The Stranger Vs C&P

Like Josh, I too found certain parallels between Crime and Punishment and another book that we have read in our class. The Stranger by Camus has a lot of similar themes, ideas, and concepts to C&P that I have really started to take notice of recently. One thing in particular, is how the women of each novel seemingly effect the men of the novels. Love is a driving force in both of the stories and it plays a huge role in how the characters (Meursault and Raskolnikov) are developed from beginning to end. Both men are misfits from society, the black sheep of their family, so to speak. They do not believe in a lot of societal norms and have their own ways of perceiving life in general. Love does not seem like it would be a major force in either of their lives, but if one stops and thinks about it, love is responsible for a lot of decisions the two characters make in their respective novels. In my opinion, Raskolnikov confessed to committing the murders as a pure act of love for his sister. Sonia obviously means a great deal to him and he trusted her enough to keep his secrets. In The Stranger, Marie is the only person who is able to get Meursault to show emotion and feel something about life. Before she came along, he never really felt anything, let along took notice of the things that go on around him. These important women are the only two characters of each book that are responsible for effecting the men of those books in a positive way. Their love and affection ultimately led to the character transformations of Raskolnikov and Meursault. Their opinions on society and how they function in it completely changed all due to them. While the ways that the two women go about with their acts of love are completely different, their love is love, regardless of how it is shown. And the male characters ended up being the way they were due to that love.