Crime and Punishment and Notes from the UndergroundCrime and Punishment and Notes from the Underground The stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky are stories of a sort of rebirth. It weaves a story of grave human suffering and how each character tries to escape from this misery. In the novel Crime and Punishment, he tells the story of Raskolnikov, a former student who kills an old pawnbroker in an attempt to prove a theory. In Notes from Underground we are given the chance to explore Dostoevsky's views on human beings. Dostoevsky's characters are very similar, as are his stories. He places a strong emphasis on the alienation and isolation his characters feel. His characters are both brilliant and "sick", as mentioned in each novel, poisoned by their intelligence. In Notes from Underground, the character, who is never given a name, writes his diary from solitude. He is spoiled by his intelligence, which gives him a fierce conceit with which he lashes out at the world and justifies the evil things he does. At the same time, however, he speaks of the doubt he feels about the value of human thought and purpose and, later, of human life. He believes that intelligence, constantly being questioned and "faithlessly drifting" between ideas, is a curse. Being damned to see everything, clearly as a window (and that even includes things that shouldn't be seen, like corruption in the world) or constantly searching for the meaning of elusive things. Dostoevsky thought that humans were evil, destructive, and irrational. In Crime and Punishment, we see Raskolnikov caught between reason and will, the human needs for personal freedom and the need to submit to authority. He spends most of the first two parts stuck between wanting to act and wanting to observe. After taking action and killing the old woman, he spends a lot of time contemplating the confession. Raskolnikov seems trapped in his own world even though there is actually nothing holding him back; he chooses not to flee and not to confess, but still behaves as if he were suffocated (perhaps guilt?). In both novels defeat seems inevitable. Both characters believe that the normal man is stupid, dissatisfied and confused. Maybe they are right, but both characters fail to see the positive aspects of human beings; the closest was the scene between the narrator of Notes from Underground and Liza. In this scene he almost lets his human side shine through, rather than the insecure and withdrawn person he normally is.