Crime and Punishment Lecture 1 PDF

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Lecture one on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment in ENGL305 2018. ...

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Crime and Punishment- Lecture 1.

16/05/18

Raskolnikov- Claustrophobic world that he finds hard to escape. Irrationality, darkest corners of the human mind Starts living exclusively in the world of ideas. Psychological terminology. Film directed by L. Kuludzanov -Man being chased, Jumps off a bridge ito the water. In the city the book takes place. The same structures used. -Inner monologue. Wakes up from a dream. Lives in St. Petersburg. -Mix between what’s real and what’s in his head. Really shows the state of mind in which he lives. Builds a number of events that add to his states of paranoia, nightmare, etc. The film restructures the plot of the novel. Flashbacks, etc. State where he is in between dream and reality. He can’t differentiate between reality and dream, loses touch with reality. In the book, he does not throw himself off the bridge- that’s a dream. Introduced in the film, so early on. Pseudo-suicide- notion of self-destructiveness that this personality has. Suicide out of desperation- not in the book, dostoyevsky’s thinking. The point is to go through spiritual remorse and revival. The point is to not commit suicide- otherwise it would be a very shallow moral message. Even a hardened criminal, bright young student who decides to kill, who nourishes and nurses the idea as an idealogical murder- to show how difficult the road to inner rehabilitation is. Fedor Dostoyevsky: Writer and Thinker- 1821-1881. Tragic Life and Novel-tragedies (what Crime and Punishment is classed as) •

Sentenced to death and pardoned- for political reasons.

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Rebirth – physical and spiritual in his life

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10 years of exile, penal servitude- Lived side by side with criminals, removed from society for 10 years. Allowed him to deepen his understanding of what really matters in life of society and people.

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Brilliantly started carrier came to an abrupt end

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Philosophical and religious rebirth

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Reading Scriptures in Siberia

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Socialist-utopian became a religious thinker and supporter of monarchy

Religion and Politics

He arrives at the conclusion that even those of the highest thought can end up as criminals. –e.g. in Crime and Punishment. He decides to think differently- deters from the norms of what is acceptable in society. •

Intertwining of philosophical-religious thinking with politics and society as a result of personal experience

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Who are the best people among the Russian nation? Paradoxical conclusion: in prison, in Siberia he decides that the most talented part of the Russian simple folk ended up as criminals

In a time where thinking was about inborn criminality, criminal anthropology- classifying of criminals, was coming to the surface. –Looking at what causes criminality- looking at primitive, Darwinian evolution- those who are left behind. Racist- people classified as having criminal ties in their DNA. It looks absurd to us today- e.g. judging by face about criminality. Even about being prone to prostitution. It was accepted as science at the time. But Dostoyevsky had experience with criminals- the border between criminal and not criminal was thought. Extraordinary thought. Thinking about crime and punishment •

What is crime? Who determines what crime is? Society? In whose interests they create these categories, in legal terms.

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If there are no rules, there is such a thing as a crime.

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Every individual society can create its own categories and definitions of crime.

Thinking about Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary- is crime mentioned? Is suicide classed as crime? It was accepted by society- so common. In Christian views it is a sin, but is it a crime? Suicide epidemic at the time. Heroic suicide is condemned. Extraordinarily thin line between crime and sin. Society has meaningful, useful punishment for crime. Murder in Christian traditions- Cain punished for the first murder in the bible- exiled, not killed so he had to live with what he had done. First 19th C writer who does not sympathise with the detective who is as clever as the criminal himself. Someone who is showing ineffectiveness of the whole system of punishment that the society has invented. In order to do that, one had to have had a personal experience as D. had. Seeing the humane ordinary side of the people, they are not monsters, something happened in a moment that triggered the crime. And even people who have committed the crime remained religious, and believed that God would forgive them for their crime. God plays a role in the notion of remorse. We are no longer dealing with societal norms and liberal codes. People who have been punished by the society- the hardest crimes- still believe that in their Christian faith, the all forgiving Christian God, He will forgive them and they will have a place in the afterlife.

Why the film chooses to show us R. throwing himself off the bridge. Something he has anticipated doing, but he won’t do. A totally different path for the main character- self-punishment, gesture of utmost pride, not humility, taking charge of your own life that was created by God, Dostoyevsky spares him from doing that- unlike Tolstoy and Flaubert who did it to both their heroines. Thinking of examples of crime •

Is theft a crime? If a person steals because he/she is hungry, or his/her children and elders are starving, in whose interest theft is a crime?

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Crime and Sin – what is the dynamic?

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Murder – is it a crime and a sin?

