Crime and Punishment

Is Raskolinkov selfish? It's so hard to tell, you could argue either way. Did he steal and murder for his own gain or did he do it to take the burdon off his mother and sister?
I think he did it more to take the burden off of his mother and sister which wouldn't make him selfish.
wanted to stop his sister's marriage:
"As long as I'm alive, this marriage will not take place: Mr. Luzhin can go to hell!" p.38

But then Raskolinkov ended up just hiding the money and doing nothing with it. Without a purpose for the murder, he could be seen as selfish.
"If you did this business concienciously, not like a fool, but if you really had a firm and definate purpose, why is it you haven't even looked into the purse, why is it you don't even know what you've got, you don't know why you've put yourself to all these torments...." p.105

Also, Raskolinkov couldn't deal with his suffering so he chose to tell Sonia to let her take some of the burden, knowing that the knowledge would cause her to suffer too. I think this is selfish on Raskolinkov's part.



Dounia is definately not selfish as she sacrifices herself for the sake of her family and her brother.
" 'Love Dounia, Rodia, for she loves you more than she loves herself. ' Why it's remose secretly making her suffer, for she has concented to a sacrifice, a daughter for a son." p.39
"Nevertheless, I know that my sister would sooner work like a Negro slave on a plantation or like a Lett peasant for a Baltic German landowner than debase her soul and her moral sense by marrying a man she does not respect..." p.41
"For herself, for her own comfort, she would not do it; she would not sell herself even to escape death. For someone else, though - yes she would; she'd sell herself! p.42

Sonia is very unselfish in the same way. She sacrifices herself by selling her body for her family. She's also unselfish when she gives up living her own life to help Raskolinkov while he is in jail.

Marmelodov is selfish because he uses all of his family's money for alcohol while his children and wife are cold and starving.