Did Raskolnikov follow in Cain’s footsteps? On the relationship between Dostoevsky’s novel and Byron’s mystery play

Abstract

The article poses a question about the semantic and poetological relationship between Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment [Prestuplenie i nakazanie] and Byron’s Cain. The author discovers a multidimensional contact relationship between the two works. Specifically, the devices of a problem-posing plot, the system of motifs, the protagonist’s image, and the ideological charge point to the polemical orientation of the novel towards Byron’s play. This relationship is at its most obvious in the images of the two main characters and their respective motifs. However, while Cain’s character appears ‘monolithic,’ single-minded, with an emphasis on his arrogance, self-reflection, and active protest throughout the play, Raskolnikov’s character has further layers. The author makes an argument that, polemizing with Byron’s depiction of crime as an archetypical human path towards the realization of humans’ irreparable wickedness and, at the same time, exoneration of their life through intellectual searching and action, Dostoevsky proposes a contrasting image of crime as an opportunity for inner revival and, ultimately, spiritual purification and moral recovery.