Two hundred and fifty years separate Macbeth from Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Crime and Punishment. But they are both the same experiment: what happens to a conscience that tries to live after betraying itself?
An idea that authorizes crime
Macbeth has the prophecy: the witches grant him the throne, and he reads this as permission to take it by force. Raskolnikov has the theory: he is convinced that "extraordinary" men are above common law and can eliminate an old usurer in the name of a greater good. In both, the crime begins in an abstraction that seems to give license. The knife comes after the idea.
The punishment that does not wait for the court
And here is what Shakespeare and Dostoevsky discovered, each in their own way: punishment does not wait for the judge. She gets to the inside first. In Macbeth, by the imagination that doesn't turn off, the dagger that floats before the crime, Banquo's ghost at the banquet, insomnia, the somnambulant wife. In Raskolnikov, because of the fever, the delirium, the anguish that consumes him long before confession. The body charges before the law.
What is more unbearable: being discovered, or never being discovered and living forever with what you know?
Conscience as a court
The two characters prove that conscience is a court from which one cannot escape. It doesn't matter if the world finds out. The criminal already knows, and this knowledge is the sentence. That's why the question of the play and the novel is the same: the worst punishment may not be prison, but living with what you did. Raskolnikov's confession, in the end, is less about surrender to the police and more about self-relief.
Why read both
Macbeth compresses into five acts what Dostoevsky expands into hundreds of pages: the script of guilt. One shows the speed of the tragedy; the other, the slowness of moral agony. Together, they dismantle the most dangerous illusion of all, that a good justification transforms evil into something else.
Related class
Crime and Punishment, by Dostoevsky
The anatomy of Raskolnikov's guilt, analyzed in detail on the channel Nous on YouTube.
Watch the class on YouTubeFrequently asked questions
What do Macbeth and Raskolnikov have in common?
Both believe that something authorizes them to kill: Macbeth, a prophecy; Raskolnikov, a theory about extraordinary men. And the two discover that punishment does not wait for the external court, it arrives first inside, through guilt.
How does guilt manifest itself in both characters?
For the body and mind: insomnia, hallucinations and delirium in Macbeth (the dagger, the ghost); fever, delirium and anguish in Raskolnikov. Conscience charges before any judge.
What is the common lesson of Macbeth and Crime and Punishment?
That no idea or prophecy exempts conscience. Trying to live after betraying one's principles is the real punishment, regardless of whether it is discovered or not.
Continue: The Anatomy of Fear in Macbeth · Macbeth's descent into hell and Dante · Who was Anselm of Canterbury?