Written in the early 1860’s and published in 1866, Crime and Punishment brought about a new era of Russian literature, Realism. Crime and Punishment replaced the elegant style of Romanticism with fictional realism, depicting individual behavior and human development. Dostoevsky’s pragmatic approach to writing influenced twentieth-century literature by portraying social and political realities.

The novel’s main character, Raskolnikov, a poverty-stricken young, haughty man, was a former law student and now lives in the dirty, cluttered, and chaotic city of St. Petersburg, Russia during the 1860’s. Raskolnikov devises an absurd theory that extraordinary men or superior individuals are above the law and excused from obeying the law. Contemplating whether or not to test his theory, Raskolnikov decides that Alyona Ivanovna, a wealthy, greedy pawnbroker, deserves to die solely because s

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