Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons, We Essay -- essays research pa

flair surely comes with a price. Often a booster shot is, in his hold right, an absolute genius, exclusively for this gift of vision, he must remain uninvolved for eternity. Crime and Punishment (1886), by Fyodor Dostoevsky, depicts a poverty stricken green human who discovers a revolutionary theory of the mind of a criminal. in spite of his psychological insight, Raskolnikov is alienated from society, and eventually forced to test his theory upon himself. Ivan Turgenevs Bazarov, in Fathers and Sons (1862), pioneers the anarchistic philosophy of nihilism, depending entirely on science and reason, but ends up falling passionately in love and then spue erupt, through death, from the rigidity of thought he held so dear. D-503, the main cause of Yevgeny Zamyatins We (1921), discovers an immense and rigid counterculture and drowns himself in it, only to surface without anyone with whom to relate. to each one author suggests the irony of a prophetic mind being ineffectual and out pass among ordinary men.Raskolnikov, a former student, forced to drop out of the university because he is unable to afford the tuition, is forced to work part-time with his sponsor Razumihin as a translator. Through this endeavor, Raskolnikov, or Rodya as his mother calls him, becomes well versed in the literature and existentialist philosophies of the time. Writing to a topical anaesthetic newspaper, Rodya ventures to propose a superman theory similar to that of Nietzsche, made hot around the time Dostoevsky wrote the novel. I only believe in my hint idea that men are in general divided by a law of reputation into two categories, inferior (ordinary) and men who spend a penny the gift or the talent to utter a new word. This principle, that man is simply either ordinary or extraordinary, limited by rules and boundaries or allowed to transgress these barriers en route to his planned greater goal for humanity, gains Raskolnikov minute profit or renown. Though the extraordi nary man theory could advantageously be applied to Napoleon, as is done in Rodyas thesis, fewer of Dostoevskys characters accept its revolutionary psychological approach to criminal behavior. still the lead detective, Porfiry Petrovich, comes to accept Raskolnikovs approach. This parallel epiphany is ironic, indeed, because throughout the novel, Rodya and Porfiry are cast as foils. Even this revelation, though... ...ian author, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Zamyatin, alienates true visionaries from their natural place at the intellect of society and implies a theme of the perils of idealism. Raskolnikov discovers a rationale for committing crimes in the shout out of a greater good, only to also discover the theorys incredibly difficult guidelines of extraordinary men through self-experimentation. Bazarovs nihilism and rationality is entirely contradicted by his adoption of romanticism in many circumstances, and the impossibility of nihilism is shown through his ignorance of this contradiction. D-503 awakens within himself a long-absent human nature with unlimited creative potential, only to realize its dangerous, anarchistic possibilities. Each protagonist comes across a revolutionary idea, only to eventually be dismissed, and in the end forgotten, by society. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (New York, NY Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1981) 243.Dostoevsky 63.Dostoevsky 387.Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons (New York, NY W.W. Norton & Company, 1996) 18.Turgenev 138.Turgenev 148.Yevgeny Zamyatin, We (New York, NY Avon Books, Inc., 1972) 56.Zamyatin 177.Zamyatin 231.