March 5, 2015
Psychology
Mr. Hays
Crime and Punishment Psychological profile
Crime and Punishment is a novel written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment is known to be Russian literature. He published this novel in 1866 while he was in Europe in 1865. Perhaps his finest novel, Crime and Punishment originated as a lengthy short story that dealt with, as Dostoyevsky himself stated, “The psychological account of a crime.”(Dostoyevsky,ix) He wrote Crime and Punishment in his time of crisis of epilepsy and debt. In Doatoyevsky novels often contains accurate psychological analysis and perceptions. “His profound understanding of the tragic side of life and the workings of the psyche make him one of the greats of Russian …show more content…
Each of the characters has their own setting and has different background stories. The main protagonist in this book is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. His loft was under the roof of a high, five storied house. He thought of his room more like a cupboard rather than a room. His landlady, who provided him with his room, food, and attendance, lived below him. In order for him to leave his room he had to pass the landlady’s kitchen and he always had a sick and frightening feeling of this. He was afraid of meeting his Landlady, because he owed her a tremendous debt with her. He was once in college, but had to quit because he couldn’t manage to pay for his classes, just like he can’t manage to pay for his room. He is often described in the novel as handsome, above average height, slim, beautiful dark eyes and dark brown eyes. Raskolnikov’s name is derived from the Russian name Raskolnik which means “Dividing” or “schismatic”. His name fits in with his character because we find Raskolnikov to be extremely alienated from society and tries to have a down- low profile with everyone, especially with the police after he has committed his crime. He tends to have two personality traits he can be warm and compassionate. For example, when he leaves their house, he leaves money for Marmeladov on their windowsill to help them out a bit. Raskolnikov can also be seen as cold, indifferent and antisocial. For example, the murder he is planning …show more content…
Dreams are a big part in psychology. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, believed that no matter how simple or mundane, dreams may contain clues to thoughts the dreamer is afraid to acknowledge in his or her waking hours. When he slept, he dreamt of being a little boy again and of a horse being brutally beaten. His dream can be considered as a nightmare. The sense of dread in nightmares may be related to the intensity of brain activity and to the stimulation of those parts of the brain responsible for emotional reactions. In nightmares, the sleeper will usually wake up with a vivid memory of a movielike dream. After having this unpleasant dream, or nightmare, he has second thoughts on going through with the murderous plan. He then decides to not follow through with the plan, but then he sees his suspect’s sister, and his plan goes on again. He then goes to the pawnbroker’s house and splits her skull open and starts to steal all her goods. Unfortunately he forgets to lock her door and her sister walks in on him and he then kills her too. He leaves, almost gets caught again, but makes it home safely. Upon arriving at home he falls asleep and wakes up early and hides the evidence of the previous night. Raskolnikov decides to visit a friend, Razumihin, but he feels awkward and weird so he decides to leave and goes back home and falls asleep. He ends up getting sick and his friend goes and buys