Raskolnikov's confession in "Crime and Punishment": a buddhist perspective

On July 21, 2022, the journal Humanitarian Scientific Bulletin (Гуманитарный научный вестник) published a research paper entitled "Raskolnikov's confession in 'Crime and Punishment': a buddhist perspective", conducted by Luong Thi Thu Huong and Ngo Thi Huong from the Faculty of International Communication and Culture, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

This article is devoted to the analysis of the confession of Raskolnikov, the main character of F.M. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment", from the point of view of Buddhism. It is determined that Raskolnikov in the novel is depicted as an intelligent, sympathetic, well-educated, compassionate young man with a promising future, but he commits murder. The main purpose of this study is to review Raskolnikov's mental state before and after the crime in order to assess the contrast between his seemingly happy life and his heinous crime. The second intention is to demonstrate that Sonya is Raskolnikov's karma, in her role as a prostitute who voluntarily followed him to prison in order to get to the essence of his personality, since she is an external projection of the killer's karma that needs to be led and punished.

Check out the research paper here.