Gabriel's term paper part 2

Raskolnikov's guilt proves to be his true punishment as he attempts to justify his actions and thought process on multiple occasions. However, even as he attempts to justify his actions he provides more incriminating evidence to others. For example, Raskolnikov wrote an article that was titled “In Crime.” This article consisted of his point of view regarding justifications to committing a murder. He claims that if it is for the benefit of society, than it is not actually a crime. In fact, it would be immoral not to do the favor of ridding the world of such terrible people. When writing this, he was clearly attempting to form an argument in his head in order to convince himself to follow through with his plan to commit the murders. This once again supports the Superman theory. Anna Knowles states that “Superman, according to Nietzsche has reached a state of being where he is no longer affected by pity, suffering, tolerance of the weak, the power of the soul over the body, the belief in an afterlife, the corruption of modern values.” This accurately describes Raskolnikov as he is not affected by pity or any of the other requirements that fit in to the Superman theory. He is considered corrupted amongst modern society because he is not affected by normal human emotions.

Throughout the story Raskolnikov expresses an immense amount of guilt, yet he never truly acknowledges it. Even after he confesses at the end of the novel, he does so mostly because Sonya influences him to follow through with it. He nearly turns away from the police station, showing his cowardly side. But after seeing Sonya following him, he gathers the courage to follow through with his confession. By doing this, he spared Nikolai from being wrongfully punished. He is sentenced to only eight years in prison. Sonya decides to follow him and support him throughout his prison experience, which finally causes Raskolinkov to express emotion and cry tears of joy as he hugged Sonya. This shows that he is on the path to redemption as he finally begins to have normal human emotions. “Infinite happiness lit up in her eyes . . . he loved her, loved her infinitely, and . . . at last the moment had come . . .” (Dostoyevsky, 521). However, it is evident that he still has not fully learned from his mistakes. This is because after everything, it is revealed that he still does not believe that anything is wrong with his personality and that the murders he committed were not necessarily sinful. He thought of them more as unfortunate errors. Although he fails to recognize the severity of his actions, the fact that he confessed while knowing that he will be imprisoned and punished shows that the guilt was too much for him to handle. He clearly preferred to be physically imprisoned than to live with the guilt like he had been previously.