Term paper part 1

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a brilliant Russian fiction writer, journalist, and publisher in the 1800s. Dostoyevsky wrote many short stories and novels but is most commonly known for his book Crime and Punishment. He had a gambling problem, suffered from epilepsy, and had constant financial problems, and similar to the protagonist of Crime and Punishment, he even spent time in a Siberian prison. Dostoyevsky first published Crime and Punishment in the year of 1866 where he submitted twelve monthly installments to a journal, Russki Vestnik (Russian Messenger.) According to letters translated by George Gibian, Dostoyevsky was under extreme pressure, both time and money wise, while writing Crime and Punishment. In addition to having to write and publish monthly installments of the story to the journal, Dostoyevsky had to come up with and write another novel altogether for a different publisher. That book ended up being one of his other more famous pieces of literature- The Gambler. The whole process left Dostoyevsky extremely depressed. Essentially, he was writing two books at the same time all while being broke, trying to ignore the temptations of gambling, suffering from random epileptic attacks, and grieving the death of his late wife. The mere fact alone that he was able to complete the two novels in an orderly fashion while staying on track during all of the hardships present in his life is incredibly admirable. His life troubles actually helped inspire a lot of the themes that make up Crime and Punishment. It is a complex and detailed story of criminality, morality, and guilt. Based around the main character, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, Crime and Punishment tells the story of an "ex-student" who acts upon "bad thoughts" he has from the beginning of the novel. After indulging in his fantasies and murdering two women, it is abundantly clear that Raskolnikov is guilty of his actions. In the novel, he justifies his crimes in his own way, going through different emotions and theories before he finally reaches the root cause of his action. The psychology behind Raskolnikov's character is intriguing and difficult to interpret. After robbing and murdering the pawnbroker and her sister, Raskolnikov must come to terms with his feeling, or lack of feeling, of what he just did. By the end of the novel, his remorse for the act and his motive is never fully explained. To him, the whole idea of what happened is confusing and he even goes as far as admitting that he did not understand why he killed them. He argued that the pawnbroker added nothing to society and therefore her death is of no consequence- nobody would miss her so it basically did not matter if she were dead or alive. But throughout it all, he still feels guilty. The guilt itself is his true punishment for the murder. While he cannot figure out why he did it, he does know that his guilt indicates that he is not a complete monster. Though it is evident that Raskolnikov feels immense guilt for the murders he committed, not once does he consider the possibility that what he did was immoral or wrong. Raskolnikov truly believes that his actions are noble and his crimes justified due to his suffering of an existential crisis, his psychological makeup, and his theory of "the extraordinary man."