The first part of the novel Crime and Punishment, containing a man named Raskolnikov's rationale behind committing the murder of an old woman, is not a very lengthy part of the book, but is critical in the understanding of the work and will be discussed in this essay.

In the 1860's, the time during which the novel was written, the world was said to have been ushered into a `Godless Age.' Without this Supreme Being, people believed that they wouldn't suffer any repercussions for their actions and felt they were given free reign to do as they pleased. Raskolnikov was one of these people and believed he the only had to fear punishment from the police. He expresses this fear when he says "I suppose this must be how men who are being led to the scaffold cling with their thoughts to all the things they meet...