Final Draft and Works Cited

Luisa Maggioni

Mr. Shapiro

AP English Lit/ P. 2

5/5/2014

        Crime and Punishment Term Paper

Fyodor Dostoevsky is one of the most prolific writers in Russia’s history. He is best known for his works that criticized the state of the Russia he lived in. He focused mostly on the social, economic, humanitarian, and political factors of the time period he was in. When he wrote one of his more famous novels, Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky was in the late 1860’s  St. Petersburg. Czar Alexander II had just come into power at this time after the Crimean War, and was a liberal man whom began reforms within the government, the military, the judiciary, and in education (“History of St. Petersburg”, 2001). His reforms called for twenty-three million serfs to be emancipated while St. Petersburg was a prominent economic center, which resulted in complete havoc and poverty. Thousands of people were sent to prison in Siberia during this turbulent time (“Crime and Punishment Setting”, 2008). Ironically, Dostoevsky himself spent some time exiled to Siberia after being in the military. In his novel, Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky portrays a character who isolates himself from society around him and performs both acts of extreme cruelty and on the contrary, of great compassion. The question posed to the reader through these contradicting actions is the mental sanity of this character, named Raskolnikov. Is Dostoevsky portraying Raskolnikov as a sociopath, or is he using him to depict his doubts on the goodness of humanity and the effects of being an outcast of a strict society?

Raskolnikov, the protagonist yet “bad guy” of Crime and Punishment, is a young man who is a complete outcast, rejected from society out of his own will. He isolated himself from his surroundings to live in a disgusting, old, one bed room apartment all out of his own decision. Just from that, one can immediately pick up that Raskolnikov is not entirely “normal”. He is a very contradicting person that has the reader utterly confused and not knowing which “side” of Raskolnikov to pick since the very first page of the novel. The horrendous act Raskolnikov commits is secretly killing two entirely innocent women with an ax, Alianova and Lizaveta. The reason behind this is dumbfounding — Alianova did not “belong” in the world anymore — she was a waste of space and time. This presents many mental problems that Raskolnikov has which will be looked at more in depth further on. 

Surprisingly, there is an extraordinary opposite side to Raskolnikov — his humaneness and generosity. This attribute throws every single reader off guard. Raskolnikov performs kindhearted deeds, the first being giving away his money of which he barely has any in the first place. At a bar, Raskolnikov meets an old, drunk man with a completely destroyed and impoverished family — Marmeladov. Marmeladov lets Raskolnikov in, telling him all his problems and what led him to be in the position he finds himself. He goes to the point of bringing Raskolnikov to his home to meet his wife and his daughter (whom worked as a prostitute to make money for the family). When Raskolnikov saw the dire conditions this family was in, he left them his money at their window without saying a word nor expecting anything in return — “As he went out, Raskolnikov had time to put his hand into his pocket, to snatch up the coppers he had received in exchange for his rouble in the tavern and to lay them unnoticed on the window. Afterwards on the stairs, he changed his mind and would have gone back” (Pt. 1, Ch. 2, Dostoevsky). This is truly remarkable about him, considering he barely has any money at all. But, the “evil” side of Raskolnikov still comes out even during his “good” deeds, once again confusing the reader. He thinks to himself he should get the money back, since the prostitute daughter can make the money, but he stops himself — “‘What a stupid thing I've done,’ he thought to himself, ‘they have Sonia and I want it myself.’ But reflecting that it would be impossible to take it back now and that in any case he would not have taken it, he dismissed it with a wave of his hand and went back to his lodging.” (Pt. 1, Ch. 2, Dostoevsky). A second virtuous act Raskolnikov performs is when he saves a drunk teenage girl from getting raped by a preying old, drunk man. He does so by calling the police and giving them money to stop the old man from touching the girl. This shows his sensitive and humane side. “‘…Raskolnikov feeling in his pocket and finding twenty copecks, ‘here, call a cab and tell him to drive her to her address. The only thing is to find out her address!’… ‘An innocent creature like that, drunk already! She has been deceived, that's a sure thing. See how her dress has been torn too.... Ah, the vice one sees nowadays! And as likely as not she belongs to gentlefolk too, poor ones maybe.... There are many like that nowadays. She looks refined, too, as though she were a lady…‘The chief thing is," Raskolnikov persisted, "to keep her out of this scoundrel's hands! Why should he outrage her! It's as clear as day what he is after; ah, the brute, he is not moving off!” (Pt. 1, Ch.4, Dostoevsky). Raskolnikov’s actions here and kind words prove that he actually is kindhearted and does think about the protection of those who are less fortunate because of their destiny — not because of their own choice. Raskolnikov’s humane side always comes out in times of genuine need.

    The question has to be answered now — is Raskolnikov is actually a sociopath, or just a person with an extreme case of superiority complex and a rough upbringing? A sociopath (antisocial personality disorder) is a mental illness “in which a person has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others” (Merrill, 2012). The characteristics of a sociopath include charm, manipulation, unreliability, insincerity, lack of remorse, egocentrism, use of alcohol (Thomas, 2013), lack of change after getting punished, difficulty controlling impulses, incapacity to form a true relationship, and more than usually lives in poor conditions (Jimeny, 2000). A sociopath is someone who shows no worry for the wellbeing of others, not even those who are close to him/her. Sociopaths are aggressive, irritable, irresponsible, impulsive, and all over the place. Males are more susceptible to this mental illness, especially if they are unemployed and of a lower social status — like Raskolnikov (Jimeny, 2000). A person with a superiority complex, on the other hand, is someone with an immense feeling of being better than, or superior, to everyone else. It is usually just a psychological defense mechanism to hide feelings of inferiority (Alfred Adler : The Inferiority and Superiority Complex, 2009). Alfred Adler, whom is most famous for doing studies on the superiority complex, states, “Behind everyone who behaves as if he/she were superior to others, we can suspect a feeling of inferiority which calls for very special efforts of concealment. It is as if a man/woman feared that they were too small and walked on their toes to make themselves taller”. This superiority complex connects with “existential reality, [and] produces people who look confident one moment and ineffectual the next, motivated one moment and apathetic the next, sober and hard-working one moment and self-indulgent and addicted the next” (Maisel, 2012).

