Reviews

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

If you have ever wondered about the thin line or middle ground that, once crossed, can lead a person to become clinically insane, or how far God or a standard belief regarding morality is needed and how it affects a person in the long term, then "Crime and Punishment" is a book for you.

Like all of Fyodor Dostoevsky's works, where an individual suffers inner distress and ultimately allows that distress to consume him, leading him to actions he would not have otherwise considered, our main character, Raskolnikov, is a student suffering from poverty. His studies are taking a toll, and his sister is ready to marry a man who will end up destroying her life, all for the money needed to support Raskolnikov. As the story progresses, we see how Raskolnikov views people in general. He appears to have a superiority complex, compelling him to think he's better than most people. He is acquainted with an arrogant old woman who lends people money. She is seen as egoistic and arrogant, which Raskolnikov defines as irrational. As the story unfolds, Raskolnikov's thought process starts leaning towards the more irrational side of the human mind. He ends up killing the old woman and her sister, who accidentally appears at the scene of the crime. After committing a seemingly perfect murder, he is met with dissonance in his mind. As a born Christian, his beliefs keep provoking him, and he keeps rationalizing his behavior with his intellectual ideas.

The inner distress stems from his superiority complex being shackled by his inherent Christian beliefs. Pre-murder Raskolnikov has a dominant intellectual belief, but post-murder Raskolnikov starts losing his intellectual belief to his Christian beliefs. In the end, the Christian belief becomes dominant. Finally, he accepts his Christian belief over his intellectual rationality, recognizing what he did was a sin.

This book leans towards a psychological exploration of the conflict between belief and reasoning, and how a person can be mentally destroyed by their own state of mind.

One can link Raskolnikov's character with Schopenhauer's idea of human nature. Schopenhauer believed humans to be irrational, driven by need and the satisfaction of that need. Similarly, Raskolnikov is initially driven by his need to overcome poverty. However, the irony lies in the fact that Raskolnikov triumphs his belief over his desire. He doesn't use any of the money he stole from the old woman. In the end, what seemed like a perfect murder has loopholes that he himself puts in.

So, what do you think? What is actually the essence of human nature?