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Hi there, I was wondering if you could please give me more information on your topic of Dostoyevsky making a modern-day Lazarus story. Please explain it in more detail because I am very interested in this topic. Thank you very very much! Have a great day!<br>
I think you have way too much time on your hands to be writing entire essays comparing Raskolinikov to Lazarus. I didn't notice that Raskolinikov got raised from the dead. Must have missed a memo. Bunch of nerds.
While I agree that C&P is a lot about the superman theory and Raskolnikov's fractured mentality (a part of his name, raskol, means schism or fracture in Russian), I think that Dostoyevsky was trying to make a modern day Lazarus story. Unlike Lazarus in the real biblical story, who is a starving, leprous, poor man, Raskolnikov can help his conditions. However, he doesn't, and his body, mind, and life fall a slow, inexorable plummet into a deep abyss. First, let me quickly say the story of Lazarus. He died and was considered to be Jesus's greatest miracle because four days after he died, he was risen from the dead. Okay, now it's easier to explain. Sonia, when she meets Raskolnikov, realizes that he is falling deeper into a pit from which he might not be able to return. She "raises him from the dead" by saving his soul. By introducing him to religion and actually making him have faith in something. The reason why I believe this is because in Dostoyevsky's own life, he was an atheist, then turned into a strong religious believer about halfway through writing C&P. Therefore, I believe that the subtle changes in the book, such as his motive for the deaths of the two women, are the results of his changed philosophy. I'd like to get some discussion on this topic, if it sounds interesting to anyone. My English teacher first introduced me to it.