Madi Adham Madi Literature Humanities, section #48 Janet Min Lee April 28, 2016 Pity in Crime and Punishment and Don Quixote Pathos, the quality of an experience in texts that triggers emotions of pity, is one of the most influential themes that is often shown in Western Literature. One way of bringing the device of pity to texts is through the depiction of characters that are detached from rationality and reality. Because these detached characters attempt to apply their theories and ideas on societies with people who have their own norms and rules, these characters end up with unfortunate drawbacks that cause the reader to feel pity for them. For instance, Dostoevsky, inCrime and Punishment,makes the readers feel pity by the way he depicts the main character Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov’s own beliefs and theories lead him to kill and live with fear and disparity for the rest of the text. Moreover, Cervantes, inDon Quixote,portrays Don Quixote in his own world of fantasy and delusion that is constructed by the multitude of chivalric books he read. In both texts, a character’s detachment from reality always results in outcomes that either harm the character or those who surround him. As readers, we do not sympathize or feel pity for the character unless he has good moral and ethical intentions that align with or improve the social order within a society. Dostoevsky’s main purpose of depicting Raskolnikov’s psychological, internalized suffering, which results from his impoverished life and muddled state of mind, is to1
Madi underscore the major real life Christian concept that those who do not obey the laws in their society and religion, sinners and criminals such as Raskolnikov, will suffer the constant feeling of fear and anguish. Dostoevsky highlights this point through his appeal to pity in the text in a way that convinces the reader to feel bad for Raskolnikov’s life and plan to avoid Raskolnikov's unfortunate experience. In the second page of the book, Dostoevsky depicts Raskolnikov in an absolutely delusional manner. Raskolnikov says he has nothing to do and for three times he says: “I babble” and also that “[He’s] just toying with it, for the sake of fantasy. A play thing.” Although Raskolnikov seems to be totally out of his mind, he has some certain theories that he follows and believes in like a moral ideology. The first part of Raskolnikov’s theory inCrime and Punishmentis the popular nihilism of his fellow academics, the rejection of moral principles and the belief that life is futile. Raskolnikov thinks, as he wrote in one of his papers, that some people are authorized to commit crimes and end people’s lives without being blamed by the government or anyone. Raskolnikov considers himself one of these ‘extraordinary’ people and therefore states that, “…the extraordinary have the right to commit all sorts of crimes and in various ways to transgress the law, because in point of fact they are extraordinary.” (Dostoevsky,259)This
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