In 2016, the novel F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" will turn 150 years old. Written as a warning, it does not lose its relevance today. The work shows what baseness a person is capable of, if there is no faith in his soul, so one should not justify the hero’s fall in the notorious social injustice when he has to write an essay based on the novel. “Crime and Punishment” is about another.
Detective program
Young Dostoevsky was sentenced to death for participation in the Petrashevsky circle , which was replaced only with hard labor. And all the subsequent time, the writer was busy searching for the meaning of life, which he found in God and love for his neighbor.
When this is not in a person, it means that he believes that everything is allowed, because there is nothing and no one to be afraid of. So the author laid in his novel “Crime and Punishment”, an essay on which is provided in school, a possible way to save a person.
The author chose the genre of the detective not in order to interest the reader, but for psychological comparison: the investigator is a criminal. There are no secrets: from the first pages it is clear who and why is plotting villainy.
The main idea of the novel can be interpreted as follows: the salvation of the soul is only in Christ, and the life of man, even the most worthless, is inviolable.
Everyone has the same right to life
"The Image of Raskolnikov" is the most common theme on the
works of Dostoevsky, on which schoolchildren write an essay. “Crime and Punishment,” many see as a novel only about this hero. Of course, this is the central image. But the abundance of twins next to him (this is Porfiry Petrovich, and Petr Petrovich Luzhin, and Arkady Svidrigailov, and even the murdered Alena Ivanovna) creates a polyphony and enhances the sound of the main thought: many people have unrighteous thoughts and a desire to live well, but not everyone goes kill old women.
In the essay on Raskolnikov, one must give the meaning of his first name, patronymic, last name. Compare it with all doubles. Identify the cause of the theory that led to the crime. Explain the causes of torment after the murder. And to conclude what the hero came to through such trials.
About those whom the "environment is stuck"
The original title of the conceived novel was "Drunken", and Marmeladov was supposed to be the main character. But an ordinary drunkard with all his sins is not as terrible for society as the ideological killer Raskolnikov, so we have another book on the shelves: F.M. Dostoevsky, "Crime and Punishment." An essay about Marmeladov is usually written within the framework of the theme of “little people”, that is, about those who are “stuck in the environment”, traditional for Russian literature of that time.
The great writer has his own attitude to this issue. He does not consider poverty an excuse for abomination. Yes, Marmeladov did not personally kill anyone, but pushed his own and beloved daughter to a spiritual crime. He well understood the baseness of his behavior, suffered from this, but only drank and cried.
Salvation in Faith
Whatever theories Raskolnikov may justify his crime, terrible in cruelty, but his main sin is pride. And the disease after the murder is not connected with repentance, but with fear for oneself and the fact that he turned out to be a weak person. And then a meeting with Sonya.
He considered her a match for himself, the same criminal. But about her with compassion and understanding will be imbued with the composition. “Crime and Punishment” in the image of Sonya Marmeladova gives hope to all sinners. Extraordinary powers will be born in her humility, and hope will be gained in reading the Bible. She knows the lines of the resurrection of Lazarus by heart and endlessly believes that this is possible with everyone. Love for people and forgiveness for Sonya are as natural as breathing.
Petersburg partner
In the novel, in addition to heroes, there is also an image of the city. And you can write an essay about him. “Crime and Punishment” shows Petersburg not as the northern capital, which Pushkin admired, but as a dirty, offensive labyrinth. If the courtyards, then surely similar to wells, if the stairs, then black and drenched in slops.
It seems that in this city it is hard to breathe and it is precisely because of the lack of life-giving air that crazy ideas come into people's heads. And Petersburg sees everything, knows everything, but is silent.
Detailed descriptions of streets, houses, room interiors, smells and colors allow the reader not only to imagine, but also to feel the fetid atmosphere of tenement houses. In the work on this topic, it is necessary to answer the question of what Dostoevsky says. “Crime and Punishment” is a multifaceted, polyphonic composition. Each living and nonliving image plays its part.
Topics Overview
Probably, the fact that the novel is included in the compulsory secondary education program in literature contributed to the popularization of his research. Few classics have such an extensive list of themes. If you write an essay based on the novel Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov will not be the only hero of interest. Even within the framework of one training course, you can find more than a dozen different formulations. So what and about whom do they write more often in connection with the work of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky?
If about the heroes, then this:
- Dreams of Raskolnikov.
- Internal monologues: role and significance.
- Confession and repentance.
- The capitalists Luzhin and Svidrigailov.
- The image of the investigator.
As for the general analysis of the novel Crime and Punishment, the themes of the compositions are usually found as follows:
- Biblical (gospel) motives.
- The landscape function in the novel.
- The originality of the plot and composition.
- About national features and the Russian idea.
- In search of justice.
- Psychology of the novel.
The interpretation of the problems of “Crime and Punishment” can be varied, in order to write a worthy essay on this novel, one must read it carefully.