Everything you do contributes to your own psychological make-up. Every decision you make creates a different path and each path leads to an alternate ending. While carving your road you also inevitably influence others lives too with the choices you make and actions you take. Raskolnikov effected most everyone he was associated with because he was incapable of dealing with his problem and facing the consequence on his own. The guilt he felt took a psychological toll on him because it altered his mindset and changed how he thought and felt about things. He knew right from wrong and knew that he would have to face the consequences eventually, but his thought process had been butchered due to the crimes he committed and he was unable to think clearly with the guilt eating away at him.
With the title being Crime and Punishment one might assume it focuses on a crime and then a long drawn out punishment to fit the specific crime, but the author, Fyodor Dostoevsky, does the exact opposite. Dostoevsky introduces the crime in the beginning and then takes the majority of the plot to focus in on the psychological workings of a killers mind. Raskolnikov, from the eyes of a neurologist, would most likely be viewed as a cold, calculating criminal because he planned the murder of Alyona Ivanovna. Although he expressed empathy and regret and felt guilt for the crime he had committed, he did plan the murder beforehand which would categorize him as a calculating criminal. While he can be placed into this generalization Raskolnikov could also have lower levels of metabolic activity in his frontal brain regions which is what caused him to kill Lizaveta Ivanovna based off impulse. This type of criminal would feel guilt and blame after the fact because they dont have the emotional control to stop and think about the consequences, they act on impulse and then come to a realization afterwards. I believe that Raskolnikov would not have felt any guilt for the crime he committed had he not killed Lizaveta on impulse when she walked in. If she hadnt walked in on the crime scene then Raskolnikov wouldnt be feeling any guilt or remorse for the killing of Alyona because it was a crime he had been planning and he had convinced himself that it was for the greater good of society.
The article The Violent Brain also suggests that the male gender is the most important risk factor.
Violent Behavior never erupts from a single
cause. Rather it results from a complex web of
interrelated factors--among them an individuals
inherited tendencies, brain anatomy and childhood
experiences. Male gender is the most prominent
risk. (The Violent Brain 22)
The male gender is the largest risk factor for violent behavior because of the high levels of testosterone in their systems. This effects the way they react in certain situations and the outcome can differ depending on the level of testosterone in their bodies at that specific moment. Based on what happened in Crime and Punishment it can be inferred that Raskolnikov had a rather large amount of this hormone in his system after showing his male dominance over Alyona and this is what lead to his reckless behavior when Lizaveta walked in.
Forgiveness plays a large underlying role in the plot of Crime and Punishment because without forgiveness it is nearly impossible to move forward with your life. Raskonlikov had to first come to a proper realization about his crimes in order to begin the process of being able to forgive himself. He had been carrying this secret around for so long the guilt was literally eating away at his mind little by little. It is not until he finally confesses to Sonya that he is able to lift part of his burden from his shoulders. By confessing he is given an outlet and the ability to talk things through and hear anothers opinion rather than repeatedly go over instances in his own mind. His confession to Sonya also acted as a stress relief for him because so much was lifted from his mind in those minutes that he was able to think more clearly and better comprehend right from wrong.
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin found that there are three attitudes towards forgiveness in Jewish sources which include the times that forgiveness is obligatory, when it is optional and even when it is forbidden. While he makes a valid point, there is also one more kind of forgiveness: the ability to forgive yourself. Rabbi Telushkin said that when harm is done onto others then the person shouldnt be forgiven but this is not true. Forgiveness doesnt always have to mean acceptance of the harm the person caused. Forgiveness is having the ability to acknowledge someones wrongdoing and forgive them for their mistake in order to move on to the future. Everyone makes mistakes in life, some larger than others, but it is your obligation to realize your mistake and make the necessary changes for the future, forgive yourself and then hope others will too. Forgiving yourself is always necessary because although you should never forget your wrongdoing forgiveness is necessary in order to let go of the past and take the next steps towards recovery. Raskolnikov had to forgive himself because no one else knew that he had committed the murders and he was unable to ask those he had hurt for their forgiveness. Before his confession to Sonya he was
Walking around like a person with a hot poker
in their hand ready to throw it at the person who
hurt them but [time has] passed and [hes]
never thrown it at that person all [hes] done is
burn a hole in [his] hand. (Rabbi Harold Kushner)
This is what Raskolnikov was doing, walking around with a hot poker in his hand trying to find the person to throw it at who made him angry but he was unable to do so because the person he would have wanted to throw it at was himself. Because he was unable to get rid of the guilt, it burned a hole in his own mind, destroying his psychological well being. This is like allowing the person in the world whom you most dislike to live in your mind and run free. (Abraham Twerski). This, for Raskolnikov, is not a person who he hates running free in his mind but multiple images and scenarios. Seeing the image of the two women he killed only continually adds to the guilt he is feeling which is causing him psychological distress. This psychological distress leads him to make more rash decisions in his life because he cant control the weighing down of his emotions and he has no one to vent his feelings to in order to maintain structure and balance in his mind.
Along with the psychological toll which was taken on him, Raskolnikov also suffered the inability to fully face the actual seriousness of the crime he committed. He believed that he was killing Alyona for the greater good of society. The justification for it, in his mind, was that it wasnt against morals because no one would be against it, so he took matters into his own hands and acted as the overman. The flaw in his logic appears when it is taken into consideration that man is a rope, tied between beast and overman--a rope over an abyss (Nietzsche). Raskolnikov was just an average man, he was caught between being an overman and being a beast, but the rope attaching him to being an overman was cut when he went through with the murder. Though someone could still be an overman if they committed a crime, it is not the same for Raskolnikovs case because of how he went about it. In his mind he thinks it was for the greater good of the people, but subconsciously he wasnt doing it for others, he was being selfish and only thinking about his own wants and needs. If he had truly believed it was for the greater good of things he wouldnt have killed Lizaveta because he wouldnt have felt the need to hide his crime. Also if he actually thought he had the right to make this decision then he would have come forward right away with a confession, he wouldnt have had anything to hide because he wouldnt have been punished if it was what was right. I believe he was fully aware of this from the beginning because he showed mild hesitation when the thought first crossed his mind in the novel. He wasnt prepared for the percussions that would follow and he knew he would have to face the punishment eventually because he is not an overman, and so he has to abide by law.
Raskolnikov committed the crime subconsciously knowing before hand that it was the wrong thing to do. Because he hadnt realized this in real time though he still went through with his plans. It didnt hit him until after he committed the second murder. That was when he became conscious of the fact that it was a complete mistake. He felt like a criminal only after the murder of Lizaveta because it wasnt planned, and he realized right away that it wasnt right. He was somewhat able to grasp the idea that it wasnt his decision to end a life. It took him to the second death to come to this conclusion because Raskolnikov was trying to be the selfish hero(overman) with his first murder, only to realize that he was just a criminal regardless of any justification he gave himself. This is when the guilt kicked in because while he felt bad for the crime he committed he feared what his punishment would be if he admitted to it so he kept it a secret until he could bare it no more and he confessed.
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