Crime And Punishment - Blog Posts
Does anyone have any book recommendations for my Alevel coursework. I was thinking about doing 'crime and punishment' or 'Iron widow' but I have no clue what to compare either of them with.
Aeneas taken by the Sibyl to the Underworld (Detail), 17th century. By Jacob Isaacsz. van Swanenburg
"mutuals can ask for discord" mutuals can haunt me after they die. mutuals can paint my immortal youth in a cursed portrait. mutuals can build a 8ft tall creature in my college dorm. mutuals can watch me wake up as a monstrous vermin. mutuals can feed me soup after i commit murder. mutuals can help me kill uncle claudius. mutuals can go out with me and my girlfriend from across the bay. mutuals can hunt the beast with me. do better
Born to be the protag of a cutesy magical girl shojo anime, forced to be Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov
Would be super interesting to see an analysis on your top 3 favorite characters. If you want to of course!
My top 3 favourite characters huh? Honestly my favourite characters tend to very depending on my mood but if I had to pick a top 3 I guess it would be....
Chuuya
Akutagawa
Fyodor
Not necessarily in that order. I'd love to write an analysis for all three but at the moment the only one I have ideas for is Fyodor so I'll stick with him for now. Honestly this man is a big question mark to me, we don't know anything about his background or what made him the way he is. We don't even know if he's human. All the same I'll see what I can do.
Before you read this analysis though I would like to make it very clear that I DO NOT CONDONE THE PHILOSOPHY EXPLAINED IN THIS ANALYSIS.
Spoiler alert: This analysis contains spoilers for chapters 120.5 and 46 of the BSD Manga as well as Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky inspired by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky and his well-known work Crime and Punishment is one of the principal antagonists in the multimedia series Bungo Stray Dogs written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa. Arguably the only intellectual rival to Ranpo and Dazai, Fyodor’s plans often cause the Agency and Mafia alike quite a bit of difficulty ostensibly for the purposes of creating a world without sin and ability users. However, upon closer inspection this goal doesn’t really make sense given Fyodor’s behaviour. That is, unless the reader takes into account a particular section of the novel Crime and Punishment, the namesake of Fyodor’s ability. This essay aims to explain how this section of Crime and Punishment informs Fyodor’s behaviour and goals in Bungo Stray Dogs. This will be done by first exploring Fyodor’s motivations based on what he says in the manga series, second by analysing the section of Crime and Punishment in question and third by explaining how these link together. For clarity Fyodor Dostoyevsky the character will be referred to as Fyodor, while Fyodor Dostoevsky the author will be referred to as Dostoevsky.
The first instance where Fyodor talks about his goals and what he wants with the book takes place in chapter 46 of the manga, The Masked Assassin. During his conversation with Dazai, Fyodor states, ‘Man… is sinful and foolish. Even if they know it is all an artifice, they cannot help but kill each other. Someone must purify them for their sins. That is why I seek the “book,”.’ Then again in the same chapter he states, ‘And I will use that book… to make… a world free of sin and skill users.’ Once again in chapter 120.5 Fyodor talks about his goal saying, ‘I, his humble servant, shall take up his dream… and go on to build a truly lasting peace.’ If what he says is taken as fact—Fyodor has lied even to the audience before—then it makes his goal quite clear. His goal is to create a world without sin, specifically it seems the sin of killing each other given he talks about creating world peace and what he says about humanity being unable to help killing each other. He also seems to want to create a world free of skill users. This is a fairly straight forward goal. However, there is one key problem. If Fyodor were to succeed, he himself would be unable to live in this world for two key reasons. Firstly, Fyodor is a skill user. Secondly, his methods to achieving world peace and a world free of sin have caused countless deaths as any reader will know. Additionally, on being asked by Fukuzawa during chapter 120.5 how he will go about creating world peace he states, ‘By triggering a world war.’ Arguably, what he means is that instead of uniting the world through virtue and goodness as Fukuchi was going to, he is going to unite the world against the common enemy of skill users. He himself says in the same chapter, ‘I will build a millennium of peace. Not with “good” and “virtue” but with the ugliness inside every man. And I will build it atop the corpses of skill users.’ Now given that Fyodor is telling the truth about his goal, the question is raised: how can someone as intelligent as Fyodor not see the contradiction behind what he is doing. He is going to cause suffering and blood shed, cause humanity to commit a multitude of sins, in order to eliminate suffering and bloodshed and sin. The answer is that he can see this contradiction but according to his philosophy what he’s doing is ok and not contradictory to his goal at all.
