Term Papers on Crime And Punishment: Protagonist And Antagonist Essay

Term Paper Title	Crime And Punishment: Protagonist And Antagonist Essay
# of Words	1575
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	6.3

Crime and Punishment: Protagonist and Antagonist Essay

     Crime and Punishment is considered by many to be the first of Fyodor
Dostoevsky's great books.  Crime and Punishment  is a psychological account of a
crime.  The crime is double murder.  A book about such a broad subject can be
made powerful and appealing to our intellectual interests if there is a link
between the reader, the action, and the characters.  Doestoevsky makes all these
links at the right places.  The action takes place between the protagonists and
the antagonists.  The protagonists include Dounia, the Marmeladovs, Sonia,
Razumhin, Porfiry Petrovich, and Nastaya.  The antagonists of the story are
Luzhin, Ilya Petrovich, and the landlady.  Raskolnikov could be considered to be
the primary protagonist, while Svidrigailov could be thought of as the primary
antagonist.
     In every story the protagonist is the character that the reader cares
most about.  In Crime and Punishment the reader cares about Rodion Raskolnikov.
He is the primary and most significant character in the novel. We are introduced
to this complex character in Part 1.  We get to know the poverty stricken
condition that he resides in, and we get to know his family situation as we read
the long letter from Raskolnikov's mother.  Then we witness the murder as it is
graphically described by Doestoevsky.  After reading this graphic description of
the murder, how can the reader be sympathetic towards Raskolnikov?  How can the
reader believe that a murderer is the protagonist?  It is, in fact,  not hard to
accept this murderer as the protagonist.  Raskolnikov believed that by murdering
the pawnbroker, he rid society of a pest.  We realize that if the victim would
have been someone other than an evil old pawnbroker the crime would never had
taken place.  He could never have found the courage to kill an innocent person.
It would not prove anything to him.  So, Raskolnikov was not a criminal. He does
not repent because he does not feel that he had sinned.  All he did was violate
laws that were made by society.  Raskolnikov definition of crime was evil will
in action.  Raskolnikov knows that he possesses no evil will, and so he does not
consider himself a criminal.  He is capable of justifying his crime.  He
murdered a pawnbroker that was of no use to society and wanted to use her money
to improve his life and career.  Not only was he helping himself by attempting
to improve his career, but he was also helping society as society would benefit
from his career.  He would also free his mother and sister from the encumbrance
of financially supporting him, and thus maybe even prevent the marriage of his
sister to the evil Luzhin.  We are introduced to Raskolnikov's thoughts about
mankind when we read about Raskolnikov's published article.  He divides man into
two classes:  the extraordinary man and the ordinary man.  He considers himself
extraordinary and the pawnbroker to be ordinary.  Presumably, the murder of the
pawnbroker was an experiment of his theory.  One could argue that his experiment
failed because he had to rely on his family and friends and because he confessed,
unlike how his theory suggests.  Maybe he was not the extraordinary person he
thought he was.  Maybe his theory was bogus.  In either case, his theory proved
that Raskolnikov had an intellectual side.  From this we can believe that he did
not murder for the money but he really believed that he was superior and he was
doing society a favor.  Perhaps he was not superior, but it can be safe to say
that he did society a favor.  The same society that he did a favor for does not
believe in Raskolnikov's explanation.  Society believes that murder is wrong.
Society's morals and rules dictate that crime is wrong no matter what the
circumstances.  It is evident that Raskolnikov did not believe in society's
definition of crime and he proved this by murdering the pawnbroker.  We still
find sympathy for him, as deep down inside we perchance realize that Raskolnikov
may have a valid point and so...

This is ONLY a preview of the article. If you would like to view the entire document, you must subscribe to Digital Term Papers. Please register below now!

Digital Term Papers has over 63,000 essays, term papers, and book notes online. Many paper sites will charge you hundreds of dollars for a single paper. Digital Term Papers only charges $14.95 for a one month membership with instant account activation!

Don't waste anymore time! Join NOW!!!

1 Month (automatic renewal) ($14.95)

3 Months (automatic renewal) ($29.95)

6 Months (one-time billing) ($39.95)

Pay by: