Crime and Punishment

"They wanted to speak, but could not; tears stood in their eyes. They were both pale and thin; but those sick pale faces were bright with the dawn of a new future, of a full resurrection into a new life. They were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other." —Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

As this beautiful excerpt shows, Crime and Punishment is a story of two sinners and their redemption. Perhaps one of my favorite books, it illustrates the life of Raskolnikov, an impoverished Russian student on the brink of following through with his theory of murder. According to his idea, murder is justified for those who are of a different moral "class" than regular people. Napoleon Bonaparte, for example, was a figure who transcended the moral code that regulated most people. Because of this, he creates a test for himself; in this way, he will discover if he is of the super class as Napoleon. The test is whether or not he will commit a murder willingly as Bonaparte did.

Throughout the story, the reader sees the phrase "ideas have consequences" coming true. What started out as Raskolnikov's idea that men are not all bound by the same laws of morality soon grows into his murder of two people. Ultimately, living with a burdened conscience and the foreboding shadow of the law finding him out, he turns himself in to the police.

Even still, now in a Siberian prison, he does not quite recognize himself as a sinner. Rather, he continues to view his actions as merely the outworking of his theory rather than as the murder of innocent lives.

Finally, his redemption comes when he realizes that he loves Sonia. All along, she has been showing him that redemption does not come by focusing inward; it comes by surrender to Christ. The story ends wih Sonia reading to Raskolnikov from the New Testament.

To me, Crime and Punishment illustrated a few important truths: all ideas have consequences and that redemption is only by Christ. For some more thoughts on the story, you can see the article from Break Point.

It was certainly one of my favorite books, and it was well worth the hours I spent reading it. Its well-written and beautiful storyline both make it a book that I'll always consider a classic worth reading.