Crime and Punishment | Themes
The most profound theme in Crime and Punishment involves the reasons for performing immoral acts and the resulting effects of both the acts and the reasoning. While Dostoevsky's later novels often employ the murder mystery plot device, there is no mystery here. This is a psychological novel whose chief focus is on a murderer, his family (of whom he is very fond, through all of his tribulations), and his associates. Some of the most interesting scenes in the text are those in which the examining magistrate Porfiry Petrovich and Raskolnikov spar with each other: Raskolnikov becomes...
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