Back to Crime and Punishment: Part 3-4

In Crime and Punishment, existentialist arguments and the belief of eternal recurrence are shown throughout the novel. Raskolnikov proves to be an existentialist (so far) through these quotes: "if men are not really scoundrels, men in general, the whole human race, I mean, -- then all the rest is just prejudice, imaginary fears, and there are no real barriers, and that is as it should be!"(22-23) and "he must put his trust in himself, not in prayer" (79). Then the examples of eternal recurrence, to me, is the scene where Svidrigaylov is talking to Raskolnikov and tells him about how he saw Marfa Petrovna after her death three times and also his old servant, Philka. This shows that situations and memories can repeat themselves (or that Svidrigaylov is psycho). Both existentialism and eternal recurrence are (somewhat) founded by Friedrich Nietzsche and influenced Dostoevsky, as shown through Crime and Punishment.