A BOOK REVIEW ON

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Submitted to:
DR. VIRGINIA S. MACAHIG
Professor in Arts and Humanities (GEAH)
University of Makati

Submitted by:
Mirabless Sharon B. Valiente
IIB-PSYCH
August 18, 2016

AUTHORS DESCRIPTION
The best way to read Crime and Punishment is to not only feel all that pressure
but to revel in it. This is a novel all about the vice grip of intense pressures: the
pressures of society, of class, of psychology, of morality, of Christianity, and of what it
means to be a human in the world.
Fyodor Dostoevsky first published Crime and Punishment in 1866 in 12 monthly
instalments in a conservative journal, Russian Messenger (Russkiy Vestnik). The novel
has always been popular, though reactions to it can fall just about anywhere along the
spectrum.
It' extra psychological. Crime and Punishmentlike most Dostoevsky jointsis
incredibly fluid and open to a wide variety of interpretations. As Simon Karlinsky
suggests in his essay "Dostoevsky as Rorschach Test," how we interpret Crime and
Punishment might be a reflection of our own psychology.
Crime and Punishment's hero/antiheroRaskolnikovis both a little bit saint and
a lot bit axe murderer. This novel chronicles his journey from depressed ex-student to
depressed would-be do-gooder to depressed killer of older women to (slightly less)
depressed man in love.
In reality, it's even better because with Dostoevsky writing this thing, the
scummiest of characters is a little bit angelic, and the most angelic of characters is a
little bit scummy. In short: the characterization in this novel is flat-out genius.
After all, it's written by Dostoevsky: a brilliant fiction writer, journalist, and
publisher. He also had a gambling problem, suffered from epilepsy, and had constant
financial issues. Like the hero of our novel, he spent time in prison in Siberia. He wasn't
imprisoned for murder, though, but for being a member of a progressive literary group
called the Petrashevsky Circle. Crime and Punishment is proof positive that accusation
is 100 percent true: you don't get more intense, psychologically rich, and structurally
innovative.

SUMMARY
Crime

and

Punishment opens

in

1860s

St.

Petersburg,

where Rodion

Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student, has come psychologically

unhinged. He wanders about the city, barely eats, and hatches a vague plan he wishes
to test one afternoon. He goes to the apartment of an old pawnbroker, who lives with
her sister Lizaveta, and pawns his fathers watch. Upon leaving, he repeats to himself
his intentions: he will murder the old crone and rob her.
Raskolnikov meets a drunk named Marmeladov, who tells of his troubles and his
daughter Sonya, a prostitute. Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother Pulcheria,
who reports that his sister Dunya, once a governess working for the Svidrigailov family,
has been courted by Mr. Svidrigailov, fired by Mrs. Marfa Svidrigailov, exonerated
publically by the same woman, and then proposed to by a government official
named Luzhin. Pulcheria notes that Raskolnikov will soon have a chance to meet
Luzhin in Petersburg. After walking through the Haymarket, he overhears Lizaveta in
conversation, and it is revealed she will leave the apartment for a brief time the following
day. He decides that fate has intervened: he must go through with his plan.
He kills the pawnbroker, attempts to rob her, and kills Lizaveta when she walks
unexpectedly into the room. Two men come upstairs hoping to do business with the old
woman; they see the door is locked from the inside and go to fetch the caretaker.
Raskolnikov runs out and ducks into an apartment being painted by two
workers, Mikolai (or Nikolai) and Mitka, who have just had a fight and run outside
themselves.
The rest of the novel charts Raskolnikovs reaction to his crime, and his
relationship with friends, family, and a police investigator named Porfiry, who is put on
the case. Raskolnikov hurries to conceal evidence, buries some of the old womans
items under a rock in an abandoned yard, and finds he has been summoned to the
police headquarters because of an unrelated dispute with his landlord. He faints in the
station when the police begin discussing the murders. His friend Razumikhin appears
later, vowing to help Raskolnikov, whom he fears is sick. Later, when Luzhin visits
Raskolnikov, Raskolnikov says that he will not permit Luzhin to marry his sister.
Raskolnikov has a strange conversation with Zamyotov, the police-station clerk,

