CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Crime and Punishment plunges head first into the feverish mental chatter of Raskolnikov, an intelligent, isolated and penniless student in St. Petersburg. The contemplation of murder is clear, and while the act is rehearsed in meticulous detail, the motive is left vague and arbitrary. What follows is a crime, committed in an utterly matter-of-fact manner, and its unanticipated implications. Raskolnikov envisions himself as a Napoleonic figure—above the conventional morality of society—and thus justifyies cold-blooded murder on intellectual grounds. However, his sense of pride is quickly negated as his guilt spirals into self-contempt and delirium. Dostoyevsky tells a gripping tale, weaving a range of characters from the slum-ridden squalor of Russia in the nineteenth century. Above all, he emphatically proves that action and consequence cannot be separated; good and bad are never mutually exclusive.