnikov divides humanity into two classes, the "ordinary" and the "extraordinary". The former lead conventional utilitarian lives, reproduce their own kind and cravenly obey laws and regulations. The latter, on the other hand, are the lords of the future, the shatterers of conventions and the creators of their own laws. The parallel is clear between this formulation and Nietzsche's bifurcation of morality into a "master-morality" and a "slave-morality". The novel was greatly admired by Freud, who saw in it an element that anticipated his own formulation of "Thanatos", or the "death-drive", as in the part where Raskolnikov returns to the scene of the crime and starts to enquire about the blood.
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Summary: Dostoyevsky At His Best
Review: Dostoyevsky probed more deeply into the mind than any other novelist, especially into the abnormal and criminal mind. This novel explores Raskolnikov, a student, driven to neurotic frenzy by his powerlessness to change the injustices of the world, describes to demonstrate the freedom of his soul by a single gratuitous act of murder. Instead of being liberated, however, he is enslaved by his own guilt feelings, and the book describes, in a remorseless and clinical way, the disintegration of his personality. The part of his "conscience" is embodied in Inspector Petrovich, who harries him, goads and cajoles him to admit his guilt and so to purge his soul. Dostoyevsky was fascinated by people driven to extreme behaviour by despair or lack of external moral guidance. This is shown especially by Raskolnikov, the central character of "Crime and Punishment", making himself a moral outsider by committing murder. An insightful book indeed and a book that makes you think.
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Summary: The Inhuman Man
Review: One of the great aspects of Dostoevsky's novel is his exploration of man's ego and his consciousness conflicting with it. Raskolnikov, like many other men, thinks he is some kind of a god, or at least he is trying to be. At the same time, his human side is fighting with it. I think Dostoevsky is trying to say man is born pure, and no mattter how god-like he thinks he is, the innocent side, the ethical side will slowly eat at him and make him human.
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