Crime, sin and commandments •

Crime, sin and religious thinking becomes grounded in the specific political situation in Russia in the 1860s

The politics in the book are quite concealed, but it is a very political book. D. is trying to analyse what motivates young people’s political radicalism and what they live for. In D’s politics, it wasn’t as radical as the young people. Something happened during his years of exile, he become a staunch monarchist. A defender of the system. He starts thinking that the radicalism in the form of terrorism (professionalised terrorism)- he didn’t believe it was the way to go. It kills loved people, murder not good. Radicals had loss of religious faith, loss of fear of God. •

Nihilism, terrorism - politics

First purpose- redistribution of land, constitutional changes, all ideas that are now associated with democracy, but how they acted, their assassination plans, etc. (1881- a year of someone assassinated). He didn’t live to see the event that took place in March, 1881. What really culminated in that assassination were many attempts- looking into the beginnings of these activities, is what D. was looking into. •

Nihilism, terrorism and murder and assassination for political reasons and the good of the society

N’s point is to prove that humanity is divided into ordinary and exceptional. The thinking was people leave a mark on history- he names a few in the book, they committed huge crimes (Napoleon and the war he started took so many lives), but he developed the theory that the whole of human history is filled of infinite numbers of people with great minds. They all did things that weren’t kind, that lead to millions and millions of victims. This idea becomes something that he decides to test. Who does he belong to? Those who are important, intelligent and can leave their mark, or just one of the undecided ordinary people who really accept their circumstances and do not leave any mark in the history of humanity. Who else divided humanity like this? –Hitler. He viewed the Aryan race as perfect- blonde hair, blue eyes. The ruthlessness that is allowed in the name of the great aim. Justifying the means for the end goal.

‘Crime and Punishment’ •

The response: if there is no God then everything is permitted, including murder

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Another religious idea: suffering is the defining feature of Russian orthodox Christianity

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Simple Russian people, peasants forgive criminals because they see it as a condition through suffering and to salvation

The novel •

The novel is focused on the solution of the enigma: the mystery of Raskolnikov’s motivation for murder

What it is all about is not social injustices; it is about enormous pride of an intellectual, thinks of an idea and wants to try it out. This was common of the time; they started in ideas and ended up in wars. It was not about money or territories, it was about constructing an ideology and discourse- one that involved art, films, literatureto create the idea of superiority- allowed to subordinate, use or kill those they viewed as lower. •

Built in clues are false in the sense that they lead away from the true answer to R’s motivation

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But the motivations are not false in any absolute sense (as is the more usual confusion of an innocent person with a guilty one)

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Built into the narrative is a view of how it should be read which is an integral part of its antiradical theme

Trying to overcome the law. Killing an old woman as a test. Ideologically based, fascist, Nazi-regime. Re-evaluate- the huge fade in relevance. While it was all hypothetical, extra, in literature, it was curious and interesting, attention was paid by psychologists, psycho-analysts. Freud looked up to D’s novels, read them, was influenced by them. The chronology of events •

The novel begins ‘in media res’, two and a half days after the murder

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Duration of 2 weeks -all the events of the book.

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Time expands and contracts freely according to R-ov’s subjective perception ( delirium, dream, fainting)

Time is a very subjective category. In reading the novel, you read through the mind of R. Flashbacks, repetitions. •

But the structure of the novel is not that of R’s consciousness

The meaning of the opening scene •

The opening section is a subtle construction with various thematic strands

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At the centre is R-ov’s inner conflict: torn between the intention to commit a crime in the interests of humanity and the resistance of his moral conscience against the taking of human life

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R. is a sensitive young intellectual with his instinctive impulses of compassion for the suffering he sees around him.

The conception of the ‘strange idea’ •

His self-revulsion at his own intentions

This motivation is he wants to prove to himself that killing the woman- a nasty woman. Aim and means. Good and noble aim- to help his sister and mother. •

Why not to kill an old rapacious money-lender and use the funds to alleviate human misery so omnipotent in R’s world?

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The idea was dawning in his mind when he hears it uttered by a student and young officer in a casual conversation

The idea can enter the mind of anyone- is already there in the air. •

Set in a recreational public places, this scene shows how widespread such ‘strange ideas’ were

Intellectual and societal trend. The role of St Petersburg •

The depiction of the Petersburg background in the novel is important

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Motivating and contributing factor to R’s crime

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D. depicts this urban environment as the place of human poverty.

