and his disregard for his appearance. However, it is only later on in the novel that the reader is able to see the true redemption carried out on Raskolnikov’s part. The ultimate question that is raised in ‘Crime and Punishment’ is of how one is to live and what one is to live by, this is only answered, unfortunately, fragmentarily by the closing of the novel. The search for truth and self-fulfillment and the investigation of hidden motives are the main drives of the novel and are clarified at the outset. The intuitive understanding that Dostoyevsky had of the unconscious is manifested in the irrational behaviour of Raskolnikov and his obvious psychic suffering. The rage directed against the optimistic assumptions of rationalist humanism is passionate and strong and is introduced with courage in the first chapter. The themes of ‘Crime and Punishment’, however, can be amalgamated into a singular movement, that of existentialism. The stress on concrete individual existence and consequently on subjectivity, individual freedom and the right of choice.There are a total of three characters introduced in the first chapter. Although initially this may seem a small number, each of the roles are described with sufficient fluidity and depth that the reader is provided with a strong case for where their sympathy should lie. Having said that, in ‘Crime and Punishment’, it is not so much a case of sympathy but that of the ability to relate in some minuscule way to any one of the characters. Dostoyevsky has portrayed them in such a light that they all possess those universal features recognised by everybody across the world. Perhaps, if this is true, it would explain the reason for the unmitigated success of one of Dostoyevsky’s last great novels that is ‘Crime and Punishment’. This technique of familiarity and relation to the characters is especially distinct in Dostoyevsky’s portray...
