Crime and Punishment - Review February 15, 2005

Back in April 2004, when I was in Bethesda, Maryland taking my training course on a network simulation tool called OPNET, I had ventured into the local Barnes and Nobles one evening. I wasn't doing much in a small American town, so I decided to buy Crime and Punishment, written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1866. The only other classical Russian author I had read was Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, but I seen that Dostoyevsky was one of the great Russian authors. So you are thinking to yourself, if I bought the novel 10 months ago, why did it take so long to read? Well it is over 500 pages long. Meanwhile, popular books from the library come due and I have to read those first, meaning Crime and Punishment went to the back burner. Well, I have finally finished it.

Synopsis: Set in St. Petersburg in the late 19th century, the protoganist is a young 23 year old man named Raskolnikov. He is poor and used to go to school, but currently cannot afford university. His life appears empty; one day he wanders into a tavern and talks with a drunk civil servant by the name of Marmeladov. Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov about his wife, Katherine Ivanova and his kids. Their family is so poor, that his daughter, Sonia, takes up prostitution to bring money home for the family.

Raskolnikov gets money from an old pawnbroker woman by giving her odd stuff to sell, like watches, family heirlooms, etc. One day he hatches a devious plot. What if he were to murder the old woman? No one would miss her. He was a poor student and he could use the money. He hatches his plot. He conceals an axe in his clothing and goes to the old woman's home. Things go awry when the old woman's sister shows up when Raskolnikov is doing the deed, and he murders the old woman's sister as well. The murders are described in such a fine detail that I swear I thought Dostoyevsky had experience in such matters. So here is the crime. Where is the punishment? Raskolnikov takes some goods, but buries them in a garden somewhere, so Raskolnikov has not profitted from their murders yet.

Raskolnikov's mother and sister visit him in Petersburg from the country. His beautiful sister, Dunia, is engaged to be married to lawyer, Luzhin. Raskolnikov falls into a fever from the guilt of the murders. In the novel, he falls in and out of fevers. Raskolnikov has a loyal friend from university, Razumikhin. In his feverish state, Raskolnikov is rude to Luzhin and eventually causes the break up between Dunia and Luzhin, as Luzhin is revealed to be corrupt lawyer. While in his feverish state, Raskolnikov wanders around town and talks about the crime of the two women, eventually arousing the suspicion of an investigator, Porfiry Petrovich. Raskolnikov witnesses the eventual death of the drunk Marmeladov when he is run over by a carriage. He helps bring Marmeladov back to his family, to Katherine Ivanova, her kids and Sonia. The instant he meets Sonia, they appear to fall in love. He gives Sonia 30 rubles, which is all the money he has, and that was money given to him by his mother. Sonia is instantly impressed and they meet often during the preparation of Marmeladov's funeral.

Meanwhile, a wealthy man named Svidrigailov, who tried to seduce Dunia is seen slinking around Petersburg after his wife's death, with rumors swirling that Svidrigailov caused her death by beating her. Svidrigailov tries to meet with Raskolnikov, but Raskolnikov is not sure why.

Raskolnikov is summoned to the police station one day, but that is only for not paying back a loan. The visit is soon the focus of Raskolnikov's guilt and fever. The investigator, Porfiry Petrovich talks to Raskolnikov and tells him all the tricks of the trade of tracking down a murderer, how he Petrovich would let the murderer wander around town, since he, Petrovich knew the murderer would eventually give himself away. Petrovich tells Raskolnikov that he admired his writing. You see, it turns out that Raskolnikov wrote a published article: if a poor deprived person could commit a crime, and after committing the crime, they would no longer be held up in life and could attain the same stature as Napoleon, they would do the crime in an instant. Raskolnikov believed himself to have a just stature in life almost like Napoleon, and by murdering the woman for her money, he could be on the way to obtaining his goals.

