Crime and Punishment Questions and Answers
Crime and Punishment
What is the significance of Raskolnikov's fiancée's role and their failed marriage in Crime and Punishment?
In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov’s promise to marry his landlady’s daughter is significant because it underscores his desperation and his poverty.
Crime and Punishment
What is the significance of yellow in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky?
In Crime and Punishment, yellow symbolizes decay, corruption, and moral degradation. Dostoyevsky uses yellow to describe aged, dilapidated items, such as old furniture and worn-out clothing, and...
Crime and Punishment
The impact of the setting and historical background in Crime and Punishment
The setting and historical background of Crime and Punishment significantly impact the plot, theme, and tone. The novel's St. Petersburg setting during a period of social upheaval highlights themes...
Crime and Punishment
How is madness represented in Crime and Punishment?
Madness in Crime and Punishment is depicted through Raskolnikov's fluctuating states of mind. He experiences bouts of insanity characterized by a loss of control and impulsive actions, yet he also...
Crime and Punishment
Is Raskolnikov a tragic hero in Crime and Punishment?
Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment can be seen as a borderline tragic hero, fitting some but not all traditional criteria. While he experiences a downfall and great suffering, his lack...
Crime and Punishment
In Crime and Punishment, how do Svidrigailov and Raskolnikov represent duality?
Svidrigailov and Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment embody duality through their contrasting approaches to morality and self-perception. Raskolnikov is torn between his ambition to be an...
Crime and Punishment
In Crime and Punishment, why does Raskolnikov visit Porfiry?
In Crime and Punishment, why does Raskolnikov decide to visit Porfiry?
Crime and Punishment
Which minor character in Crime and Punishment serves as a foil to a main character?
In Crime and Punishment, both Razumikhin and Sonya Marmeladova serve as foils to Raskolnikov. Razumikhin's rationality, kindness, and remorse contrast with Raskolnikov's isolation, lack of guilt, and...
Crime and Punishment
What role does St. Petersburg play in Crime and Punishment?
St. Petersburg serves as a crucial backdrop in Crime and Punishment, reflecting the squalid and oppressive conditions that influence Raskolnikov's actions and mindset. The city's slums, filled with...
Crime and Punishment
Do you agree that Raskolnikov was redeemed at the end of Crime and Punishment?
Raskolnikov's redemption in Crime and Punishment is suggested but not fully realized by the novel's end. He experiences a profound change, gaining acceptance from fellow inmates and beginning to...
Crime and Punishment
What does water symbolize in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment?
so, Raskolnikov is both cleansed of sin and saved from burning delirium and fever. "White Nights" by Fyodor Dostoevsky, trans. Andrew R.
Crime and Punishment
Is Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky a realist novel in terms of style and characters?
Realism began in the 19th century during the Victorian era as a reaction to the sentimentality of Romanticism. Realism was dedicated to expressing detailed passages of accurate observation without...
Crime and Punishment
What is the difference between connotation and symbolism in Crime and Punishment?
Connotation and symbolism differ in their roles within literature. Connotation refers to the culturally-based secondary meanings of words, adding depth beyond their literal definitions. For example,...
Crime and Punishment
What are the satirical social criticisms in Crime and Punishment?
Crime and Punishment is an incisive satire of the ever-present conflict between the individual and society, a conflict that results in Raskolnikov's moral downfall.
Crime and Punishment
How is Crime and Punishment and its main character anti-social? What does Raskolnikov's name signify? What are...
The novel explores themes of alienation through Raskolnikov, who is anti-social due to his pride and belief in his superiority. His name signifies "schism" or "split," reflecting his internal...
Crime and Punishment
What was Dostoevsky's purpose in writing Crime and Punishment?
Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment to explore the theme of redemption through suffering. Influenced by his own near-execution experience, he sought to convey the power of human resilience and...
Crime and Punishment
What does Martha's ghost represent for Svidrigilov in Crime and Punishment?
The ghost of Martha appears to Svidrigalov in a dream and prompts him to come up with the idea of murdering Dunya so he can marry her. He believes this is an opportunity for him to be happy and that...
Crime and Punishment
What is the significance of the main character's sleeping patterns in "Crime and Punishment"?
In "Crime and Punishment," Raskolnikov's sleeping patterns highlight the theme of guilt and its effects on the human conscience. His insomnia and illness reflect the physical and mental turmoil...
Crime and Punishment
What quotes from Crime and Punishment support the motif of bridges and crossroads?
The motif of bridges and crossroads in Crime and Punishment symbolizes Raskolnikov's internal conflicts and decisions. The opening scene features him hesitating at a bridge, representing his moral...
Crime and Punishment
What religious symbols or concepts are important in Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky?
In Crime and Punishment, religious symbols like the color yellow and hand washing play crucial roles. Yellow represents religious truth, purity, degradation, death, and sin, symbolizing both Alyona...
Crime and Punishment
How does Luzhin from "Crime and Punishment" reveal aspects of Raskolnikov?
Raskolnikov's thoughts of suicide at the beginning of the novel are the result of his disgust with himself and the crime he has committed. His two reasons for committing murder were to prove to...
Crime and Punishment
How does the symbolic 'death' in this passage from Crime and Punishment differ from Alyona and Lizaveta's murder, and...
Raskolnikov feels temporarily pardoned by the death of Marmeladov because becoming a champion of the dead man's family allows him to feel heroic again. This is a desperate delusion he concocts to...
Crime and Punishment
Does Raskolnikov's confession and move to Siberia in Crime and Punishment indicate a shift towards Orthodox beliefs...
In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov's sense of his own superiority prevents him from repenting during the timeframe of the novel, but Dostoevsky strongly suggests in the final paragraph that, with...
Crime and Punishment
What are examples of the subconscious, particularly dreams and nightmares, in Crime and Punishment?
In Crime and Punishment, dreams expose Raskolnikov's subconscious guilt and humanity, contradicting his desire to be a superman free from moral constraints. One significant dream involves his victim...
Crime and Punishment
What is a tragic realist novel, and how does Crime and Punishment fit this category?
A tragic realist novel combines elements of tragedy and realism, depicting tragic events with a straightforward, unembellished style. "Tragic realism" portrays life’s hardships without romanticizing...
Crime and Punishment
Why does Rodion kill the pawnbroker in Crime and Punishment?
Rodion kills the pawnbroker because he perceives her as rude and unpleasant, and he plans to rob her. He knows she keeps pawned items in a trunk and wears the keys around her neck, making her an...
Crime and Punishment
How would you describe Fyodor Dostoyevsky's writing style in Crime and Punishment?
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's writing style in Crime and Punishment is characterized by "subjective uncertainty," immersing readers in Raskolnikov's psychological turmoil. The narrative blurs spatial and...
Crime and Punishment
What is the crime and punishment in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment?
In the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the crime is the murder of a pawnbroker and her half-sister by a student named Raskolnikov. The punishment is Raskolnikov's psychological...
Crime and Punishment
The plot and initiating event of Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment follows Rodion Raskolnikov, a former student living in poverty in St. Petersburg, who plans and executes the murder of a pawnbroker to steal her money. The initiating event is...
Crime and Punishment
Does the professor in "Crime and Punishment" who cures insanity through logical argument reflect a real 19th-century...
Yes, Dr. Pinel was a real person and a real influence, both in Russia and in France.