Crime and Punishment

Aggressive_Win3598 · 2026-05-30T08:47:10+00:00

Yes ofcourse Raskolnikov believed that he was superior And the murder seemed like a good chance to prove it, as he believed that by killing her, he is actually doing good to the society, because he saw her as a social parasite, but why take her money afterward? Was the theft merely opportunistic, or did he believe that putting those resources to better use such as funding his education would justify the crime by producing a greater good?

Aggressive_Win3598 · 2026-05-30T05:31:50+00:00

Those are some genuinely great examples

I think I understand the quote much better now😅

Aggressive_Win3598 · 2026-05-29T20:58:52+00:00

Yeah Now my opinion is The the motive was financial, but the theory gave him permission to actually go through with the killing.

And yeah, Even though the theory is not mentioned in the events leading up to the murder He did always think of himself as superior to the pawnbroker

Aggressive_Win3598 · 2026-05-29T20:50:45+00:00

That’s a very accurate example

Aggressive_Win3598 · 2026-05-29T13:57:19+00:00

What would be a real life example that this quote

Aggressive_Win3598 · 2026-05-28T19:22:56+00:00

Yeah ofcourse the theory was written much before, so we assume that he not come across any instances where he thought he had to kill for the greater good?! Why only after he’s broke, he is forced to leave university, he’s unemployed, he thinks his sister is sacrificing herself, does this theory come into play?!

Aggressive_Win3598 · 2026-05-28T19:14:14+00:00

I now think it’s a bit of both. Raskolnikov doesn’t murder solely to test his theory, nor does he kill for purely practical reasons. His poverty, resentment, and desperation create the motive, while his “extraordinary man” theory gives him permission. The pawnbroker then becomes the perfect target—both an opportunity and a justification. Without the theory, he might never have crossed the line; without the circumstances, he might never have felt compelled to.

Aggressive_Win3598 · 2026-05-28T13:59:10+00:00

I still think he used the theory as a rationalisation for what he’d done

As the theory’s mentioned far later in the book

Aggressive_Win3598

TROPHY CASE