Summary of "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky
 |
| Raskolnikov. Georgiy Taratorkin, film 1969 |
This article presents a summary of the novel "Crime and Punishment", a brief retelling of the plot.
Summary of "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky
The protagonist of the novel is a 23-year-old young man, Rodion Raskolnikov, a former student at St. Petersburg University.
Raskolnikov has been living in St. Petersburg for 3 years. Six months ago, he dropped out of university, where he studied law. He also stopped earning private lessons and fell into complete poverty. Lately, he's been lying at home all day, thinking about life.
As a result of much thought, Raskolnikov invents his theory that all people are divided into ordinary and great. Raskolnikov hopes that he himself is one of the great people. To test his theory, he decides to commit the murder of an old pawnbroker and her sister Lizaveta. At the beginning of the novel, he has been hatching this terrible plan for a month.
Finally, Raskolnikov commits the murder of an old woman and her sister, robs valuable property and leaves the scene of the crime unnoticed. After that, he immediately falls into apathy and a painful state. He understands that now he will not be able to live as before. He realizes that his terrible theory has failed and that he is not a great person, because, in his opinion, great people do not doubt their greatness and do not think about such questions at all.
During this period, Raskolnikov met the girl of the "obscene profession" - 18-year-old Sonya Marmeladova. Kind and meek Sonya is forced to engage in this craft in order to feed her large family (the Marmeladov family). Having learned about the difficult fate of Sonya, Raskolnikov immediately sees in her a kindred spirit, sinful and deeply suffering.
Meanwhile, the murder of an old pawnbroker is being investigated by an experienced and intelligent investigator, Porfiry Petrovich. He suspects Raskolnikov from the very beginning (he has several reasons for this). However, the investigator does not accuse the criminal directly, but plays "cat and mouse" with him. Clever Raskolnikov gets out as best he can, but these fights with the investigator deplete his strength. Sometimes Raskolnikov himself wants to be arrested and put an end to his torment.
In the end, Porfiry Petrovich directly tells Raskolnikov that he considers him a murderer. The investigator advises him to turn himself in to get the shortest sentence, and threatens him with arrest. At the same time, Porfiry has no official evidence against Raskolnikov, and the young man knows this. However, moral torment does not allow the criminal to live in peace.
About 12 days after the crime, Raskolnikov finally goes to the police and confesses to the murder. He is sentenced to 8 years of hard labor, given his positive characteristics. Sonya Marmeladova follows him to Siberia, where she supports him in every possible way.
Soon after the incident, Raskolnikov's mother falls ill from grief and dies. Raskolnikov's sister, the beautiful Dunya, marries her brother's friend, Razumikhin. Dunya and Razumikhin are also going to someday move to Siberia closer to Raskolnikov.
At hard labor, a turning point occurs in Raskolnikov's soul: he finally realizes how much he loves the kind and selfless Sonya. He probably also repents of the crime he committed. Sonya and Raskolnikov are waiting for the end of hard labor to start a new life together.
End of the novel.
That was a summary of the novel "Crime and Punishment", a brief retelling of the plot.
Comments
Post a Comment