Suffering in Crime and Punishment In the novel Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, suffering is an integral part of every character's role. However, the message that Dostoevsky wants to present with the main character, Raskolnikov, is not one of the Christian idea of salvation through suffering. Rather, it appears to me, as if the author never lets his main character suffer mentally throughout the novel, in relation to the crime, that is. His only pain seems to be physical sicknes. Raskolnikov commits a premedit ....