Crime and Punishment in Reading with Style

Feb 27, 2012 Hajir Almahdi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, russian-literature, favorites, book-club

At a point in your life you began to realize the obligation you have towards classics, you just owe it to yourself to read Dostoyevsky, i picked this one for i have set a goal to read whatever classics i can put my hands on, and i couldn't feel better i'm even proud of myself there's a hint of pleasure and accomplishment running through my veins while writing this because honestly Fyodor is MIND BLOWING.
Spoiler Alert! this is a short review only contained leading characters "in my opinion" (vie At a point in your life you began to realize the obligation you have towards classics, you just owe it to yourself to read Dostoyevsky, i picked this one for i have set a goal to read whatever classics i can put my hands on, and i couldn't feel better i'm even proud of myself there's a hint of pleasure and accomplishment running through my veins while writing this because honestly Fyodor is MIND BLOWING.
Spoiler Alert! this is a short review only contained leading characters "in my opinion" (view spoiler)[
Story takes place in ST.Petersburg Russia, Raskolnikov a former student is the leading character in the story, he's smug, arrogant delusional and a divided character, troubled young man who his pride and intelligence leads him into thinking he's superior to the rest of mankind, he believes the world falls into two categories "Superior" special people who can do whatever they want with no law of moral boundaries and second class who had everyone else. He believes he can break the rules in this case commit murderer for higher purposes, such as doing good and helping humanity with what he steals, so Raskolnikov murders the pawn keeper Alyona Ivanovna and Lizaveta her step sister, however guilt torments him and he believes he's not a Napoleon material, the idea of confessing torments him through the whole book, while reading i came to the conclusion he is crazy! even tho he thinks about confessing but not for the sake of being guilty for murdering the pawn keeper, he remains convinced that his crime was justified.
Raskolnikov’s relationships with the other characters in the novel do help in understanding of his conflicted personality. Although he cares about Razumikhin, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and Dunya, Raskolnikov is so caught up in his own head to the point he never notices their attempts to help him. He finds Sonya, his connection to Sonya was due to him thinking she's a sinner like him but what he fails to understand that Sonya's sin is selfless she sacrifices herself to help her parents and her three siblings but he essentially commits his crime for his sake alone to prove his theory.
Sonya is a quite poor devoted girl who sacrifices herself prostituting for the sake of her family.
Sonya, in her infinite capacity for understanding, begins to care deeply for him. She is not horrified by his crimes, but rather, concerned for his soul and mental well-being, urges him to confess.
Dunya is Raskolnikov’s sister also one of the main characters in the novel. She is intelligent, proud, beautiful, and strong-willed. she is the strongest female character in the novel, neither as crushed by poverty nor as timid as Sonya.
Svidrigailov is as conflicted as Raskolnikov, first he's represented as a villain, he murders his wife, attempted to rape Dunya, tries to marry a 16 years old girl but still we witness Svidrigailov perform goods deeds, such as giving money to the family of his fiancée, to Katerina Ivanovna and her children, and to Dunya. Although he is a violent and sneaky and dishonest snake he's some how capable of doing good, when Dunya rejects him. Although the painful realization that she will never
love him forces him into committing suicide.
(hide spoiler)]
" Consciousness might be the promise of a future crisis, of a new view of life and of his future resurrection"

This story isn't about who killed the pawn keeper, that we know form the beginning,it's about poverty, redemption, pride love understanding and forgiveness i cried at the end not because it was sad but because it couldn't have ended in a better way . ...more

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Mar 18, 2023 Shirley (stampartiste) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-classics, classics-500-plus-pages, published-1899-and-earlier, to-read-in-2023

The story takes place in Russia in 1865, four years after Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. It was primarily a state of haves and have nots. The haves were mostly made up of low and mid level administrative workers and a few entrepreneurs. The have nots were those who were crushed by their poverty and sometimes resorted to unsavory activities to support themselves and their families. Characters in Crime and Punishment represented both sides of the spectrum.

The main character in this s The story takes place in Russia in 1865, four years after Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861. It was primarily a state of haves and have nots. The haves were mostly made up of low and mid level administrative workers and a few entrepreneurs. The have nots were those who were crushed by their poverty and sometimes resorted to unsavory activities to support themselves and their families. Characters in Crime and Punishment represented both sides of the spectrum.

The main character in this story is a young, poor, former student by the name of Rodya (Rodion) Raskolnikov. Rather than try to find honest means of support, like his good friend Dmitri Razumihin, Raskolnikov dwells on his poverty, the unfairness of it, and his assessment of himself as a man who, like Napoleon, can do and get whatever he wants. Because Raskolnikov was so unlikeable, I found this story a difficult read at times. I continually read of Raskolnikov’s eventual redemption in various reviews and analyses, but I just don’t agree with that, when Raskolnikov only started thinking of others in the last page and a half of the story. I wasn’t ready to so quickly accept his epiphany. Along the way, he had hurt way too many people.

So many of the characters could be listed under two columns: Truly Good People and Truly Bad People. Some, like Arkady Svidrigailov and Pyotr Luzhin, were truly despicable. I have never read the book, but Lolita definitely came to mind when reading about Svidrigailov. These two characters definitely deserved their “punishment” (or just desserts, as it were).

I was thankful that Dostoyevsky included truly good people like Razumihin and Dounia Raskolnikov, Sonya Marmeladov and Nastasya Petrovna, three important women in Raskolnikov’s life. Their selflessness and steadfastness served to counterbalance the oppression of this story.

Dostoyevsky left me with the impression that he viewed life as hard, joyless and hopeless. A later reading about his life made me understand why he felt this way and why there was so much despair in this story. The two (author and novel) are intertwined. ...more

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