Throughout the novel, Raskolnikov exerts most of his mental energy into concocting reasons that justify his action of the double murder of the pawn broker and her sister, Lizavetta, and convincing himself that his action was justifiable. But this very act of self-persuasion should tell Raskolnikov that there is no way to justify his actions. If one needs to search for a reason to justify a committed act, then he should know that there is no justifiable reason. An action is justifiable when the person who commits the action feels no doubt about the morality of their action.
The first reason for the murder of the pawnbroker comes from the mouths of two men chatting on the side of the street near her building. They are discussing the benefits to the world if someone were to murder the old lady. She just sits in her flat, hoarding money, never returning it to society. She is a bitter old woman for whom no affection is shown. No one would miss her if she were gone; her death would result in a slight raise in the standard of living. For myself, this argument is one of the least convincing that Rasklonikov tells himself. There is no way in which society can advance towards utopia if people kill other peo
I have yet to discover whether or not Raskolnikov remains uncaught or the police nail him down to the murders. However, I believe that both possibilities will have the same result. The police will probably kill Raskolnikov as punishment for his crime, or Raskolnikov’s mind will kill him if he is not caught.
The final and most persuasive reason is Raskolnikov’s philosophy of the “Extraordinary Man.” To greatly simplify his idea, Raskolnikov believes there are two types of men: the ordinary ones, who complacently follow the rules and laws set before them and the extraordinary man, who defies the current conventions and changes the way society functions. These extraordinary men have a right to break the laws that the ordinary men follow. Because any law they break, they will punish themselves for it if they have a conscience. You never have to worry about a ordinary man killing people and claiming he is an extraordinary man because the real extraordinary man will never be caught. Raskolnikov believes himself to be an extraordinary man, even though he does acknowledge that extraordinary men are so rare, they are “one in thousands of millions.” Throughout the book, Raskolnikov flirts with being caught. He marches into the police station to speak with Porfiry about the murder and Raskolnikov challenges him to a mental fencing match. Porfiry has read Raskolnikov’s article about the e
Example Essays Home
