Outline

detailed outline

Wendell Pfeffer

3/2/14

The sheer power of guilt can be chaotic to the human brain, however in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment Raskolnikovs change in character is not driven solely by pure guilt but by the possibility of being physical punished as well.

Outline:

1.     Humans are born into a state of violence, which makes peace almost impossible for us to attain. We find pleasure from killing, hurting and destroying things.

a.     Raskolnikov realizes that he is wasting his time.

b.     He believes that he can make society a better place if he gets rid of the pawnbroker lady.

c.      He kills her but does so without a clear conscious. He doesn’t think out the possible consequences to his actions.

2.     Raskolnikovs character completely changes as he thinks over the consequences to his actions.

a.     What if the police find out he committed the murder let alone his family, what will they think?

b.     He goes into a state of paranoia as he over thinks every detail of the crime.

c.      He becomes afraid that he will be thrown in a Siberian prison and thus becomes delirious, sick and mentally ill. He stays in bed for the next couple of days.

3.     People are beginning to become suspicious of Raskolnikov due to his change in character and bizarre behavior, especially Porfiry.

a.     Every time anybody brings up the topic of the murder Raskolnikov turns pale and begins to act in a strange manner.

b.     He goes and visits Porfiry and almost makes it evident that he is guilty.

c.      He Leaves in a disturbed state realizing that he is in trouble

4.     Downfall

a.     He gets called into Porfirys office and goes into a state of frenzy.

b.     A man named Nikolai falsely confesses to the murders.

c.      Raskolnikov finds relief and believes for a short time that he is decisively a free man, he will not have to suffer from any physical punishment.

d.     Porfiry visits him and tells him that he is the murderer and if he confesses his punishment will be taken less severely.

e.     He thinks it through and with Sonya’s help confesses to the murders.

f.      Raskolnikov never really cared about the people he killed. All he really cared about was himself and his fate. The aftermath of his crime would have gone much smoother if he knew there wouldn’t be any punishment afterwards.

Complete Outline

I.      Introduction

a.     Julian Barnes wrote in his novel, The Sense of An Ending, you can base someone’s actions off of their mental state or you can base their mental state off of their actions. Therefore, you can analyze someone’s psychological mindset based upon behavior. In Fydor Dostoyevsky’s classic novel, Crime and Punishment, the main character’s, Raskolnikov, psychological state can be defined by examining his character before, during, and after the murders he commits. Due to the murders taking place, it forced Raskolnikov to go through a psychological change, leading to burying a piece of himself and accepting who he truly is.

II.    Define Crime & Murder

a.     Legal definition of crime:

                                               i.     Crime

1.     “No act is a crime if it has not been previously established as such either by statute or common law.”- Cornell Law

2.     Classified as felonies or misdemeanors

3.     In order to be convicted for a crime you must have an element of act (actus raes) and a mental state (mens rea) – Paraphrased from Cornell Law

                                              ii.     Murder

1.     Intestinally causing the death of another person without extreme provocation/ legal justification

2.     Causing the death of another while committing/ attempting to commit another crime

3.     First Degree murder

a.     Unlawful killing that is both willful and premeditated

b.     Willful

c.      Deliberate

d.     Premeditated

                                            iii.     Voluntary manslaughter

1.     Intentionally causing the death of another when acting under extreme provocation

b.     Raskolnikov’s Definition of Crime

                                               i.     “because of some everyday setback or financial difficulty, lets say, or because you wanted to further the interests of all humanity in some way- to step across an obstacle?... Well, by robbing and murdering someone, for example?...” (pg. 315)

                                              ii.     “The second category all break the law, are destroyers, or have the tendency that way, depending on their abilities. The crimes of these people are, of course, relative and multifarious…. I speak in my article their right to crime.” (pg. 310)

c.      Compare the two

III.  Analysis of Raskolnikov

a.     Dropped out of school

b.     23 years old

c.      Dark and twisted

d.     Antisocial

                                               i.     “so isolated from everyone else, that he was actually afraid of meeting anyone at all.” (pg. 5)

                                              ii.     “but for some time now he had been in a tense, irritable state of mind that verged upon hypochondria. So absorbed in himself…” (pg. 5)

e.     Poor

f.      Fearful

                                               i.     “morbid sensation of fear”

g.     Reflective/ Thoughtful

                                               i.     Rambles to himself

                                              ii.     Reflects back to the past a lot

                                            iii.     “details, that matter more than anything else!”

