Crime and Punishment

By the end of Dostoyesky’s Crime and Punishment, the reader is no longer under the illusion of the possible existence of “extraordinary” men. For an open-minded reader, and even perhaps the closed-minded ones too, the book is a journey through Raskolnikov’s proposed theory on crime. It is a theory based on the ideas that had “been printed and read a thousand times”(313) by both Hegel and Nietzsche. Hegel, a German philosopher, influenced Dostoyesky …

…no harm to the world. Raskolnikov’s sympathy towards Aylona rather than Lizaveta reflects his own evil nature in that he was unable to relate to the characteristics of good. By reflecting upon Raskolnikov’s evil nature, Dotoyevsy makes use of tone in his efforts to reject Raskolnikov’s theory. The once open-minded reader is left to forever disregard untested theories as a result of the failure of Raskolnikov’s ideas on the “extraordinary man.”