Crime and Punishment and Freud Hubris, or extreme pride, has been the downfall of heroes since the beginning of story-telling. In fact, pride is considered one of the seven deadly sins that can bring nothing but pain in the end and has been condemned by the church and the majority of the world. Psychology has named this excessive pride narcissism, a disorder that by definition, entitles that one feels extreme love and high regards for themself. Many serial killers have been diagnosed with this disorder, such as Ted Bundy, due to their low regard for the lives of anyone but themselves.
Sigmund Freud, the controversial psychologist of the nineteenth century, believed that narcissism stemmed from denial of love in the early stages of development. That lack of love caused one to find it elsewhere: in himself. Actions of a narcissist were not rational, according to Freud, nor are those of any human because humans are not rational and are driven by violent and sexual impulses. In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment, the main character Raskolnikov believes himself to be an ‘extraordinary man’ who is above the law and believes his life is more valuable than anyone else’s.
Because of his illusion of superiority, he brutally murders a woman. Raskolnikov’s reason for the murder was simple: he wanted to better the world by ridding everyone of this nuisance to society. He was motivated, however, by the superiority he felt over everyone else which was fueled by an excessive love for himself in an attempt to make up for a childhood of an absent father and a lack of attention from his mother. Prior to the murder, Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother, discussing his sister’s future marriage. In the letter, she apologizes for neglecting to write sooner, and repeatedly tells Raskolnikov how much she loves him.
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However by the time he finished the letter, his initial happiness turned into ‘bitter, wrathful, and malignant smile. ‘ (Dostoyevsky 35).
His mother’s attempt to make up for years of abandonment makes Raskolnikov mad with rage, so he begins drunkenly walking in an attempt to find a way to stifle this anger. He had been, according to Freud, denied ‘the feeding, care, and protection… that is to say, in the first instance of the mother or her substitute. ’ (Freud 405).
The first sexual object in one’s life is supposed to be one’s mom in order for that person to develop properly; if a erson is denied that, however, one may become homosexual, perverted, or a narcissist. When one becomes the substitute of the mother’s attention, they turn themselves into a sexual object and feel the love originally meant for their mother, onto themselves. Thus, the narcissist is born; thus Raskolnikov’s illusion of superiority is born. He goes on to say how no one will deceive him, not his mother nor his sister because, in his mind, they are lesser, they are below him, and will only attempt to bring him down to an ‘ordinary man’.
Shortly after receiving the letter, Raskolnikov has a disturbing dream depicting a horse being beaten to death by drunken peasants as he, as a young child, and his father walk along a path to church. When young Raskolnikov attempts to comfort the horse, his father responds by tugging the child away and telling him ‘they are drunk… they are brutal… it’s not our business! ”(Dostoevsky 53) The actions of his father in the dream sheds light on the unconscious feelings Raskolnikov has towards his father.
Sigmund Freud describes the content of dreams as ‘somehow derived from experience that is reproduced or remembered in the dream. (Freud 141).
Freud would say that Raskolnikov’s father’s lack of compassion for his son is an experience Raskolnikov’s subconscious remembers from his childhood. No other mention of his father is made for the rest of the book, except for this negative scene. The dream brought those suppressed feelings back to life and After the dream, Raskolnikov wakes in terror and anger and begins to seriously plot the murder. Freud would say that in an attempt to silence the anger he feels towards his father, Raskolnikov redirects it towards the recluse of a woman, Alyona Ivanona.
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The abandonment of his father led him to find male attention elsewhere, and instead of acquiring homosexual tendencies, he finds it within himself. He begins to get cocky and plans out how easy it shall be to kill this woman, just like it was so very easy for drunken fools to torture a mare to death. In fact it shall be easier, because he, Raskolnikov, in his mind, is an extraordinary man. According to Raskolnikov, one does not become an extraordinary man, one is an extraordinary man. Porfiry confronts Raskolnikov with an article Raskolnikov had written prior to the murder.
When asked about it, Raskolnikov says ‘I don’t contend that extraordinary people are always bound to commit breaches of morals… I simply hinted that an extraordinary man has the right. ” (Dostoevsky 226).
This is inferred that Raskolnikov believes he had the right to kill the woman simply because he believes he is an extraordinary man. He even attempts to justify his actions by saying to Sonia, ‘I’ve only killed a louse, Sonia, a useless, loathsome, harmful creature. ’ (358).
In his mind, killing this woman was the right, the best thing to do because he was benefiting society.
He wants to be someone like Napoleon who, yes caused much bloodshed in his reign and yes killed innocent people, but did so because of his cause: for the benefit of mankind. Raskolnikov does not only love himself, but he loves ‘what he would like to be’ (Freud 406), and what he would like to be is extraordinary. Although he believes himself to be extraordinary, Raskolnikov begins to feel deathly ill and gravely guilty after he commits the murder. He slips in and out of consciousness the days following the murder: ‘he was not completely unconscious, however, all the time he was ill; he was in a feverish state, sometimes delirious’ (104).
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This would be, according to Freud, because of a suppression of libido. Raskolnikov originally saw the pawnbroker as a sexual object, like he sees all women. However, instead of acting on that sexual impulse, he demolishes it with an axe: ‘the sick man withdraws his libidinal cathexes on his own ego’ (Freud 402), meaning that he draws the sexual feelings back on himself, thus fueling his egotistical pride. He thought himself to be extraordinary, but it was quite the contrary: Raskolnikov himself was quite an ordinary killer who simply felt himself to be above everyone, but also felt emotions, much to his dismay.
This sickness was also the downfall of Dostoevsky’s twisted hero; his hubris led him to commit a crime his conscience couldn’t handle, and thus gave him away. Freud even says that ‘so long as he suffers, he ceases to love. ’ (402), and when Raskolnikov finally gives up his suffering and falls for Sonia, he finally beings to reflect the love he feels for himself onto her, in turn giving into the sexual impulses that drive humans. Difficult childhoods are commonplace in history all around the world, and many children that emerge out of them turn out just fine.
Children look for acceptance and love in their mother from the time of their birth, and being denied that allows for them to find it elsewhere. Some turn that love inward, back on themselves, and thus a narcissist is born. Pride has been the downfall to many, and Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is like any other egotistical person who got too caught up in their abilities. Sigmund Freud would blame it on sexual desires being suppressed. Ultimately pride caused Raskolnikov’s downfall, only because he believed himself to be extraordinary, when he was simply ordinary.
