Crime and Punishment Essay

People will sometimes go to greater extents just because they believe it’s for the better of the people. Mankind may sometimes reside to murdering a person in belief that it will benefit the society because that person is worthless and just takes up space. In Fedor Dosteovsky’s Crime and Punishment, the character Raskolinikov decides to commit a murder or in his eyes, rid society of a worthless person. Sometimes poverty will make a man tip over the edge. It will cause a man to commit a homicide because in their mind they see that person worthless to society. In Doestoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, poverty helps setup the theme of nihilism. â€Å"Life is in ourselves and not in the external,† writes Fyodor Dostoevsky in a letter to his brother dated December 22, 1849. â€Å"To be a human being among human beings, and remain one forever, no matter what misfortunes befall, not to become depressed, and not to falter—this is what life is, herein lies its task.† This passage was written immediately after Dostoevsky underwent the traumatic experience that Tsar Nicholas I ordered for sever prisoners condemned to death for supporting the expression of free thought within the Russian state, a mock execution in Semyonovsky Square, a staged performance so terrifyingly real that it induced insanity within one of the author’s fellow prisoners. The quote is evidence of Dostoevsky’s strength of character; his would be a difficult life living in poverty, he would helplessly watch as many of the people closest to him died from the ailments of the poor. It also exposes the significant flaw common to som e of his characters and tragic heroes through despair, and weakness before the weight of misfortune, they falter, and commit barbaric acts that render them unfit to operate within the context of humanity. This is the case with both Baklushkin and Shishkov from The Hous of the Dead, as well as with Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. Fyodor Dostoevksy was born on October 30, 1821 in Moscow, Russia. He was born into a strict way of life. He lived much of his childhood distanced from his frail mother and officious father. In these formative years, he formed a close bond with his elder brother Mikhail. He was sent to school at an early age, during his years in school Dostoevsky was lonesome, but those lonesome years in school afforded him a release from his father’s stern household. In his solitude he found an interest in Literature and spent most of his time reading. As a young man, Dostoevsky’s father was brutally murdered by his serfs. Though he rarely mentioned his father’s death, the theme of parricide provided the central focus of perhaps his greatest work, The Brothers Karamazov. At his father’s instance, Dostoevsky attended engineering school, but upon graduation he chose to pursue a literary career. His first published work, Eugenie Grandel, was published in a St. Petersburg journal in 1844. Dostoevsky completed his first novel, Poor Folk, in 1845. A naturalistic tale with a clear social message, the novel was acclaimed by the foremost literary critic of the day, Vissarion Belinsky, who stated, â€Å"A new Gogol is born!† the work brought Dostoevsky success and adulation that he was ill-equipped to handle. Dostoevsky became a member of Belinsky’s literary circle, but when Belinsky reacted coldly to Dostoevsky’s subsequent work, a breach developed between them. In 1848, Dostoevsky joined a political group of young intellectuals led by Mikhail Petrashevsky. The reactionary climate of Russia at the time was not receptive to a group which published illegal literature and discussed utopian socialism, and in 1849 the members were arrested and charged with subversion. Dostoevsky, whom the authorities considered the most important member, was imprisoned and sentenced to death. In a scene that was to haunt him all of his life, Dostoevsky and his friends faced a firing squad, but were reprieved when a messenger arrived with the announcement that their sentences had been commuted to four years of hard labor in Siberia and four years of army service. His harrowing near-execution and terrible years of imprisonment made an undeniable impression on his life, converting him to a long life of intense spiritual lifestyle. His prison experiences, as well as his life after prison among the urban poor of Russia, would provide a vivid backdrop for much of his later work. Released from his imprisonment and service by 1858, he began a fourteen-year period of furious writing, in which he published many significant texts. Among these were: The House of the Dead, Notes From The Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Devils. In 1859 Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg were he contributed articles expressing his belief that Russia should develop a social and polit ical system based on the values drawn from the Russian people. He then described his life as a prisoner in the book The House of the Dead, a novel reflecting both an insight into a criminal mind and an understanding of the Russian lower class. His intense study of the New Testament, the only book prisoners were allowed to read, provided a major influence on his later work as he became convinced that redemption was only possible though suffering and faith. In 1862, Dostoevsky and his brother Mikhail created a magazine called The Time, which was later banned in 1863. Due to the Dostoevsky and Mikhail created another magazine called Epoch, which in 1864 published the complex novel Notes From Underground, generally considered the preface to Dostoevsky’s greater novels. In that same year, 1864, both Dostoevsky’s wife and beloved brother died, leaving him saddled with debts and dependents. In an attempt to win money though gambling, Dostoevsky instead buried himself further in debt. With creditors at his heels and with debts around 43,000 rubles, he was able to escape with 175 rubles and a slave contract with book seller F.T. Stellovsky. This agreement stipulated that if Dostoevsky did not produce a novel by November 1, 1866, all rights to Dostoevsky’s past and future works would revert to Stellovsky. Time passed and Dostoevsky, preoccupied with a longer, serialized novel, did not work on the book he promised Stellovsky until at last, on the advice of his friends, he hired the young Anna Grigorievna, Snitkin as his stenographer. He the dictated the Gambler to her, and the manuscript was delivered to Stellovsky on the same day their agreement was to expire.