Crime and Punishment: The Punishment of Morality

What is morality and how is it determined? In Crime and Punishment, Roskolnikov goes through stages in which he questions his own morality. Some characters in the book are always moral; Razumihin never falters in his loyalty to Roskolnikov or his love of Dounia. It appears as though he is the most content and the least damaged of all the characters in the book. However Roskolnikov’s morality is ambiguous, even to him it seems. He is constantly questioning himself; debating between his logic and his heart. Sonia believes in his morality; she still loves him even after he confesses the murder to her. Even the judge who tries him agrees that it was an odd circumstance and he got only eight years in prison for murdering two people. So why does he not believe it? His confession shows that he no longer believes the murder was justifiable. He managed to get away with it but it weighed so heavily on his conscience that he had to confess. It seems like his punishment was more trying to avoid than trying to get caught; he is in greater turmoil before he is sentenced than while he is actually in Siberia. Then maybe everyone enacts their own morality on themselves, the guilt of doing something wrong tells each person what they believe to be wrong. Some people have a hard time breaking rules, even little ones: pulling through in diagonal parking spots or taking two samples at the grocery store. But is that a morality issue or does morality deal with bigger things? Like murder. What determines the size of morality versus little guilt?