                                            iv.     obsessed with details

                                              v.     always in his head

                                            vi.     observant

h.     “ceased to be aware of his surroundings.”

i.       Eager for new information

j.       Does things mechanically

IV.   Crime itself

a.     Crime #1: Alonya

                                               i.     Planned/premeditated (law definitions)

1.     “Rehearsal of undertaking”

                                              ii.     Motives

1.     Ways to classify murder

a.     Emotional, social, relgious, ecnomic, political, motivation (Sohail)

2.     Personal revenge- angered by pawn broker and took law into own hands instead of reporting

3.     Comes from his head but does not keep anything

                                            iii.     Purpose

1.     Feels as if the pawn broker is a waste in society

2.     Trying to kill off someone who is “a louse” just like himself

                                            iv.     Mental state

1.     Root name “Raskol” means “split”

a.     Split personality?

b.     Number two frequently used indicating a split

                                                                                                     i.     Two murders, two crosses, two months

c.      Razumikhin’s description of Raskolnikov

                                                                                                     i.     Part 3 chapter 2

                                                                                                    ii.     Sullen, gloomy, arrogant, proud, recently insecure, hypochondriac

                                                                                                  iii.     Kind but would rather harm than “speak his heart out in words”

                                                                                                  iv.     “As if there really were two opposite characters in him, changing places with each other.”

d.     Part 3 ch. 6

                                                                                                     i.     Fractured state of mind

                                                                                                    ii.     Trapped in “Napoleonic mind set”

                                                                                                  iii.     Believing that only thing that matters is success- feeling anxious because he feels that the murder was unsuccessful

                                                                                                  iv.     Feels that the use of his crime was not able to dismiss the guilt

e.     Loss of state of mind

                                                                                                     i.     Excessively cleaning the clothes.

                                                                                                    ii.     Mind darkening

                                                                                                  iii.     Plan failing, going to pieces

2.     Doing what Fromm says- exhibiting malignant violence

3.     Rationalizing violent act of murdering Aloyna to give his crime justification and meaning

4.     Manic depressive illness

a.     “these emotionally disturbed people feel threatened and attacked” so they feel the need to kill (Sohail)

5.     “Behavior reflects personality”

                                              v.     Sequence of events – logical? Illogical?

1.     Crime scene analysis

a.     “fantasies involvement, psychological reason, personality left at scene” (Profiling a murder)

b.     “sneaks into home”

c.      Left decapitated body in the middle of the room

d.     Weapon- axe

                                                                                                     i.     Brought weapon

                                                                                                    ii.     Not weapon of opportunity indicating no positive relationship prior to murder

e.     Kills without thinking

                                                                                                     i.     Acts mechanically

                                            vi.     Cause/effects

1.     “pushed to the brink by the victim”

V.     Aftermath of crime

a.     Loses his sanity and humanity

b.     Mourns loss of sanity as if lost a loved one

c.      Five stages of loss

                                               i.     Denial/ isolation

1.     New feeling that he could no longer address people

2.     Locks himself in his apartment

3.     Sleeps for days on end or pretends to sleep to avoid confrontation

4.     “Killed a concept not a human being”

                                              ii.     Anger/ emotions are heightened

1.     Pg. 165 discussion with Zamoytov

                                            iii.     Feels helpless

                                            iv.     Depression

                                              v.     Acceptance

1.     Confesses to Sonya pg. 419

a.     Did not kill for money only killed for himself

d.     Guilt

                                               i.     Goes into delirious state of mind

                                              ii.     Hallucinations

1.     Keeps seeing blood

VI.   Define sociopath/psychopath

a.     Psychopath

                                               i.     A person with a personality disorder, which manifests an oral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.

b.     Sociopath

                                               i.     A person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

c.      Analyze Raskolinikov’s behavior to the definition to see which one suits him and why

VII. Define Punishment and analysis

a.     The imposition of hardship in response to misconduct

VIII. Conclusion

a.     Murder did not cause him to lose his mind, it was already lost. He committed murder out of revenge and for hating himself. Out of the murder came his rebirth and his acceptance of who he is.