FREE ESSAY ON CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

The main character of the novel Crime and Punishment by Feodor Dostoevsky, Raskolnikov, is
in reality two totally contradicting personalities. One part of him is the intellectual.
This part is cold and inhumane. It is this side that enables him to commit the most
terrible crime imaginable - taking another human life. The other part of his personality
is warm and compassionate. This is the side of him that does charitable acts and fights
out against the evil in his society. This dichotomy of Raskolnikov's personality can be
clearly seen through the dream about the mare, as well as through other characters in the
novel.
Raskolnikov's dream about the mare can be used to probe deep into his mentality to
discover how he really feels inside. The dream suggests that Raskolnikov is a split man;
after all, his name in Russian means, split. He has a cruel and thoughtless side as well
as a caring, compassionate side to his personality. Through the dream and the symbols
within, a reader can cast Raskolnikov, as well as other characters from Crime And
Punishment, into any of the various parts in the dream. Each part that a character takes
on leads to a different conclusion about that character. Raskolnikov himself fits into
the positions of Mikolka, the child, and the mare. If Mikolka, the drunken owner of the
mare, were to represent Raskolnikov, then the mare would most probably represent Alyona
Ivanovna. The senseless beating of the mare by Mikolka is similar to the brutal attack on
Alyona by Rodion. These heartless attacks foreshadow the crime that Raskolnikov is
contemplating. Dostoevsky unveils Raskolnikov's cruel side during this dream, if it is to
be interpreted in this way. 
Similarly, the little boy could represent Raskolnikov's compassionate side. The child,
watching the beating, realizes the absurdity of it. He even rushes to Mikolka, ready to
punish him for killing the mare. This illustrates Rodion's internal struggle while
contemplating the murder of Alyona. His humane side, the child, tells him to 'live and
let live'. And his extraordinary side, according to his definition, tells him that he
should eliminate Alyona altogether, for the good of mankind. 
The flip side of this is that the mare itself could represent Raskolnikov. However, the
burden which the mare must carry (the cart, the people, etc.) could represent two
separate things, depending on if it is viewed in context before or after the actual
murder. Before the murder, the burden could represent the moral question that is plaguing
Rodion. Should he kill Alyona? Or should he leave her be? Because of the importance of
this question to Raskolnikov, it weighs him down heavily at first. However, later on, he
rashly decides to kill Alyona. If looked upon after the murder, the load on the mare in
the dream could represent the mental burden placed on Rodion. He had a burden of guilt on
him, and he could not justify the murder even according to his own theory. Even though
Porfiry Petrovitch did not have many of the people purposely harassing Raskolnikov by
mentioning various facets of the murder, it was as if those who were beating the truth
out of him were pawns of Porfiry (or that of truth and the law in general), just as those
beating the life out of the mare were pawns of Mikolka (or that of cruelty). 
Two other characters of the novel represent the two different sides to Raskolnikov, Sonya
Marmeladov and Svidrigailov. Sonya is the warm side of Raskolnikov. She is a prostitute
forced into that field because her father drinks away all of the money in the family. She
is meek and submissive. She will give her father her last copeck even if he comes to her
totally drunk. Raskolnikov is at once attracted to and repulsed by this personality.
Svidrigailov is the cold and detached personality that Raskolnikov both hates and
embraces. The goal of the novel is to make Raskolnikov into one character. Sonya helps
bring Raskolnikov back into his humane side. Through her suffering, she shows him that it
is important to have a love for all humanity and that no person should ever be able to
exist like a parasite off of another person. Porifery acts as the intellectual who shows
Raskolnikov that all intellect must be used for the good of mankind. 
Throughout the novel Dostoevsky uses many characters and symbols to represent two very
distinct personalities and viewpoints of the main character, Raskolnikov. The novel is
founded on the distinctions between the two points of view, and the reader gets both
angles. Both Raskolnikov's generous and evil actions are essential to his character
because they allow the reader to identify with these two points of view and the two
facets of his personality.