Although its many pages and complex themes and ideas may be frustrating for college students, there is no denying that Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment is nothing less than a masterpiece literary. It explores a myriad of themes: the psychology of crime, nihilism, poverty, the idea of ​​a "superman", transcendent Christian values, the journey to redemption, alienation from society. While isolation may not be as obvious as some of these other themes, it is of equal, perhaps even greater, importance. In fact, it can be said that it is isolation that drives Raskolnikov, the protagonist, to commit his crimes and then it is isolation that ultimately leads him to the beginning of his journey to redemption. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Raskolnikov, a poor student who harbors the nihilistic ideals that were rampant in St. Petersburg during his time, is in a severe period of isolation. He lives in relentless poverty that separates him from most of society. He has only one friend, Razumikhin, and does not appear to cultivate a close or meaningful relationship with Razumikhin. Even the relationship with his mother and sister is tense and distant. Furthermore, he has begun to subscribe to ideals that, by their very nature, will isolate him from society because they place little or no value on other human beings and place him in a different category than other human beings. Therefore, his isolation from society is both practical and ideological. Strangely, the very factor that led him to commit his horrendous crimes, isolation, is the concept that leads him to redemption. First, he must recognize the evil in his actions and feel remorse, regret, and guilt accordingly. Thus, he must repent of his crimes and suffer for his crimes as an act of restitution. These two processes will lead him to redemption, but they are internal battles. Ultimately, internal battles must be fought alone, they must be fought in isolation. Raskolnikov's isolation from society is demonstrated first of all in a practical sense. One of the very first things we learn about him is that he is "indebted to the landlady" and that he is "so badly dressed that another man, even one accustomed to it, would have been ashamed to go out in such conditions." rags during the day” (Dostoevsky 3-4). This is a description of a man who is enduring extreme poverty. Poverty, in itself, is something that creates distance and separation for a few simple reasons. First, a person living in poverty is a person who must spend most of their time and mental and physical energy trying to obtain and keep the basic things necessary for survival. This makes for a person who has little time or energy to devote to cultivating meaningful relationships. Furthermore, poverty is something that causes people to accept crime as something that is not that bad because it might be necessary for survival. In fact, one of the things that makes Raskolnikov's crime more attractive to him is the possibility of acquiring a little extra money. And crime necessarily dehumanizes or at least devalues ​​other people in the mind of the criminal, because it uses another person as a means to an end, rather than the person as an end in and of themselves. Therefore, Raskolnikov, as an extremely poor individual, is shown separated from society. A second example of Raskolnikov's isolation from society is his total lack of a social life. He is young, he is a student, he is described as handsome and intelligent. There is no reason why he shouldn't have friends and a relationshipromantic or two. But the only friend we are introduced to in this novel is Razumikhin and we note that Raskolnikov “had almost no friends while at university, kept aloof from everyone, visited no one and had difficulty receiving visitors;” however, "he became close to Razumichin, that is, not really close, but he was more sociable, more frank with him" (51). Their relationship is described as very tense and they argue often. At one point, during the illness that followed Raskolnikov's crimes, during which Razumikhin made great efforts to help him, they meet on a porch and are surprised to see each other and the exchange that follows is painfully filled with grief and anger: “So that's where you are!