Analysis of Crime and Punishment
In Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment, the characters serve as tools through which the author portrays his philosophical ideals, which support existentialism, natural law, and disprove the philosophy of nihilism. Existentialism as defined by Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary is “a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for his acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad. ... Svidrigailov’s death does not represent the complete removal of nihilism from Raskolnikov’s personality but it does represent what is portrayed to be the beginning of his movement towards the confession of his crime.