Crime and Punishment
If you have comments that you didn't get to share in class discussion, go ahead and post them here. You might pose questions about details that mystify you, or offer insights about characters, scenes or symbols. Keep in mind that you must identify a significant motif or symbolic character to trace through the novel and write about when we finish. In addition, you might consider the list of prereading questions below.
1. What is the good life?
2. What is a good person?
3. Why do people suffer?
4. Why is there poverty?
5. How can society eradicate poverty?
6. Is murder always wrong?
7. Can stealing ever be justified?
8. Does a person have free will?
9. Does a power higher than humans control the universe?
10. Is a genius more important than someone with average intelligence? Should a genius be granted special privileges under the law?
1. What is the good life?
2. What is a good person?
3. Why do people suffer?
4. Why is there poverty?
5. How can society eradicate poverty?
6. Is murder always wrong?
7. Can stealing ever be justified?
8. Does a person have free will?
9. Does a power higher than humans control the universe?
10. Is a genius more important than someone with average intelligence? Should a genius be granted special privileges under the law?
posted by T Sale at 9:34 AM
4 Comments:
Notes of Main Ideas from Discussion on Friday, October 29, 2006 for Part 2:
• Guilt is driving Raskolnikov insane.
o He must either deal with the situation or run away.
o Is he punishing himself? Will he confess?
o Will he kill himself?
• What is Raskolnikov’s purpose?
o To better society
o Glory
o Sacrifice to fix injustice of society
He might have sacrificed morals, sanity, Alyona
Most are fruitless
o Punish himself to help society
o Going after reason and back to an educated person.
• Can Raskolnikov’s sins be redeemed? Why would he want to?
o Can he fix the mistakes he has made, i.e. murdering Alyona?
o Probably not, maybe through confessions.
o Doing nice things does not change the past.
He really is not nice though, he only tried to save Marmelodov.
• Trying to change society, so that murder will not be wrong.
o He is going insane because society won’t change.
o He expects people to say that Alyona deserved to be murdered.
• What are Raskolnikov’s plans for the future?
o It seems dim.
o What could he be looking forward to?
Turning himself in
To become a better person
• Accident with Marmelodov-
o Right before, Raskolnikov is thinking about going to police.
Standing at a literal crossroads, one way to police, one way to scene of accident.
o Fate that Raskolnikov was taken in the direction away from the jail.
o This could be his chance to do something good.
o Could the blood of Marmelodov have washed his old sins away?
Part III
This section of the book introduces Raskolnikov's theory of Extraordinary men and their role in crime. The scene where Raskolnikov first meets the detective Porfiry and this theory is introduced really stood out to me as a topic of interest.
Initially, this scene absolutely confused me. As the reader, you are viewing an in-depth, profound conversation that sometimes contradicts itself about crime, when it is right or wrong, and who commits the crime. Raskolnikov's theories about the ordinary man vs. the extraordinary man seemed blurred and contradictory to me. The murder was commited because Raskolnikov had it in his head that it would benefit mankind by ridding of this evil woman that harms poor people; he overhears a conversation about her that two students are having, "A hundred thousand good deeds could be done and helped, on that old woman's money....dozens of families saved from destitution, from ruin, from vice...." (63). Raskolnikov gets the idea to 'save' these people living in destitution. He reasons that by removing her from society, he will be removing a burden and harmful "louse". With her money, Raskolnikov could contribute and help society in ways unimaginable. It almost seems like he wants to be a hero. Porfiry even inquires, "Oh come, don't we all think ourselves Napoleons..." (248), implying Raskolnikov thinks of himself as a hero, or extraordinary man. Yet, this is where the contradiction sets in.
Raskolnikov justifies the murder by thinking that he is benefitting mankind and being 'extraordinary', yet he maintains in his theory that the 'extraordinary man' is above society and what society thinks of him. He explains to Porfiry, "...the really new people are very often unobserved by [ordinary men], or even despised as reactionaries of grovelling tendencies....The vast mass of mankind is mere material" (244)implying that the extraordinary man should not deal with society and its problems (which are natural) because ordinary men do not understand the extraordinary man's motives.
I believe, in a way, that Raskolnikov had not yet figured this theory out and made connections with the details before he had commited the murders. His theory claims that extraordinary men have the will and intellectual power strong enough to dominate society and create changes for humanity. The man must stand completely alone, must not let the wishes of ordinary men confuse him, and is isolated fom ordinary society. Raskolnikov wants to prove this theory, and takes it upon himself to test his will over mankind and see if he is extraordinary. The flaws in his crime indicate the flaws in the theory. It is in the coming sections that he must prove himself and his theory completely by actually becoming an extraordinary man.
