Emily Bolotin

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wyman, Alina

Keywords

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, Crime and Punishment, Karmazov, Russian Literature

Area of Concentration

Russian Language and Literature

Abstract

This thesis analyzes two of Dostoevsky’s criminal characters: Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov of Crime and Punishment (1866) and Ivan Karamazov of The Brothers Karamazov (1880). In Dostoevsky’s criminal novels, the psychological profiles of the murderers reflect the toll that innate morality and societal expectations have on a person’s conscience. The artistic merit of these works is measured against Dostoevsky’s personal experiences and journalism with the legal system. The difference in the portrayal of these systems written nearly twenty years apart depicts Dostoevsky’s predictions, and ultimate realization of his predictions, of the 1864 reforms. Dostoevsky’s compelling representations of philosophies that conflict with his own allow these novels to transcend political fiction.

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