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. «Escaped from your sickbed! And I even looked for you under the sofa! We went to the attic! I almost hit Nastasya because of you... And that's where she is! Rodka! What is the meaning of this? Tell the whole truth! Confess! Do you understand?" "It means I'm tired of all of you and I want to be alone," Raskolnikov replied calmly. "Alone? When you still can't walk, when your face is white as a sheet and you can barely breathe! Stupid! …What were you doing in the 'Crystal Palace'? Confess it at once!" "Leave me alone!" - said Raskolnikov, and tried to pass. This made Razumikhin furious: he grabbed him firmly by the shoulder” (Dostoevsky 166). This is just one example of the bitter struggle between the two. The meaning here is that Razumikhin wants to help Raskolnikov overcome his illness and wants to be there for him, but Raskolnikov refuses to be alone; mother and his sister is similar to his relationship with Razumikhin. It is not as full of contempt and argumentation, but it is just as distant and just as tense. It is evident from the letter that his mother sends him, the contents of which include the details of a proposal wedding for his sister, who don't see or hear from each other often. In fact, he says that «I haven't spoken to you in writing for over two months now, and I myself have suffered from it, and I've also spent some sleepless nights thinking. But certainly you will not blame me for this involuntary silence of mine” (Dostoevsky 30). And then, he closes his letter with a somewhat sad sentiment: “Remember, my dear, in your childhood, when your father was alive, how you chattered your prayers sitting on my knees, and how happy we all were then! Goodbye, or rather, until our next meeting! I hug you very, very warmly and send you countless kisses” (39). These words indicate a removed, remote, formal relationship. The love that she and her daughter feel for Raskolnikov is evident ("Love your sister Dunya, Rodya; love her as she loves you, and know that she loves you infinitely, more than herself" [39]), but there is a longing for happier days. Raskolnikov's response to his mother's letter is strange: he is tormented by it (40). It doesn't send a loving response; instead, he becomes upset about his sister's potential marriage. He does not reciprocate the love of his mother and sister; he also isolates himself from his own family. To make his isolation even more severe, Raskolnikov distances himself from society on an ideological level. Begin to consider doctrines of nihilism that deny any meaning or value in life, people, or a deity. First we get the idea that he is playing with some new beliefs when he says "I want to try something like that, and at the same time I'm afraid of this nonsense!" He continues: "Hm... yes... the man has everything in his hands, and everything slips through his fingers out of pure cowardice" and then adds: "Am I really capable of this? Is it something serious? No, it's not serious at all. I'm just playing, for the sake of fantasy! (Dostoevsky 3-4).to which he refers is the crime he intends to commit. He finds nothing serious in it because the woman he will kill is "a stupid, insignificant, worthless, evil, sick old woman who is of no use to anyone and, on the contrary, harmful to everyone, who doesn't even know why she is alive" ( 65). He finds no intrinsic value in her; he then determined that “what he had plotted was not a crime” (71). Committing this crime is his way of experiencing the idea that people are worthless and worthless. Now, if he finds no intrinsic value in himself, other people, or the world around him, what would motivate him to cultivate a meaningful relationship with someone? There would be no reason, in reality; because if there is no value in another person, then there is certainly no value in a friendship, a romantic relationship, or a family relationship with another person, a person he deems worthless. Another aspect of nihilism that creates distance is the idea of ​​a "superhuman". Raskolnikov believes he is above the laws and rules that govern the rest of humanity. He is described as “immersed in himself” (Dostoevsky 3), “unaccustomed to crowds” (11) and in a scene where he converses with a drunk in a tavern, “at the first word actually addressed to him he suddenly felt his usual unpleasant and irritable feeling of repugnance towards any stranger who touched or simply wanted to touch his person” (12-13). His feelings of superiority are clear: “He was very poor and in a certain sense haughtily proud and unsociable, as if he kept something to himself. It seemed to some of his friends that he looked down on them all as children, as if he were ahead of them in development, knowledge, and beliefs, and that he regarded their beliefs and interests as something inferior" (51). He considers himself a kind of "superhuman", a person who is above the law and above others. Therefore, he places himself on a different level than other people, therefore he has no points in common with other people he considers himself separate from everyone, or at least from most other human beings, then he has no one to relate to. His ideology isolates him from others. So it is the isolation of his life, both practically and ideologically, that drives Raskolnikov to commit his crimes. He cannot relate to anyone because he sees people as useless or, at best, as a means to an end and because he sees himself on a different level than other people. Since