Individualism and Christianity in Crime and Punishment

           Crime and Punishment, written in 1866 by Fyodor Dostoevsky, was an allegory of the times in which it was published through its examination into the psychology, spirituality, and social customs of his fellow Russians. Russia, a country in the grips of great poverty and suffering, was recovering from a recent war and the freeing of the serfs. Many Russians’ ideologies had evolved to revolutionary ideas of bringing down the entire social order, including the church. A Christian Existentialist, Dostoevsky always had a soft spot for the lowest economic classes, spending much of his own life in poverty and debt. He was critical of Individualist ideologies, which valued the wellbeing of the individual over that of the nation, and believed that his homeland would find salvation through Christianity. In Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky uses his protagonist Raskolnikov as a conduit in an attempt to enlighten his readers of the consequences that Individualism bestows on the individual and society, as well as the redeeming powers of Christianity.
           At the onset of the novel, Raskolnikov, an impoverished atheistic ex-student living in the slums of St. Petersburg, Russia, conspires a plot to murder an old moneylender for what he believes to be a higher purpose. If a great man, a Napoleon, had to commit one murder, or even 100 murders in pursuit of a great cause, Raskolnikov reflects, he is permitted, perhaps even obliged to do so. He believes himself to be one of these great men, a Nietzschean “superman,” and therefore permitted to commit this horrendous crime. Raskolnikov’s once sharp mind now harbors many such oppositional views. However, after the murder, the catalyst to his transformation, his egotistical views are shattered when he begins to suffer from devastating physical and mental illnesses; he is not the extraordinary man he thought himself to be. His mind turns to a violent, tumultuous state of delirium; “His reason had grown feeble, broken apart . . . his mind grown darkened” (Dostoevsky, 111). Raskolnikov’s personal suffering, a result of the guilt he experiences, relates directly to the growing societal corruption, spawned by Individualistic ideologies, that Dostoevsky foresaw his country headed toward.
           The parallel that Dostoevsky has drawn is this: Individualism in a man results in personal ruin; Individualism in a nation results in a similar national disorder. Radical social ideals that sought to bring down the entire social order were not uncommon throughout Russia at the time Crime and Punishment was written. The protagonist’s physical and mental health continue to deteriorate steadily as he struggles with his guilt. This is the direction Dostoevsky saw his country headed in. It is no mere coincidence that Alyona Ivanova, the old woman who is the target of Raskolnikov’s murder, is a moneylender. Dostoevsky was critical of the capitalist tendencies that were making its way into the contemporary Russian society. The lower classes of Russian society, many of whom lacked even the most essential rights, were continually being oppressed by greedy businessmen looking to expand their vast wealth. A commonality among all the wealthy characters in Crime and Punishment, such as Svidrigailov, a suspected murderer and pursuer of Raskolnikov’s sister Dunya, and Pyotr Luzhin, the businessman who also intends to marry Dunya, is their moral depravity, an obvious attempt by Dostoevsky to reveal the nature of the capitalist. For instance, Svidrigailov, after overhearing Raskolnikov confess his crime to Sonya, tries to blackmail Dunya into marrying him by threatening to turn Raskolnikov in to the police. Likewise, Luzhin, after he is humiliated by Raskolnikov and turned down by Dunya, attempts to frame Sonya of thievery in order to feel superior once again. These characters are shown to be greedy, and lack any compassion for their indigent contemporaries.
           As Dostoevsky exposed the crisis among Russians, he also proposed a solution. If Individualism destroys man, Christianity redeems him. In Russian, “Raskolnik” is a word for a religious dissenter. These Raskolniks, like Raskolnikov himself, generally sought to oppose society, authority, and civil laws. Raskolnikov’s lack of faith in God has led him astray, led him to develop Individualist ideas about himself. Only from his dreams of happiness, eminence, and renown can he draw meaning from life. “Existence on its own had never been enough for him; he had always wanted more than that” (Dostoevsky, 648). However, as he comes to understand Sonya, the daughter of the civil servant Marmeladov, whose drinking has driven her into prostitution to support her family, Raskolnikov learns that God makes life inherently meaningful. This is why, standing at the mouth of a river, Raskolnikov decides not to jump in to his death, but instead to turn himself in. Like a martyr, he goes boldly to receive his punishment and his confession thereby acts to purge his conscience of any sin. “Go immediately, this very moment, go and stand at the crossroads, bow down, first kiss the whole ground that you’ve desecrated, and then bow to the whole world, to all four points of the compass and tell everyone, out loud: ‘I have killed!’ Then God will send you life again” (Dostoevsky, 501). Learning from Sonya’s example, Raskolnikov commits himself to suffering and, though he is sentenced to eight years of penal servitude in exile, redeems himself. He acknowledges his sins, and accepts a Christ-like suffering in an attempt to atone for them. As he embraces God, Raskolnikov’s mind is assuaged, and, Dostoevsky implies, Christianity would have a similar healing effect on Russia as a whole. Both Sonya and Raskolnikov recognize the purpose of Raskolnikov turning himself in. It is, as Raskolnikov says when Sonya hangs a crucifix around his neck, “to symbolize my taking up the cross” (Dostoevsky, 623).
           This journey resulting in spiritual rebirth was not altogether a fictional idea of Dostoevsky’s. In many ways, Crime and Punishment is written from Dostoevsky’s own experiences, and the transformation that Raskolnikov experiences reflects a similar renewal in religious faith that Dostoevsky himself endured. Like Raskolnikov, he too harbored radical ideals and was even condemned to death for his participation in anti-government activities. However, after being pardoned moments before his execution, his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for eight years. He emerged from exile humbled, and with a new set of conservative and extremely religious values. Much as he saw this as his own salvation, he also thought this to be the remedy for his disgruntled nation. In Raskolnikov Dostoevsky showed his new uncompromising faith, because to Raskolnikov he offers absolute proof. If Raskolnikov had been right in his Individualistic assumptions, after the crime he would have been happy; but instead he is in anguish, and to Raskolnikov, that is proof of God’s existence. The closing line of the book, in effect, summarizes the theme of the novel: “the story of a man’s gradual renewal, his gradual rebirth, his gradual transition from one world to another, of his growing acquaintance with a new, hitherto completely unknown reality” (Dostoevsky, 656).
           Based on his own personal struggles, Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment as an admonition to the rest of Russia. He warned of the path that Individualism would lead to, and advocated the benefits Christianity would have on the individual and the nation as a collective whole. Through Raskolnikov he showed the way to redemption. He warned of the corrupting effects of radical ideologies and capitalism. All this he had learned firsthand as he sat in a prison Siberia, where he contemplated his life and set aside his aspirations of personal success and renown, for the betterment of his nation.