Crime and Punishment

I read the book for English class last year, too. The project was to independently analyze any work of literature, and I knew right away that I wanted to write about Crime and Punishment (I'd read it three years earlier, but none of it had stuck with me). Anyway, to make a long story short, I grew to really love the book––as if you didn't know that was coming! :)

I actually really like the ending to CP, and I'm an ending-oriented reader, quite hard to please. It's one of the very, very few "mid-Victorian, marriage and happily" endings that I think doesn't suck, and I think it doesn't suck for two principal reasons: 1) it's not transparently happy, happy; Raskolnikov still has a very great deal to learn about life and is only beginning his journey; 2) following from 1, it's not really about "marriage and happily ever after"; it's about starting to learn to rethink your life, and as part of that more important, more fundamental process, opening up to Sonya's greater influence and the Bible and married life, etc., are appropriate steps.

I wholeheartedly agree with labingi. I also think that having Raskolnikov die alone would have been a cop-out, so to speak––that is, having Raskolnikov cop-out. He finds death much less humbling than repentance (both the lawful repentance in prison and the spiritual repentance with Sonya), but he fears it too much (also a mark of someone arrogant, I believe) to commit suicide. With regards to the surrounding events, Svidrigailov commits suicide, and in order to draw a further contrast between the two characters, Dostoevsky had to have Raskolnikov live and repent.

The last sentence is actually part of the paper I wrote for the class; I argued that Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov begin the novel as each others' doubles and end as each others' foils. So, yeah, in that respect, I thought the ending was pretty satisfying.

On an unrelated note: I really loved Svidrigailov. I found him by far the novel's most interesting character, and there was no way that I was going to write the paper without at least partially featuring him. :P I wish I could have solely focused on him, but I couldn't figure out how to make a point out of it.

Also, why don't the people in your class like Crime and Punishment?

Yeah, it's hard to approach books like this totally cold. I've started to read The Brothers Karamazov, and I'm Sparknote-ing it as I go along so I have a better sense of what happens and what to look out for. (I'm a casual reader who reads mostly popular nonfiction outside of class :P)

I loved it. I'm a big fan of Russian literature in general.

As for conversation... here's something most people don't mention. What did you think of the nearly omnipresent inspector character?

i never knew there are so many people interested in russian lit!!! what a relief!! im russian myself and i was longing to find some english speakers who read russian classics. aren't you finding it hard to read? its hard enough to read them in russian for russian speakers :)are you guys/girls in school? if yes, where do you live? i live in cyprus, an island in the mediteranean. we have a large russian community here but hardly anyone reads books, unfortunately. as far as the english and cypriots here are concerned, they have never even heard of any russian writers. please tell me how are you finding russian lit and what other authors except Dostoevsky you have read. i will really appreciate it :)

Anna Karenina? ...yeah i found CP hard!! its dry and heavy but it has so much to give to its reader...where exactly in the states do u live? :)i go to an english school in Cyprus and we dont do any russian lit..we do shakespeare, jane austen, english poets, chaucer, which isn't bad but i wish we did russian lit too. u really can not imagine how greatful i am to find people who read russain classics and are able to appreciate them :)

Why did Raskolnikaff commit murders?
Dostoyevsky’s popular novel Crime and Punishment explains how the criminal takes the turbulence in his mind after the criminal act as his punishment. The hero of the novel Raskolnikaaf is a law student, who stops his studies half way through owing to his poverty. He kills an old lady who lends money to people for their accessories, when she is alone. He kills her sister too, who unfortunately happens to visit there at that moment. He takes her money bag and a few a pawned items such as a watch and chain and hides them in a secret place. No one has witnessed the murders he committed. No one has even had the slightest doubt on him. In a few days the police arrest a person who resides in the same building where the old lady lived. Still the mere thought of whether the police might have a doubt on him bothers him. He roams around as a nervous person. His health deteriorates rapidly.
Though I have read countless recommendations and critical notes about Crime and Punishment, when I read the novel for the first time I was perplexed as to why did Raskolnikaaf have to commit those murders. When he surrenders himself to the police he notifies that money was the motive of his murders. Neither the police nor do the readers could accept this as a motivating factor for his murders. One could not fathom the fact that the kind hearted Rodia, who gives away the last of his rubles to those who are in need will commit such cold blooded act for money.