Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's life was dark and dramatic as his novels were. His father's drunken brutality led to his murder by his own serfs. At the age of 28 he was imprisoned for alleged subversion against Tsar Nicholas. He was in prison for ten years. While in prison he made many changes in his philosophies and it was greatly shown in his novels. "Man is a mystery. If you spend your entire life puzzling it out then do not say you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this because I want to be a man." This quote is from a letter that Dostoevsky sent to his brother at the age of eighteen. The quote shows the mindset of the author. This mystery is what Crime and Punishment is about. Dostoevsky reveals this mystery through guilt. He shows that almost everybody has a sense of guilt. This guilt will not let you get away with the crime. This information brings me to a statement that I feel reflects the entire novel. Through pain and suffering, guilt will bring confession. Knowledge of crime or bad deeds lead to guilt. " I was not delirious, I knew what I was doing," he cried straining. "I was quite myself do you hear?" (Dostoevsky 310) This quote shows that Raskolnikov knew what he was doing and that he was guilty. Even through his extraordinary man theory he knows that he had done wrong. He would like to believe that he was in the right but in the back of his mind he knows that he is in the wrong. "Good God, am I going out of my senses?"(Dostoevsky 130) This shows that he doesn't know what is happening to himself. He thought that he would have no remorse for this crime but he came out with a lot of guilt. The extraordinary man theory seemed to be a scapegoat for himself. There was not a really big need for the pawn-broker to be killed. She was not really hurting anyone. "In Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov constructed his whole theory of the extraordinary man for one purpose only, to justify in his own eyes a quick and easy way for profit.