describing how he would have murdered the two women. He later finds Marmeladov
crushed under the wheels of a wagon, and gives a significant amount of money
to Katerina, his widow, for the funeral and a feast.
Pulcheria and Dunya arrive in Petersburg and are terrified at Raskolnikovs
appearancethey fear he might be going insane. Raskolnikov meets with Porfiry, who
tricks him into confessing that he visited the pawnbrokers apartment on the day of the
murders. Svidrigailov arrives and speaks with Raskolnikov, claiming that his love for
Dunya was genuine, and that he now lives in the same apartment building as Sonya.
Luzhin meets with Raskolnikov, Pulcheria, and Dunya, attempting to settle his marriage
to Dunya, but in doing so Luzhin so insults Dunya that the engagement is broken off.
Raskolnikov meets with Sonya and asks her to read him the story of Lazarus, a
man Jesus raised from the dead. Raskolnikov goes to Porfirys office alone, and the
investigator uses a series of circuitous techniques to enrage Raskolnikov, who begs
either to be charged with a crime or set free. Porfiry says he has a surprise for
Raskolnikova witness who claims to know the true murderer. Porfiry opens the door
and Mikolai the painter stumbles in, confessing to the crimes and confusing Porfiry and
Raskolnikov. The latter is permitted to leave, with Porfirys promise that the two will
speak again soon.
Luzhin attends Marmeladovs funeral banquet and announces that Sonya has
stolen 100 roubles from him; his roommate Lebezyatnikov reveals that Luzhin has
planted the money on Sonya in order to appear gracious when he forgives her. Luzhin
is run out of the house. The uproar causes Amalia, Katerinas landlady, to kick her out of
the apartment, and Katerina goes outside with the children, begs in the street, falls ill
with delirium, and later dies.
Meanwhile Raskolnikov visits Sonya again and confesses to her that he has
murdered Lizaveta and the old crone. Sonya is shocked but vows to protect him.
Raskolnikov runs into Svidrigailov, who lets on that he has heard Raskolnikovs
confession through the wall adjoining his and Sonyas apartment. He intends to use this
information to blackmail Raskolnikov into enabling his marriage to Dunya.
Raskolnikov passes several days in a fog and is visited by Porfiry, who says he knows
that Raskolnikov is the killer. Porfiry gives Raskolnikov two days to mull over his

options, but he encourages Raskolnikov to confess in order to receive a lighter

sentence. Raskolnikov meets with Svidrigailov, who announces his intentions with
Dunya; Raskolnikov wishes to protect his sister, but she meets secretly with Svidrigailov,
who attempts to rape her. Dunya has brought a gun and shoots Svidrigailov, narrowly
missing. She says she will never run away with him, and he lets her go. Svidrigailov
later kills himself out of despair.
Raskolnikov confesses his guilt to this sister but not to his mother, to whom he
bids an ambiguous farewell. Dunya encourages Raskolnikov to repent for his crime.
Raskolnikov goes to the police station and confesses to Gunpowder, the assistant to
Nikodim the police chief.
In the Epilogue, it is revealed that Raskolnikov has been sentenced to eight
years hard labor. Sonya goes to Siberia with him and writes to Petersburg of his
activities. Razumikhin marries Dunya and Pulcheria dies in a fit of delirium.
In the prison camp Raskolnikov slowly comes to terms with his guilt and
recognizes that Sonyas love for him is absolute. After opening Sonyas copy of the
Gospels, he vows to rehabilitate himself. The narrator implies that Raskolnikov
eventually succeeds in this, though the process is a difficult one and saved for another
story.

ELEMENTS OF FICTION

SETTINGS
Almost all of the scenes in the novel take place in St. Petersburg, Russia, one summer
in the middle of the nineteenth century. Near the end of the novel, the scene moves to
Siberia.

CHARACTERS (Major and Minor Characters)

RODION ROMANOVICH RASKOLNIKOV (RODYA) - Impoverished young man in
whom good and evil war against each other. He believes himself intellectually superior
to others and therefore entitled to take the law into his own hands to suit his purpose.
He murders a grasping pawnbroker partly to prove his superiority to himself and partly
to use her assets for himself, his family, and other downtrodden members of society.
Through most of the novel, he struggles to overcome the pangs of his guilty
conscience.
DMITRI PROKOFITCH RAZHUMIHIN - Raskolnikov's best friend. He is hard-working
and morally upright.
SOFYA SEMYONOVNA MARMELADOV (SONIA) - Shy, caring young woman who
becomes a prostitute to support her destitute family.
SEMYON ZAKHAROVICH MARMELADOV - Sonia's father. He is good at heart but is a
curse to his family because of his alcoholism.
KATERINA - Wife of Marmeladov.

PULCHERIA ALEXANDROVNA RASKOLNIKOV - Raskolnikov's mother.

