Punish or forgive

The idea of ​​"arithmetic" or "experimental" murder was very popular in the mid-19th century. Both Max Stirner and Thomas de Quincey were fond of this - Raskolnikov’s fictional article literally continues the very real fashion for such reasoning. Pushkin’s famous “we all look at Napoleons” led to the fact that almost all literary murders of the 19th century were committed by busts of Napoleon. Well, or with axes, if we were talking about poor people. Dostoevsky put two and two together and got the figure of Raskolnikov - a poor student obsessed with “ideas.” It is curious that in January 1866, on the very eve of the publication of the magazine “Russian Messenger” with the first chapters of the novel, an identical crime was committed in Moscow: student Danilov killed a moneylender and his maid, who accidentally entered the room, with an ax.

Dostoevsky thickly mixes ancient tragedy with Christian morality, leaving many unresolved questions. On the one hand, punishment for the crime comes from the outside as an inevitability, on the other hand, the main reason for Raskolnikov’s final repentance in the epilogue turns out to be Sonya’s purely Christian love. The inevitability of punishment does not yet entail the inevitability of repentance. If the first comes from external forces and is inevitable, then the second can only be caused by a loving Other. It turns out that all criminals will be punished in one way or another, but will Sonya’s love be enough for everyone to repent?

Initially, Dostoevsky intended to write the novel from the perspective of Raskolnikov the convict so that the text would be a continuous internal monologue. In the end, Dostoevsky decided to narrate in the third person, which gave him the opportunity to look at the main character from the outside. However, the intonation of the internal monologue remained in the novel. It was this intonation of terrible nervous tension and literally physical immersion in Raskolnikov’s inner state that made the novel, on the one hand, immortal, and on the other hand, mysterious. The author constantly puts both the hero and the reader on the brink of reality and delirium, where one is indistinguishable from the other. This Dostoevsky technique has become excellent material for study in all psychiatric schools in the world.

Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment (1865–1866)

On one of the unbearably hot days of early July, especially difficult in the dusty center of St. Petersburg, former student Rodion Raskolnikov goes to a certain pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna. Rodion goes to try out his “ugly” dream, which he has been nurturing for more than a month. All this time, a plan is brewing in his head to kill an insignificant pawnbroker and gain “capital” that will allow “good people” to live a decent life. Raskolnikov considers himself, his mother and sister Dunya to be good. The latter deprive themselves of everything in order to pay for his studies at the university, but there is still not enough money and he has to quit his studies.

Raskolnikov’s murder plan is based on pure “arithmetic”: kill one insignificant creature in order to save many worthy ones. However, Raskolnikov is disgusted by the very thought of murder. He hesitates painfully. He is pushed into action by a letter from his mother, where she says that Dunya, driven to despair, agrees to marry the “benefactor” Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, a business man with means. Raskolnikov understands that Dunya is taking this step for his sake and that he cannot allow such self-sacrifice.

Raskolnikov creates something like his own theory of crime. In his opinion, the criminal makes mistakes and gets caught for the simple reason that he cannot master his own feelings and mind. If you maintain a sober mind, the crime will be perfect, the criminal will leave no traces. Raskolnikov creates in his mind a coordinate system within which people are divided into “insects” who do not know how to control themselves or the world, and those who “have the right.” For the latter, murder is not a crime at all, but just arithmetic. He sets out all this in an article written six months before the murder. As a result, the murder, already justified by the need to help out his sister, is justified twice - for Raskolnikov, this is an attempt to prove to himself that he is not “a trembling creature, but has the right”: “I wanted to become Napoleon, that’s why I killed... I just wanted to dare.”

With the murder already committed, Raskolnikov finds himself drawn into the investigation of his own crime. Everyone around, as if by agreement, is doing nothing but discussing the murder of the old woman and the poor girl Lizaveta who happened to be at home.
Meanwhile, Raskolnikov’s arithmetic logic begins to collapse before our eyes. His sister's fiancé Luzhin sets out his own arithmetic theory, which on the one hand is very similar to Raskolnikov's theory, and on the other, is obviously the ethics of a scoundrel: “If you love yourself, you will do your affairs properly, and your caftan will remain intact.” Svidrigailov, Dunya’s persecutor and insulter, also speaks about the arithmetic of evil and good. Raskolnikov’s theory gradually leads him to the idea that his hopes for “right” are in vain, he is nothing more than a trembling creature.

Meanwhile, investigator Porfiry Petrovich, having found out about Raskolnikov’s article “On the Crime,” comes to the conclusion that only he could kill the old money-lender. His conversations with Raskolnikov gradually lead to him breaking down and confessing to the murder. However, confession is not yet repentance.

Raskolnikov is followed to hard labor by Sonya, the daughter of the drunken official Marmeladov. Sonya, saving her family from hunger, is forced to earn money through prostitution, but retains an enthusiastic soul and a deep ability to love. This is exactly what happens - she loves Raskolnikov and follows him in the hope of restoring his faith in life and Christ, which, from Dostoevsky’s point of view, is the same thing. Raskolnikov experiences true repentance only on the last page of the novel, while in hard labor.

As a result of all the complex plot intricacies, it turns out that justice lies not in the area of ​​arithmetic, but in the area of ​​the deep need of the soul for love and compassion. This cannot be transgressed, and any violation of this law inevitably leads to punishment. This is the type of justice “de facto”, which is carried out through the highest judicial authority of the spirit and in which the mental anguish of repentance is so strong that the punishment “de jure” is insufficient.