Liminality In Crime And Punishment

Liminality can be defined as “being an intermediate state, phase, or condition” (Merriam-Webster). Set in the tragic milieu of late nineteenth century St. Petersburg, Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment follows an ex-student, Raskolnikov, or Rodya, after he murders two women to steal their money. At the outset of this journey, Raskolnikov overhears locals at a bar complaining about a bitter old woman who owns a pawn shop. Needing an excuse to commit a crime, Raskolnikov uses the locals’ bitterness to justify the murder of the austere pawn shop owner and her sister. Meanwhile, Raskolnikov is afflicted by the drama of his sister’s engagement to an atrocious wealthy man in order to financially support their family. As Raskolnikov shifts between guilt, pride, and indifference, his already distraught mental state is disconcerted by the opinions of those who surround him. Not only do his mother and sister complicate his mental state, he is overshadowed by his well natured best friend, Razumihin, who acts admirably considering he is equally as

For example, as Rodya contemplates committing his crime, he overhears in the marketplace that the pawnbroker will be alone vulnerable enough to kill the following day. Prior to crossing the bridge, he fearfully exclaims, “I can’t bring myself … I won’t make it! I won’t make it” (Dostoyevsky 58)! However, after crossing the bridge, Raskolnikov concludes that “just those circumstances [...] had the most decisive and the most conclusive influence on his entire destiny. It was as though it had been purposely lying in wait for him” (59). While he originally perceives himself as incapable of murder, after crossing the bridge he enters a mindset in which destiny has brought him to do so. Here, Dostoyevsky utilizes the bridge imagery as a liminal space where Rodya scrutinizes himself and his