AVDOTYA ROMANOVNA RASKOLNIKOV (DOUNIA) - Raskolnikov's sister.
ALYONA IVANOVNA - Greedy pawnbroker whom Raskolnikov murdered.
LIZAVETA IVANOVNA - Simpleton sister of Alyona Ivanovna. She walks in unexpectedly
moments after Alyona is murdered. Panicked, Raskolnikov murders her also.
POKOROV - Student who had given Raskolnikov the address of the pawnbroker in the
event that Raskolnikov might want to pawn an item to raise money.
ZOSSIMOV - Physician who treats Raskolnikov during his illness.
PORFIRY PETROVITCH - Clever detective who plays on Raskolnikov's guilty
conscience to get him to confess to the murders.
PYOTR PETROVICH LUZHIN - Unworthy suitor of Raskolnikov's sister, Dounia. He
uses his money to attempt to gain control of Dounia.
ARKADY IVANOVITCH SVIDRIGAILOV - Man who employed Dounia as a governess
and tried to rape her.
PRASKOVYA PAVLOVNA - Raskolnikov's landlord.
ZAMETOV - Police clerk who encounters Raskolnikov in a restaurant.
CHILDREN OF MARMELADOV
POLICEMEN
SERVANTS
PLOT

Raskolnikov has it in his head to kill a mean and crooked pawnbroker, who
happens to be a 60-year-old woman. He's trying to get the idea out of his head, but he
can't. The idea torments him to plan the murder down to the last detail. He knows
exactly how many paces it is from his room to the pawnbroker's (exactly seven hundred
and thirty) and even does a trial run of the murder. Part of him is convinced he could
never kill, and part of him is convinced that he must.

CONFLICTS
Man vs. Man
Raskolnikov against Alyona Ivanovna and Lizaveta Ivanovna
-Raskolnikov killed the greedy pawnbroker, Alyona with an axe, stealing her stuff, and
alternating between panic and calm. Yet, he forgets to lock the door, and when Lizaveta
(the pawnbroker's half-sister) happens upon the scene, Raskolnikov kills her, too.
Man vs. Himself
Raskolnikov against himself
-The murdering side of Raskolnikov pushes the non-murdering side of him out the
proverbial window. Suddenly, he's carrying out his plan, killing the pawnbroker with an
axe, stealing her stuff.
-The plot of the novel presents a double conflict, one external and one internal: the one
conflict between the estranged individual and his hostile universe, the other a clash
between an isolated soul and his ethical or aesthetic consciousness.
Man vs. Nature
Raskolnikov against the nature
-The door was unlocked during the crime scene.
-Runs a fever and copes up with the gravity of his crime.
CLIMAX

The climax of the Crime and Punishment occurs when Raskolnikov confesses his
crime to Sonia. It feels like a little explosion when Raskolnikov finally confesses to
Sonia. This confession starts him on the road to redemption. He does not complete this
redemption until he repents his wrongdoing after he is sentenced to prison in Siberia.
Even though he's been treating her like dirt for most of the book, this is the closest thing
to a "real" love story we have to hang on to. Sonia thinks so, too, and swears that she
will follow him all the way to prison. True to form, he isn't sure if he wants her to or not.
EVALUATION/ COMMENTS
Values:
Spiritual
-Sonya, though a prostitute, is full of Christian virtue.
Moral
-Crime and Punishment was to be a vision of the ultimate error and moral sufferings of
those who had so cut themselves off from established authority and morality that they
lost all respect for human life.
Physical
-Obsessed with the idea of committing a murder, to the point of physical and mental
illness.
Emotional
-Through most of the novel, Raskolnikov struggles to overcome the pangs of his guilty
conscience.

-Dounia is the strongest female character in the novel, neither as crushed by poverty
nor as timid as Sonya.
Cultural
- The city of St. Petersburg as represented in Dostoevskys novel is dirty and crowded.
Drunks are sprawled on the street in broad daylight, consumptive women beat their
children and beg for money, and everyone is crowded into tiny, noisy apartments. The
clutter and chaos of St. Petersburg is a twofold symbol. It represents the state of
society, with all of its inequalities, prejudices, and deficits. But it also represents
Raskolnikovs delirious, agitated state as he spirals through the novel toward the point

of his confession and redemption. He can escape neither the city nor his warped mind.
From the very beginning, the narrator describes the heat and the odor coming off the
city, the crowds, and the disorder, and says they all contributed to irritate the young
mans already excited nerves. Indeed, it is only when Raskolnikov is forcefully removed
from the city to a prison in a small town in Siberia that he is able to regain compassion
and balance.
Intellectual
-Raskolnikov's dual personality is the controlling idea behind the murder and behind his
punishment. Raskolnikov is used as a representative of the modern young Russian
intellectual whose fate is intricately bound up in the fate of Russia herself.
Social
*Insights
-Sonya illustrates important social and political issues that were of concern to
Dostoevsky, such as the treatment of women, the effects of poverty, the importance of
religious faith, and the importance of devotion to family.
*Principles
-Raskolnikov sees himself as superior to all other people and so cannot relate to
anyone.
-Dostoevskys descriptions of poverty allow him to address important social issues and
to create rich, problematic situations in which the only way to survive is through selfsacrifice.
*Philosophical
-Within his personal philosophy, he sees other people as tools and uses them for his
own ends.
-Nihilism

was 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. 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.