Raskolnikov, the main character of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment sets out this philosophy during his conversation with Porfiry in Chapter 5 of Part 3 of the novel. The conversation they have is about an article that Raskolnikov had written in which ‘a certain hint is presented that there supposedly exists in the world certain persons who can…that is, who not only can but are entitled to commit all sorts of crimes…’. At first glance this seems like a totally illogical idea, but this is simply Porfiry’s ‘forced and deliberate’ distortion of it. In his article Raskolnikov has stated that he believes that people are divided into two categories: the ordinary, and the extraordinary. ‘The ordinary must live in obedience with the law […]. While the extraordinary have the right to commit all sorts of crimes and in various ways transgress the law,’ Porfiry summarises in Chapter 5 Part 3. Raskolnikov states that this is almost correct but that he doesn’t think that all extraordinary people must break the law or commit crimes. What he believes is that an extraordinary person has the right to break the law or commit crimes if it is for the sake of benefiting humanity. The example he gives is as follows, ‘If […] Newton’s discoveries could become known to people in no other way than by sacrificing the lives of one, or ten, or a hundred or more people who were hindering the discovery, or standing as an obstacle in its path, then Newton would have the right, and it would even be his duty… to remove those ten or a hundred people, in order to make his discovery known to all mankind. It by no means follows from this, incidentally, that Newton should have the right to kill anyone…’. What this means is essentially that Raskolnikov believes that an extraordinary person, as he defines it, has the right to commit crimes if the end goal is the greater good of humanity. He goes on to explain that he believes that all ‘lawgivers and founders of man kind’, one of the examples he gives is Napoleon, have spilt sometimes quite innocent blood in their path. He states, ‘It is even remarkable that most of these benefactors and founders of mankind were especially terrible bloodshedders. In short, I deduce that all, not only great men, but even those who are a tiny bit off the beaten track—that is who are a tiny bit capable of saying something new—by their very nature cannot fail to be criminals…’. With this philosophy in mind, Fyodor’s actions and motivations start to make a bit more sense.
It is likely then, that Fyodor not only believes this philosophy but also sees himself as one of these extraordinary people and therefore believes that he has the right to commit crime because creating world peace and a world without sin would be a benefit to all of humanity. That is why to him, his actions and goals are aligned and do not contradict each other, to put it simply, to him, the ends justify the means. Because he is benefiting humanity, he has the right to commit crimes, at least in his mind. With this in mind his actions make a lot more sense. The way he sees it, he is simply carrying out his duty to humanity as one of these ‘extraordinary’ people. Therefore, he is not committing any crimes and were he to succeed he would be able to live in the world he had created.
To conclude, Fyodor’s actions and goals are aligned if one views them through the philosophy set out by Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. If it is assumed that Fyodor believes this philosophy then in his mind, he is simply carrying out his duty and is therefore not committing any crimes, thus he would be able to live in the world free of sin that he intends to create.
I SWEAR THIS MAN DOES THIS ON PURPOSE. the way he tilts his head with a calm expression on his face like he accepted his fate is obviously a reference for jesus and he knows this. he literally deludes himself to think he is some sort of a savior and jesus, so much that he acts like one subconsciously. i mean of course asagiri is referencing all these stuff but it's not because fyodor really is jesus, it's because he thinks that he is. he sees himself above everyone and to him he is one of the few people who can 'save' everyone. look at him, bearing torture for our sins. oh god. i hate him
I’m well behind on my art gifts so wip and doodles for now :))
been mostly focused on finishing up illustrating a bit of C&P for an assignment. About 1/3rd of the way done the last page :D
Initial sketch for one panel to the outcome under cut (aka me getting distracted by turning on and off layers instead of getting work done)
Crime and Punishment Part 1 poster for an assignment :)))
(I’ve only just finished part 4 chapter 2 and I cannot be normal about this book😭😭)
guys did you know that crime and punishment is actually on Wattpad as well (O_o)
Rodya Raskolnikov and Alyosha Karamazov. My beloveds (baby girls, if you will)
dostoy fandom not ready for the manga idea i had a year ago thats loosely raskolnikov and alyosha doing hot girl shit together
When I said that I want to be a main character in a book I didn't mean a Russian novel.
they need to invent the opposite of an nda called an fda where u have to tell everyone everything
Just let me drink coffee and read Dostoyevski.
OMG HI....Im sorry if im late, my friend and i were talking abt crime and punishment again and they were browsing through the tag and sent me ur post and was like "is it abt you??" 😭 help. Anyway here it is!! I archived it from my acc bc i didnt really like it, but the fact that u like it makes me go :Dc!!! Thabk u!!
by chance does anyone on tumblr have this crime and punishment fanart? its a little cartoon where raskolnikov is trying to have a drink by himself but razumikhin is very excited and making noise with the accordion to bother raskolnikov
‘Hello, I am a student. I will not be shouted at, thank you.’ is very valid, and a sentence that has been added to my student vocabulary.
“not all men”
you’re right; dmitry prokofich razumikhin would never do this
Feeling like sh*t lately… Have some Rodion Raskolnikov
"Am I a monster, or am I myself a victim?"
- Crime and Punishment vibes
Fyodor dostoevsky's work <3
Oh my GOD.
still reeling from this gem
literally screaming.
I hope in my next incarnation I'm reborn as a protagonist from a Dostoyevsky novel
Crime and Punishment
I love this ship so much, I'm so sure that they're both bisexual.
Painted:
Crime and Punishment
Emotion + blood practice requests, yaaay.
@phoenix-the-mistfit-fire-bird @chelseyelricjr