Hi everyone (zdrastveti daragiya druzya) Crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
is the most famous Russian novel. In this video I will summarize it, I will also tell you the
philosophical ideas behind the story and some unique storytelling techniques used in this novel.
Before I tell you about the novel, let me tell you one thing that shifted Dostoyevsky’s view
of crime and criminals. He was exiled to Siberia for his anti-government activity.
While there he met a lot of intellectuals but also a lot of petty criminals
or working class criminals. He was blown away by their honesty in accepting their guilt.
Why? Because they had unburdened themselves by getting solace from religion. Intellectuals on
the other hand didn't see themselves guilty as they didn't believe in any moral framework. And
since they didn't believe in religion, they had to somehow justify their actions. This contrast
shifted Dostoyevsky’s opinion about the whole crime. So this novel clearly shows that shift.
I also want to define a term to understand the novel.
Self-referential: simply means that in the absence of god man is the ultimate moral
authority. This can apply to individuals as well as states. For instance some countries don't abide
by international rules because they think they are either above those laws or they don't agree with
them. but in this novel, self-referential applies to Raskolnikov the protagonist of this novel.
Crime and Punishment was published in1866. You might be interested to
know that 1860s was a very productive year for Russian literature. Three of the most
well-known Russian novels came out during that decade. Turgenev’s fathers and sons,
Tolstoy’s war and peace and Dostoyevsky’s crime and punishment. Funnily enough all the titles are
binary. Of course there other amazing novels came out too but these are the most famous ones. Maybe
in another video I will discuss why 1860s came to be such a great decade in Russian literature.
Now to our novel. Let me summarize the novel first.
Raskonikov is a former law student with big dreams in Saint Petersburg. He wants to change the world.
He wants to be like Napoleon. He wants to a great figure in history. But his poverty means there is
a big gap between his dreams and reality. But recently he has learnt a few new ideas
that have trickled down from Western Europe to Russia. The first idea is utilitarianism
developed by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham and later refined by Stuart Mill.
Utilitarianism teaches the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
What Raskolnikov understands is that sometimes bad actions can be justified
if it benefits more people. End justifies the means so to speak. But who can decide
if an action can be justified by its own means? Now here, Raskolnikov has learnt
another idea. God is dead. In the absence of God, extraordinary or great people,
which he thinks he is one, can set their own morality. What it means is that they cannot
be held responsible for their actions under the common moral or legal framework. This is called
rationalism. These great extraordinary people transcend moral and legal boundaries,
which must have influenced Nietzsche’s idea of will to power, but I’ll discuss that later.
So our hero, Raskolnikov, is loaded with these two ideas,
A) end justifies the means and B) great people are above morality and law, he sets his target on an
old lady pawnbroker who exploits poor people like him. He calls her a louse,
a greedy woman who sucks the blood out of the poor. So here Raskolnikov plays with the idea
of socialism too as if her murder would be like a bloody revolution, justified to create an equal
society. For Raskolnikov her murder is the first step to his great achievement. He wants to use
the money to change his dire financial situation and who knows perhaps change the world too. He’s
ready. He has an axe as a physical weapon and two philosophical justifications. What could go wrong?
But here comes the big twist. After murdering the pawnbroker, her sister shows up, to put
a spinner in the works. Raskolnikov thinks he has no choice so kills her too. This has shaken
him a lot. A confident young man a moment ago, now shakes like a willow tree. He steals some
valuable but not as much as he wanted. He gets to his room and develops fever and delirium.
In the next few days, Raskolnikov goes back and forth whether to confess his crimes to the police
or not. This all depends on how much they know or don't know. One day he returns to the scene
of the crime, clearly trying to be caught, but the next day he becomes rational again
trying to save himself. It appears inside him there is a titanic battle going on.
One pushes him to confess his crimes to the police. The other force, his western ideologies,
tell him he is not guilty and has nothing to confess. This is the most torturous periods in
the young man’s life. He faints a few times. He refuses to see his mother and sister when
they show up in Saint Petersburg to see him. In the midst of his internal turmoil
he meets Sonya a prostitute whose father was killed in an accident and Raskolnikov
happened to be there. He gives his last bit of money to help her with her father’s funeral.
Raskolnikov feels a little humanity in her, precisely because she is an outcast due to
her profession as a prostitute. He feels they are somehow the same in the eyes of society.
Then Raskolnikov acts weird again. He asks his best friend Razumkhin who seems
have to guessed his secret crime, to take him to the detective who investigates the murders.
Here we meet DI Porfiry who digs up an article Raskolnikov has written detailing his philosophy
about extraordinary people and geniuses being above the law. Raskolnikov senses the police
knows something but passionately defends his article and his ideas. Later he sees a shouting
murder outside his apartment and disappears. These are bad signs. Now his fever returns.
