Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - English Visions of Hell Visions of Hell In the final decades of Russia, Dostoevsky saw what he believed to be the seeds of the unraveling of Russian society. He feared and resented the growing waves of people he believed to be young, rebel intellectuals who were smitten by materialism and selfish philosophies, but cared little for their fellow man. Convinced that a complete disassociation from others would be the ultimate undoing of humankind, Dostoevsky set out to write a tale in “Crime and Punishment” that would put out the errors of this “me first” ideology. The storys central character, Raskolnikov, is an extremely intelligent young student whose mind, like those of so many of us in college, has been pumped full of new ideas and philosophies that fascinate him, even if he does not fully understand Raskolnikov’s undoing occurs at the beginning of the novel, when he comes to the conclusion that he is indeed a “superman,” free to do as he wills. Convinced that he is superior to the common “filth” he sees daily in the streets and that he is therefore beyond the law, he secretly murders an old pawnbroker whom he despises in order to prove his point. The crime goes unsolved, but Raskolnikov’s troubles are just the beginning. For now, not only is he one of the chosen “few,” he also possesses a secret he can tell no one. With his very soul cut off from the outside world, Raskolnikov realizes just how alone he is. He recognizes his need for some form of human contact, even though that wish flies in the face of the superman role he believes is his. Raskolnikov winds up living a nightmarish existence through much of the novel, literally torn between his ideas and his compassion like a person with a split Raskolnikov’s personality was outside of “ordinary” humanity. There were some like him on the streets of St. Petersburg: the poor, the exiled, the homeless, the mentally and emotionally disturbed, that the higher class people tried to forget about. Raskolnikov’s “superman” figure of St. Petersburg chose to leave society, rather than being forced out. His own self began to blindly see himself as a well rounded figure. He set goals for himself and wanted to live up to them. Each characteristic he had started to grow even deeper as he held on to his portrait of being a helper Raskolnikov’s mind was pumped with ways to survive a town full of prostitutes and beggars. He was forced to forget it all, living as just one small man in a city of many people. Raskolnikov lashes out with bold comments and obsessive compulsive thoughts. He drifts completely away from all normal contact with society. Raskolnikov is now a superman in his own right, and Raskolnikov frequently voices his contempt for the “filth” and “scum” that he sees living around him, yet he is oddly attracted to it. He plots a killing that will all but seal his mental and emotional extraction from the society: Raskolnikov does indeed murder the When preparing for his respective crime, he fashions his own specialized weapon. Raskolnikov makes a special ax sling for an easier murder of the pawnbroker. He has to endure an extremely tense moment with the law, yet ultimately evades uneasiness and punishment. Raskolnikov is grilled by the police inspector for the unsolved killing, and is almost certain he will be caught. Once his physical crime is complete and his capture dodged, he is left to deal with the emptiness of an aftermath with no recognition and no redemption. Raskolnikov’s awareness of complete solitude begins to destroy him, and he makes an attempt to break away from his anonymous “prison.” He wants desperately to confess a crime, and have the burden lifted from his shoulders so that he can return to society. It is during his height of isolation that Raskolnikov’s personality slowly rises to the surface, and his inner conflict is represented by other characters. Interestingly, he falls in love with a young prostitute (Sonya), in whom he sees Raskolnikov despises men that embody everything that is wrong in their own lives. He hates Svidrigailov because he has no sense of what is wrong. Svidrgailov is a depraved person who took the superman notation to the extreme in pursuing whatever pleased him. With each movement Svidrigailov made, Raskolnikov became more aware that he at least had a conscience. Ultimately, the combination of inner struggle and isolation proves to be too much, and Raskolnikov reaches his breaking point, desperate to be released from his sentence in Hell. It is here where the crucial differences between characters and storytellers come back into play, leading the student to a different Raskolnikov believes that the only way in which he can be truly free is to confess his crime and suffer the consequences. He does confess, and is sentenced to eight years in a Siberian prison camp. Sonya accompanies him, and together both undergo a religious conversation that leads to their ultimate redemption. This series of events illustrates Dostoevsky’s notions of how the Russian people must pay for their crimes against each other: endure the punishment and emerge the better for it. The strong humanistic plea that the author is revealing is there for the readers to at least recognize what it is we are Bibliography: Word Count: 909
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