Crime and Punishment / Thesis Statements and Important Quotes

Below you will find three outstanding thesis statements / paper topics on Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky that can be used as essay starters. All five incorporate at least one of the themes found in the text and are broad enough so that it will be easy to find textual support, yet narrow enough to provide a focused clear thesis statement. These thesis statements offer a summary of different elements that could be important in an essay but you are free to add your own analysis and understanding of the plot or themes to them. Using the essay topics below in conjunction with the list of important quotes at the bottom of the page, you should have no trouble connecting with the text and writing an excellent paper

Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #1 Alienation and Separation from Society in Crime and Punishment

The world presented in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is quite harsh and there are few examples of people who are either comfortable or provided for. Certainly this is the case with Raskolnikov (also called Rodya or Rodion) and his family. This desolate landscape and setting further emphasizes the theme of desolation, isolation, and alienation. For this essay you could take two directions. First, you could examine the setting itself and describes ways in which it is in itself alienating. For a longer essay, could incorporate ideas about the setting with the ways in which characters as alienated from society. Raskolnikov would be the best example and you could discuss how he is alienated because of his worldview and finds, in his own personal philosophy, that he is superior and others only exist to serve him in some way. There are other directions you could take the theme of alienation and these are but two examples.

Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #2 The Role of God and Religion in Crime and Punishment

The function of religion and individual understandings of God is an important theme in the novel, particularly toward the end. Although Raskolnikov is far too arrogant throughout the majority of the novel to come to terms with religion or his conception of God, all around him there are a number of religious messages come at him from Sonia and others. The presence of religion offers readers a unique paradox because on the one hand, this novel is about an essentially godless person who commits an awful and grave sin. For this essay, examine the ways in which this might be a religious parable. Make connections between biblical characters (Cain and Abel, Mary Magdalene, etc) and if you want to be more complex, consider these issues in light of the context of Dostoevsky’s life and religious conversion.

Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #3: The Rationalization of Crime / Character Analysis of Raskolnikov

Part of what makes Raskonikov such an enduring, compelling, and frightening character is the way he is able to coldly rationalize murder and evil. In his mind, when how the woman is “useful to anyone at all” he is suggesting that there are people who do not deserve to live and since his purposes are noble (he is not, after all, murdering her for the sheer joy of crime but in order to help his family and secure a good life for himself late) then his crime is justified. Although the guilt tears him apart, at no point does he ever seem to wonder about if what he did was right or wrong necessarily, but his guilt stems from a more complex set of reasons—not the least of which is the involvement of Sonia. For this essay, examine the many ways in which Raskolnikov is able to rationalize sin and close the essay with your insights on what this means.

This list of important quotations from Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky will help you work with the essay topics and thesis statements above by allowing you to support your claims. All of the important quotes listed here correspond, at least in some way, to the paper topics above and by themselves can give you great ideas for an essay by offering quotes about other themes, symbols, imagery, and motifs than those already mentioned. All quotes contain page numbers as well. Look at the bottom of the page to identify which edition of the text they are referring to.

“He could find neither words nor exclamations with which to give voice to his disturbed state of mind. The sense of infinite loathing that had begun to crush and sicken his heart even while he had only been on his way to the old woman had now attained such dimensions and become so vividly conscious that he was quite simply overwhelmed by his depression” (9).

“Raskolnikov was not accustomed to crowds and…had been avoiding all forms of society, particularly of late” (10).

“Come forth you drunkards, come forth you weaklings; come forth you shameless ones! And we will all come forth unashamed. And we will stand before him and He will say ‘You are swine, made in the image of the beast, with his seal upon you, but you too come unto me” (33).

“I didn’t kill a human being. A principle! I killed a principle!” (78).

“He found all people he met repulsive—their faces, their manner of walking, their movements were repulsive to him. He reflected that if anyone had said anything to him he would quite simply have spat at that person or bitten him” (135).

“He has to put an end to all that, today, right away, once and for all because he did not want to live like that. Put an end to it—but how? By what means put an end to it? About this he had no conception. He did not even want to think of it. He drove away the thoughts. Painfully, thought tracked him down…. Everything had to be changed” (159).

(Raskolnikov “as if addressing some dark force”) “Now for the kingdom of light and reason…and power…Now we shall match wits! (191)

Raskolikov of Sonia “She’s a holy fool!” (317).

“You must accept suffering and redeem yourself by it; that’s what you must do …. For broad understanding and deep feeling you need pain and suffering” (480).

All quotes refer to the 1998 Penguin Classics edition of Crime and Punishment