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Raskolnikov Suffering

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In his novel, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky argues that people must accept the sins of their past and understand the sequential consequences they must endure in order to feel and live freely again. He explores the relationship between the protagonist, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov -- a well known, poverty-stricken drunkard -- the sins that he has committed, and how he deals with them. Guilt makes people go insane. They start to question right from wrong and do not know how to act accordingly. The interest of Raskolnikov’s life is centered around the murders of both Alyona Ivanova and her sister Lizaveta. Dostoevsky writes of Raskolnikov as two-faced, cold and antisocial yet also warm and compassionate. After murdering the two sisters, …show more content…

Dostoevsky sets Raskolnikov upon a path of most resistance to moving on with his life. When Raskolnikov confesses his transgression of the law to Sonia Marmeladova, he feels a small weight lifted off of his shoulders, which in turn helps him to think about the future with a clearer vision than he had before. Sonia is represented as someone who is loving understanding in order to offset the characteristics of the new Raskolnikov, “Suffer and expiate your sins by it, that’s what you must do” (361). He and Sonia represent two halves of society's way of dealing with the past, present, and future. In life, people will either accept what they have done and try to move past the situation that is holding them back, or they will continue to struggle with what they have done and will take most of their life trying to accept the consequences. As a character, Raskolnikov is tied so close to his past and the sins that he committed, that until he met Sonia he was not able to see clearly in the slightest. Sonia is what Raskolnikov must become in order to proceed throughout the rest of his

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