Psychological Realism In Crime And Punishment

This research paper explores Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment using Socio-Psychological approach. The research highlights Dostoyevsky’s heavy reliance on the use of psychological realism, a literary genre that emphasizes on the interior characterization, as well as the motives of the one, circumstances and internal action which is derivative from and creates external action. Such works can also be called as a work of “inner man”. This paper shows the process of intricate play between psychology, literature and sociology. The research concludes that “Crime and Punishment” is a mixture of four genres of novels that are: psychological novel, the novel of character, the novel of detection and the philosophical novel. Voices of Marxian,

While the whole world was still reading popular romantic novels and love poems, Russia was leading a movement into the new realistic approach to literature. Dostoyevsky was one of the forerunners of this movement, along with Gustave Flaubert in France and Mark Twain in America. Realists were actually master of psychological characterisation, they provide detailed descriptions of everyday life in realistic settings and dialogues which captures the idioms of natural human speech. They endeavored to accurate representation of contemporary culture and people from all walks of life. Such writers, often depicts the themes of socio-economic conflict by contrasting the living conditions of the poor with those of the upper classes in urban as well as rural society. This realistic movement can too be seen in a philosophical way. In Russia one of the major contributors to realist literature was Fyodor Dostoyevsky whose novel Crime and Punishment illustrates core principles of realism. Crime and Punishment replaced the classy style of Romanticism with fictional realism. Dostoyevsky depicts a world full of segregation and division between social classes. Thus, in stark contrast to the previous Romantic writings of William Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, John Keats etc, Dostoyevsky portrays a division of classes which is cut and

Crime and Punishment is the second of Dostoyevsky’s most beautiful and mature fictional works. It is a classic novel which focuses on a young man, who after being forced to drop out his studies due to his poor financial situation, he decides to murder a corrupt pawnbroker for her money, The story took place at some point during the second half of the 18th century in St. Petersburg. At that time St. Petersburg city was well known for poverty, prostitution and alcoholism and all these are strongly manifested in the novel. Fyodor manages to provide the reader with a very well rounded