The Role Of Violence In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, riddles its characters with physical, sexual, and psychological violence. Thomas C. Foster asserts in the chapter “More than it’s Going to Hurt You: Concerning Violence” of How to Read Literature like a Professor that no violence exists for its own sake; Rather, violence is useful in contributing to the novel’s overall message. Crime and Punishment is powerful demonstrating the control of conscience, guilt and otherwise, over the life of man. Quite typically violence erupts due to a sick combination of id and ego. The relationship between Semyon Zaharovitch Marmeladov, a town drunk of St. Petersburg, and his children and spouse, Katerina Ivanovna, is built upon a myriad of violence catalyzed by guilt. This relationship is the quintessence of lives tyrannized by guilt resulting in a vicious circle of ferocity.
Marmeladov, Katerina Ivanovna, Katerina’s three children, Sonia (Marmeladov’s daughter), and guilt. Marmeladov psychologically abuses his family by taking all their income for alcohol and depriving them of medicinal care and food, “[Katerina’s] chest is weak and she has a tendency to consumption and I feel it! Do you suppose I don’t feel it? And the more I drink the more I feel it. That’s why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink…I drink so that I may suffer twice as much” (Destoevsky 17)! Marmeladov’s addiction is a burden to his soul. He knows he has done his family great wrongs. He knows he is to blame for its destitution. Because he knows, he drinks. Because he is ridden with guilt, he does nothing to avoid the abuse his wife inflicts upon