Crime And Punishment Essay. To Escape From Himself

Essays on Crime and Punishment are all about the difficult life of a young fellow called Rodion Raskolnikov. This man had a conflict with himself. In the Internet you can find different Crime and Punishment essays topics. At our website you are going to read an interesting essay on Crimes and Punishment. Our essay on Crime and Punishment includes the information about the author, some general information about this novel and, of course, the information about the main characters. You can choose or order any other kind of Crime and Punishment essays. If you have a lot of homework, our professional writers will gladly help you to cope with your tasks.

The Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky was an ordinary Russian man. But when he wrote his first novels, everybody understood that this ordinary man has extraordinary talent. Dostoevsky was not only a novelist but also a thinker, essay writer and journalist. Reading his stories, the reader can observe a lot of religious and philosophical motives. His life was quite unusual.  Sometimes he was so poor, that even had to beg for money, but later he turned into one of the most popular Russian authors. His works were popular among the world and have been translated into more than 170 languages. Dostoyevsky had an impact on other talented people (not only in Russia), from Anton Chekhov and Ernest Hemingway to Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre.

About The Novel

“Crime and Punishment” was written by Feodor Dostoyevsky in 1866. The first thought of writing this novel appeared earlier (in 1859) when the author was a prisoner. At first Dostoyevsky was going to write the novel "Crime and Punishment" in the form of a confession, but during the writing the first idea gradually changed and, at last the author characterizes the novel as the psychological report of one work.

The novel "Crime and Punishment" belongs to a literary trend of realism and is written in a genre of the philosophical and psychological novel. Because the ideas of heroes in the work are equal among themselves, and the author is near his characters, but not above them. In the novel "Crime and Punishment" Dostoyevsky considers questions of human morals, virtue and human right for murder of his neighbor. Trying to describe the main character Rodion Raskolnikov, the author shows that any crime is impossible without punishment — the student Raskolnikov who dreamt to be the same great personality, as well as his idol Napoleon, kills the old woman the moneylender. After everything happened Raskolnikov does not feel satisfied, but he begins to feel guilty, unhappy and dissatisfied his awful action. In the story Dostoyevsky emphasizes that even the greatest purposes and the ideas don't cost human life.

The Main Characters

Rodion Raskolnikov is the character number one. He is a poor student, the young, proud, unselfish young man. He was handsome with fine dark eyes.

Sonya Marmeladova is a daughter of alcoholic, who was the former titular counselor. "The girl of small growth, years eighteen, thin, but quite pretty blonde, with remarkable blue eyes". Because of her family's poverty, she became a prostitute.

Dunya (Avdotya Romanovna) is Raskolnikov’s sister. She is reasonable, patient and generous.

Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin is Dunya's groom, mister of 45 years. He is very rich man and wanted to save Raskolnikov’s family. But the fee for saving is too much.

Porfiry Petrovich is the police officer, who was engaged in case of murder of the old woman moneylender. He is clever, and also he is a little bit skeptic and cynic.

Razumikhin is the student, and best Rodion's friend. Very fairly clever young man, though sometimes simple-minded. He loved Dunya with all his heart.

The Plot

The novel “Crime and Punishment” consists of six parts, which of them includes more than 6 chapters. At the end of the novel there is an epilogue, which consists of two chapters. The novel is about Rodion Raskolnikov, his family and his friends. Sometimes it is really very difficult to understand Rodion’s thoughts and behavior, but Dostoyevsky was a perfect psychologist and philosopher.

Rodion lives in Saint Petersburg, he is a poor student, and of course, his apartment is very small and simple. Raskolnikov is a little proud person, he refuses to take help even from his friend. But the young student had an awful plan – he wanted to kill an old woman Alyona Ivanovna (she was a crafty and borrows money at outpost. The causes of such an awful action are quite strange. Rodion is not interesting in her money or diamantes, he just wanted to check whether he is capable of doing it. His main desire is to prove his superiority to the rest of humanity.At last Rodion killed not only the old lady, but also her sister. After the murder the young man became very nervous, strange and unhappy.

Rodion’s mother and sister are also very poor.  Dunya is going to marry a rich but unloved man. Her brother understood her motives and he is against such a sacrifice. He hates his sister’s groom. Later his best friend felt in love with Dunya, because the girl was clever, talented and beautiful. There was also one man, called Svidrigailo, who also liked Dunya.

Thanks his strange words and behavior, Rodion is suspected of murder but the investigator could not prove his guilty. Later Rodion told Sonia that he killed the old woman, he explained his motives and Sonya does not condemn his action. This young woman understood everything and gave him a wise advice – to tell the truth! She promises to go with Rodion anywhere and later she fulfills her promise. When the story is over, we see that Raskolnikov is sentenced to eight years of penal servitude in Siberia, Sonya was devoted to him and decided to go with Rodion. Dunya and Razumikhin were really the happiest couple in the world, they married and dreamt about their future. Rodion’s mom Pulkheria died because of her illness, she was not able to accept her son’s situation. Raskolnikov himself was unhappy in Siberia. It was difficult to him to communicate with other prisoners.  But Sonya was always with him and her love and devotion helped him to become a new person.

This novel is huge, and it takes more than one day to read it completely, but I recommend you to do it. Maybe this book will change your world view. And if you have some questions or need help our service will do everything for you!