Hi everyone (zdrastveti daragiya druzya)
Crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is the most famous Russian novel. In this video
I will summarize it, I will also tell you the philosophical ideas behind the story and some
unique storytelling techniques used in this novel. Before I tell you about the novel, let me tell
you one thing that shifted Dostoyevsky’s view of crime and criminals. He was exiled to
Siberia for his anti-government activity. While there he met a lot of intellectuals
but also a lot of petty criminals or working class criminals. He was blown away
by their honesty in accepting their guilt. Why? Because they had unburdened themselves by
getting solace from religion. Intellectuals on the other hand didn't see themselves guilty as
they didn't believe in any moral framework. And since they didn't believe in religion, they had
to somehow justify their actions. This contrast shifted Dostoyevsky’s opinion about the whole
crime. So this novel clearly shows that shift. I also want to define a term
to understand the novel. Self-referential: simply means that in the
absence of god man is the ultimate moral authority. This can apply to individuals as well
as states. For instance some countries don't abide by international rules because they think they are
either above those laws or they don't agree with them. but in this novel, self-referential applies
to Raskolnikov the protagonist of this novel. Crime and Punishment was published
in1866. You might be interested to know that 1860s was a very productive year
for Russian literature. Three of the most well-known Russian novels came out during
that decade. Turgenev’s fathers and sons, Tolstoy’s war and peace and Dostoyevsky’s crime
and punishment. Funnily enough all the titles are binary. Of course there other amazing novels came
out too but these are the most famous ones. Maybe in another video I will discuss why 1860s came
to be such a great decade in Russian literature. Now to our novel. Let me
summarize the novel first. Raskonikov is a former law student with big dreams
in Saint Petersburg. He wants to change the world. He wants to be like Napoleon. He wants to a great
figure in history. But his poverty means there is a big gap between his dreams and reality.
But recently he has learnt a few new ideas that have trickled down from Western Europe
to Russia. The first idea is utilitarianism developed by the English philosopher Jeremy
Bentham and later refined by Stuart Mill. Utilitarianism teaches the greatest
happiness for the greatest number of people. What Raskolnikov understands is that
sometimes bad actions can be justified if it benefits more people. End justifies
the means so to speak. But who can decide if an action can be justified by its own
means? Now here, Raskolnikov has learnt another idea. God is dead. In the absence
of God, extraordinary or great people, which he thinks he is one, can set their own
morality. What it means is that they cannot be held responsible for their actions under the
common moral or legal framework. This is called rationalism. These great extraordinary
people transcend moral and legal boundaries, which must have influenced Nietzsche’s idea
of will to power, but I’ll discuss that later. So our hero, Raskolnikov, is
loaded with these two ideas, A) end justifies the means and B) great people are
above morality and law, he sets his target on an old lady pawnbroker who exploits poor
people like him. He calls her a louse, a greedy woman who sucks the blood out of the
poor. So here Raskolnikov plays with the idea of socialism too as if her murder would be like
a bloody revolution, justified to create an equal society. For Raskolnikov her murder is the first
step to his great achievement. He wants to use the money to change his dire financial situation
and who knows perhaps change the world too. He’s ready. He has an axe as a physical weapon and two
philosophical justifications. What could go wrong? But here comes the big twist. After murdering
the pawnbroker, her sister shows up, to put a spinner in the works. Raskolnikov thinks he
has no choice so kills her too. This has shaken him a lot. A confident young man a moment ago,
now shakes like a willow tree. He steals some valuable but not as much as he wanted. He gets
to his room and develops fever and delirium. In the next few days, Raskolnikov goes back and
forth whether to confess his crimes to the police or not. This all depends on how much they know
or don't know. One day he returns to the scene of the crime, clearly trying to be caught,
but the next day he becomes rational again trying to save himself. It appears inside
him there is a titanic battle going on. One pushes him to confess his crimes to the
police. The other force, his western ideologies, tell him he is not guilty and has nothing to
confess. This is the most torturous periods in the young man’s life. He faints a few times.
He refuses to see his mother and sister when they show up in Saint Petersburg to see
him. In the midst of his internal turmoil he meets Sonya a prostitute whose father
was killed in an accident and Raskolnikov happened to be there. He gives his last bit of
money to help her with her father’s funeral. Raskolnikov feels a little humanity in her,
precisely because she is an outcast due to her profession as a prostitute. He feels they
are somehow the same in the eyes of society. Then Raskolnikov acts weird again. He
asks his best friend Razumkhin who seems have to guessed his secret crime, to take him
to the detective who investigates the murders. Here we meet DI Porfiry who digs up an article
Raskolnikov has written detailing his philosophy about extraordinary people and geniuses being
above the law. Raskolnikov senses the police knows something but passionately defends his
article and his ideas. Later he sees a shouting murder outside his apartment and disappears.
