Crime and Punishment: The Beginning

     The mood of the novel is of hopelessness and depression. The Raskolnikov, the main character, shows us the hopelessness and depression of the extremely poor through this quote: "Besides, the young man's heart was so full of bitter scorn that, in spite of his often very youthful sensitiveness,wearing his rags in the street caused him no embarrassment"(2).; he is so poor that even the state of his attire does not truly affect him (until later on). The point of view used in the novel is third person limited (so far) and the author does an effective job so far of showing us Raskolnikov's St. Petersburg. Characterization so far is mostly indirect, leading the reader to the discovery of a certain trait of a character, rather than saying it bluntly. The characters are well set up so far in the novel.