Character Similarities Between Crime And Punishment

Each character in Crime and Punishment has their own individual characteristics that vastly differ from others. With contrasting mindset among the characters, Dostoevsky did not show his pity for all characters equally. Through his use of language and characterization, we sympathized for Raskolnikov and Sonia greater than characters like Luzhin and Svidrigailov.

With more than two characters in the book, it is difficult to spend the same amount of time developing each character. Not all characters help forward the plot. Therefore, Dostoevsky does not need to spend as much time creating Alyona as a round character, as he did for Raskolnikov. Because he went more in depth with characters like Raskolnikov, we got a better understanding of their personality. Having that perception allows us to sympathize for them at a
It is important to the reader that we understand why Raskolnikov acted a certain way and how he reasoned through his actions. This immersed understanding of a character helps build the distress Dostoevsky wanted us to feel for certain characters. Consequently, he did not need the readers to pity flat and minor characters like Zossimov. Different level of pitiness was also introduced between different characters. For example, we pitied Dounia for being so selfless to want to marry Luzhin for the sake of her brother’s good, even though she has no feelings for him. On the other hand, the constant anguish we felt for Sonia was on another level. Dostoevsky gave us many more reasons to pity Sonia since we were introduced to her character. The level of agony collected as the plot went on and stayed even until the end of the book. Though, he does not develop the same level of pity for each character, however, emphasis was made on the ones that held the greatest significance to the