Crime and Punishment vs. The Big Question

The Big Question: What is the importance of identity and the significance of losing or gaining an identity?

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment addresses the question of identity to a large degree. The importance of identity impacts the characters immensely. In the forefront, there is Raskolnikov. I believe that he first began to lose his identity when he came to St. Petersburg and began to feel like he did not belong because of the hat he wore. Raskolnikov then began to come to a place of belonging in the city, and therefore began to distance himself from his true identity. Unlike other characters in the novel, Raskolnikov acted to fill the needs of himself and of others. He repeatedly gives money to people who need it, but then regrets giving it to them. His regret signifies the initial loss of his identity because he regrets and therefore the act does not comply with this character. However, Raskolnikov does not identify the signal that he is losing his identity, and tries to find belonging in the city by acting more drastically. Raskolnikov acts off of the ideas of others, he hears a few men in a bar talking about how it would be nice if someone killed the local pawn-broker because she over-charges people. Raskolnikov then begins to realize that it is his responsibility to resolve the "suffering of humanity." He then murders Alyona Ivanova and her sister Lizaveta with an ax. Raskolnikov then becomes ill and isolates himself from the people he knows. His isolation is significant because it illustrates not only the loss of his personal identity, but if his social identity as well. The loss of his social identity is inevitable because he chooses to step out of his place as a student and into that of an "over-man." 


This is the second case of mistaken identity Raskolnikov encounters. He is an extraordinary individual because of his intelligence and ability to act, but this does not make him an over-man. The "over-man" in society is to be the one that controls the "under-men" by setting aside his own desires and acting to for the good of society. He says that he does "not bow down to you, [he bows] down to the suffering of humanity." However, the fatal flaw to Raskolnikov's theory of him being an over-man. He does act to better the lives of the people around him by murdering an old woman, but he only acts because he hears people want it to happen. Raskolnikov also only confesses to this crime because Sonya tells him that he should. Therefore, Raskolnikov does not act from his own original convictions, but of others. And because his actions do not come completely from himself, he cannot be an over-man; he is an under-man because he is controlled by others.


Throughout the novel, Raskolnikov distances himself from his true identity with every action he does. He is only able to regain his identity when he is sent to Siberia, a rural place like he is from. He chose to move to a large city from a small village, and therefore broke the boundaries of his inherent identity and acted out of his true character. His identity is regained when he is forced to return to the country, suggesting that the place an individual is from carries a heavy influence over their identity.

White Winter Hymnal- Fleet Foxes
I was following the,I was following the,I was following the,I was following the,I was following the,I was following the,I was following the,I was following the,I was following the pack,All swallowed in their coatsWith scarves of red tied 'round their throatsTo keep their little headsFrom fallin' in the snowAnd I turned 'round and there you go.And, Michael, you would fall,And turn the white snowRed as strawberries in the summertime.