Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1866 novel following student Raskolnikov who murders a pawnbroker to test his theory that exceptional individuals are beyond ordinary moral law, and the devastating psychological consequences that follow.
Dramatizes the psychological collapse that follows the violation of one's own conscience — showing that the rationalization of transgression, however intellectually sophisticated, cannot be sustained against the phenomenological weight of lived guilt.
Discussing
Ask anything about Crime and Punishment — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.
Sign in to start a conversation.