I don't really know how to talk about Fydor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. Is it bad to relate to a murderer? Whether it is or not, I do. I don't pity Raskolnikov. Killing another human being not out of self defense, but out of self importance is not acceptable. But I feel like I understand him. Porfiry, the police officer who basically stalks Raskolnikov for no other reason than to make him uncomfortable and confess his crime has this to say to him: "...You are still young, so to say, in your first youth and so you put intellect above everything..." (270). In this way, Raskolnikov is able to use abstract arguments to justify the murder of his elderly pawnbroker, as he considers her to be vile and greedy, a detriment to society. I guess the biggest difference between he and I is that I have already decided that I believe murder to be wrong. If I didn't have that conviction, I could, like he, come to the conclusion that, not only was this "crime" okay, but that it was my humanitarian duty to rid the world of someone who leeches off of the poor. Intellect is important, but without our beliefs to anchor us, whether these be religious or personal beliefs, it becomes much too easy to lose ourselves in our arguments.
This is not to say that Raskolnikov was without a belief system. We all have them, whether we think about them constantly, or hardly at all. His beliefs lay mainly within his own theories. Once he made one, he felt like he had to prove it to be true. This shows the danger of blind allegiance, in one's self, to one's group, to whatever. I surprised someone the other day; when asked a question, I admitted that I didn't know. Why are we so afraid to be wrong? Why can't we revise our theories, instead of going down with them? Even after he saw where his theory would lead him Raskolnikov still only thought of how it affected him and his sphere of people. "I murdered myself, not her" (330), he says.
That phrase sums up what this book is actually about: how committing this crime affects him. How would it affect any of us? In the space between committing the act and being legally punished for it, are you really as free as that supposed freedom you are clinging to should entail? To me, it is an even worse type of punishment. That is why I would never make a good character: If I brought myself to committing such a crime, I would turn myself in immediately; no, I don't think I can figure out the mystery better than the police. I think I'll let them do their jobs; They're going to bomb our spaceship? Well, there's basically no where to run, so who wants another drink? End credits. Worst movies ever.
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