These are bad signs. Now his fever returns. When Raskolnikov visits Sonya the second
time, she reveals that the murdered sister of the pawnbroker was her best friend. Now
Raskolnikov hearing this, again has a shiver up his spine. Sonya also tells him how she
copes with her life as an outcast prostitute, a sinner and morally corrupt person in the eyes of
society. She says, her religious beliefs helps her cope better. Now hearing this Raskolnikov heads
to the police station. He’s about to confess but detective Porfiry is tormenting him or playing
a sort of game of cat and mouse with him. This annoys Raskolnikov so again he decides not to
confess. As they are talking, suddenly another man bursts into the police station and confesses
to the murders of the pawnbroker and her sister. Seeing this, Raskolnikov is let go again
and he thinks he can get away, after all. But the outside world is a terrifying
world and he can no longer hold it in, so he confesses his crime to the only person
he feels the closest. Sonya. What does she say? She tells him to go to the police right away.
She is devastated that he has been torturing himself for this long. She tells him the sooner
he confesses the sooner ends his self-torture. But a sinister man who is trying to
marry Raskolnikov’s sister has been listening too to the confession. He tries
to blackmail Raskolnikov to get his sister, but this backfires and the man commits suicide.
Now Raskolnkov’s sister also knows the truth. Raskolnikov decides it’s time to confess, but
Detective inspector Porfiry tells him he knows everything. This cocky attitude of the police
makes Raskolnikov to take a defensive attitude and again he tries to rationalize his decision
not to confess. But then Sonya appears with a cross and that seems to finally seal the deal
and Raskolnikov confesses to the two murders. He is sentenced to 8 years of jail time in
Siberia. Sonya follows him there, but it takes Raskolnikov some time in prison to fully feel
guilt. Finally his new philosophical principles have melted away, ironically in the harsh,
freezing winter of Siberia. He can finally sleep with a copy of the Bible. He’s free from Western
ideas and his own grand and dreadful dreams. So the circle is complete. Dostoyevsky turned
a pompous intellectual into a petty criminal arguing that no matter how educated or grandiose
your plans or thoughts are, we are all the same. We want comfort, mentally and physically. We all
need a security blanket, be it religion or art. Dostoyevsky prefers religion for Raskolnikov,
the only antidote to his western ideas. As I already discussed, Dostoyevsky questions
utilitarianism, rationalism and socialism as moral justification for selfish human actions. He is
saying that in order to achieve a world changing success smaller sacrifices aren’t okay. Napoleon
had created this myth of great men who did great things but they had to be ruthless. Dostoyevsky
suggests that Russians weren’t really ready for these big ideas. For the time being religion
was the best answer at the time of distress. I think the novel emphasizes responsibility
for one’s action. Modern humans have learnt to justify their actions based on some ideological
principles, i.e. socialism, utilitarianism, liberalism and rationalism. What Dostoyevsky
is saying, you should strip yourself of all those ideas and take a hard look at yourself.
In that sense it is a very existentialist novel. Nihilism is another theme of this novel. The
meaninglessness of modern life. We no longer believe in god and the religious doctrines
or divine power. We see ourselves as the ultimate power. And we know we are not
good at being that ultimate power. Why? Because we cannot be trusted. We get addicted to
certain things very quickly. Millions of people gamble, smoke, eat themselves to obesity, or
endless shopping. Dostoyevsky was warning us that individualism or humanism are great ideas
but in reality they make our lives empty of any substance as we crave things we want. We don't
need any divine justifications, so anything goes. In many ways Crime and Punishment is similar
to the Stranger by Albert Camus, a murder who doesn't know he is guilty. Or I should say the
Stranger is similar to Crime and Punishment, as it was written almost a century
later. A short story by Edgar Allen Poe also deals with this, The Telltale
Heart. It’s about guilt and torment. The white Tiger by Aravind Adiga which
I discussed in another video takes the same idea to modern day India, where Balram
justifies his murder on similar principles. So the moral of the story is that
don’t follow your dream at any cost. Dreams are good to have but they should remain
dreams, otherwise they might end up becoming nightmares. That’s what Dostoyevsky
is trying to articulate in this novel. Storytelling: Now let me tell about
the storytelling of this novel. Dostoyevsky takes the genre of crime and put
it upside down. Crime fiction works either by who has done it. How or why? Dostoyevsky cuts
the bullshit and tells us all those things at the very beginning of the novel. We know it’s
Raskolnikov. We know why he has murdered two women. And we know how he has done it. What’s
left is what goes on inside a criminal’s mind. So this story is from inside
out. His internal torment, anguish and finally confession. Dostoyevsky is
not interested in the identity of the killer. He is more interested in the humanity or the
darkness inside of that person. He’s like a geologist or archaeologist. He wants to know what
makes us human. I think this novel influenced a great many philosophers. I think Nietzsche was
heavily influenced by Dostoyevsky, especially his existential philosophy. Many French
existential philosophers such as Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault and Albert Camus, you can
trace their ideas back to Dostoyevsky. It’s a wonderful novel. One of my favourite
Russian novel. It’s terrifying, nerve-wracking, but also extremely rewarding. I
don't know why I am saying this. I have just spoiled the plot.
Ah well. Just read the language, for the craft and for the philosophical ideas and
for the great debates that go on in this novel. I hope you enjoyed this video. Please leave
a comment down below. Sposibo Bolshoi.