The Theories of Porfiry in Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment :: Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment

The Theories of Porfiry in Crime and Punishment       Raskolnikov commits a murder. He has a possible action. Porfiry is an investigator. He too has a theory. Porfirys is getting encompassing(prenominal) and closer to winning. Porfiry Petrovich believes many things about criminal nature--and therefore he believes these things volition happen to Raskolnikov, the man that he has pinned as the perpetrator or the murder. He uses the comparison of a butterfly moving closer to a candle, the accompaniment that if he lets the criminal w eachow in mixed freedom and scourge he volition be up to(p) to complete a numerical proof of the crime, and that the criminals best move is to tell the truth, during which endeavor he will ultimately lie and fumble his plan. Perhaps Porfiry Petrovich is an excellent wax maker. He also has some very powerful and resilient matches. He uses these skills to featherbrained and let burn a candle that keeps Raskolnikov coming to him, so out-of-the-way(prenominal) twice, on the naive pretense of seeing about his fathers watch. We know that Raskolnikov no longer has any care for things in the material world. He deposits all that he stole under a rock. He gave Katerinas family 25 roubles. cash and goods are not a concern for Raskolnikov. He is there because of the undeniable force of the light which Porfiry is relentlessly shining on him. Raskolnikov fits this aspect of Porfirys theory expertly. Unlike Porfiry did to Raskolnikovs theory, Raskolnikov can find no holes to pick in Porfirys. Descartes believed that mathematics was the only thing that really existed with certainty besides his possess existence, his own mind. Porfiry strongly believes in the benefit of having a mathematical proof in order to determine the guilty nature of a suspect. Like Descartes, Porfiry is able to doubt all things, such as circumstantial evidence and inclination, in order to await the completion and realization of a mathematical for mulation that leads directly to the true perpetrator of the crime. Porfirys equation though is not so far balanced. This is why Raskolnikov is still spared for a time. The eventual arrival of Nikolay disrupts this drive to prepare a concrete mathematical theory for Porfiry.