Re: Crime and Punishment - Distinctions, Distinctions -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 16:45:45 02/07/08 Thu
Author: Hwaet!
Subject: Re: Crime and Punishment - Distinctions, Distinctions
In reply to: Betsy Peters 's message, "Crime and Punishment" on 11:51:12 02/07/08 Thu

Not only does Raskolnikov imitate his model, but his model abolishes important moral distinctions. Raskolnikov seems to think that moral boundaries maintain their legitimacy for the common man. Perhaps this is what makes the common common (Piers Plowman, anyone?). The hero is he who can overstep moral prohibitions to act for himself; ordinarily this would be immoral, but for the one who can take this step without suffering the usual ramifications of conscience, such a transgression is not immoral, but amoral. Raskolnikov�s hero is heroic because he is free from the moral distinctions that bind the mob. When Raskolnikov himself transgresses morality, he inherits a punishment which �plagues� him until the epilogue.

On transgressing morality, C.S. Lewis acknowledges (I think in The Problem of Pain) that God�s point is not that we should all live moral lives; it is that we delight in Him and He in us. But, he adds, it is foolish (although tempting) to suppose that because morality is not the point, we may overstep it and still arrive at the main thing.

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