Crime and Punishment

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Primary Identity: Crime and Punishment (1866) is Fyodor Dostoevsky's psychological masterpiece following Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student in St. Petersburg who murders elderly pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna and her half-sister Lizaveta Core Thesis: Dostoevsky refutes utilitarian rationalism and the "extraordinary man" theory—the claim that superior individuals have a right to transgress moral law for humanitarian ends—arguing instead that salvation comes only through suffering, atonement, and Christian love Philosophical Motivation & Collapse: Raskolnikov divides humanity into ordinary people and extraordinary figures (such as Napoleon) who possess a supposed "right to transgress," yet immediately after the murder he is consumed by "mystic terror," feverish isolation, and guilt Psychological Cat-and-Mouse: Investigating magistrate Porfiry Petrovich applies sustained psychological pressure rather than brute force to corner Raskolnikov toward confession

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