The time for punishment is at hand. Raskolnikov suffers greatly from guilt and by being with Sonia. Raskolnikov feels he has to tell her of his henious crime. He tells her, she is disbelieving at first, but she tells him he knows what he must do. Sonia is very religious and reads from the bible to Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov never treats Sonia as his equal, only as someone to rule over and make her fear him. Meanwhile, Luzhin is exposed as morally corrupt while Razumikhin and Dunia form a couple. Svidrigailov is a strange man. He overhears Raskolnikov's confession to Sonia, but does not use it against him. Paradoxically, Svidrigailov attempts to make a forceful attempt at carnal knowledge of Dunia using his knowledge of Raskolnikov's sin as a weapon, but is unsuccessful. Svidrigailov later commits suicide. Petrovich is now onto Raskolnikov and asks him to confess so his sentence will be lighter. Raskolnikov, in his pride, does not give in. Petrovich still chooses not to arrest him, he knows the criminal mind's guilt will make him surrender. Petrovich is not sure if Raskolnikov will take the easy way out and commit suicide, but Raskolnikov is rattled when he hears of Svidrigailov's suicide. He is about to take the easy way out, but spots Sonia following him to the police station, and he eventually confesses.

In the epilogue, Raskolnikov is sent to Sibera for 8 years, due to his total and complete confession. Dunia and Razumikhin get married. Sonia follows Raskolnikov to Sibera; it is known that she will be with him until the end. Raskolnikov still treats Sonia coldly, even while in prison. Once, Raskolnikov falls ill in the hosipital - but he recovers. Sonia falls ill and Raskolnikov is worried. One day, while out on a prison work project, Raskolnikov is alone and Sonia appears beside him. He sees her, falls to his knees and cries. Sonia knows that Raskolnikov truly loves her. The time for redemption is at hand. They both know that seven years more, they are free. Raskolnikov finally looks at the copy of the New Testament under his pillow. A new story will begin, but the present story has ended.

Comments: I thought the novel was going to end tragically, with either Sonia dying or Raskolnikov dying. I guess that's what reading too much Hemingway will do to you. It was a good happy ending in that the time for renewal had come.

There are a lot of philosophical things to think about. There was a quote in the novel where a convicted murderer would rather have freedom for the rest of his life in a one foot by foot block of land rather than spend it in prison. The idea of someone doing a heinous deed so that they could achive great things like Napoleon is a neat idea, but something I don't think of conciously as I go about my day to day stuff.

Dostoyevsky paints a pretty good picture of St. Petersburg. It's so vivid that it almost motivates me to write something about St. Petersburg. It's slightly educational, but the setting is captured quite well. Only a couple of other novels have had such an effect on me; one of them was Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. set in 18th century France.

I read some of the analysis by the "experts". Apparently Sonia is the good in Raskolnikov's life (she was inwardly "chaste" for a prostitute, whatever that means) and Svidrigailov was the evil influence. When Raskolnikov is feverish (which is a good portion of the novel), he has few dream sequences. I didn't read much into those dreams, but there are a few pages in the copy of the book by the experts interpreting his dreams, but I guess I am too guileless to understand the dreams for what they represented. The names of the characters apparently have some Greek or Russian or operatic meaning. Apparently Sonia in Greek is Sophia, meaning "wisdom". Those names were too deep for me, I just figured they were some Russian names weaved into a novel. Yes, the symbolism was obvious to me. A man commits a crime. What is his punishment? The murderer indeed does have a philosophical debate, in which good does prevail in the end. He will be punished, but there will be redemption (he learns to love, turns to religion and presumably discovers God). He still has a chance to become a great man after serving his sentence. Around this central story are the other characters, Raskolnikov's sister getting married, the tragedy of Marmeladov's family. I would say most of the characters in the novel are flawed. A good proportion of them seemed to have mental illness, get sick easily and die. I guess life was like that in 18th century St. Petersburg. That is a fascinating period of history that I wouldn't mind learning more about.

The novel did start off a bit slow for me, but it picked up once I got into the characters. I can see why Dostoyevsky is considered a giant in Russian literature. That probably means I will be reading The Idiot or Notes From the Underground or The Brothers Karamazov soon.

Rating: 8 out of 10.