A Psychological And Social Examination of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crimeand Punishment: A Theoretical Perspective

Abstract

The study investigates the presence of repressed desires of a person in relation with society. It also explores the
presence of inner actions of the person that creates a psychological tension throughout the novel, Crime and
Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. As Crime and Punishment is a classic writing by Fyodor Dostoevsky that
focuses on social injustice and mental anguish, the study is designed to analyze the examination of social
psychological perspective of the main character. These aspects are prominently linked with the protagonist,
Rodion Raskolnikov; the person who committed murder and how he was “punished” for it. By applying Freud
Psychoanalytic theory, the writer has used the qualitative approach to investigate thereason behind the
criminality done by the Raskolnikov by killing a pawnbroker, AlyonaIvanovna and her sister just because he
was troubled since the beginning of the story. As the interior monologue of the protagonistforces him to
consider himself an extraordinary personcauses to do a grisly crime for which he has punished at the end of the
novel. The findings of the current study reveal that the inner psyche of a person is more significant in order to
explore relationship with societal circumstances. The employed themes for analysis are themes of alienation,
morality and society and superman complex and psychology of crime. All these themes interlinked with the
features of moral dilemmas of the protagonist. Having established a sample of data for analysis, the researcher
reported conclusion that there are several social and psychological aspects that forces the protagonist to commit
crime in order to achieve greatness. And this could help the future researchers to explore other characters of the
novel as well with the help of these perspectives.