"Crime and Punishment" and Communism

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and notes its parallels to Marxist theory. Principally, the paper explores class struggle, atheism, violent revolution and the social causes for proletarian unrest as they reveal themselves in Dostoevsky's nineteenth century masterpiece. The paper argues that, unwittingly, Dostoevsky provides a social template that gives a certain real-world authenticity to Marx's ideas.

From the Paper:

"There can be little doubt that communist and Marxist theories suffuse Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Among other things, this paper will examine the uneasy "capitalist" relationship between the impecunious Raskolnikov and his avaricious landlady. The paper will also examine the redistributive theme found in Dostoevsky's text and its obvious parallel to Marxist theory. From there, the paper will explore the social roots of violence (an idea that is implicit in Marxist thought) and conclude with a look at how the absence of "God" in Raskolnikov's life makes him the ideal proletarian solider in Marx's imaginings. To sum it all up, Dostoevsky's text is a text about Marxist class warfare. As most university students who have studied the philosophy of Marx (and Engels) know, Marxism holds that all human actions, institutions and social distinctions in society are economically determined."

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