The influences behind Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye)

1866

Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye)

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Russian Golden Age. Russia. Written in Russian.

Dostoevsky's novel follows Rodion Raskolnikov, a destitute former student in St. Petersburg who murders an old pawnbroker to test his theory that extraordinary men may transgress moral law, and then suffers guilt, pursuit by the investigator Porfiry, and a slow turn toward redemption through Sonya Marmeladova. It joins a French-derived crime-and-ideas plot to Russian Orthodox themes of suffering and resurrection.

Where it came from

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1864

Notes from Underground (Zapiski iz podpolya)

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Russian Golden Age. Russia. Written in Russian.

The monologue of a spiteful, hyperconscious retired clerk who attacks rational egoism and recounts his humiliations.

What it handed down

To Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye) (1866)

Thematic kinship, well documented.

Written two years earlier, Notes from Underground created the isolated, hyperconscious Petersburg rebel who argues against rational egoism. Raskolnikov inherits that voice and its oscillation between pride and self-abasement, now tested in action rather than talk.

Where it came from

What Is to Be Done? (Chto delat'?), Nikolai Chernyshevsky 1863 follow this thread
Confessions (Les Confessions), Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 (written 1765–70)
The Overcoat (Shinel'), Nikolai Gogol 1842 follow this thread
The Robbers (Die Räuber), Friedrich Schiller 1781 follow this thread

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1782 (written 1765–70)

Confessions (Les Confessions)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Enlightenment. France / Switzerland. Written in French.

Rousseau's autobiography, which claims to show a man entirely as he is, faults included.

What it handed down

To Notes from Underground (Zapiski iz podpolya) (1864)

Direct source, well documented.

The Underground Man frames his notes against Rousseau, citing Heine's claim that Rousseau lied about himself in his Confessions out of vanity. He sets out to do what Rousseau claimed to do, tell the whole truth about himself, and shows how hard that is.

Where it came from

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1580

Essays (Essais)

Michel de Montaigne

French Renaissance. France. Written in French.

Exploratory prose pieces in which Montaigne takes himself as his subject.

What it handed down

To Confessions (Les Confessions) (1782 (written 1765–70))

Direct source, well documented.

In his draft preface Rousseau names Montaigne as his predecessor in self-portrayal and faults him for painting himself only in flattering profile. He defines his project as going further than the Essays in candor.

Where it came from

Parallel Lives, Plutarch c. 100

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Parallel LivesPlutarch

c. 100

Parallel Lives

Plutarch

Roman Empire. Roman Greece. Written in Ancient Greek.

Paired biographies of Greek and Roman statesmen and generals, written to examine character.

What it handed down

To The Robbers (Die Räuber)

Direct source, well documented.

Karl Moor's first speech in Act One, Scene Two, begins with disgust at his 'ink-blotting age' when he reads of great men in his Plutarch. The Lives supply the heroic standard that drives him to crime, the same appeal to greatness that Raskolnikov later makes.

To Essays (Essais) (1580)

Direct source, well documented.

Montaigne read Plutarch in Jacques Amyot's French translation of 1559 and called him his favorite author. The Essays quote and argue with the Lives constantly and borrow Plutarch's habit of judging men by small acts of character.

Where it came from

Iliad, Homer c. 750 BCE

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c. 750 BCE

Iliad

Homer

Archaic Greece. Ionia. Written in Ancient Greek.

Epic of the wrath of Achilles during the Trojan War.

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost

Structural model, well documented.

The war in Heaven in Book Six is modeled on Homeric battle, with catalogues of fallen angels and single combats. Milton announces in Book Nine that his theme surpasses 'the wrath of stern Achilles.'

To Parallel Lives (c. 100)

Thematic kinship, probable.

Plutarch quotes Homer throughout the Lives and judges his heroes partly by Homeric standards of honor. His Life of Alexander reports that Alexander kept a copy of the Iliad under his pillow.

To Aeneid (Aeneis)

Structural model, well documented.

The second half of the Aeneid is Virgil's Iliad: a war in Italy with a new Achilles in Turnus, catalogues of warriors, funeral games, and a closing duel. Virgil imitates Homeric similes and battle scenes line by line.

Where it came from

This is one of the oldest surviving works in its tradition; the line ends here.

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Where it came from

What it handed down

To Crime and Punishment (Prestupleniye i nakazaniye) (1866)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Notes from Underground (Zapiski iz podpolya) (1864)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Confessions (Les Confessions) (1782 (written 1765–70))

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Robbers (Die Räuber)

To Essays (Essais) (1580)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Paradise Lost

To Parallel Lives (c. 100)

To Aeneid (Aeneis)

Where it came from

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