In each story, a character develops with the plot from an initial individual who leads to an ultimate, enhanced or distorted character. However, in these stories, there is a driving factor that drives the character's transformation: hope. Many authors use hope to justify the actions of characters in their novels because it gives them motivation to continue pursuing the conclusion of the story. Likewise, in Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky places in Raskolnikov a form of collective hope which revolves around the search for the meaning of one's life. In the novel, it is inevitable to associate the actions of the characters with their different hopes, thus resulting in the compromise that hope explains the process of a character's journey. As a result, many readers mistake hope as a source of aggression, or murder in the case of Crime and Punishment, or even misunderstand isolation as an influence on one's violent actions and suffering; however, hope rather affects the end result in the discovery of personal meaning for Raskolnikov, as this hope explains his actions throughout the plot. The source of hope that Raskolnikov places reveals and influences his thoughts throughout the story. From the beginning of Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov places his hopes in the ideal of Übermensch, who convinces him to act by all means because he is superior to others, encouraging him to "want to try something" as well. horrible than murder (2). Throughout his years of solitude in "his little room" (420) degraded and tattered, Raskolnikov develops a utilitarian character, in which he believes that the sacrifice of "one death" (68) is justified for "a hundred lives in exchange” (68). Many times this character was in the middle of paper......and his reactions to future events to follow. By placing his hope in Sonia and Christianity, he was able to endure the years of imprisonment in Siberia and return as a new man, not only to others, but also to himself. The novel interestingly suggests to us that Raskolnikov, who once considered himself a superior man who has the right to act by any means to justify his view of society, becomes humble before the eyes of Christianity. However, when their actions and attitudes change, the underlying factors of hope must also be considered. The change in hope at the same time as their change in character is not just coincidental, but intentional in Dostoyevsky's eyes to help Raskolnikov discover his personal meaning. Works CitedDostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and punishment. Trans. Constance Garnett. New York: BantamDell-Random House, 2003. Print.