Alex's term paper part 2

Raskolnikov’s convoluted understanding of Nietzsche’s Übermensch theory is shown through an article he wrote as a student titled “On Crime.” This article, which, to Raskolnikov’s surprise, was published in a magazine, argues that:

Men are in general divided by a law of nature into two categories, inferior (ordinary)…and men who have the gift or the talent to utter a new word…The first category, generally speaking, are men conservative in temperament and law-abiding; they live under control and love to be controlled…The second category all transgress the law; they are destroyers or disposed to destruction according to their capacities. The crimes of these men are of course relative and varied; for the most part they seek in very varied ways the destruction of the present for the sake of the better. But if such a one is forced for the sake of his idea to step over a corpse or wade through blood, he can, I maintain, find within himself, in his conscience, a sanction for wading through blood—that depends on the idea and its dimensions, note that…The first category is always the man of the present, the second the man of the future. The first preserve the world and people it, the second move the world and lead it to its goal. (Dostoevsky 248-249)

Simply put, “On Crime” states Raskolnikov’s opinion that the common man is a weak human being who is incapable of controlling society. Some extraordinary people, however, are more powerful than the common man, and it is these supermen who shall determine the fate of society. These extraordinary men can violate the rules and laws of society in order to refrain from becoming ordinary, and according to Raskolnikov, this essentially gives all extraordinary men the right to commit murder in addition other crimes. Raskolnikov’s fear of remaining ordinary and not living up to the achievements of the idolized Napoleon drive him to murder Alyona and Lizaveta Ivanova.

The article displayed the immoral and corrupt side of Raskolnikov’s personality, which made it relatively easy for others to point fingers when hypothesizing whom the true killer is. However, over the course of this 19^th century Russian novel, Raskolnikov develops conflicting thoughts on whether or not he truly qualifies as one of the proclaimed “super humans.” Raskolnikov’s inability to rid himself of the guilt he feels over murdering the Ivanova sisters is enough to prove to him that he is not a superhuman, but nonetheless, Raskolnikov remains unwilling to accept the idea that he is just as average as the rest of society. The mental breakdown that Raskolnikov faces due to his severe guilt results in several irrational thoughts, such as the idea that by murdering the pawnbroker, he was contributing to the greater good of society. When discussing the murders with his sister Dunya, Raskolnikov responds angrily towards the public’s reaction to the murders:

Crime? What crime! ...I killed a vile, harmful louse, an old hag of a moneylender for no use to anybody, for whose murder one should be forgiven forty sins, and who bled poor people dry. Can that be called a crime? I don’t think about it and I have no desire to wipe it out. (Dostoyevsky 491)