Thoughts about Crime and Punishment from Fjodor Dostojevski
- Jun 22, 2022
- 2 min read
Here, I'll talk about a book that is very inspiring and known around the world. Crime and Punishment.
I read a translation from Russia to Finnish that was published in 2008.
It has been a while since I read the book, however it did leave a mark into my head. It gave me a lot of inspiration to my next book, that will be suspense literature and focus on this one poor girl, who studies in a boarding school with rich people. The school is sketchy because murders start to happen and the girl starts loosing her mind.
In Crime and Punishment, the main character decides to try if he could murder a person. He doesn't have any specific reason for it, however, he has theories about societies and humans' role on this planet. The author focuses a lot to the thinking processes of the mc and other people around him.
It is fascinating to see, how people react to different events in the book. Some of the events are tragical, however the characters act like it would be a totally normal thing (mostly because of the past norms in the society). And when something insignificant happens, the characters are overreacting to it.
The book teaches about the old Russian society and life of the "average" people. And I want to remind, that this is only my perception, I do not mean to shame anyone! The characters experience poverty, drinking and smoking, different types of abuses and people pleasing in the story. It shows the Russia/Soviet Union in the start of industrialization and describes many ways to perceive it.
It is difficult to pick a favorite character from this story, because they are all so different. I would say that Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin comes closest with the main character to be my favorite.
"Raskolnikov’s friend. A poor ex-student, he responds to his poverty not by taking from others but by working even harder. Razumikhin is Raskolnikov’s foil, illustrating through his kindness and
amicability the extent to which Raskolnikov has alienated himself from society. To some extent, he even serves as Raskolnikov’s replacement, stepping in to advise and protect Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya." (direct quote from here) This describes really well his characteristics. And I would say that he is a genue human being which makes him amazing.
I would say that the character development in all of the characters is incredible. It makes the book even more interesting, though it may be hard to focus on the details and remember them while reading. Some of the information comes back in the story many times, but that is not the case in everything.
About readability; the book's genre varies between Psychological Fiction, Philosophical Fiction and Criminal Literature. It is for people who are older than 16, because it is hard to understand and follow. Also, the events are pretty tragic, so it may be traumatizing for someone. The story makes you think about philosophical question and other things, putting the reader into a position, where they start asking moral questions from themselves. And I think that that is one of the things, why I liked this novel.
Have you read Crime and Punishment? Let me know your thoughts!
Until next time,
~Catnip K
Comments