Raskolnikov's confession in “Crime and punishment”: a Buddhist perspective

Raskolnikov is portrayed as an intellectual, good-looking, well-educated, compassionate young man with a promising future in Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, yet he commits murder. The primary purpose of this study is to re-examine Raskolnikov’s mental state before and after the crime, in order to gauge the contrast between his seemingly happy life and his heinous crime. The second intention is to demonstrate that Sonya is Raskolnikov’s karma, in her role as the prostitute who volunteered to follow him to prison to reach the core of his personality, as she represents an external projection of the murderer’s karma to be conducted and punished. “Crime and Punishment” is one of the well-known works of the Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Dostoevsky). It was first published in 1866 in Russia and then has been translated and popularized worldwide. The Michael R. Katz’s English translation as a pdf file with a total of 568 pages was utilized in this study.