Crime

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

The best thing a person can experience in their life is to wake up every day with a clear
conscience

The Russian novel "Crime and Punishment", authored by Fedor Dostoevsky, is a realistic work dealing
with Russian social and political issues from the time it was written; since this country lived under the
mandate of the Czars where the people had very few opportunities for progress, poverty dominated the
majorities and those who commanded were a few rich. In addition it is said that it is a story in which the
author captured something of his real life since he was imprisoned in Siberia. The novel tells us of a
crime committed by a bright and intelligent young man called Raskolnikov , the internal struggle
between his emotions and delusions that lead to despair and mental anguish. The state that shows us
this young man is the one that many people feel, because of the anguish that poverty and hunger cause,
they can at some point get to perform a bad act. In this essay I want to highlight the different ways of
being of people, since each one of those that the author describes in his novel have something of
importance to place them in what he wanted to narrate and what they represented in the history of his
country; as well as Raskolnikov, his friends Razumikin and Sonia, his mother and sister. On the other
hand the mental maladjustment of the protagonist and his belief of being a superior man to which by his
condition he is even allowed to carry out homicides.

As for the personality of Raskolnikov, we see that he is unsociable and moody all the time, since he feels
the only intelligent among others that he considers insignificant and inferior since for him there were
ordinary and extraordinary men placing himself in the second group ; this to justify the reason for his
crime, [2] " Ordinary men must live in obedience, and have no right to violate the laws, while the
extraordinary, have the right to commit all kinds of crimes and jump over all the laws ."It is this
thought that makes him continue with his plan without any remorse, as he considered Alena Ivanovna a
despicable being that the only thing he did to society was an evil, because he took advantage of the
needy by giving them less money than they deserved for the articles and most of the times staying with
their belongings.

The truth is that although what Raskolnikov did is not right, it is not right that there are people who are
dedicated to this job of lending money on the basis of articles and that is not fair. This activity continues to
exist and many people go to the pawnshops to leave different types of articles which give them little
money and where after spending a time if people do not go after their objects are left without any
explanation . There are people who even for these loans have lost their house [3] " The credit is
always more expensive for those who do not have it, the problems begin when we stop paying and we
want to recover the garment but it went to auction; the main complaints are because what was left
as an endeavor was already sold. " In cases like these it is not that a crime is justified, but it is a way of
explaining why people often commit them.

We see how from the beginning of the work, when he goes to where Alena already felt tormented by his
poverty, by the lack of opportunities and by being outside of the university, due to several months of
pension in the place where he lived and that They were also charging him, and on the other hand,
because it was not the first time he had visited her, since on another occasion he had come to her to
solve the lack of money and where he had said that his things were trinkets and giving little money in
return. In this state his mind was able to imagine what he would do with that lady although at times he did
not think he could do it [4] "Oh, my God! How disgusting is all this! Is it possible, is it possible that I
...? No, they are nonsense, absurd! ... Is it possible that such horror has penetrated my mind? " We
can see how since he plans the crime he has doubts about whether it is correct or not what he intends
to do and then when full of panic manages to do it begins his punishment.Besides, the fact that Alena's
sister had to kill Isabella and that was not in his plans made his torment double, although he attributed
everything to coincidences or what had to be. On the other hand throughout the work Raskolnikov tries to
reason with himself in defiance the limits of what he can and can not do to realize whether or not he is
the extraordinary man he describes in his own theory or a loser more.

Now, in contrast to all the obscurity that can be analyzed of the act performed by Raskolnikov, the author
makes us think about what is fair, and moral; he shows us Raskolnikov as a person who despite all his
needs was able to give what little he had to help others without thinking that he was the same or worse
than them, like when he gives Catalina the money to cover the funeral expenses of her husband she
barely knew, [5] " Now, let me ... contribute ... to fulfill the last duties with my late friend. Here
you have ... twenty-five rubles, I think and if this can help you ... "; the same thing happened several
times, even knowing that he owed a lot of money and that he did not have enough to eat. It must also be
said that despite the fact that he considered himself an extraordinary man, since at the beginning that
was his argument to carry out the crime, it was also his punishment the remorse of having murdered
Isabel who was the sister of Alena and that was in the wrong place and time, it was not in his plans that
death. This inner despair had him in a state of madness that even he himself could not stand, and he
understands that he must declare and suffer in order to have peace and be able to live in peace, reasons
that make him understand his sister Dunia like Sonia, who had become in his friend, and was the one that
made him reason and gave him strength to face the truth and right to freedom [6] " Without saying a
word, Sonia took out two crosses from a drawer, one of them made of cypress wood and the other
copper. Then he crossed himself and after repeating the same ceremony with Raskolnikov, hung the
cypress cross around his neck . "

