Consequences Of Cruelty In 'Crime And Punishment'

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Cruelty throughout Crime and Punishment has been exemplified within the character Raskolnikov’s actions and persona which lead to a disconnection between his relation to society and people who are trying to provide support for him. The first thing that causes his separation from society is his pride. Due to his ample amount of pride, Raskolnikov sees himself as superior to the rest of the world which leads to him not being able to have a relationship of any sort with people. This then leads to an overflowing amount of guilt which drives him delirious and in turn creates a sense of cruelty within his actions and character. Throughout the book the crime is committed at the beginning, the cruelty stays throughout until the end and the punishment then occurs. The cruelty that takes place is not so much physical, but rather mental within Raskolnikov’s anxiety and stress of trying to avoid the punishment. The cause of this punishment is due the crimes committed by Raskolnikov’s actions of murder. His lack of guilt towards his actions are cruel for those he had affected, however he does not see it like this because he argued that the pawnbroker did nothing beneficial for society in the first…show more content…
To the “normal” human being the obvious answer is yes, however Raskolnikov’s thinking is more so logical in the sense that because the pawnbroker did nothing good in the first place his death is of no consequence. It is cruel to think that people have the right to decide who lives and dies and what punishment someone believes a person deserves. Humans have no right to deem authority over that, it opposes the laws of nature. Even if something or someone is useless, people should not judge whether or not they deserve to live. Everyone and everything on this earth has a right to live, so Raskolnikov’s thinking is illogical due to his role of playing

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