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The best example of this is that its lead character, Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov, is not a realistic villain, but an archetype- and really a symbol. The sound of his name connotes his being a rascal or rapscallion, and in Russian raskolnik even means to be divided, or schismatic. His swings between guilt and mendacious evil are better seen as devices serving the drama of the narrative than as any true portrait of a sociopath- be it a modern serial killer, a gangster, or any other form.

Crime and Punishment also portrays the dilemma of the Russian intellectual in the nineteenth-century. Dostoyevsky shows how Raskolnikov is corrupted by moral scepticism. The novel exposes the bankruptcy of intellectual or ideological arguments which lack moral concern or compassion.

“Moral Skepticism” names a diverse collection of views that deny or raise doubts about various roles of reason in morality. Different versions of moral skepticism deny or doubt moral knowledge, justified moral belief, moral truth, moral facts or properties, and reasons to be moral.

Alienation is a powerful feeling of isolation and loneliness, and stems from a variety of causes. Alienation may occur in response to certain events or situations in society or in one's personal life. Examples of events that may lead to an individual's feeling of alienation include the loss of a charismatic group leader, or the discovery that a person who served as a role model has serious shortcomings.

[Raskolnikov] had to tell her [Sonia] who had killed Lizaveta. He knew the terrible suffering it would be to him and, as it were, brushed away the thought of it. (5.4.1) Raskolnikov knows that confessing, the act of speaking his crimes, causes him to suffer – yet, he can't stop doing it. He needs to tell. The suffering of telling is less than the suffering of not telling.

[Raskolnikov:] "They say it is necessary for me to suffer! What's the object of these senseless sufferings? Shall I know any better what they are for, when I am crushed by hardships and idiocy, and weak as an old man after twenty years' penal servitude?" (6.8.75) Here Raskolnikov is questioning the high premium everybody places on suffering as he debates whether or not to turn himself in, and submit to prison. Also notice that he thinks he'll get at least twenty years in prison, but he only gets eight.