In Bondage at the Bottom of Hierarchy : A Study of Female Victimisation and the Exploitation of the Poor in Crime and Punishment

Sammanfattning: This study investigates the societal tribulations of impoverished men and women in nineteenth-century St Petersburg in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. The analysis is centred around the novel’s portrayals of class struggle, female victimisation, and double oppression in capitalist and patriarchal society. In particular, the essay explores the repercussions of class dynamics and the way the novel illustrates economic oppression to argue against capitalist society. Secondly, the analysis examines how femininity and masculinity are constructed in the novel, how this affects the characters, and how the traditional gender roles correlate with men’s crimes against women. Lastly, the analysis studies the portrayals of patriarchal and economic objectification of lower-class women and how the text creates sympathy for the victims. It is concluded that the dialogue reinforces patriarchal and capitalist ideology while the novel itself criticises the systems for the way in which they restrain marginalised people in vulnerable positions.