Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
Alienation from Society
Alienation is the primary theme of Crime and Punishment.
At first, Raskolnikov’s pride separates him from society. He sees
himself as superior to all other people and so cannot relate to
anyone. Within his personal philosophy, he sees other people as
tools and uses them for his own ends. After committing the murders,
his isolation grows because of his intense guilt and the half-delirium
into which his guilt throws him. Over and over again, Raskolnikov
pushes away the people who are trying to help him, including Sonya,
Dunya, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Razumikhin, and even Porfiry Petrovich,
and then suffers the consequences. In the end, he finds the total
alienation that he has brought upon himself intolerable. Only in
the Epilogue, when he finally realizes that he loves Sonya, does Raskolnikov
break through the wall of pride and self-centeredness that has separated
him from society.
The Psychology of Crime and Punishment
The manner in which the novel addresses crime and punishment
is not exactly what one would expect. The crime is committed in
Part I and the punishment comes hundreds of pages later, in the
Epilogue. The real focus of the novel is not on those two endpoints
but on what lies between them—an in-depth exploration of the psychology of
a criminal. The inner world of Raskolnikov, with all of its doubts, deliria,
second-guessing, fear, and despair, is the heart of the story. Dostoevsky
concerns himself not with the actual repercussions of the murder
but with the way the murder forces Raskolnikov to deal with tormenting
guilt. Indeed, by focusing so little on Raskolnikov’s imprisonment,
Dostoevsky seems to suggest that actual punishment is much less
terrible than the stress and anxiety of trying to avoid punishment.
Porfiry Petrovich emphasizes the psychological angle of the novel,
as he shrewdly realizes that Raskolnikov is the killer and makes
several speeches in which he details the workings of Raskolnikov’s
mind after the killing. Because he understands that a guilt-ridden
criminal must necessarily experience mental torture, he is certain
that Raskolnikov will eventually confess or go mad. The expert mind
games that he plays with Raskolnikov strengthen the sense that the
novel’s outcome is inevitable because of the nature of the human
psyche.
The Idea of the Superman
At the beginning of the novel, Raskolnikov sees himself
as a “superman,” a person who is extraordinary and thus above the
moral rules that govern the rest of humanity. His vaunted estimation
of himself compels him to separate himself from society. His murder
of the pawnbroker is, in part, a consequence of his belief that
he is above the law and an attempt to establish the truth of his
superiority. Raskolnikov’s inability to quell his subsequent feelings
of guilt, however, proves to him that he is not a “superman.” Although
he realizes his failure to live up to what he has envisioned for
himself, he is nevertheless unwilling to accept the total deconstruction
of this identity. He continues to resist the idea that he is as
mediocre as the rest of humanity by maintaining to himself that
the murder was justified. It is only in his final surrender to his
love for Sonya, and his realization of the joys in such surrender,
that he can finally escape his conception of himself as a superman
and the terrible isolation such a belief brought upon him.
Nihilism
Nihilism was a philosophical position developed
in Russia in the 1850s and 1860s,
known for “negating more,” in the words of Lebezyatnikov. It rejected
family and societal bonds and emotional and aesthetic concerns in
favor of a strict materialism, or the idea that there is no “mind”
or “soul” outside of the physical world. Linked to nihilism is utilitarianism,
or the idea that moral decisions should be based on the rule of
the greatest happiness for the largest number of people. Raskolnikov
originally justifies the murder of Alyona on utilitarian grounds,
claiming that a “louse” has been removed from society. Whether or
not the murder is actually a utilitarian act, Raskolnikov is certainly
a nihilist; completely unsentimental for most of the novel, he cares
nothing about the emotions of others. Similarly, he utterly disregards social
conventions that run counter to the austere interactions that he
desires with the world. However, at the end of the novel, as Raskolnikov
discovers love, he throws off his nihilism. Through this action,
the novel condemns nihilism as empty.
