Monday, January 14, 2008
Crime and Punishment and the Big Q
My big question applies very much to Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov murders an old woman and her sister because he believes that she is a waste of space. At times, Raskolnikov's personality seems to change and he believes that he was wrong to murder the woman, but for the most part he believes that the murder was justified. Raskolnikov felt that the old pawnbroker was not helping anyone and really served no purpose, so he killed her. Because he had justification for the killing, Raskolnikov didn't feel like he had done anything wrong.
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Thanks for your comments. I have to say that I think Raski does feel that he has done wrong, that is why from the beginning he tries to offset his wrongs with some random act of kindness. Even though he murders the pawnbroker and justifies it, he had no plan on killing her sister and while he deems it necessary, he feels bad about it. The waste of space that the old lady stands for is also representation of his feelings towards himself. If he can only make up for the "waste" that he is then maybe something good will happen. His attempts are not convincing and he is a self-fulfilling prophecy to the end. So, I am not sure if this answers your question or not but...let me know.
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