The Death of Absolute Morality Depicted in Fyodor Dostoyevski’s “Crime and Punishment”

Abstract

Moral absolutism, the belief that certain actions are inherently right or wrong regardless of context, has long been a contested framework in both philosophy and literature. While much of the existing scholarship on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866) focuses on its psychological and religious dimensions, relatively few studies have systematically examined how the novel portrays the collapse of moral frameworks through the lens of postmodern theory. This study aims to analyze the ways in which Dostoyevsky depicts the death of absolute morality as manifested in the character of Rodion Raskolnikov, whose self-constructed moral ideology gradually disintegrates throughout the narrative. Employing postmodernism as the primary theoretical framework, particularly Jean-François Lyotard's concept of the collapse of grand narratives and Michel Foucault's notion of power-knowledge in defining moral norms. This study conducts qualitative descriptive research based on close reading of the novel's key scenes, dialogues, and character developments. The findings reveal not only Raskolnikov's ideological breakdown reflects Dostoyevsky's broader critique of enlightenment rationalism but also the dangerous consequences of moral self-sovereignty. Overall, this study contributes to the ongoing discourse on morality in world literature and demonstrates that Crime and Punishment remain a profoundly relevant text for understanding contemporary moral crisis.