Crime and Punishment -- Revised Essay

Everyone allows their personal desires to get the best of them. Humans are selfish by nature. This is prominent in the novel Crime and Punishment. The main character, Ras, allows his inner most desires to control his actions. He does not stop to think about how it could affect other or even himself. In reality, his actions affect himself the most in a negative way rather than the positive way that he had hoped it would. This goes to show that humans act upon impulse based on their desires to get what they want.

            Money is a huge driving factor for everyone especially for those who do not have money such as Ras, in Crime and Punishment. However, it just pushes people like Ras to act on their impulses to get something they desire. At the start of the novel he is described as wearing tattered clothing and rags, things such that the poor would wear. In actuality, Ras is poor which is why it is not a big deal that he is wearing such clothing however he is in dire need of money so he pawns off some of his trinkets to a pawnshop. Pawning off goods is not such a bad deed-- even though his responsibilities are to work and earn an honest living-- especially if it is compared to what he starts to contemplate doing, which is murder. His one desire that is prominent in the beginning of the novel is to murder the Pawnshop lady and take her goods however it was not all about money. He hated the lady with a burning passion and learns that others do too. It takes several of chapters until he settles this internal conflict of whether or not he should kill her but he finally follows his personal desires and kills the lady. Once she is dead he rummages through her belongings and snatches some money and some trinkets. However he had left the door opened and the Pawnshop lady’s sister entered and he slaughtered her just as mercilessly. He had allowed his yearnings of committing a crime to easily obtain money get the best of him and murdered two people.

            After committing such a crime, Ras starts to feel horrible about it that he sleeps fitfully for several of nights. It would be morally correct to attempt to correct such a horrid mistake by confessing your sins or crimes to the proper authority however his fear prevented him from doing so. With his fear not allowing him to come clean, his conscience constantly attacks his mind, weakening it causing him to go mad in the eyes of some. That is what the conscience is for to remind you constantly that you have done something wrong. It is your moral obligation to listen to your conscience and right a wrong you have done. However, Ras was too preoccupied with trying to protect himself from punishment to obey his conscience.

            Many things have happened as Ras tries to fight with his conscience and one of them is that his mother announced that his sister, Dun, is getting married to a government worker named, Luz. Normally, if one hears that their sister is getting married one is usually excited and tries to like whomever their sister is marrying. For Ras, that was not the case. Due to his hatred of Luz after their confrontation in the Café which almost caused Ras to confess his murder and his love for his sister, or at least his attempt to show such love, he tries to break off their marriage. He is successful in breaking off the marriage however it was not the right thing to do because Ras had his own ulterior motives for the break-up. He acted in a way to rid himself of any threats and since his meeting with Luz at the Café, he saw him as an active threat.

            Why do humans act upon impulse like Ras has done? It is quite simple. Due to the fact that something such as “impulse” is the most primal of all instincts that humans have not lost, humans act upon such an instinct to protect themselves and obtain their raw desires. One can classify the actions taken by Ras to be savagely and selfish but one must also understand that he is human and humans are still animals. They will continually try to get whatever they want without yet thinking about the consequences. 

Hamlet Essay

The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, envelopes many thematic elements however the most prominent ones are the ones of madness, and existentialism which is evident throughout Act 5 Scene 1. The first part of the scene with the clowns demonstrates “madness” and existentialism. When the clown is singing while he is digging the grave is a good example because when Hamlet hears this he starts to question the clown’s “sanity”. Just as well is when Hamlet picks up the skull and starts to play with it. But the major theme is of existentialism. Everyone from the Clowns to Hamlet question the existence of individuals and of their choices.

Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good; if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes,--mark you that; but if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

This was said by one of the Clowns to try to present the possibilities of what could have happened to Ophelia; if it was an accident or suicide. Then also with Hamlet as he plays with the skulls, questioning who they could have belonged to. Shakespeare ties in these elements to try to present the idea that everything fades and nothing is as strong as it seems.

In the beginning of Scene 1 of Act 5, there are two clowns, or grave diggers, who begin to discuss why they are digging a grave for a person who committed suicide, because in Christian belief one who has committed suicide has sinned therefore is not deserving of a proper burial. They believe that because she, Ophelia, was of the upper echelon she is allowed to have this burial but if she was a peasant she would not be allowed to have a burial. This shows that the clowns believe that one’s status follows you even in death. Later one of the clowns poses the question, “'Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?” The other clown responds with, “The gallows-maker, for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.” The second clown turns down the other clown’s response and when asked for the answer, he does not reply. This retort back and forth between the clowns as to who builds the strongest is to show that nothing lives on forever. This portion of the scene goes to prove the ambiguous nature the afterlife and if things live on.

As the scene progresses Hamlet enters and approaches the Clown who is digging the grave. As he walks he notices some skulls lying beneath his feet, and feels compelled to pick one up. He fiddles with the skull in his hand and starts to wonder who it could have belonged to. Hamlet comes up with several possibilities as to who the skull could have belonged to: a courtier, a lord, or a lawyer. This is a great breakthrough for Hamlet. He comes to the realization that no matter what you were or what you did while you were alive; when one dies they get stuck in the ground to rot just like everyone else. He then alludes to Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar mentioning that they were these great men of history yet they too were reduced to rotting in the Earth’s soil. So what does it matter what one does in this life if everyone is going to end up in the same place? He even mentions the lawyer saying, “Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery?” In other words he is saying he is a sly man, one who has many arguments and tricks but where are they now that he has died? This shows that while dead, stature means nothing.

            Throughout this scene it is evident that existentialism is a major element. Furthermore it goes to show how life can easily fade away to nothingness. Ideas one may develop or even physical objects that one creates can just as easily fade with life. That is why when the clown, who first posed the question as to who builds stronger, was asked the same question did not respond because he knew that none of them builds the strongest and even their creations will fade away. The ideas and cases that a lawyer may have or the arguments and tricks that he may present will do him no good once he has died. And life is the most fragile thing; one slip or fall may cause the end of one’s life, whether they mean to end it or not. In the end, everything dies away and returns to its roots.  

Next set of 16 words

This link contains secrets only AP English students may gaze upon.

Grendel Chapter 9

16 Poetic Literary Terms

Click Here
 Or was it here
or Here?

It is the first link by the way.....