Point of View

Personally, I love when authors write in the third person omniscient because it’s like watching a movie in 3D; you are not involved in the story line but everything and everyone seems tangible. There is no guess work in a character's motivations, feelings, or thoughts. Perhaps there is subtext between the lines but that is not strange to find in any novel. Writing in the first person as opposed to writing in this style would have hindered the novel's ability to write about human interaction. The reader needed to become an amateur psychologist in regard to this book. The novel needed to have the reactions of people as the protagonist, using the third person allowed parts of the involved with the murder case so we could analyze the different feelings people had. Although the novel was written as Raskolnikov novel without be seen, creating a more vivid scene than if just explained to the reader. For example, the part where Svidrigailov lures Dunya to his home was written as if it was happening, giving the scene more tension.
Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote this way to show almost a ripple effect. First Raskolnikov heard about the pawnbroker from Razumikhin, and went to see her. After meeting her, he decides himself that she is an evil woman. Contemplating killing her, he overhears a conversation about that same topic. He decides to kill the pawnbroker using a twisted version of getting rid of ‘evil’ as justification. The murder of the pawnbroker, and the accidental murder of her sister, affected all who Raskolnikov came in contact with. From one coincidental mentioning of a person brought the lives of a dozen people together. Dostoevsky probably wanted to show all the interactions and events the happened independent of the main character.
posted by Kayla H.