Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment Essay

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While of course I sympathized with Sonya, I was also very frustrated by the way that she let herself be a 'doormat' for her family on many occasions. Instead of standing up for herself, the book seemed to validate her passivity, and also suggested that Raskolnikov emulate it in his own behavior. While of course murder is never justified, the novel seemed to suggest no middle ground between denying the need for any moral laws at all and utter subjugation.

Q4. Parts of the book, like the portrait of the drunkard Marmeladov, made me laugh, while the scene in which Raskolnikov confessed his crime before the saintly Sonya made me cringe. Even though Sonya is so pious it is almost unbelievable, it is hard not to feel sympathy for her, given the contrast between her ideals and the life she is forced to live.

Q5. It is frightening to contemplate that there are many Raskolnikov-like characters today, in the form of students who are graduating and entering into an uncertain job market. They are educated, but have no clear direction in life. They often have high student loans and no jobs. They may even be filled with a sense of entitlement, but without any real accomplishments to prove their worthiness. Even Raskolnikov's existence -- living in a poor and miserable flat, entirely occupied with his books and his own imagination -- could be said to be paralleled in the instance of someone who sits online all day, reading the Internet and becoming angry about the world he sees around him. When regarding our contemporary situation in the United States, I am also torn. I want things to change and believe that my generation in many ways is getting a 'raw deal' but I am afraid of the inchoate anger of those who protest conditions today.

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Q6. The most believable parts of the book seem to be the desperate and depressive mental sate of Raskolnikov, who spends too much time alone, in isolation of friends and family. The complete and utter dysfunction of the Marmeladov family and Sonya's codependency (her willingness to sacrifice herself to gain a sense of self-esteem) also seem very believable. However, certain aspects of the novel, like the coincidence of Svidrigailov taking a room her Sonya, seem extremely contrived. Also, some of the characters like the police inspector Porfiry, who seems willing to sit and wait and play a game of cat-and-mouse with Raskolnikov with pleasure, even though he is tracking a murderer, seems highly unrealistic. Sonya at times also seemed 'too good,' such as her utter forgiveness of Raskolnikov, even though she was friends with the pious Lizaveta

Q7. No. I felt that the end was more of a defeat of hope than a celebration of hope, given that nothing had changed for the good or the bad in society. All that was important, Dostoevsky suggested, was that Raskolnikov's soul was saved. I would have liked to have seen if Raskolnikov's faith and sanity remained unshaken in Siberia to the end of his sentence, and if Dounia and Razumikhin found a 'middle path' between decadence and subjugation in their own lives......

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