The Theory Of Alienation

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Essay The Theory of Alienation, one of the studies and philosophies created by Karl Marx. It states that people are bound to become estranged from themselves and each other under the conditions of capitalist industrial production. When a term like that comes to mind, it isn’t difficult to think of Crime and Punishment, a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. At first, we may infer that our main character Raskolnikov’s pride separates him from society. He sees himself as the superior man to all the other people, with a mentality like that he finds that he cannot relate to anyone, or that no one is to his level. As a person, he has several problems, he seems to be an individual that sees other people as tools and uses them for his own personal gain/needs. After he commits the murders we see that he is overthrown by the immense feelings of guilt. When offered help or consolation Ralskanikov pushes away the people who are trying to help him. Not only that but we may also take into consideration that Ralskanikov is in a state of ultimate poverty, resorting to hiding from his landlady to avoid the topic of payment, that adds fuel to his alienation. Marx's Theory of Alienation is the contention that in modern industrial production under capitalist conditions workers will inevitably lose control of their lives by losing control over their work. Workers thus cease to be autonomous beings in any significant sense. This has a connection to the main character in Crime and Punishment, Russia at that time was facing severe socioeconomic hardships that made earning money a very difficult task. That added on to his alienation from society. Ralskanikov is portrayed to have cat-like reflexes in the novel, a skill he uses to avoid the public, and any form of contact with others, especially conversational. Thinking ourselves, why would Dostoevsky make Ralskanikov such a complex character, it
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