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The Motives for the Actions: A Literary Analysis of Crime and Punishment

Uploaded by amartinez259 on Feb 13, 2017

Arturo Martinez Rivera
Mrs. Huntley
AP English Literature, Period 6
21 October 2016
The Motives for the Actions: A Literary Analysis of Crime and Punishment
Often times, people are judged not for the reasons behind their actions, but rather the actions themselves. The rationale for most actions seen through the eyes of an observer leads to a bias leaning heavily upon only the given information. Only openly expressed words and actions provide the basis for this bias, and consequently will not allow that particular situation to be viewed with perfect clarity. However, the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, takes a more lucid approach to the psychology behind actions that could be seen as vague or indeterminate. Dostoyevsky delves deep into the minds of his characters and provides a reasoning for their actions, what leads them to act as they do. Those actions can then be analyzed further as the thought processes for each action can also be applied to real-life situations as well. The study of this psychological reasoning allows for the greater part of an understanding of the theme of criminality corrupting both ideals and isolation. Using the psychological perspective provided by the author, analysis of the underlying motives of characters and the portrayal of women in Russia in the mid- to late-nineteenth century can delved into deeper. The specific use of two literary criticisms, Psychoanalytic and Feminist, give more insight into the novel’s theme.
The setting of Crime and Punishment takes place in the poor neighborhoods of St. Petersburg, Russia during the Czarist era in the 1860s. The novel primarily follows the mentality and resulting actions of a young man and former student on the edge of poverty, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, as he struggles with his own ideals and application of it to his life. Raskolnikov murders an old pawnbroker woman and her sister, Aliona and Lizaveta Ivanovna, in the belief that intellectually-gifted individuals (including himself) exist and are above the law. However, he quickly realizes that he is not one of those individuals, as he is plagued with the guilt over the murders and the conscious reality of other factors affecting him. He also finds himself being hounded by an unusually persistent investigator, Porfiry Petrovich, who suspects that Raskolnikov is behind the murders, despite the skepticism of others. Porfiry believes that Raskolnikov perhaps had “‘... to transgress an obstacle? Let’s say, for example, to murder or to rob?’ Somehow...

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Uploaded by:   amartinez259

Date:   02/13/2017

Category:   Literature

Length:   12 pages (2,669 words)

Views:   890

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