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A Murderer's Journey Through The Works Of Dostoyevsky And Poe

A Murderer's Journey Through The Works of Dostoyevsky and Poe


Some people believe that most murderers have a mental illness which
causes them to commit their crime.   This belief is strongly disagreed with   by
the authors Edgar Allan Poe and Fyodor Dostoevsky.   Crime and Punishment, "The
Tell-Tale Heart", "The Black Cat",and "The Cask of Amontillado" are very similar
in this contradiction.   Each murderer takes a specific journey that has been
illustrated in each case.   The psychological make-up of each murderer shows that
he is a normal person up to the point at which something compels him to commit
this horrible crime, and after that his conscience usually leads to his own
downfall.
Before the murder has been committed the character is a regular human
being.   In most cases the characters that end up carrying through with this
crime are above average people.   Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment is "...
quite an extraordinarily handsome young man..." (Crime and Punishment, pg.21)
Raskolnikov is a very gifted university student, with a very good talent for
figuring people out. Raskolinikov takes great pride and care for his family.   On
receiving a letter from his mother

...he quickly raised the letter to his lips and kissed it; then he spent
a long time poring   over the handwriting on the envelope, over the small,
slanting handwriting, so familiar and dear to him, of his mother who had once
taught him to read and write. (Crime and Punishment, pg.47)

Raskolnikov's mother, who taught him how to read and write did this job quite
well.   This resulted in a very gifted and brilliant university student.   This
point is illustrated throughout the novel from the planning and carrying out of
the murder, to interactions with the police.
The narrator from the short story "The Black Cat" describes his
"tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of his
companions." ("The Black Cat", pg.390) He is quite a regular human being who is
"...especially...