In 2016, the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" turns 150 years old. Written as a warning, it does not lose its relevance today. The work shows what baseness a person is capable of if there is no faith in his soul, so you should not justify the fall of the hero with the notorious social injustice when you have to write an essay based on the novel. "Crime and Punishment" is about something else.
Detective program
Young Dostoevsky was sentenced to death for participation in the circle of Petrashevists, which was replaced by hard labor only at the scaffold. And all the subsequent time the writer was busy searching for the meaning of life, which he found in God and love for one's neighbor.
When this is not in a person, it means that he believes that everything is allowed, because there is nothing and no one to be afraid of. So the author laid in his novel "Crime and Punishment", an essay on which is provided for at school, a possible way to save a person.
GenreThe author chose the detective not to interest the reader, but for psychological comparison: the investigator is a criminal. There are no secrets here: from the first pages it is clear who is plotting villainy and why.
The main idea of the novel can be interpreted as follows: the salvation of the soul is only in Christ, and the life of a person, even the most worthless, is inviolable.
Everyone has the same right to life
"The image of Raskolnikov" is the most common theme in the work of Dostoevsky, on which schoolchildren write an essay. "Crime and Punishment" is considered by many as a novel only about this hero. Of course, this is the central image. But the abundance of doubles next to him (this is Porfiry Petrovich, and Petr Petrovich Luzhin, and Arkady Svidrigailov, and even the murdered Alena Ivanovna) creates polyphony and enhances the sound of the main idea: many people have unrighteous thoughts and a desire to live well, but not everyone goes kill old women.
In an essay about Raskolnikov, you need to give the meaning of his name, patronymic, surname. Compare it with all counterparts. Identify the reason for the emergence of the theory that led to the crime. Explain the causes of torment after the murder. And draw a conclusion about what the hero came to through such trials.
About those who were "stuck by Wednesday"
The original title of the conceived novel was "Drunk", and the main character was intended to be Marmeladov. But an ordinary drunkard, for all his sins, is not as terrible for society as the ideological killer Raskolnikov, which is why we haveanother book: F. M. Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment. The essay about Marmeladov is usually written within the framework of the traditional theme for Russian literature of that time about “little people”, that is, about those who were “stuck by Wednesday”.
The great writer has his own attitude to this issue. He does not consider poverty an excuse for filthiness. Yes, Marmeladov did not personally kill anyone, but he pushed his own and beloved daughter to spiritual crime. He well understood the baseness of his behavior, suffered from it, but only drank and cried.
Salvation in Faith
No matter what theories Raskolnikov justifies his crime, terrible in cruelty, but his main sin is pride. And the disease after the murder is not connected with repentance, but with fear for oneself and with the fact that he turned out to be a weak person. And then a meeting with Sonya.
He somehow considered her equal to himself, the same criminal. But an essay about her will be permeated with mercy and understanding. "Crime and Punishment" in the image of Sonya Marmeladova gives hope to all sinners. In her humility, extraordinary powers are born, and in reading the Bible, hope is found. She knows the lines about the resurrection of Lazarus by heart and endlessly believes that this is possible with anyone. Love for people and forgiveness for Sonya are as natural as breathing.
Petersburg-accomplice
In the novel, besides the heroes, there is also the image of the city. And you can write an essay about it. Crime and Punishment shows Petersburg not as the northern capital that Pushkin admired, but as a dirty, stinking labyrinth. If courtyards, thennecessarily similar to wells, if stairs, then black and doused with slops.
It feels like it's hard to breathe in this city and it is because of the lack of life-giving air that crazy ideas come to people's heads. Petersburg sees everything, knows everything, but is silent.
Detailed descriptions of streets, houses, interiors of rooms, smells and colors allow the reader not only to imagine, but also to feel the stinking atmosphere of tenement houses. In the work on this topic, it is necessary to answer the question of what Dostoevsky is saying by this. "Crime and Punishment" is a multifaceted, polyphonic composition. Each living and inanimate image plays its part.
Browse topics
Probably, the fact that the novel is included in the compulsory secondary education curriculum in literature contributed to the popularization of his research. Few works of the classics have such an extensive list of topics. If you write an essay based on the novel "Crime and Punishment", Raskolnikov will not be the only character of interest. Even within the framework of one training course, you can find more than a dozen different formulations. So what and who is written about more often in connection with the work of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky?
If about heroes, then this:
- Raskolnikov's dreams.
- Inner monologues: role and meaning.
- Confession and repentance.
- Capitalists Luzhin and Svidrigailov.
- Image of an investigator.
As for the general analysis of the novel "Crime andpunishment", essay topics are usually found as follows:
- Bible (Gospel) motives.
- The function of the landscape in the novel.
- The originality of the plot and composition.
- About national peculiarities and the Russian idea.
- Seeking justice.
- Psychology of the novel.
Interpretation of the problems of "Crime and Punishment" can be varied, in order to write a worthy essay on this novel, you must definitely read it carefully.
