Crime and Punishment: A Review

by The Lifetime Reader

Crime and Punishment is hailed as one of Dostoevsky’s finest works, as well as one of the best pieces of literature ever written. It not only explores themes inseparable with human nature – morality, conscience, love, power – but it does so through a story about as compelling as they come.

The story commences with a young man living in St. Petersburg. His name is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. On account of his dire poverty, he is contemplating the murder of an old pawnbroker who serves no benefit to society. By murdering this woman, he reasons, he can take her wealth and use it to aid himself and those around him. His reasoning is backed by a larger worldview that there exists an elite class of men who are able to cross traditional moral boundaries in the purpose of a greater good. Raskolnikov obviously places himself in this category. After committing the murder, however, Raskolnikov must struggle with unexpected interior turmoil, and the reader bears witness to the turmoil unfolding (as well as how Raskolnikov seeks to wrestle with it).

         Below are a few reasons to spend the time engaging with this masterpiece. Though it is a book not for the faint of heart—like many Russian novels—it is well worth the effort.

Dostoevsky’s Rhetorical and Narrative Skills

One of the most prominent intellects of our age, Jordan Peterson, has been known to recommend the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky. In his own words, “Crime and Punishment is the best investigation I know of…of what happens if you take [seriously] the notion that there is nothing divine about the individual.” He also said about the same book, “Dostoevsky, man, he gets right down into the bottom of the questions and messes around.”

We can learn several things about Dostoevsky and Crime and Punishment from these two JBP citations. Firstly, if you want to be an effective apologist, do not evaluate any given worldview on the merit of its weakest points, but rather on its strongest ones. Look at its face value with all of its strengths and weaknesses, and seek to take it down from this vantage point.  Dostoevsky in his novels takes the strongest elements of a particular ideology and through the compelling medium of narrative, shows the reader why this particular worldview is in the end, ineffective. In Crime and Punishment, he gives Raskolnikov every reason to murder this woman, yet even this falls short. By doing so he refutes nihilism and atheism, which was rising in popularity during his day.

Extrapolating from the novel itself, this is a good rule of thumb to apply to your own life. When looking at your health, your relationships, your finances, your interior life, your relationship with God, etc… you must remove all the excuses that justify your mediocrity and look at all the messes you have made, with all of their ugliness. It might be unbearable, but akin to a painful surgery that will save your life in the long run, it is utterly necessary: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

The Mercy of God

Austin Richard Post, the world famous rapper better known as Post Malone, had two back to back life-threatening incidents within a span of several weeks in 2018. The first involved a private plane which blew a tire off the runway and just two weeks later, he was in a car crash where his vehicle was t-boned. Shortly after, he posted a tweet in which he said, “God must hate me…” This statement could not be further from the truth.

God has eternal eyes: like a good father solicitous for his children, God gives us what will make us ultimately happy. This does not necessarily mean happiness in this life: “Someday we will thank God not only for what He gave us, but also for that which He refused” (Fulton J. Sheen). God desires that we be happy with Him in eternity, and thus He is willing to allow us to suffer evils in this life if it means in the end, our souls will be saved.

Early in the novel, Raskolnikov commits a murder (the Crime), and to his own surprise he must deal with the psychological and moral turmoil that ensues (the Punishment). Dostoevsky does a supreme job of describing how God can use even something as horrific as mental illness to bring somebody back to Him. While God did not will the sin of murder, He can still use it to bring about good.* The relentless love of another character, Sonya, also greatly contributes to the rehabilitation of Raskolnikov. She is a more tangible manifestation of the heart God has for His children.

The Natural Law and Integrity

One of my earliest memories from childhood is stealing a candy bar from Walmart and hiding it in my pocket until my family returned home. When my petty theft was discovered, my father put me in the car, drove me back to the store and made me hand it back to the cashier.

A central theme of Crime and Punishment is the aforementioned ‘Great Man Theory’ to which the protagonist Raskolnikov holds. The problem with this theory is that although it sounds nice, that laws can sometimes be transgressed to achieve a “greater good”, this involves evading your conscience. Though we may try to convince ourselves the conscience is not real, it most certainly is. This is why children know implicitly that stealing is wrong, or the pagan who worships a tree still must follow what he knows to be right and will not be let off the proverbial hook. The Ten Commandments, as Fr. Chad Ripperger has noted, is simply a promulgation of the Natural Law every man knows to be true:“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God…because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them…so that they are inexcusable” (Romans 1:18-20).

In this novel, you see a man try to kill his conscience and the disastrous effects of deciding to wage such a battle. Rather than making the same mistake, learn from Raskolnikov and seek to live according to the truth with integrity, regardless of the consequences. It is the only path to sanity.

*A short treatise on God’s Providence that is well worth reading is Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence by Claude de la Colombiere.