St Petersburg as setting in Crime and Punishment

Crime and Punishment

Space and Place in Crime and Punishment

Petersburg had been the capital of Russia for more than a century and a half when Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment. The capital had been established in the early part of the 18th century by Tsar Peter the Great, who, like his descendents (Catherine the Great especially), was influenced by trends in European style and philosophical thought. With the liberation of the serfs in 1861, St. Petersburg went from cultural hub to the type of over-populated city full of all manner and class of people described by Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment. The influx of people not only reflected the social and moral atmosphere of Russia as a whole, it also reflected the deteriorating condition of the spiritual and psychological state of Dostoevsky's hero/anti-hero Raskolnikov -- a man whose name is literally inspired by the Russian term for "split" or "schismatic." Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov is indeed a man splitting apart at the seams: he is at war within himself spiritually, at war psychologically with the landlord of his cramped and claustrophobic apartment, at war with his stifling surroundings in Petersburg, and at war with the natural and divine law of old world Russia. This paper will examine how Dostoevsky uses ideas of space and place in Crime and Punishment to reflect these various states of conflict.

St. Petersburg sets the tone of the novel with its extremes in terms of weather. At the beginning of the novel, the city is suffering from a terrible heat wave that mirrors the terrible fever rising in Raskolnikov's brain. Raskolnikov tries to beat the heat by getting outdoors, out of the confines of his room, but he encounters such characters within the city that his spiritual and mental condition is aggravated all the more. For example, he meets the predator whom he recognizes as trying to take advantage of an intoxicated young girl. Raskolnikov righteously calls a policeman and sees that the predator is chased off. At the same time, however, Raskolnikov is plotting the murder of an old woman simply on the grounds that if Napoleon can challenge the whole world, he a student with just as much will to power can certainly challenge a mere pawn broker. It is this thought that connects Raskolnikov with the revolutionary ideals that were sweeping across Europe and becoming popular in Russia by way of Petersburg. It was another great patron of Petersburg, Catherine the Great, after all, who had been a friend in letters to the French writer/philosopher Voltaire. Other French thinkers of the Enlightenment/Romantic Age, like Rousseau, had had some influence in the cultural growth/deterioration of the Petersburg intellectual climate. Obviously influenced by this current of thought, Raskolnikov is the representation of the conflict between modern ideas and old world religious belief in Petersburg. He is, like the city, literally split between the old and the new.

After his revolutionary and revolting murder, Raskolnikov wanders the city like a dispossessed person. His action has separated him from the moral foundations of youth, just like Petersburg's modernization was separating itself from its past. At one point, he sees a drunk run over in the street by a carriage and in recognition of the grief before him he gives money to the man's family, one of whom (Sonya) has been forced into prostitution. This action connects him to Sonya, who represents the old world Christian belief system, which is in direct contradiction to the modern ethos best represented by Raskolnikov's double, the philanderer Svidrigailov. Unable to attend to these conflicting principles, Raskolnikov is virtually at the mercy of the city, which like Raskolnikov is unable to tend properly to itself and appears to be coming apart at the seams as well. Raskolnikov confines himself even more in terms of space. That is, he locks himself away in his room and suffers a breakdown of his senses, slipping in and out of delirium. His fever reaches a high point and it is only with the arrival of his friend Razumikhin and his mother and sister that he is able to come back to his senses.

Still, the city acts like a prison for Raskolnikov, just as his mind acts like a tormentor, imprisoning him and attacking him through conscience. The city's reflection of Raskolnikov's conscience is the detective Porfiry, who, like Sonya, tries to get Raskolnikov to confess his crime and thus restore him and the city to a sense of moral order.

However, just as the city itself cannot help but daily confess to its own atrocities, whether these are in the form of prostitution, vehicular homicide, drunkenness, theft or seduction, Raskolnikov's crime comes to be seen as a representation of sin for at least one man, who confesses to the murder in spite of the fact that he did not commit it. Dostoevsky thus gives the reader the sense that the city is closing in on itself, is becoming overwhelmed by its corruption and must either break free from its current trend by way of the acceptance of guilt or succumb to darkness. Still, though Raskolnikov is afforded a legalistic getaway, he is still pursued by conscience and the Christian code of Sonya and Porfiry.

The city gives way to the open countryside of Siberia after Raskolnikov finally confesses his crime. The change of place is representative of the change of heart in Raskolnikov. The claustrophobia, paranoia, deception and inwardness of the city are exchanged for the openness and honesty of Siberian exile. In Siberia, Raskolnikov is reconnected to nature and to the natural environment. He has a sense of the natural beauty of the world, lost in Petersburg, which has been built up out of a sense of pride rather than a sense of humility and thankfulness. In the Siberian prison camp, Raskolnikov is able to reflect on the message of God in the Gospel. He receives the New Testament and likens himself to Lazarus who is brought back to life by Christ, drawn out of the tombs with Christ's command. Petersburg is thus seen in retrospect as a kind of tomb and Raskolnikov's life there as a kind of time spent in death. Freedom in the city, in other words, is like prison, whereas prison in Siberian is like freedom.