YMMV / Crime and Punishment

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Raskolnikov a Knight Templar, or a more self-conscious type of Villain Protagonist who uses sophistry to justify murder?
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Despite portraying rebellious youth in a very negative light, Crime and Punishment was popular among radical student groups that adopted Raskolnikov as their role model.
• Fridge Brilliance: The driving force behind the entire plot had been Svidrigailov all the time, even for those characters who did not know him. Had Svidrigailov not married Marfa Petrovna, Dunya was not going to be employed by her, therefore he was not going to hit on Dunya, there would have been no interest into pressuring her to marry Luzhin, and from that point Raskolnikov was not going to be driven to murder and robbery to save her from the marriage he imagined to be a Fate Worse than Death.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A brilliant Übermensch student decides to improve the world by killing the unworthy, plays mind games with a quirky Hero Antagonist, goes crazy. Is this describing Crime and Punishment or Death Note?
  • We follow the narrative of a murderer, who get meets a quirky seemingly harmless officer of the law, who makes him confess. Is this Crime and Punishment, or an episode of Columbo?
• Jerkass Woobie: Raskolnikov. He's murderous in the beginning and he displays far too much Pride in his ability to commit murder without being affected by it, but over time, his mental health deteriorates to the point where he starts to show signs of breaking as he works up the courage to confess his crimes.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: With Luzhin being the "jerk" to Svidrigailov's "villain." Even though the latter does significantly worse things, the former is probably more likely to provoke a strong reaction of hatred and rage just because of how aggressively snooty he is.
• Moe: Modern depictions give Sonya this appeal with her youthful appearance and meek demeanor.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The whole book is an examination of Raskolnikov's belief that someone can justifiably cross the line for the greater good. And he crosses it when he murders not only the old woman but also her sister for catching him at the scene of the crime. He spends the rest of the story suffering from his inability to accept what he did. What's worse is that even though the old woman was known for being greedy to a cruel extent, her sister was renowned for being a kind woman, yet the latter gets killed solely for being a witness to her sister's murder.
  • He also ponders his similarities with two other characters who made the same choices and managed to live with what they did. Luzhin framed Sonja for theft for his own purposes and as for Svidrigailov the short list for what he did is:raping and killing a 13-year old girl, driving a faithful servant to suicide For the Evulz, killing his wife and molesting and trying to rape Dunya. A crazy, sociopathic nutjob who truly believes that Evil Feels Good, Svidrigailov could be easily considered the most inhumane and repulsive character of the novel.
• Nightmare Fuel: The character of Arkady Svidrigailov. To make a long story short, he's a manipulative, hedonistic, sadistic, Übermensch who proves to be a living manifestation of Raskolnikov's theory about extraordinary people being allowed to commit whatever acts they want without second thoughts so that they can feel powerful, and indeed, Svidrigailov is a nobleman of great wealth and influence, enabling him to commit such acts that satiate his desires.
• Once Original, Now Common: Rodya is a college dropout with mental issues, who thinks saving his sister from sexual abuse gives him an excuse to kill someone. Yes, this just described 50% of all Cold Case episodes, to say nothing about crime stories in general.
• Tear Jerker: Raskolnikov's dream about a poor old mare getting beaten to death. Which is also very Squicky.
• The Woobie: Sonya already lost her mother and became a prostitute to support her family before the novel's start. Then her father and step-mother die, she's separated from her step-siblings, and Raskolnikov goes to Siberia for his eight-year atonement. Sure, her step-siblings will be cared for at orphanages and she's happy to follow him, but that's a lot of pain for a girl who's not even twenty by the end of the novel.

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