“Crime and Punishment” is the title the novel got for no reason. It raises the question of whether a person has the right to commit a crime with no punishment. Raskolnikov kills what seems to be a worthless person—a pawnbroker woman old and mean. But behind this murder comes a second one, which, from the standpoint of conscience, is even harder to justify. It’s much easier to explain a crime committed for money or out of revenge. But here is a different case.
Philosophy becomes central—one that preaches the superiority of one person over another, which later turns into Nazism. The main hero, as if trying to test his theory in practice, sees everything collapse like a house of cards, because the human soul is far more complex than any theory—and the court of conscience is merciless.
In the novel, Petersburg is portrayed in detail: a tense, heavy city with its wells, gray streets, and misty quays. That is exactly the setting the author chose for his difficult work. Here, too, unfold the hard fates of the other characters.
The theme of crime and punishment will remain relevant as long as a person allows for the possibility of committing a crime. But punishment, as F. M. Dostoevsky showed, is an inevitable consequence—even then, when it seems that no one should find out about the crime committed…