Crime & Punishment

When I first began thinking about Crime and Punishment I thought no way, the characters are all good or evil. There’s no in between to talk about. But Raskolnikov constantly has to deal with his internal turmoil. He is capable of murdering the pawnbroker but ends the novel in a completely different place.

            The more I look at the novel, the more I think that the entire novel is Raskolnikov’s own struggle with the good and bad within himself. When he actually kills the pawnbroker he feels the guilt of the crime and it causes him to physically fall ill. One of the major ways that Raskolnikov deals with his darker thoughts is to almost “turn off” his emotions. I see this as a negative way to deal with turmoil because ultimately Raskolnikov’s repressed feelings boil over and, with some help, cause him to confess to the murder.  He is only able to truly come to terms with the two sides of his personality once he allows himself to feel remorse for his actions and accept the consequences that come from them.

            The other characters in Crime and Punishment generally are exaggerations of human characteristics personified. Because of this they don’t have to deal with the opposing side of their characteristic. Sonia, for example, never has to really deal with the darker side of her nature because she is so inherently good. Perhaps Svid may realize that he has done very little actual good besides giving away his money. Upon this realization Svid takes his own life instead of coming to terms with the two sides of human nature.

            Because of it’s variety of characters, both good and bad, Crime and Punishment proves to be a very interesting novel for the study of the human condition. 

King Lear and The Human Condition

In Shakespeare’s King Lear both sides of human nature are shown. There are darker characters such as Regan, Goneril, and Edmund, juxtaposed against inherently good characters such as Cordelia, Kent, and Edgar. The interesting thing to observe is the ultimate conclusions that the “darker” characters come to. In the final scene of the play all of the so called “evil” characters realize that they have done wrong and try to attempt some sort of atonement for their wrongdoings. Edmund tells the others of his plot to assassinate Cordelia and King Lear. While Goneril kills herself as she realizes that she has killed her most beloved sister over a bastard that has been playing both of them. These conclusions lead one to believe that ultimately the good side of the human nature will overcome to bad. 

Oedipus's Coping Skills (Or Lack Thereof)

Oedipus, like all people, is subject to the human condition. I also believe that he likes to think that he is a person of superb character. For the audience, or reader, of the play that Oedipus is far from pristine.  The first hint at the Oedipus struggling with the more destructive side of his nature is his show of temper in front of the palace. He becomes so frustrated that he yells at Teiresias telling him that, “…twice you have spat out infamy. You’ll pay for it!!”(349-350). Throughout the play Oedipus continues this violent temper and a tendency towards hubris, both part of the darker side of humanity. He also demonstrates many redeeming qualities such as his love for his children when he fears for them as he leaves at the end of the play. As he speaks of his daughters he says, “But my poor daughters, who have shared my table, Who never before have been parted from their father- Take care of them, Kreon; do this for me.”(1409-1412).

So Oedipus, he could be good. he could be bad, so what? Right? He’s doing just fine. That is true, until he finds out that he has actually fulfilled the prophecy and killed his father and married his mother. The messenger recounts Oedipus’s actions after his discovery, “He stormed about the room… from one to another of us he went, begging a sword, Hunting the wife who was not his wife, whose womb had carried his own children and himself… He hurled his weight, as though wrenched out of himself,… He rushed in. And there saw her hanging, her body swaying From the cruel cord she had noosed about her neck… He loosed the rope and lowered her to the ground…The king ripped from her gown the golden brooches That were her ornament, and raised them and plunged them down Straight into his own eyeballs.”(1206-1223).

After doing so well Oedipus falls, as all tragic heroes must, allowing the sinister side of his nature to take over. Essentially, his coping skills are non-existent. He abandons all thoughts and gives in to deep depression. Oedipus is ashamed that he has accomplished the one thing that he set out to avoid.

Let's Start at the Beginning

The human condition, simple phrase for something that encompasses of all humanity. Each and every one of us is in some way a part of this condition. It is not something that you opt into. It is an essential part of being human. The condition itself is hard to define because it is something sensed within us, an internal that each person must come to terms with by themselves.

Briony, a main character in Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, is plagued by this issue. As a young girl she told a lie that would destroy the future of the man involved. This destruction also spread to the man’s lover, Briony’s sister, Cecelia.

 Many characters in literature struggle with the good and bad found within themselves. A notable example is from T.A Barron’s The Great Tree of Avalon trilogy in which the main character may fulfill either the dark or light side of a prophecy.

How can mankind be capable of such love and charity, while at the same time being capable of such brutality and destruction? How do different people confront this contradiction within themselves?