Overview of Crime and Punishment Essay

The narrative of Crime and Punishment is in the third-person. It assumes an omniscient stance and the focalization is also done form the perspective of several main characters like Raskolnikov, Razumikhin, SVIDRIGAYLOV and other.

The novel is set, from the beginning to the end, in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, form where and to which most characters are shown to move. It is a typical example of the 19th century socialist realist fiction, the narrative of which is enriched by the psychological insight that the author lends to it.

Various themes are to be found in this novel. The themes of love, friendship, self-sacrifice, poverty, etc. is throughout to be seen here, however, what forms the central theme can be deduced form the title itself. The debate about what constitute a crime and who and who not are to be seen in the eyes of the law as deserving of a punishment, is what the novel is about. This theme is especially addressed in the main plot, which revolves around Raskolnikov, the crime investigator Porfiry Petrovich, the chief police clerk, Zametov.

The duty towards ones family in the form of the supreme sacrifice of ones identity and self is aptly depicted in Sonya's resorting to prostitution to support her poor family. This sub-plot is also a rather melancholic one. It also deals with various other themes. The fall from grace, as it were, or how an aristocratically brought up person has to cope and suffer in poverty is part of this same sub-plot.

A second sub-plot moves around Avdotya Romanovna (Dunya) and her relationship with two different men who happen to be distant Uncle-nephew pair. Both these men, SVIDRIGAYLOV and Razumikhin, fall in love with her, in different times, of course. The novel being a Victorian classic, perforce, tends to show Avdotya Romanovna as a chaste and virtues heroine who is rewarded in the end by marriage to a man who would make her happy (Razumikhin) instead of a marriage with his rake of an (distant) uncle, SVIDRIGAYLOV, who is revealed little by little as a man full of vice. SVIDRIGAYLOV had even offered her a lot of money which she rejects out-rightly and thus prove her virtuous nature. SVIDRIGAYLOV , on the other hand, as per the 'poetic justice' delivered by the author, commits suicide after his pent up guilt for all his villainous past, surface towards the end.

The novel ends with the central character, Raskolnikov, finally confessing his crime and guilt before the police. Before this however, he suffers immensely from the guilt of committing a murder. This guilt shows itself in the form of mental confusion and physical pain and suffering. This same guilt was also becoming the cause of his strange, rather deranged behavior and increasingly sour relationships, especially with his near and dear ones like his mother, sister, friends, landlady and so on. However, it is clearly visible that a part of him is also convinced that such a murder - his victim's nature, his own intention and motive, etc. - does not make it a crime but a social need. His confession, however, relieves him of all these sufferings and also wins him the pure love of Sonya. This then need not necessarily conveys the message that he too gets disillusioned with his idea of murder being permissible under certain conditions. But it certainly makes him realize that even our most meticulously planned actions can bring unexpected emotional and psychological circumstances in our lives. And this makes the last part of the novel, where Raskolnikov is locked up in the jail in Siberia, less sufferable, both to this character and the reader, giving Crime and Punishment an apt Victorian ending.