Daria Bloomfield

January 4, 2015
Whedon 5
Personal Essay

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky is a Russian novelist who contributed greatly to the literature,
philosophy, and psychology of his era. His tales included topics such as depression,
suicide, murder and gambling. These controversial novels reflect not only his life, his
belief in existentialism but that of Russian society in the 1800s as Dostoevsky time lined
his own beliefs of a higher power in the characters he created.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was raised in the Russian Orthodox faith. His father was a firm
believer in Christ and enforced it in Fyodor and his siblings. Dostoevsky was sent to an
engineering military school at the age of sixteen, after his mother died. At this time he was
described as a pensive, solitary student prone to fits of depression. (Cummins) Dostoevskys
father was allegedly murdered by the families surfs when Fyodor was eighteen years old. This
traumatic event gave Fyodor inspiration for his novel The Brothers Karamazov. The idea of the
Karamazov father was doubtlessly inspired by the image of Dostoevskys father. (Mochulsky,
7) Often times, literature reflects the writer in some sort of way. Dostoevsky was known for
using his own life events to make a base for his writing. He then created his dark and twisted
stories.
Dostoevsky was known as an existential philosopher. He believed that humans are
aware of their mortality, and must make independent decisions about their own life. The world
is, of course, nothing but our conception of it. (Anton Chekhov) According to Dostoevsky,

freedom was more important than happiness, it was a way of life. He revealed his belief in
existentialism most prominently in his novel, Notes From The Underground. What man wants is
simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead. And
choice, of course, the devil only knows what choice. (Dostoevsky, 554) In the novel Crime and
Punishment, Dostoevsky placed the main character, Raskolnikov in a state of what is called
existential crisis, or when a person questions their actual existence. What is the matter with
me? he cried again, like one in distraught Then a strange idea entered his head; perhaps, there
were a great many stains, but that he did not see them, did not notice them because his
perceptions were failing, were going to pieces his reason was clouded. (Dostoevsky, 110)
This quote was apart of the scene that Raskolnikov really starts to lose himself after he murders
the two women, a great example of the first of many existential crises made apparent in the
novel.
While Dostoevsky was imprisoned in Siberia, he found his savior. If anyone could
prove to me that Christ is outside the truth, and if the truth really did exclude Christ, I should
prefer to stay with Christ and not with truth. (Dostoevsky) At the beginning of his career in
literature it could be said that Dostoevsky was an atheist. Then after leaving Siberia, the topic of
christianity was implemented in his writing; Crime and Punishment mentioned christianity
multiple times. Many believe that in the novel, Raskolnikovs resurrection is directly correlated
to Dostoevskys own acceptance of christ. But that is the beginning of a new story- the story of
the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one
world into another, of his initiation into a new unknown life. (Dostoevsky, 505) Raskolnikov
sinned, and then resurrected, he then walked in the path of a new person, with a new mindset.
Just as Dostoevsky had when he left Siberia.