term paper 3

Wendell Pfeffer

English

            It isn’t out of the norm for a human being to act violently towards another in a natural environment, but in a modern society that behavior is quelled to an extent with laws and punishments. If a person adheres and acts in their natural behavior they will be severely punished if caught. Unfortunately for Raskolnikov these punishments have become a reality because he acted within his own natural behavior. He killed Lizaveta and the old pawnbroker lady and can now be possibly thrown into a Siberian prison for the rest of this life. The idea of being locked up separate from his family and friends is really causing Raskolnikov to live with fear. He is trying his best to conceal this fear but it hasn’t been going well for him. Every time he is with people he asks questions about the murder in a strange way almost making it seem that he was the one that committed them. I understand what Raskolnikov is trying to do here. He wants to let people know that he doesn’t know anything about the murder and instead wants to make it seem that he is eager to find out the details to the crime. But instead of accomplishing this, people are now somewhat contemplating the reasons behind his erratic behavior. This type of behavior is demonstrated when Raskolnikov goes and retrieves his personal items from Porfiry. It was suppose to be a quick and easy encounter with the chief of police, but instead turned into a bad scenario. Raskolnikov turned pale and made it apparent that he did something wrong. As a result Porfiry became suspicious and began to question him indirectly about the murder. The sole purpose of those questions were to see if he would react naturally to them but he unfortunately did not. In the end Porfiry justifications were solidified and Raskolnikov state of mind worsened. Raskolnikov now realized that he was in trouble because the person in charge of the crime now thinks that he is the culprit. I don’t know why Raskolnikov decided to visit Porfiry. Raskolnikov knew that his physical state was in bad condition but yet decides to visit the person that could land him in jail. Things could have gone much differently for Raskolnikov if he hadn’t done this or if he acted naturally. Porfiry could have ignored Raskolnikov or maybe could have wrongfully blamed someone else for  the crime.