When Raskolnikov visits Sonya the second time, she reveals that the murdered sister
of the pawnbroker was her best friend. Now Raskolnikov hearing this, again has a shiver
up his spine. Sonya also tells him how she copes with her life as an outcast prostitute,
a sinner and morally corrupt person in the eyes of society. She says, her religious beliefs helps her
cope better. Now hearing this Raskolnikov heads to the police station. He’s about to confess but
detective Porfiry is tormenting him or playing a sort of game of cat and mouse with him. This
annoys Raskolnikov so again he decides not to confess. As they are talking, suddenly another
man bursts into the police station and confesses to the murders of the pawnbroker and her sister.
Seeing this, Raskolnikov is let go again and he thinks he can get away, after all.
But the outside world is a terrifying world and he can no longer hold it in,
so he confesses his crime to the only person he feels the closest. Sonya. What does she say?
She tells him to go to the police right away. She is devastated that he has been torturing
himself for this long. She tells him the sooner he confesses the sooner ends his self-torture.
But a sinister man who is trying to marry Raskolnikov’s sister has been
listening too to the confession. He tries to blackmail Raskolnikov to get his sister,
but this backfires and the man commits suicide. Now Raskolnkov’s sister also knows the truth.
Raskolnikov decides it’s time to confess, but Detective inspector Porfiry tells him he knows
everything. This cocky attitude of the police makes Raskolnikov to take a defensive attitude
and again he tries to rationalize his decision not to confess. But then Sonya appears with a
cross and that seems to finally seal the deal and Raskolnikov confesses to the two murders.
He is sentenced to 8 years of jail time in Siberia. Sonya follows him there, but it takes
Raskolnikov some time in prison to fully feel guilt. Finally his new philosophical principles
have melted away, ironically in the harsh, freezing winter of Siberia. He can finally sleep
with a copy of the Bible. He’s free from Western ideas and his own grand and dreadful dreams.
So the circle is complete. Dostoyevsky turned a pompous intellectual into a petty criminal
arguing that no matter how educated or grandiose your plans or thoughts are, we are all the same.
We want comfort, mentally and physically. We all need a security blanket, be it religion or art.
Dostoyevsky prefers religion for Raskolnikov, the only antidote to his western ideas.
As I already discussed, Dostoyevsky questions utilitarianism, rationalism and socialism as moral
justification for selfish human actions. He is saying that in order to achieve a world changing
success smaller sacrifices aren’t okay. Napoleon had created this myth of great men who did great
things but they had to be ruthless. Dostoyevsky suggests that Russians weren’t really ready for
these big ideas. For the time being religion was the best answer at the time of distress.
I think the novel emphasizes responsibility for one’s action. Modern humans have learnt to
justify their actions based on some ideological principles, i.e. socialism, utilitarianism,
liberalism and rationalism. What Dostoyevsky is saying, you should strip yourself of all
those ideas and take a hard look at yourself. In that sense it is a very existentialist novel.
Nihilism is another theme of this novel. The meaninglessness of modern life. We no longer
believe in god and the religious doctrines or divine power. We see ourselves as the
ultimate power. And we know we are not good at being that ultimate power. Why?
Because we cannot be trusted. We get addicted to certain things very quickly. Millions of people
gamble, smoke, eat themselves to obesity, or endless shopping. Dostoyevsky was warning us
that individualism or humanism are great ideas but in reality they make our lives empty of any
substance as we crave things we want. We don't need any divine justifications, so anything goes.
In many ways Crime and Punishment is similar to the Stranger by Albert Camus, a murder who
doesn't know he is guilty. Or I should say the Stranger is similar to Crime and Punishment,
as it was written almost a century later. A short story by Edgar Allen Poe
also deals with this, The Telltale Heart. It’s about guilt and torment.
The white Tiger by Aravind Adiga which I discussed in another video takes the
same idea to modern day India, where Balram justifies his murder on similar principles.
So the moral of the story is that don’t follow your dream at any cost.
Dreams are good to have but they should remain dreams, otherwise they might end up becoming
nightmares. That’s what Dostoyevsky is trying to articulate in this novel.
Storytelling: Now let me tell about the storytelling of this novel.
Dostoyevsky takes the genre of crime and put it upside down. Crime fiction works either by
who has done it. How or why? Dostoyevsky cuts the bullshit and tells us all those things at
the very beginning of the novel. We know it’s Raskolnikov. We know why he has murdered two
women. And we know how he has done it. What’s left is what goes on inside a criminal’s mind.
So this story is from inside out. His internal torment,
anguish and finally confession. Dostoyevsky is not interested in the identity of the killer.
He is more interested in the humanity or the darkness inside of that person. He’s like a
geologist or archaeologist. He wants to know what makes us human. I think this novel influenced a
great many philosophers. I think Nietzsche was heavily influenced by Dostoyevsky, especially
his existential philosophy. Many French existential philosophers such as Paul Sartre,
Michel Foucault and Albert Camus, you can trace their ideas back to Dostoyevsky.
It’s a wonderful novel. One of my favourite Russian novel. It’s terrifying, nerve-wracking,
but also extremely rewarding. I don't know why I am saying this.
I have just spoiled the plot. Ah well. Just read the language,
for the craft and for the philosophical ideas and for the great debates that go on in this novel.
I hope you enjoyed this video. Please leave a comment down below. Sposibo Bolshoi.