Crimes, Misdemeanors, and lots and lots of Punishment

For my prompt I chose #9, which referenced the scene in Judah's childhood home at Passover, specifically the debate about God versus Truth. My prompt asks "Why would someone knowingly choose religious faith over truth?" While I personally would not (and perhaps could not) do this, I can certainly see its appeal. First of all, truth is based on perspective and is often biased -- in essence it is flawed while the gods are perfect beings. Also, even should the truth be appealing, conditions are subject to change and what the "truth" is may change, but God is a constant, if you devoutly believe. Not only is God a constant, but one that is given to you at a very young age (typically), making him a comfort or a way of grounding yourself. So based on these notions God is perfect, constant, and comforting, while the truth is waning and frightful. Who would not want to live in the fantasy, no matter how "wrong" it is? We all watch TV shows, movies, or involve ourselves in activities that remove us from the agony of even simply being. I feel it is an impulse of ours, as humans, to seek out diversion, even in forms as potentially as harmful as substance use/abuse, and faith is often viewed as magnanimous or at least benign. So why not give in? After all, as Dorian Gray reminds us, "the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it."

When comparing Crime and Punishment to Crimes and Misdemeanors, an element that immediately jumped out at me is under current of suffering among many of the prominent characters. In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov suffers from madness and delirium which he feels so deeply that they drive him to commit murder and again are so great that he is over come by illness. Also, Sonya is forced into prostitution by her family's financial circumstances and is tormented by the idea that her younger siblings may one day suffer her own fated or something far worse. In Crimes and Misdemeanors, Judah suffers from the distress his mistress Dolores causes in his family/professional life and later her murder gnaws at him for the rest of his life. Clifford suffers in that he feels that his genius is never appreciated and his love is never return (and in the end stolen my his jerk brother-in-law). Another aspect of the two works that was a common thread was the nature of love and both keyed on affairs and marital unhappiness.  In Crimes and Misdemeanors, Judah is not content with his wife and cheats on her with Dolores, and Clifford kisses Hallie and loves her despite the fact that he is married. In Crime and Punishment, there is the whole issue of Dunya and Svidrigailov and his desire to be with her despite his marriage to Marfa Petrovna, which leads Svidrigailov to kill himself after Dunya can not. To me, the main things that made the works seem more distant from one another is very different setting and how Crime and Punishment seems to follow a clear more united path where Crimes and Misdemeanors seems more disjointed until further into the film.