Holly Packard

Ms. Watts

AP English Literature

11.7.16

Crime and Punishment

The young man is selfish; he cares and he gives, but he regrets his charity; he pushes away his

ability to care, and grasps at the concept of greatness. The girl is truly generous. She gives up everything

she has at every opportunity to help another, and achieves greatness not through aspiration but through

great kindness and compassion. These are characters from Fyodor Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment.

Sonya acts as a foil to Raskolnikov in order to show that greatness is not achieved by those who seek it

out by any means necessary, but by those who work diligently for the sake of kindness. This is shown

through the differences in the kind acts that Sonya and Raskolnikov both commit.

Sonya and Raskolnikov are both incredibly kind individuals. Raskolnikov continually gives up

any money he has to help others. He gives all of his money to the Marmaledovs to pay for the funeral of

their father. He gives money to a police officer to help a girl who he will never see again. This shows

great generosity because even though Raskolnikov needs the money, his first instinct is to give it away to

others who need it as well. In Crime and Punishment, we do not see Raskolnikov cautiously weighing the

benefits and consequences of giving money; he just does, almost impulsively. This shows that he has

generous instincts and is kind by nature. Sonya has similar qualities. She becomes a prostitute in order to

feed her family, and even though Katerina Ivanovna is rude to her about it, she still gives her money and

commits what she believes is a grievous sin because of her immense generosity and compassion to her

starving siblings. She even drops everything in her life to move to Siberia to help Raskolnikov find his

redemption. She always puts others before herself, giving to those around her. She doesnt do it for praise,
as she never gets any. She does these selfless acts because it is what she knows is right, and thus what she

believes she must do. Raskolnikov and Sonya share this deep kindness. They both have the ability and the

instinct for it, the inkling of what is right and what must be done to execute what is right. They share this

almost innate goodness in them, and both have the capacity to be great. Because they both have the

capacity but one succeeds while the other does not, it is possible to see where Raskolnikov went wrong.

The difference between Raskolnikov and Sonya is that Raskolnikov pushes kindness away. He

develops a theory. His theory states that there are some great people, referred to as extraordinary, and

there are some ordinary people. According to this theory, great people are allowed to do anything, no

matter how heinous, in order to achieve their goals, while ordinary people exist to follow. Raskolnikovs

theory is what allows him to kill the pawnbroker. He wants to be extraordinary, so he decides to do

something evil to see if he can handle it by justifying it with his theory. If he can, that would make him a

great person by in the parameters of his theory. He even admits to Sonya that he did not kill the

pawnbroker to help anyone, but to be selfish. He did not kill her for the money, because he did not ever

use the money. He killed her to try to prove that he was extraordinary, and thus, in his theory, his actions

would be excusable because of this status. The great irony of this is book is that Raskolnikov isnt

extraordinary; he cannot achieve greatness and instead achieves little more than fear and loss. It is Sonya

that is truly extraordinary, truly great. She prostitutes herself, something she believes is very wrong, and

yet it is okay because she achieves what she set out to do. She does something considered evil in order to

achieve a greater result, which is what Raskolnikovs theory says great people can do.

Raskolnikovs redemption is only found through Sonyas guidance. In the last scene, Raskolnikov

throws himself to the ground in front of Sonya and gives up his pride. He releases this idea of putting his

own wants before other people, and accepts that Sonya is a leader and an example to be followed, and

thus an extraordinary person. Sonyas kindness, her selflessness, her compassion are what make her great,

and what allowed her to achieve the position of an extraordinary person in Raskolnikovs theory, not

hunting after greatness.