Watermarks Motives for Murder in Crime and Punishment by Stephanie Swinson

Feodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is a murder mystery unlike most murder mysteries. In this novel the reader knows "who done it"; the mystery lies in why the murder is committed. Throughout the story, Raskolnikov gives three main reasons why he kills Alena Ivanovna. Although these reasons seem unrelated on a superficial level, there is truth in all of them. What's more, each one builds on its predecessor. Raskolnikov's first two reasons are scrutinized by Sonya one at a time as his solitary motive for murder. These reasons are then disproved on their own, leaving one ultimate motive that essentially encompasses the other two. As readers, we sometimes tend to want a direct explanation for events that have occurred. Dostoevsky gives us explanations, but they are not direct and can be confusing if we are looking for an obvious cause and effect relationship. Crime and Punishment imitates life in that the happenings do not always fit in nice neat categories. Perhaps this is one of the elements that make it such an intriguing and acclaimed novel.

Raskolnikov's first reason for murdering the pawn broker is to help himself. He claims he wanted the money. He states in his confession to Sonya, "It was to rob her" (348). It is obvious that he needed money for school. Also, if he had the money to put himself through school, his mother would not have to scrimp and borrow from others to help her son. Since the death of his father, Raskolnikov's mother and sister are greatly dependent upon him to make something of himself. His mother says in a letter to him, "You are all we have, Dunya and I, you are everything to us, our only hope and trust" (25). In this same letter, his mother tells him of his sister's plan to marry Peter Petrovich. Raskolnikov feels that his sister is marrying only for his sake, and he wants to save her from what he feels would be a fate of enslavement. In fact, it is this letter from his mother that motivates him "to act at once and with speed" (38).

However, when Raskolnikov tells Sonya that his sole purpose for killing the pawn broker was to acquire money, she asks him if he was hungry when he committed the murder and if he had planned to send money to his mother. She later asks, "How could you give away your last penny and yet commit murder for gain?" (348). Through her shocked remonstrance, Sonya innocently discredits Raskolnikov's first reason for murder. Because of her question, he realizes that he did not murder for money. Monetary gain was his initial excuse but not his ultimate motive. In fact he never even looked to see how much money he had taken.

Raskolnikov's second reason for murdering Alena Ivanovna is to help the greater good. He rationalizes that she was a "louse." She took advantage of the poor people who came to her out of desperation by not giving them what their pledges were worth. She was cruel to those who were in need of her services as well as to her own sister. Raskolnikov is not the only person who felt this way about her. He overhears two men in a bar talking about the very thing he has been pondering, killing Alena Ivanovna. The student at the bar tells the young officer,

Kill her, take her money, on condition that you dedicate yourself with its help to the service of humanity and the common good: don't you think that thousands of good deeds will wipe out one little, insignificant transgression? For one life taken, thousands saved from corruption and decay. (56)

It is obvious to Raskolnikov that to kill the old lady would be doing the world a service, and that he is possibly the person called upon to do what has to be done. Based on his own theory of the superior man, he has to do what is best for the greater good and not be held accountable for the consequences.

Raskolnikov discredits his second excuse when he tries to explain to Sonya that the pawn broker was a louse and needed to be killed. Sonya answers back sharply that Alena Ivanovna was not a louse but a person. During his mission to save the world form Alena Ivanonva, he has also killed the innocent Lizaveta, a brutal act for which he showes little to no remorse. Raskolnikov concedes that killing the pawn broker and her sister had no benefits for the greater good. He realizes that he is in no way a hero.

Raskolnikov's last reason for murder is the conclusion for himself as well as the reader. He tells Sonya that he feels cleverer than most people and that people never change. The only way to prove himself strong is to be brave and do something daring. In his mind, "Power is given only to the man who dares to stop and take it [... He] wanted to have the courage and [he] killed [... He] only wanted to dare [...] that was the only reason" (353). The entire event was an exercise in self-realization. It was a test to prove himself strong and powerful among commoners. His last reason was accepted as his ultimate motive; "Sonya understood that this gloomy creed had become his faith and his law" (353).

Raskolnikov himself does not really know why he is committing murder when the murder is taking place. It is a discovery of self and of a theory that was not yet developed. He uses excuses for his reasoning in the beginning, saying that he needs the money, and, later, that he is performing a service for the greater good. These excuses are necessary and fundamental steps of Raskolnikov's journey into self-discovery. It is human nature to rationalize, which is what he is doing. Ironically, this very need for rationalization and excuse is what fails him in his quest for proof of his superiority.

Dostoevsky, Feodor. Crime and Punishment. Trans. Jessie Coulson. Ed. Goerge Gibian. New York: Norton, 1989.

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