Schisms and Divisions in Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment demonstrates Dostoevsky's keen awareness of the society in which he lived. He knew well the chasm between the many have-nots and the few wealthy, as well as the tensions between the Westernizers (who wanted Russia to become more European) and the Slavophiles (who thought the best path for Russia was a return to its Slavic roots.). He had firsthand knowledge of what his character, Raskolnikov, would have experienced being sentenced to a labor camp in Siberia. Dostoevsky also discovered increasing radicalism among young people, including the rise of a political movement popularly called "nihilism," which was based on utilitarian thinking and rejection of religious faith. In its most radical form, Russian nihilism rejected all institutions and laws—it was a complete abrogation of everything that Russian people had believed and practiced for centuries. The novel reflects both the appeal and the limitations of this way of thinking. It shows us the tremendous injustice in 19th-century Russian society, while also suggesting that the rejection of every aspect of this social structure is not the way to create justice.

This is a complex and lengthy literary work about a young man torn in conflicting directions. On one hand instinctively compassionate and kind, Raskolnikov is also coldly intellectual and aloof. The crime he seems to have been contemplating for a long time occurs at the end of Part 1. Punishment fills the rest of the novel; although his mind insists that the old woman he killed was barely human and the world was better off without her, he is wretchedly unhappy and caught in what he sees as a kind of cat-and-mouse game with the authorities. His confession, conviction, and deportation to Siberia comes as a relief, and the novel’s conclusion implies but does not fully explain his redemption as a human being.

The three lessons in this unit stress the polarizations that dominate the novel: characters torn by opposing tendencies; theories that separate ordinary people from the extraordinary; disconnects between intellect and emotion; societal divides that formed the fermenting mixture that led to revolution half a century later.

• For information on the life of Dostoyevsky as contextual background to teaching the novel see PDF #1.
• For tips on how to handle Russian names and notes on Russian culture in the 19th-century see PDF #2.

Choose a topic about which Dostoevsky demonstrates polarization or division in Crime and Punishment. Write an essay to demonstrate how the author's treatment of the topic underpins a theme or central idea of his novel. Provide specific textual evidence, including carefully chosen quotations from the text, to support your analysis.

Worksheet 8. Final Assessment Rubric provides a tool for both student writing and teacher evaluation.

• Find and examine a significant example of situational or dramatic irony in the novel. Then write an essay in which you explain how that irony functions within the story as a whole.
• Make a list of different crimes that you see in the novel. You can interpret the idea of crime very broadly: so, for example, Luzhin’s attempt to ruin Sonia by accusing her of theft can be seen as a kind of crime, even though he did nothing punishable by law. Pick two of these crimes and write an essay comparing them. How are these crimes punished? What does the comparison of these two crimes tell us about the social world of Crime and Punishment?
• Create and present a dramatic monologue from Raskolnikov’s point of view or from that of another character at a specific point in the story. Dress appropriately for your role.
• Analyze similarities and differences between the ways two or more translators render a specific section of the text; consider how differences affect readers’ responses.

Additional Resources

Translations for Crime and Punishment

• For many years, the translation by Constance Garnett, published by The Modern Library (Random House), has been a classroom staple. It is also available online;
• Some commentators prefer the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhovsky, which sticks very close to Dostoevsky’s original Russian. It is also published by Random House (1991);
• Still another popular choice is the translation by David McDuff (Penguin Books, 2003).

Film adaptations of Crime and Punishment

Several recent film adaptations of the novel are available, some more useful than others. Selected clips from one or more versions can be more useful than showing an entire film.

• Crime and Punishment (2002): film adaptation produced by Crime and Punishment Productions Limited, starring Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Vanessa Redgrave, and Margot Kidder;
• Crime and Punishment (2002): television serial produced by the BBC, starring John Simm and Ian McDiarmid;
• Crime and Punishment (1998): television movie produced by Hallmark Entertainment and NBC Studios, starring Patrick Dempsey, Ben Kingsley, and Julie Delpy.