Crime_and_Punishment

Crime and Punishment By the end of Dostoyesky’s Crime and Punishment, the reader is no longer under the illusion of the possible existence of “extraordinary” men. For an open-minded reader, and even perhaps the closed-minded ones too, the book is a journey through Raskolnikov’s proposed theory on crime. It is a theory based on the ideas that had “been printed and read a thousand times”(313) by both Hegel and Nietzsche. Hegel, a German philosopher, influenced Dostoyesky with his utilitarian emphasis on the ends rather than the means whereby a superman existed as one that stood above the ordinary man, but worked for the benefit of all mankind. Nietsche’s more selfish philosophy focused on the rights to power which allowed one to act in a Hegelian manner. In committing his crime, Raskolnikov experienced the ultimate punishment as he realized that his existence was not that of the “extraordinary” man presented in his theory. In chapter five of part three in Crime and Punishment, this theory is outlined by its creator, Raskolnikov. Such an innovative theory would clearly have placed him in the “extraordinary” category, but when he fails to meet its standards, by submitting to the common law through his confession, the theory crumbles theory, raskolnikov’s, extraordinary, man, reader, raskolnikov, crime, one, been, punishment, ordinary, through, rather, murder, experienced, existence, whereby, upon, until, though, several, right, result, path, open-minded, nature, means, lizaveta, law, justify, ideas, hegel, fear, failure, evil, even, end, efforts, confession, confess, common, character, being, aspect, alyona, actions, able, yet, worse, world