“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart”
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
He was a Russian novelist, journalist, and short-story writer of the 20th
century. He graduated as a military engineer, served for a while, and later gave-up his profession to pursue writing as his career. He wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, in 1846. He took 12 installments to publish ‘Crime and Punishment’ in The Russian Messenger in 1866.
About the novel
Crime and punishment is a mystery novel in which Raskolnikov, a ragged dressed money, I shortage of money commits a murderous crime. The story revolves around the character Marmeladov, Katerina, etc. Marmeladov’s family faces financial breakdown, due to which his daughter Sonia has to get into prostitution market.
Crime and punishment highlight the psychological anguish and pathos felt by Raskolnikov, for which he plans to kill the pawnbroker.
Genre: Gothic fiction, Psychological thriller
Tone: Dark and mysterious
Type: Play
Setting: St. Petersburg, Russia
Main characters and their interrelations:
Sonya Marmeladov: A modest prostitute
Porfiry Petrovitch: Criminal investigator/ detective
Svidrigailov: Dunya’s former employee
Dunya Raskolnikov: Sister to Raskolnikov
Razumihkin: Raskolnikov’s student friend
Semyon Marmeladov: Alcoholic dismissed government clerk
Katerina Marmeladov: Marmeladov’s wife
Pulcheria Raskolnikov: Raskolnikov’s mother
Alyona Ivanovna: The nasty moneylender murdered by Raskolnikov
Lizaveta Ivanovna: The half-sister to Alyona, brutalized by her.
Marfa Petrovna: Svidrigailov’s wife
Luzhin Petrovitch: A petty government clerk
Themes
Alienation: Distanced from society
Nihilism: Negating more
Bloodshed
Punishment for the committed crime
