Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The youth exuberance that blossomed in his mind had brought Raskolnikov to an idea of dividing men into two categories: ordinary and extraordinary. His idea was somehow influenced by his view on how Napoleon and other men of history overstepped the law because they had the right to shed blood.

Raskolnikov knew that he was an intelligent fellow and he wanted to prove that an extraordinary man like he could overcome all the obstacles to do what he deserved to do.

With the setting of his unfortunate economy, he saw that the useless human being like the pawnbroker lady who tortured the poor must vanish from the earth. He began to take his idea to trial where he got his luck all the way, even after the slaughter was done. He was trembling, though, when he swung the weapon into the lady's head. But then he felt a cold shivering, a sensation that was new to him. Unfortunately, he had to shed more blood. It was of the lady's sister, who came home at the very hour. He thought about robbing the lady but it was never meant to be his ultimate goal. So he took the lady's purse for his security in the future.

The story is very intense and rightly paced. There was this complication with several characters, including the mother and Dounia, the sister of Raskolnikov, Mr. Luzhin, his sister's fiancé, Mr. Svidrigailov, an old man who fell in love deeply with her, Razumihin, a fellow from the university, Mr. Porfiry, a sharp lawyer who haunted him with a psychological war, police and clerks, and Sonia, a very young lady who later took an amount of role in his self-renewal.

The conflict rather lies in how he sees himself as a criminal or the one who's done his duty. His inner argument where he had to run away or confess brings us to the horror of what the future offers. The time when he was on the edge, before the lawyer, someone came up confessing himself as a murderer. He was secured but also cornered by Mr. Porfiry to be able to catch him unguarded. 

At the end, he confessed all his doing after a small conversation with his lover and an apology he made on the crossroad in front of the crowd. He went there, to the police office, meeting the one he wanted to say the truth. But it was paused for he heard a news of Mr. Svidrigailov's suicide. He walked out of the room. But once he saw Sonia followed him and stood silent by the building, he ran back to Mr. Ilya and said the same thing twice: it was I who murdered.