• Asst. Prof. Nisha
• Prof. Dr.Pratibha Tyagi

Fyodor Dostoevsky is unanimously considered by critics, readers and philosophers to have been Russia’s greatest modern writer. He can be called the central pillar upon which the edifice of Russian literature rests. His approach to life is in sharp contrast to Tolstoy, another great author in Russian literature. If Tolstoy drew his material from the nobility, peace and stability, Dostoevsky drew his material from chaos and disorder. His fictional world is mainly dominated by Dionysian elements rather than the Apollonian elements. To understand his genius properly one should have a deep knowledge of all his works for each work unfolds different aspects of his mind. His novels are true reflection of lively circumstances of life. If we try to have a look at Dostoevsky’s personal life, we find that it is replete with lots of disappointments. Perhaps the very circumstances of his life made him bitter towards life, which we find in his novels from Notes from Underground to The Brother Karamazov. John Middleton Murry once remarked about Dostoevsky: “It is not that he is a cruel genius, but that he, in whom the human consciousness worked more keenly than in other men of his age, was more terribly the victim of the ultimate cruelty of things.” (Fyodor Dostoevsky, Critical Lives, page no 209)

poverty, gloom, dilemma, extraordinary man theories, Hegelian superman, submissiveness, regeneration, meaningless world, rebellion, despair, nihilism and suicide.

" Existential Dilemma in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 2, page no.1042-1046, February-2020, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2002360.pdf

" Existential Dilemma in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment ", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.7, Issue 2, page no. pp1042-1046, February-2020, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2002360.pdf