Part IV
In this section of the book, Raskolnikov is coping with the after effects of his experiment to prove his theory after he realizes in Part III that he must prove it himself.
A significant scene in this part arises in the very beginning, chapter one, when Svidrigailov visits Raskolnikov in his room. The man is a perfect symbol for the extraoridinary man in Raskolnikov's theory.
The man possesses a strong will and is able to make his desires and his power dominant over others. For instance, he is suspected of killing his wife to sought after Dounia and take her fortune. He has no fear of punishment in doing so, and he asserts his own will in order to get what he wants. He does not care what society thinks of him. He informs Raskolnikov, "I am not particularly interested in anyone's opinion...and therefore why not be vulgar at times...especially if one has a natural propensity that way" (264). Svidrigailov believes he has the propensity, or ability, to enforce his will and is naturally able to do what he wants to get what he wants. He stands alone against society with his new words and ideas that will bring about change. Raskolnikov even wonders for most of their conversation if he is a madman. Svidrigailov ponders intellectually about absurd ideas that Raskolnikov can't understand. He says, "We always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception, something vast, vast! Instead of all that, what if it's one little room, black and grimy and spiders in every corner, and that's all eternity is" (269). Svidrigailov is pondering new ways of thinking, ones that ordinary men cannot understand. He does not mind that Raskolnikov does not understand or is judging him as insane.
In fact, this scene that reveals Svidrigailov as an extraordinary man proves as the first test for Raskolnikov to realize that he is extraordinary if, in fact, he is. Svid corners Raskolnikov in this conversation about new ideas and words and concepts of will power dominating and he must react as an extraordinary man. Svid says, "Only think...half an hour ago we had never even seen eachother, we regarded each other as enemies; there is a matter unsettled between us; we've thrown it aside, and away we've gone into the abstract! Wasn't I right in saying that we were birds of a feather" (269). He regards Raskolnikov as an extraordinary man. He also exclaims, "Perhaps we may become better friends" (272).
Raskolnikov's reaction towards Svid and his judgement of him as a madman may not be a good step in his experiment to prove himself extraordinary. He was not willing to accept Svid's ideas and intellectual standings; he also did not seem so keen on standing alone against society and isolating himself with fellow extraordineers. He says to Svid in the middle of their conversation, "I am in a hurry, I want to go out..." (270), implying that he wants to be a part of society and he is trying to escape from the secluded life. His future as an extraordinary man definitely looks bleak.
Part V
This section is extremely prominent in Raskolinkov's experiment. It is ultimately leading to his downfall, proving that he is not extraordinary. It is leading to his confession that will ultimately escort him back to ordinary society.
The scene that stands out prominently to me, is the scene where Raskolnikov reveals to Sonia that he is the murderer of the Ivanovitch sisters.
In his desperate plea to justify his theory and prove to Sonia that he is extraordinary, he realizes that he is not, and did not have the right to kill the women. He pleas, "I wanted to find out then and quickly whether I was a louse like everybody else or a man. Whether I can step over barriers or not, whether I dare stoop to pick up or not, whether I am a trembling creature or whether I have the right..." (388). Not only is Raskolnikov attempting a plea of justice for the murders, but justice for himself. He wanted to be extraordinary, he desperately needed it to justify his sad life. In that speech, he contrasts the ordinary and extraordinary men as polar opposites. The extraordinary are allowed everything, they are real men, and they have the right; whereas, ordinary men are trembling creatures, they pick up after messes, they aren't real men. Raskolnikov realizes that he does not fit this agenda of being a real man. The experiment has been destroyed because he was not able to prove it. He laments, "Did I murder the old woman? I murdered myself, not her!" (388). This second-guessing himself breaks the wonder that the murders could have been. He knows that he is not capable of creating these wondrous changes in humanity. Normal extraordinary men would not be fazed by the murder.
He seals the deal of breaking his theory when Sonia gives him an assignment that would never occur to an extraordinary man to follow; yet he follows willingly, in an effort to salvage himself from the agony of not living his dream of being extraordinary. He is being influenced and his will is being taken over by another person. This is breaking a cardinal rule of being an extraordinary man: do not let society influence you, and do not care what they think of you, you are isolated. Raskolnikov obviously needs to go back to the ordinary world, which is why he follows an order and succumbs his will to dominate. Sonia justifies that he is inept for greatness when she says, "...bow down to all the world and say to all men aloud, 'I am a murderer'" (389)urging him to come back to the ordinary world.
All that is left for Raskolnikov to finally return to being ordinary once and for all is to confess the murder outwardly.
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