Crime and Punishment is not your typical detective story. The bulk of it is a detailed exploration of human nature as it comes to be seen not only in Raskolnikov but in practically every character. Philosophy is one of many social sciences that dedicate themselves to studying human nature and, by extension, communities they form and human behavior within those groups. Throughout Crime and Punishment, we find bits and pieces of various philosophies/ thoughts/ideologies circulating in Petersburg’s intellectual circles of the time. I invite you to explore one (or more) of these philosophies in your short response paper.
To give more foundation to your work, I suggest working on the following excerpts:
Part II: Ch 5 (conversation between Luzhin, Raskolnikov, Razumikhin, and Zossimov) — you can choose any part of it to analyze
Part III: Ch 5 (conversation between Porfiry Petrovich, Raskolnikov, and Razumikhin) — utopian socialist ideas (especially their view on crime in society), Raskolnikov’s theory, and Razumikhin’s idea (would you say that his life values are more in sync with Russian Orthodox tradition?)
How does this idea/philosophy/thought/ belief come to be expressed: what words, tropes, metaphors, examples are used? Who voices it? Does the who and how matter? How is this conversation/this excerpt related to the global questions of the work, and what might those questions be? Do these conversations and philosophies they express help us understand the characters and novel better? How so?
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