     Raskolnikov has many of the characteristics that describe both a person with a superiority complex and a person who is a sociopath, so it is extremely difficult to decipher which of the two he is, which was Dostoevsky’s intention. Raskolnikov is similar to a sociopath in that he performs criminal acts, has ridiculous impulses, is extremely aggressive (the form in which he killed the two innocent women), does not work, is unreliable, manipulative, insincere, egocentric, and lives in poverty. But, there are so many things that differentiate him from a sociopath as well. Unlike a sociopath, Raskolnikov does show worry towards the well-being of his family members — those who are close to him. He shows this through his adamancy against his sister marrying someone who would not have been good to her, just because the family needs money. He goes out of his way to help his family and his friends, as is shown when he leaves money for Marmeladov. The good deeds Raskolnikov performs, previously described, are what set him apart the most from being considered a sociopath. A sociopath would never go out of his/her way to help someone in need. He is also able to have a somewhat meaningful relationship with another human being. He has this with Sonia, Marmeladov’s daughter. She becomes somewhat like a girlfriend to him, and he believes she is the only one who will stick by her so he treats her well. A sociopath only treats himself well. 

     Although Raskolnikov did commit the atrocious criminal act of murdering two innocent women practically “just because”, he still feels remorse for it while a sociopath would not feel any remorse whatsoever. In fact, Raskolnikov’s guilt eats him up until he has to confess to someone — Sonia. When he does tell her his crime, he justifies it that the pawnbroker was a “louse”. This is where his characteristics of superiority complex come in. “"I've only killed a louse, Sonia, a useless, loathsome, harmful creature” (Part 2, Chapter 4). Raskolnikov is more similar to a person with a superiority complex than a sociopath because Raskolnikov’s base reason for all of his atrocities are because he feels he is better and because he feels he knows best. When he murdered the pawnbroker, he did it because he believed she was useless in the world and was simply put, a horrible person. He actually thought he was doing society good by killing her and eliminating her from society. In fact, his superiority complex was so enhanced that he considered himself a hero for killing her because he believed he saved everybody a lot of negativity. Raskolnikov is very insecure, and that is seen in the conditions he lives in and how he feels when he is looked at by other people — he immediately gets paranoid and wants to basically run back to his apartment where no one sees him. He conceals these feelings of being inferior (inferiority complex) with a much stronger and more enhanced superiority complex. 

      Through Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky recreates what it means to be raised in a horrible environment (like St. Petersburg in the 1860’s) and the horrible effects it can have on a human being. Through extensive research about sociopaths and people with superiority complexes, Raskolnikov falls into the superiority complex category, with a harsh upbringing. Raskolnikov does portray many of the characteristics of a sociopath, but he shows way too many characteristics that are the opposite of what a sociopath would do, specifically feeling remorse and having a compassionate side that helps those in need. A sociopath cares simply and only about him/herself and would do anything to have his/her own pleasure. A person with superiority complex, on the other hand, commits actions, which could be atrocities, only to hide feelings of inferiority and to make him/herself feel better. Raskolnikov has superiority complex because although his actions were awful, they made him feel better because he felt like a hero having eliminated a, in his eyes, horrible human being like the pawnbroker. Crime and Punishment is not the only novel in which Dostoevsky has used a protagonist with a superiority complex — his novel Notes from the Underground is about a character who isolated himself from society due to his feelings of superiority just like Raskolnikov. These novels of his doubt the goodness of humanity and greatly study the effects that society can have on a human being and their mental sanity. 

Works Cited

"Alfred Adler : The Inferiority and Superiority Complex." CounsellingCentral. N.p., 2 Sept. 2009. Web. 2 May 2014. <http://counsellingcentral.com/alfred-adler-the-inferiority-and-superiority-complex/>.

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, and Constance Garnett. Crime and punishment. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 199. Print.

Maisel, Eric. "The God-Bug Syndrome." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., 27 Sept. 2012. Web. 2 May 2014. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rethinking-psychology/201209/the-god-bug-syndrome>.

Merrill, David. "Antisocial personality disorder." Antisocial personality disorder. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 11 Oct. 2012. Web. 2 May 2014. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001919/#adam_000921.disease.causes>.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Crime and Punishment Setting." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. <http://www.shmoop.com/crime-and-punishment/setting.html>.

"St. Petersburg on the road to capitalism (1840s to 1890s)." St. Petersburg, Russia on the road to capitalism (1840s to 1890s). N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. <http://www.saint-petersburg.com/history/1840-90.asp>.

Thomas, M. E. . "How to Spot a Sociopath." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2014. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201305/how-spot-sociopath>.

"sociopath definition." sociopath definition. N.p., 24 May 2000. Web. 2 May 2014. <http://www.9types.com/wwwboard/messages/18332.html>.