Crime and Punishment

4 Pages 935 Words

A highly used theme in the book crime and punishment is alienation. Raskolnikov alienates himself from society because he feels as if he is “superior” to others. He feels as if he doesn’t need to relate with others because of his superiority. After murdering Lizaveta and Alyona Ivanova, Raskolnikov isolates himself because he feels guilty. Raskolnikov sees himself as a being a superman, and is above all rules that govern society. Raskonikov probably thought he was extraordinary when he wrote the Ubermensch theory. Murdering Alyona, the pawnbroker led him to believe it was right and he gained his superiority through that. But he was unable to cover up his emotions of guilt. Many situations throughout the book proved this, such as when he was at the police station and the fresh paint smell led him to faint because it reminded him of the murders. According to Raskolnikov’s theory, he thought the reason he committed the crime was because he thought he as superior. After!
committing the crime, he became ill, either the crime commited makes you become ill, or illness makes you commit the crime. Raskolnikov thought he was helping the society by his right to eliminate unneeded people. But he felt guilt from murdering Lizaveta out of fear. This was the guilt that led him to become ill. Raskolnikov did change the world, but nobody benefited from it. This proves that Raskolnikov is not a superior man, because he could not overcome his guilt. He could be superior, if repressed his feelings of guilt. Raskolniklov’s theory states there are tow types of people in the world, “ordinary” men and “extraordinary” men. “Ordinary” men have no right to reshape the laws because they are not superior, yet “extraordinary” men has the right because he is superior. Raskolnikov refers to Napoleon as being superior because he overcame many great obstacles to become
superior. Raskolnikov did not become superior beca...