Crime and Punishment By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Dostoevsky’s own troubled home life enabled him to: Portray characters who are emotionally and spiritually downtrodden. Portray characters who epitomize the traditional Christian conflict between the body and the spirit.

Troubled Family Life: Dostoevsky believed his father to have been murdered by his own serfs! This belief led him to be obsessed with murder, the primary subject of Crime and Punishment (1866).

Dostoevsky looks for stability in his mother: A Christian woman well versed in the Old and New Testaments. She used the Bible to teach him how to read and write. Dostoyevsky and his brother relied on their mother’s compassion and gentle spirit when their father’s temper struck.

Trouble with his politics: Dostoevsky was arrested for his involvement in a radical Socialist group. He was condemned to be shot. As he stood in front of the firing squad, he learned that his life would be spared.

Time in prison: In prison, the writer underwent a profound spiritual and philosophical transformation. His intense study of the New Testament, the only book the prisoners were allowed to read, contributed to his rejection of his earlier liberal political views. He developed the conviction that redemption is possible only through suffering and faith, a belief which informed his later work.

After imprisonment: He was forced to serve as a soldier in a Siberian garrison for an additional five years.

What you need to know for the quizzes and tests- Themes: Redemption comes from suffering. A man must fall to bring about his redemption (resurrection). An individual is doomed in isolation until he embraces this responsibility to community and humanity. After suffering, love redeems all wrongs.

Character Schism: Raskolnikov’s duality: He believes he is the intellectually superior character whose actions actually lack spirituality. He believes his actions are morally sound, and he believes he acts out of responsibility for his community.