Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment A story of class-ism, guilt, and poverty

Russia 1825-1870 • Part of Europe/ vast areas of land • By the middle of the 19th c, the population was 70 million • 250,000 were noble men who owned land/serfs • They collected taxes, recruited serfs for the army, served as government officials and officers in the army • Noblemen inherited their land or received it from the czar for services rendered • They traveled, played sports, managed their lands • THEY DID NOT WORK FOR A LVING

The Middle Class • The middle class was small compared to the serfs • The middle class all worked for a living • Lawyers, doctors, business men, trades • Most led a good life • Many owned land or property

Serfs • Serfs were ¾ of the population • ½ serfs were owned by the government • ½ by the land owners • Russian landowners could sell their serfs, mortgage them, send them to war or exile • Most serfs farmed the land • When the industrial revolution hit Russia, landowners set up factories and used serfs as free labor • Landowners would increase their workforce by buying up whole villages • The serfs were emancipated in 1861 and then became the lower class

You were born into your class You NEVER left your class Class was based on money, land, and power

The Russian Orthodox Church was the state church It was like the Roman Catholic Church with some variations Most people belonged to the church

19th century Russia was an autocracy • The Divine Right of Kings • Not subject to laws of the land • Maker of all laws • No civil rights • Alexander I 1801-1825 • Nicholas I 1825-1855 • Alexander II 1855-1881

The IntelligentsiaThe Enlightenment The thinkers of any country: philosophy, politics, literature. They laid the foundations for revolutionary ideas. They wanted to reform the government, but not necessarily serve in it. They applied rational thought in social, economic, and political structures

The Westerners • Loyal to Russia • Wanted reform • Wanted Russia to be more European • Wanted capitalism • Wanted to do away with old Russian traditions • Were not particularly religious

The Slavophiles • Believed the Russian Orthodox Church was better than Roman Catholic Church • Believed in the ways of the czars • Believed in the class structure • Believed in the contributions of the simple Russian peasant • Status Quo is fine

Russian Class Structure • Royalty • Upper class • Middle class • Lower class • Serfs: emancipated by Alexander II in 1861, so serfs became the lower classes when freed

Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821-1881 • Father was a violent alcoholic/killed by serfs and an army surgeon/rigorous discipline/ upper class • Dostoevsky loved his mother • D married twice • D had poor health/epilepsy/died of emphysema • A chronic gambler • Read the classics • Impetuous • anti-German • anti-Semite • anti-Pole • anti-socialist

Dostoevsky…..the philosopher • Influenced by Russian romanticism • Studied French socialist theories • Became a Christian/atheistic socialist by the mid 40’s • Enemy of Turgenev (nihilism) • Influenced by Belinsky • Influenced by Speshnyov • Influenced by Gogol • Influenced by Pushkin • Influenced by Tolstoy

Radical minorities were springing up all over Europe by 1848 1849 D gives a private reading to Gogol D is arrested April 22-23 Condemned to death by Nickolas I scaffold was built for D Sentence to 8 years in the penal colony in Onsk Served 4 years Wrote a short story on Marmeladov that became the core of C&P “Love a man, even in his sin, for that love is a likeness of the divine love, and is the summit of love on earth” Fyodor Dostoyevsky “If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky “Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky “If God does not exist, then everything is permitted” Fyodor Dostoyevsky “It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them -- “The secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky Dostoevsky….the reformer/

Dostoevsky…. the writer, the poet • Crime and Punishment 1866 • A Russian masterpiece • Written for a serial publication • D saw himself as a psychological novelist • D identified with Rascolnikov: “an unawakened man enters the moral universe through his crime” • D planned the novel in 1st person narration • D comments on Russia’s values, poverty, drunkenness, roles of women and urban class structure

“The S& R themes”The Christian/Judaic themes • Suffering • confession • Repentance • Retribution • Salvation • redemption • resurrection

Crime and Punishment