On the other hand Dostoyesvki describes to us Razumikin, the friend and companion of studies of the
protagonist, who unlike Raskolnikov, is like a calmer person in spite of being living a situation similar to
his friend, because he also had to cancel studies for lack of money but instead of despairing and trying
against another person sought other alternatives to get out of poverty; like for example to look for work or
to give classes, while it could continue with its studies. He always wanted his friend to do the same but
suddenly the circumstances in which he found him did not allow him to help him as he
wanted, [7] "... since you entered, I thought you could be useful to me. I am not very strong in
spelling and to top it off my German is very poor ... Do you take the text or not ? " Therefore, from
the very moment when Raskolnikov in the midst of his despair and delirium had come in search of him,
he never left him again, he was always aware of his illness and in general of his well-being even if
Raskolnikov was not grateful to him and treated him bad every time in his outburst of mentally ill; I always
excuse him before everyone and he got irritated and came out in his defense. In addition who generates
peace at the time of deciding to surrender it is him who Raskolnikov entrusts the care of his family. On
the other hand because he knew that he was in love with Dunia and this relationship if he liked and
accepted.

As for her sister Dunia, it can be said that she is a good person, educated simple, full of moral principles
and like the majority of women of her time willing to sacrifice for others without worrying about
herself; she was about to marry Lujine for occupying a position, according to her and to be able to get out
of their misery; this Raskolnikov would never allow it because it was a way to sell to get a compensation
but not for her and although until the last moment wanted to fake a love for this man knowing that he
would suffer especially after the comment he made when he went to ask his hand. [8] " By herself, by
her own comfort, and even to save her life, she would never sell herself ... for a brother or for a
mother, she would sacrifice everything . " Likewise when Svidrigailov, a former lover of the date, to
tell her what she knew, she was already prepared to finish him off because she had taken a weapon, this
means that she was ready for everything.

Also, we have Sonia, daughter of Marmeladov a drunk who forgot that he had duties to fulfill which had
to be taken over by his little daughter [9] "... I saw my Sonia get up, put on her shawl and leave the
house, return at eight o'clock and go to Catalina Ivanovna, left on the table, without saying a word,
thirty pieces of a ruble ". Sonia is the representation of sweetness and reason because it was he who
convinced Raskolnikov to surrender and confess his fault. The author also makes us feel, with this

character what in real life is presented daily, because we can not judge all women who are engaged in
prostitution as despicable beings, because as Sonia there must be many around the world . As the author
describes it, it was still a girl who sacrificed herself for the love of children who were not her brothers.

In conclusion, the work "Crime and Punishment of Fedor Dostoevsky , is a classic of literature, in
which we can appreciate a real situation that has been lived through all times because poverty,
misery and the influence of the environment in which people live makes acts such as the one presented
by the author with his main character develop. In some way the reasons are understood by the reader
almost justifying it even knowing that in the society in which we live we must respect the rules dictated by
law and morality to live in peace and harmony. The work is so interesting that the reader ends up being
involved and in a certain way confused since he has the doubt whether what Raskolnikov does is correct
or not. On the other hand, just as at the time the work was written, we realize that society is still just as
unjust and opportunities are not for all people; For this reason we see how there are still so many
robberies and murders, because people who live in poverty as Raskolnikov or who is forced to sell his
body to eat as in the case of Sonia, society closes the doors preventing them from leaving your state.

As for Raskolnikov, for these people the concept of life does not agree with the ideology of the majority of
the society in which they live. His conception of good and evil is governed by his own ethics and
morals. For this reason in this novel the protagonist understands that it is not bad to end up with a person
if with it several lives can be saved. In this way, Raskolnikov shows the good he had done, committing a
minimal evil. For him, it is immoral to kill another person without a clear and just cause; It is also justified
in the sense when it makes the reflection and criticism that why is not considered such a serious act when
large cities are bombed regardless of whether children, women, old people, good or bad people die, and
those who carry it out they consider them heroes They argue that this act has a common goal for the
rest of humanity.