Crime And Punishment by Feodor Dostoevsky and The Stranger by Albert Camus are novels from different time periods with asimilar context and influence, but the authors are contemplating, as almost all literature does, the same unanswerable questions both presented by, and a result of, the human condition. Death, and its relevance to life are important themes in these two indispensable works of literature . Significant characters in both works are affected by the death of those around them. The use of guns in the two literary works is significant to how the authors see death; as potentially avoidable or inevitable. This detail is a good basis for a comparison of the works treatment of death and its significance.
Guns are given different roles. In Crime and Punishment guns are inanimate and are not personified as they are in The Stranger. In Crime and Punishment, a gun is central to a scene in Part VI Chapter V. Svidrigaylov, a rich, middle aged man and Dunya, Raskolnikovs sister engage in a battle of words and minds. Dunya is presented as Svids prey but in reality she has as firm control of him emotionally as he does socially as a result of his knowledge of Raskolinovs crime. Svid is in love with Dunya and either refuses or is unable to come to terms with the idea that she will not come to love him if they are married. Svid recognizes Dunyas hatred of him when she attempts to shoot him during this scene. Svid probably killed his wife in order to move to St. Petersburg in an attempt to be with her. It is only after Dunya attempts to kill him that he understands that a life with Dunya is impossible, saying with a surprised tone, So you do not love me. She conveys this through her use of a gun. But if Dunya had killed him, it is clear that she would have blamed herself, and not the gun as Mersault did after he shot the Arab. This is obvious because Dunya is unable to commit murder once she realizes what she is doing and that she has little justification because she is not really in danger. Svid acknowledges her intent to kill him by realizing that she clearly does not love him and that it is only because of the accidental misfiring of the gun that he is still alive and seems to believe that he should not be alive if the person who was trying to kill him was stopped only by accident and lack of determination or immorality and not a lack desire. Svid then takes it upon himself to finish the job. He is clearly afraid of death though, having possibly dealt with it before when he killed his wife to be able to court Dunya, as it is rumored throughout the book. The gun that Mersault uses is described very differently than Dunyas. Mersault blames the gun for killing the Arab, not himself. He does not even say that he pulled the trigger, but instead describes the trigger as seemingly tricking him into shooting and his error was one of ommision instead of action. Dunyas gun is a simple tool, one which if not operated properly as she displays will not do the will of its possessor. Mersaults idea of violence and death is commonly present in the Stranger. Raymond, when arguing with his Arab enemy, conveys this also Camus diction displays how he feels that violence is not a decision to act violently but the absence of the decision to act peacefully he feels the only by purposefully choosing to do so, it does not happen spontaneously the way violence can and did in his novel. The diction Camus uses for Raymond's speech is important. While he is wrestling with the Arab, Raymond shouts to Mersault that he is going to Let the Arab have it this shows how violence is the natural spontaneous way of things because it implies the Raymond is conscienciously holding back and if he lets go and acts spontaneously the Arab will be killed and that killing is inevitable not a consciense decision to end a life that is a proactive decision and not ommisive.
Camus does not allow for the possibility of misfiring or missing the way Dostoevsky does in the two authors' description of gun use. Camus states that Mersault realizes that you can either shoot and give in to temptation and nature spontaneously or you can continue to hold back stifling the instincts which Neitzche demands be unleashed on the world. Mersault is not guilty of a crime, the gun is instead. He simply was not willful enough to restrain the gun and it fooled him into discharging it by allowing its trigger to give. This realization is the reason that Mersault must eventually receive the death penalty. He is a sociopath. Society is endangered by Mersaults final realization because society is the force that controls spontaneity. The willpower to control the animal side of human beings is society in its most basic form. Civilization is the restraint of ones instincts. This presents a paradox or complex irony: In order to protect itself, society must become its enemy and kill. In order to kill Mersault the structure that socially acceptable people have instilled to protect themselves must be abandoned. If society is to beat its enemy, it must become it. There is no victory or happy ending when a man makes the realization that Mersault makes.
This is also present in Crime and Punishment. The superman that Raskolnikov idealizes and aspires to be is Nietzches superman who lacks moral constraint and is entirely utilitarian. Mersault is Raskolinikovs idol. A character comparable to Mersault is Svidrigaylov. After Dunya fails to give in to temptation, Svid takes his own life. None of the other characters can waste human life so recklessly, Svid, alone in Dostoevskys momentous work, is able to see life as being as utterly inconsequential as it truly is.
The fact that Svid takes his own life and not another's who is causing him trouble. He acknowledges that he desires Dunya and threatens to rape her but even if Dunya had not defended herself the reader gets the impression that Svid would probably not have raped her, he did not desire a forced relationship but a more satisfying consentual one. Svid had orchestrated what he thought would be aperfect situation, either she would give in to him in order to save her brother or he would die and be put out of the misery Dunyas rejection caused him. Was he merely trying to kill himself without having to blame himself and avoid making the ultimate decision? It seems so. When Dunya sees Svid's blood and realizes what she is doing, she is no longer able to shoot him. This presents Svid the predicament of having to decide whether to commit suicide. It may seem that because Svid killed himself this is not a valid argument, but it is in fact the opposite. Suicide, especially by a gun is essential to the validity of Dostoevskys thesis because it requires full thought about the action and not merely ignorance of the psychological punishment of commiting a crime that Raskolnikov was a victim of. Svids death was not at all spontaneous, instead it seemed methodical. He settled many problems that his death would present before ending his life, as well as attempting to sugar coat his end, asking people to think of it as going away with the implied potential of returning instead of the final actuality of his death.
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