![]() Widespread disillusion with liberalism emerged in France during the July Monarchy (1830-48) of Louis Philippe, for whom liberalism meant the rule of the self-made rich. ![]() Raskolnikov is shown to be a confused hybrid, both reflecting liberal thought and rebelling against it. It reflected a wave of reaction against economic liberalism, not unlike that which has occurred during 2016. One of the first psychological novels, Crime and Punishment is also deeply political. His split personality inspired Stevenson’s story of Jekyll and Hyde. Raskolnikov’s name means “split in two” or “schismatic”. The reader sees how Raskonikov has become desensitised and how his ideas (influenced by his reading of Hegel and Bentham) have unintended consequences. Raskolnikov kills her, too, without a second thought. But during the murder, the victim’s kind and vulnerable sister walks in. Besides, to him the pawnbroker is a “louse” whose murder will be a net benefit to society. ![]() He does it partly to prove an idea that he has written about: that exceptional people, like Napoleon, can be above the law. The plot hinges on how, one summer’s day in St Petersurg, a penniless student, Rodion Raskolnikov, murders an old woman pawnbroker. An incredibly influential novel, Crime and Punishment also has a particularly contemporary political significance. ![]() It is now 150 years since the publication of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. ![]()
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