Concept
Crime and Punishment
Overview
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his mature period of writing and is often cited as one of the greatest works of world literature.
Crime and Punishment follows the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished former law student in Saint Petersburg who plans to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker, an old woman who stores money and valuable objects in her flat. He theorises that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds, and seeks to convince himself that certain crimes are justifiable if they are committed in order to remove obstacles to the higher goals of "extraordinary" men. Once the deed is done, however, he finds himself wracked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust. His theoretical justifications lose all their power as he struggles with guilt and horror and is confronted with both internal and external consequences of his deed.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
No "revenge"--O Heavens, no; all preachers on Sunday strictly forbid that; and even (at least on Sundays) prescribe the contrary of that. It is for the sake of "example," that you punish; to "protect society" and its purse and skin; to deter the innocent from falling into crime; and especially withal, for the purpose of improving the poor criminal himself,--or at lowest, of hanging and ending him, that he may not…
Thomas Carlyle, Latter-Day Pamphlets
States what Crime and Punishment is.
Let us not forget also, however, that the injury caused to society and to the individual by the criminal is of the same species as that caused by the sick: for the sick spread cares and ill-humour; they are non-productive, consume the earnings of others, and at the same time require attendance, doctors, and support, and they really live on the time and strength of the healthy. In spite of this, however, we should…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Dawn of Day
The author is tied to Crime and Punishment in the knowledge graph.
Nothing is more common than that he should misunderstand himself (more particularly when his rebellious instinct--the rancour of the _unclassed_--has not reached consciousness simply because he has not read enough). It is natural that he should deny and dishonour his deed while under the influence of fear at its failure. All this is quite distinct from those cases in which, psychologically speaking, the criminal…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Will to Power
The author is tied to Crime and Punishment in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Crime and Punishment
Related ideas
- Stream of consciousness
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
- War and Peace
- James Joyce
- Joseph Conrad
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Sophia (wisdom)
- Ivan Turgenev
- Leo Tolstoy
- BBC
- Psychoanalysis
- Novel
- Saint Petersburg
- Sigmund Freud
- Stendhal
- Soviet Union
- Siberia
- The New York Times
- Rational egoism
- Utilitarianism
- Virginia Woolf
- Polemic
- Russian Orthodox Church
Place in the tradition
Part of Existentialism.