If the video doesn’t load please try refreshing the page. If the problem persists make sure you have the latest version of the Flash player or watch the videos on our RecAPP iPhone and iPod application.

Poverty. It’s everywhere in Crime and Punishment. In fact, it almost seems as though almost every character you meet in Dostoevsky’s novel is wondering where their next meal will come from. That’s why, in Crime and Punishment, poverty is a motif.

Video Transcription:

Do you hear that?

Yep, it’s the sound of Raskolnikov flushing his money down the toilet again and again and again and AGAIN.

Seriously, dude. You’re stressing me out!

What makes Raskolnikov’s behavior even worse, is that the guy is crazy poor—like almost every character in this novel.

We’ll talk more about the motif of poverty, right after this.

Did you notice the one thing that almost everyone in this novel has in common? That’s right—they’re poor. And between the penniless students, the destitute widowers, the indigent drunkards, and the starving single mothers, you might start to wonder if anyone in Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg is going to survive to the end of this story.

Well, most of them do survive—and meanwhile, you can’t miss what Dostoevsky’s up to. While the motif of poverty ties everyone together in this book, poverty is also what sets Raskolnikov apart.

Remember that one of the themes in this book is alienation. And even though Raskolnikov is just as poor as everyone else, he seems to distance himself by giving away, even throwing away, his money.

So here’s the question. Is Raskolnikov just asserting some kind of financial superiority—like, he can give his money away even when everyone else can’t? Or does his distancing have a more noble quality? Perhaps by showing that he doesn’t care about money, Raskolnikov separates himself from the truly evil characters in this story—the wealthy but morally bankrupt Svidrigailov and Luzhin.