Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is the fictional protagonist of the 1866 novelCrime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The name Raskolnikov derives from the Russian raskolnik meaning "schismatic". The name "Rodion" comes from Greek and indicates an inhabitant of Rhodes. Raskolnikov is a young ex-law student living in extreme poverty in Saint Petersburg. He lives in a tiny garret which he rents, although due to a lack of funds has been avoiding payment for quite some time. He sleeps on a couch using old clothes as a pillow, and due to lack of money eats very rarely. He is handsome and intelligent, though generally disliked by fellow students. He is devoted to his sister and his mother.
Plot
An impoverished student with a conflicted idea of himself, Raskolnikov decides to kill a corrupt pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, with whom he has been dealing, with the idea of using the money to start his life all over, and to help those who are in need of it. It is later revealed that he also commits the murder as justification for his pride, as he wants to prove that he is "exceptional" in the way Napoleon was. He commits the murder, but is so nervous during the crime that he makes a few mistakes, and is afraid that he will be caught. Raskolnikov finds a small purse on Alyona Ivanovna's body, which he hides under a rock without checking its contents. His grand failure is that he lacks the conviction of his beliefs to accomplish greatness, and thus declines into madness. After he confesses to the destitute, pious prostituteSofya Semyonovna Marmeladova, she guides him towards admitting to the crime, and he confesses to Porfiry Petrovich, a prosecutor with a keen psychological sense. Raskolnikov is sentenced to exile in Siberia, accompanied by Sofya Semyonovna, where he experiences a mental and spiritual rebirth. The idea of rebirth is not supported in the text. He is clearly unrepentant, still holding to the fancy that he had some right to act as he did, that, had he been made of the right stuff, he would not have failed in his project. Garnett's translation concludes:
Cinema
In film, Raskolnikov was portrayed for the first time by Gregori Chmara in the silent adaptation Raskolnikov, directed by Robert Wiene . He was portrayed by Peter Lorre in Josef von Sternberg's Hollywood film version, by John Hurt in a 1979BBC mini-series adaptation, by Patrick Dempsey in a 1998 television movie, and by John Simm, Crispin Glover and Ilya Kremnov. The character of Michel in Robert Bresson's Pickpocket is based on Raskolnikov. Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver, was in turn inspired by Bresson's Michel character to create Travis Bickle, Robert De Niro's antihero. Woody Allen's 2005 British psychological thrillerMatch Point is a debate with Crime and Punishment: protagonist Chris Wilton early on is seen reading the book and identifying with Raskolnikov. He is a brooding loner who kills a poor girl who loves him because he considers his interests superior to those around him, knows little guilt, and avoids detection through luck. Allen signals his intentions with more superficial similarities: both are almost caught by a painter's unexpected appearance in the stairwell, and both policemen play cat and mouse with the suspect. His 2015 drama-thriller Irrational Man is also inspired by Crime and Punishment, with protagonist Abe Lucas as its Raskolnikov character.