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D. accentuates the squalor and human wretchedness that pass through R’s eyes and sensibility

Encounter with Marmeladov Intensifies the novel and helps R actually go and do it. He may have just kept thinking about it for a long time afterward. But this event spurred him to follow it through. •

City as the space of streets filled with pothouses, brothels, and reeling drunkards

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Encounter with Marmeladov – his story embodied for R-ov everything that he finds intolerable: poverty, degradation

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Marmeladov’s story: he and his family are kept by the income earned by his prostitute daughter, Sonya

Influenced by Dicken’s- melodramatic nature of his novels, the connection between Dicken’s London and St Petersburg- the poverty, brothels, shedding a tear for the misery and suffering people went through. Marmeladov’s family plays this role. The name- irony, a sweet name, Marmalade- the sweet jam. But he accepts money from his prostitute daughter because he doesn’t have a job, even though his daughter is selling herself.

Showing society as incredibly injust, but also drunken Marmaladov feeling sorry for himself while his daughter is a sex worker- not attractive quality. There are people who can climb out of circumstances. Prepared to go through a challenge. –especially nowadays, but Marmeladov revels in his sorrow and makes a living out of it. Self-indulgent, self-pity. Melodramatic story, but D is not sympathetic towards him. Psychological nuance here. We all notice certain behaviour in people. D’s understanding of people is nuanced. Not to accept the world in a very simplistic black and white term but to analyse human behaviour. Some people derive pleasure out of those situations.

Marmeladov story •

On the level of the plot Marmeladov story only strengthens R-ov’s desire to act against the misery that surrounds him

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On the ideological level D. uses the encounter to introduce an alternative set of values: selfsacrifice, humility, meekness, faith in God as represented by Sonya’s life –opposites of R’s arrogance, atheism, leadership, desire to stand above the crowd.

In terms of pairings- Sonya and R. It is through her humility that D shows that R has a chance. Marmeladov-Raskolnikov •

Yet, Dunya’s plight also contributes to R’s motivation to kill: the aim justifies the means

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Yet again, on the doubling level, Dunya’s self-sacrifice – to marry the tight fisted lawyer Luzhin is a form of accepted prostitution

–to get financial security, help her mother, help her brother. Legalised prostitution in the bourgeois society. •

R’s becomes Marmeladov if he accepts living of Dunya’s money earned through her marriageunexpected comparison. Not on the surface, but draws the analogy between bourgeois marriage and prostitution.

His sister Dunya. Prepositioned to be married to a man she doesn’t love. Every hero has another character that mirrors them. the duplication helps us to understand what is happening. Doubles in the novel •

Raskolnikov – Marmeladov (living off women)

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Dunya – Sonya (prostitution and marriage)

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Raskolnilov – Svidrigailov (criminals)

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Svidrigailov – Luzhin (petty version)

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Raskolnikov – Dunya – two sinners

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Pawnbroker, her sister and the horse in Raskolnikov’s dream

Napoleonic idea •

R’s ‘strange idea’ is shared by other young men (scene in the tavern)

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Yet, we will learn in Part III that R wrote an article ‘On Crime’ some 6 month before the action in the novel

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The article divides people into ordinary and extra-ordinary (Newton, Kepler (two scientists), Lycurgus, Solon (Contributers to jewish movements), Muhammad, Napoleon (mass ambitions))

Monumental ideas. Together they make an interesting article. Those who contribute to law, science, aestheistic view of the universe, maybe challenge God, and a famous religious personality- seen as the last prophet if you think in history of religions. Muhammad was also a warrior, who led, also prepared to be a missionary. We really have an interesting mix of people who made a massive impact on religion, law, science and war. Categories of endeavour. Extraordinarily important in terms of impact on our lives, on the history of humanity. People of compromise and compromised ethic and moral standing. 

The Utilitarian logic gets expressed in the tavern scene in Part I but gets linked to Raskolnikov’s article ‘On Crime’ in Part III

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The narrative suspence technique: the reader is guessing what are the reasons for R’s crime

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Contradictions of character: altruism, sentimentality and compassion (horse beating scene, money to Marmeladovs) and the moments of utter disgust at the poor and miserable (‘let them devour each other alive – what is it to me?’)

Extraordinary people commit crimes •

Extraordinary people commit crimes for the betterment of humanity and also for their own egotism

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A form of Utilitarianism – a radical doctrine, based on the idea rationality and political economy: poor do not deserve better lives because they are not worth it

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Aspects of Darwinism: only the fittest will survive, the law of nature transposed into society (‘a certain percentage, they tell us, must very year go that way … it must be so that freshen up the rest and leave them in peace’)

The role of his article •

The function of the article on Crime thus is dual: structural, to keep suspense;

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Fundamental: his authorship serves as a hint and proof to the investigator Porfiry...