Raskolnikov: The Mind of a Murderer
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The most intriguing part of Crime and Punishment to me is what guilt makes a person become. Raskolnikov is the protagonist of the novel and he feels that he is a better person then everyone else. He has formulated a theory in which if you are a really good person such as himself then he has the right to kill others because it’s better for society. After Raskolnikov commits the murders to the pawnbroker and her half-sister, he becomes very ill and is so much full of guilt he becomes obsessed with the occurrence.
Another reason why this book is so intriguing to me is because this is a very realistic example of something that can happen to anyone. For example, if u get into a fight with a bully u feel remorse and you don’t hold back from hurting the kid. However, after the fight is over, your emotions cool down and then you start to feel guilty for hurting the other kid.
Even late into the book, Raskolnikov still denies the crime no matter how guilty he feels. He says, “Crime? What crime? That a killed a vile noxious insect, an old pawnbroker woman, of use to no one! Killing her was atonement for forty sins” (Dostoevsky pg. 513). So even well late into the book he still believes he did the right thing according to his aforementioned theory. His theory just makes him feel like he’s a better person than anyone, certainly better than a dishonest pawn broker.
However, the guilt eventually catches up to him and in the end he cannot make himself feel better until admitting that he had committed the crime. Raskolnkiov said, “It was I killed the old pawnbroker woman and her sister Lizaveta with an axe and robbed them” (Dostoevsky pg. 526). This indeed was the only way Raskolnikov could come to terms with the guilt he felt for the murders. Guilt is such a strong punishment that you will admit anything just to get it off your conscience or it will drive you completely insane.
In the end, Raskolnikov teaches us all a lesson about life. The lesson is sometimes we will feel better confessing our wrong doings and to take the consequences. This all has to do with just growing as a person. In life, you can’t be a person to lock things up inside like that or it will eat you away and make you waste your life full of fear. However, once you confess your wrong doings it will get a big monkey off your back and then you can move on with your life for the better.
Works Cited/ Bibliography
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Bantam: New York, 2003. (First published in 1866).
