CRIME AND
PUNISHMENT
An introduction to Dostoevsky’s epic novel
FEODOR DOSTOEVSKY
 Born in Moscow, 1821
 Father was a military doctor
• Unlike other writers from that time, Dostoevsky was a member of the
middle class, not aristocracy
 Trained as an engineer at father’s insistence
 While in engineering school in 1839, father is murdered by two
peasants
• Father’s death aggravated his epilepsy, condition he struggled with all his
life
D O S T O E V S K Y: T H E AU T H O R
 After finishing engineering school, begins writing
 First work, Poor Folk (1844) was well received by critics
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Novel addresses poverty, an idea revisited in later works
Novel makes clear poverty is a material condition – when see people without material things,
see a person’s soul
Also introduces the “infernal woman” – woman with incredible inner strength
For Dostoevsky, salvation lies in a woman
 Belinsky, major literary critic of the time, read the manuscript and burst into
Dostoevsky’s apartment at 4 a.m. and hailed him as a genius
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Dostoevsky later wrote, “That was one of the rare moments in my life when I was truly
happy.”
 Praise went to Dostoevsky’s head – began to be disliked for his arrogance
D O S T O E V S K Y: T H E P R I S O N E R
 April, 1849 – arrested by the tsar’s police
• Had been moving in circles of moderate liberals
 December 1849, sentenced to death by firing squad
 At last minute, as being led out to execution, pardoned by tsar and sent to live
for four years in a Siberian prison camp and then another four years in the military
 Returns after 10 years of exile, married to Maria Dmitrievna who had a son
from her previous marriage, very changed man
 Very tempestuous marriage and Maria dies in 1864, just as Dostoevsky is
finishing one of his masterpieces: Notes from the Underground
BUILDING TO C&P
 Notes from the Underground
 The Underground Man, narrator of the novel, gloats at his unattractiveness and
challenges the 19th century notions of progress, human improvement, and the
possibility of a decent human society
• Underground Man acts against his own self-interests, isolates himself from
others to show his independence
 End of novel, tries to make contact with a prostitute – he pours his heart out to
her but then gives her money, insulting her
 Cannot experience the freedom without feeling love – two are mutually exclusive
to Dostoevsky; hell is a place where a person is unable to love
THE LOVE OF A WOMAN
 1860s, Dostoevsky is in bad financial state
 Makes a deal with a publisher to produce a work in two years to pay
off all debts
 To make it to the deadline, had the help of stenographer Anna
Grigor’evna Snitkina, 20 years his junior, who he later married
 Anna took care of Dostoevsky for 15 years until his death in 1881
 Many critics believe she made it possible for him to work
 He dedicated his last great novel, The Brothers Karamazov, to her
CRIME AND PUNIS HMENT
 Began the novel in 1865 as a work on the idea of alcoholism and was originally
titled The Dear Little Drunkards
 Raskolnikov , in Russian meaning “from among the schismatics” as in a schism
in faith
 In working on novel, Dostoevsky wrestled with main motivation: Why does
Raskolnikov commit murder?
 Moves from just to make poor people happy to murdering out of love (both
humanist concepts) to the Napoleonic Idea
• The good heart who had lost its way
NAPOLEONIC IDEA
 Society is divided up into unequal parts: the majority and the minority
 The majority will be controlled by the minority who stand outside the
law and have the right to break the divine order of the world
 In novel, Dostoevsky pits the love of people against contempt for
them in the character of Raskolnikov
 Battle between conscience and reason
 Dostoevsky: “There is only one law, moral law.”
EXISTENTIALISM:
 See the world as a difficult, uncaring place and the individual must
find own path
 Each person is responsible for making own purpose and meaning
 Way to manage the crisis of human existence
 Humanism, nihilism, etc. are all existentialist theories
NIETZSCHE
 Nihilism – philosophical belief that all values are baseless and
nothing can be known or communicated, opposite of humanism
 Nietzsche saw this as a natural progression of European society as
people were frustrated with trying to find meaning
 Overman or superman theory – no universal understanding of this
theory; goal humanity would set for itself and dictate fate the next
generation; can be linked to Napoleonic Idea
BOOK ONE
 Raskolnikov in state of conflict
• Unable to say “murder” – refers to it by other names
 Story of the Marmeladovs, reminder of the endlessness of human
suffering and the failure of sacrifice
• Sacrifice of Sonya, prepared sacrifice of his sister Dunya
• Sister sacrificing herself for him
• “…should one renounce life completely and docilely accept one’s fate as it
is , once and for all, and stifle everything in oneself, after having
renounced any right way to act, to live, and to love?” (38)
• Christian morality teaches humility, sacrifice but Raskolnikov is a man
without faith
THINGS TO WATCH FOR:
 Suffering – Who? Where? Cause?
 Water
 Vegetation – trees, flowers, gardens, bushes
 Sunshine, darkness
 Lack of air – literal and metaphorical
 Christian imagery
 Colours red and yellow