How St. Petersburg represents Raskolinkov’s State of Mind Devvyn E. Rhodes I.B. English, P.2 Woodrow Wilson High School Woodrow Wilson High School

Abstract In the book Crime and Punishment the author, Feodor Dostoevsky tells a story about a man named Raskolinkov that struggles with an internal and external decision making that leads him to committing a murder. Changing his state of mind as he dwells in the city of St. Petersburg, the author provides the reader with a suggestion of representation between the main character, Raskolinkov and the city of St. Petersburg. The representation of the city being a ruin, and as well Raskolinkovs mind. I found how his mind struggles, as well the city of St. Petersburg struggles on a loose foundation of poverty, moral decay, and chaos.

How St. Petersburg represents Raskolinkov’s State of Mind
In the first page Feodore Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, the city of St. Petersburg is resembled as a low down, dirty, and stifling place to be where men squander around bars blatantly drunk, where women sell themselves on corners for a cheap price; where children have looks of despair written across their faces, as they beg on the streets, digging through the trash cans for a chance of finding some food to stay alive (1). This is an example of a city that is falling to its ruins. Ruins are the leftovers of what there once was, and signifies as the situation that had once occurred in that time and place. These ruins of St. Petersburg represent Raskolinkovs state of mind, because it serves as a symbol of his moral decay, and his loss of internal control. This effects back on a symbol of society being in complete chaos. As Raskolinkov changes his life into a bad direction, he loses himself in his emotions and new ideas. Revealing how important someone’s moralities are to one’s state of mind, and how all the little things in life can lead to someone’s breaking point. Like all the little things in a city that can change the overall outcome of someone’s fate. Things like, certain smells, the kinds of people living there- rich or poor, the type of living conditions that have to be dealt with, the attitudes people have, and how people deal with their deepest emotions in society, and if many people still tend to the traditional ways of their mother land. In this case the mother land being, mother Russia. In example, the author explains in the beginning of the book how Raskolinkovs surroundings take part in portraying how he feels, he writes, “… all is combined to aggravate the disturbance of the young man’s nerves. The intolerable reek from the public houses, so numerous in that part of the city, and the sight of the drunken men encountered at every turn… completed the mournfully repellent picture.”(2), essentially making Raskolinkov feel very uncomfortable. It makes the reader realize that just the little things can drive a man mad.
As he has been consumed by the city, and lives by the society Raskolinkov becomes his own chaos. As his mind thrives to try to help others and help himself. He struggles to find a balance in where he knows how to compensate for his loss of mind, and longing for love. As the city experiences the same neglect from its own people. Both Raskolinkov, and St. Petersburg are being tortured by murder and abandoned to people who no longer care for them. Raskolinkov struggles to keep his thoughts in check, because at this point he does not realize how far gone he is. Meaning, he has fallen off the deep end, because he has committed a crime that he will never forget. Caused by irritation, compensation, and violent will he murders his landlord lady, and her sister. Thinking it is alright because he thinks he is doing something for the greater good, but things are not always as they seem. As he explains, “Killing her was atonement for forty sins. She was sucking the life out of poor people. Was that a crime?”(Dostoevsky, pg.438) Essentially it was, because in the end he ends up hurting more people, including himself to the extent it drives him even more insane. Which results in his complete downfall. When in the back of his mind his thoughts scream for help, when he falls to his knees and begs for a touch of catharsis. Like the city, he was once a strong foundation, until he met wits end, and crumbled like stone into a big dirty pile of rocks. Serving as the breakdown to Raskolinkovs mind. From every fine detail in every thought, to every resulting action in his mind. Making purpose in eventually leading to more than a change in his mental state of health, but his physical state as well.
The chaotic society of St. Petersburg in a way represents Raskolinkov’s dual personality. From one extreme to the other, as Raskolinkov goes back and forth between feeling guilty and pressured to say what is egging him on to speak the truth about his horrible deed that thrives in the space of his conscious, and one that satisfies his conscious . Like when Raskolinkov bickers back and forth between himself, he says, “The old woman was a mistake perhaps, but she’s not the point! The old woman was merely a sickness . . . I was in a hurry to step over . . . it wasn’t a human being I killed, it was a principle! So I killed the principle, but I didn’t step over, I stayed on this side . . . All I managed to do was kill. And I didn’t even manage that, as it turns out . . .” (Jalic) Allowing the reader to see that, one side of the protagonist is dominated and overseen by his other personality. One who has too much power and will to do what he pleases, and comes to justifies his means by using the excuse that he not only did the act of murder for himself, but for the protection of society. Or the other side, who is weak and cannot come to a conclusion on whether or not what he did was right or wrong. These are the things that ends up putting himself in isolation from all of the rest of St. Petersburg, because he feels as if they could never have understood why he did what he did.
Growing tired, and agitated by the society, he feels like everyone is out to get him. Which turns his picture of the city in his mind to what would now be considered a ruin. A place of confusion, empty space, and dwelling memories. Everywhere he turns it makes him feel like a mad man. Like he has lost all his reason for living, because his morals, principals, and everything he knows has fallen apart. Just like the city has taken a toll on its principals, rules, and moralities to run the city wrong. They have both, the city of St. Petersburg and Raskolinkov fallen to its deepest end, and has had the craziest ideas in order to compensate with their real problem. The problem of denial. Denial being to choose to be unaware, and not admitting to having a problem. Both Raskolinkov, and St. Petersburg, letting themselves crumble, and dwell in being the misfits of all societies in mother Russia. However, there is something different about Raskolinkov that sets him apart from the city of St. Petersburg. The city of St. Petersburg does not have the chance to recover from becoming a ruin, because it is a city, it is simply just not human. It needs people, and a stable society to build back up what there once was. To create its stable foundation again. Unlike Raskolinkov who has the chance to break away from society and become his own person and build himself back up again. He could become a symbol as a success out of the stages of denial, and not be a misfit of society, but a symbol of redemption.

References
Dostoevsky, F. (1866). Crime and punishment. (3rd ed., Vol. I). New York: Norton & Company, Inc.
Jalic, I. (2003). Feodor Dostoevsky. Retrieved from http://www.online- literature.com/dostoevsky/crimeandpunishment/