Raskolnikov

Brilliant impoverished student theorizes a class of extraordinary men exempt from moral law; murders the pawnbroker to prove the theory; is undone not by detection but by his own conscience and by Sonya; eventually confesses at the crossroads, accepts Siberia, and begins to live. Failure mode: A philosophy that exempts the self from the moral order. Restoration path: Kneel at the crossroads; kiss the earth; confess publicly; accept the sentence; begin reading the Gospel. Markers: theory of exemption; commits the act to prove the theory; tormented before any external charge; befriended by the holy outsider (Sonya); public confession at a crossroads — Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (Literature)