people have no value to him, he sees nothing wrong with taking their lives, and since he believes himself to be some sort of "superhuman", he decides that he can live outside the universal rules of morality and decency and be a law . to himself. This is the role that isolation plays in the commission of Raskolnikov's crimes. But it is also isolation that leads him to suffer for his crimes, to feel guilty for his crimes, and, ultimately, to repent of his crimes and acknowledge his wrongdoings. So, we can say that although isolation led him to commit his crimes, it also helped him begin his journey to redemption. Almost immediately after his crimes, Raskolnikov begins to suffer. When he wakes up the morning after the murders, he is terrified that he has left evidence somewhere and will be discovered. He is especially nervous because “perhaps all his clothes were covered in blood, perhaps they were stained all over, and he simply did not see them, did not notice them” (Dostoevsky 91) and so, “cold and trembling, he began to take everything in and examine it more in depth” (89). He also fell seriously ill and “a terrible shiver seized him; but the chill was also caused by a high fevertime before in sleep. Now, however, he was suddenly seized by such a tremor that his teeth almost fell out and everything in him melted” (89). Furthermore, his illness is described as "a feverish state, with moments of delirium and semi-consciousness" (117). More important and more intense than his physical suffering, however, is his mental suffering. He experiences great emotional turmoil and confusion and "the belief that everything, even memory, even simple reason was abandoning him, began to torment him unbearably" (90). “What,” he says, “can already begin, the reckoning can come so soon” (91)? His anguish is extreme and is experienced in solitude. No one else can feel his physical illness and no one else can bear his mental torment. This aspect of isolation has a positive effect: it leads him to feel guilty for his sins, which brings him one step closer to the road to redemption. Despite all of Raskolnikov's suffering, it seems to take him some time before he feels guilty. Often he simply notes that he is physically ill and uses the excuse that the woman he killed was nothing more than a louse and a worthless person, and therefore there was nothing wrong with what he had done. Ultimately, however, suffering takes its toll. In one scene he is with his mother and sister and is arguing with his sister. In response to an accusation from him, she passionately shouts: “If I ruin someone, I will only be myself… I haven't stabbed anyone yet! …Why are you looking at me like that? Why did you become so pale? Rodya, what's wrong? Rodya, dear!" and Raskolnikov faints (233). When Dunya observes that there is no blood on his hands, Raskolnikov feels extremely uncomfortable, to the point of fainting, because he cannot say the same. In a later scene, Raskolnikov passes a man in the street who had asked for him. The man calls him a murderer. Raskolnikov murmurs a response, “barely audible” and then, “with slow, weakened steps, with trembling knees and as if he were terribly cold, Raskolnikov returned and climbed into his closet. He took off his cap, placed it on the table and remained motionless next to it for about ten minutes. Then, helplessly, he lay down on the sofa and painfully, with a faint moan, lay down on it; his eyes were closed. He remained like that for about half an hour” (272). Now that someone has confronted him with his evil deeds and adequately described his actions – as the murder of a person of worth – his guilt is. undeniable and his suffering, both physical and mental, is tremendous. Just like his suffering, his guilt is something he must experience for himself. No one can feel anyone else's guilt. Only those who suffer from guilt can truly feel it in its entirety. Raskolnikov feels guilty in loneliness; he is isolated in his suffering and he is isolated in his guilt and this is what allows him to repent of his crimes and recognize their immorality. Raskolnikov is finally driven to repentance by Sonya, his lover. She tells him to “go to the crossroads, bow before the people, kiss the ground, for you too have sinned before it, and say aloud to the whole world, 'I am a murderer!'” and he does, among a number of people who assume he is drunk (525). On the last page of the novel, Raskolnikov finally confesses his crime to the police official, Ilya Petrovich, with these words: "It was I who killed the official's old widow and her sister Lizaveta with an ax and robbed them" (531) . In the epilogue it is noted that he does nothing to defend himself or apologize for his actions and when asked what prompted him to confess, "he answered directly that it was sincere repentance" (536). Without Sonya's advice and encouragement, he may never have confessed.