Nietzche was a 19th century philosopher and a bunch of other things. He wrote about a bunch of stuff, usually philosophical, with great use of metaphors and irony. This is noticed in the book Crime and Punishment, how his philosophy of Ubermensch, Nihilism, Existentialism, etc... is presented in, usually, a very ironic matter. He also talks about death of God, perspectivism, eternal recurrence, ans the will to power. Most of his philosophies and concepts flow togather like puzzle pieces. All of his ideas are interlinked.
In Crime and Punishment we notice two very malicious characters. First is Svidrigailov and the second is Luzhin. Both not only argue against each other, they are the most in line with Neitzche's philosphies.
Those two characters line up with the philosophies of Will to Power, and Ubermensch.
Will to Power is a basis for understanding human behavior. Nietzche says that the will to power is even stronger than the will to survive sometimes. (That's ironically stupid, if you don't survive, then how does one expect to retain any power that one does gain. He also notes that it is only in intellectual beings that pleasure, displeasure, and will are to be found. This excludes a vast majority of people.
Ubermensch is a weird complicated concept. Its literal translation into English is SUPERMAN!!!!!
On the other hand this is also Nietzsche concept of "an over man" who overcomes the general perspective that society has and has the power to create a new perspective without forcing his perspective on others.
Raskolnikov lives with this concept in mind. He wishes to be an Ubermensch.
Svidrigailov and Luzhin seems to be pupils of the philosophy of Will to Power. They care about nothing and no one except themselves. Luzhin mainly wants power, and he will do anything to get it. Svidrigailov is more of an Ubermensch. He imposes his perspective onto others, not only to make himself look good, but simply because he can. In his meeting with Raskolnikov he continuously gave excuses to everything he did as well as assering his thoughts over Raskolnikov. He doesn't care for others as he thinks with his perverted sensualist mind. He is also abusive and abrasive. Abuse is the show of power. This guy is a bum, he even tries to give Dunya 10,000 roubles to convince her to his side, because he can.
Luzhin considers himself noble above all (especially Dunya, Raskolnikov, and Sonia...poor modest Sonia)
He constantly tries to show himself superior to others. When angered he lashes at Dunya how he a nobleman was planning to take her even though all the rumors about her. Besides that, he is always trying to make Sonia and Raskolnikov look really really bad. Uber-much? I should say so.
As we read on in Crime and Punishment we realize that all Luzhin wants out of Dunya is to forward his own career. As aforementioned in Will to Power, he is only using her for POWAH!!!!
In Part 4 Chapter 4 of C&P we see clearly another philosophy of Nietzche, Death of God....dun...dun...dun... !!!!!
Nietzche said developments in science and increasing secularization of society in general has killed off the concept of god. This makes him appear to be an atheist. He also accepted the fact that God served as the basis of meaning and value in the world for thousands of years.
Another philosophy of his is called Perspectivism. Here he says that the Death of God will eventually lead to loss of any universal perspective on things and along with it, basically, good of society. (truth, morals, ethics, goody goody, etc...) In the place of that society will create multiple, personal on the most part, diverse, perspectives of the world.
Sonia argues that god will not allow Polenka to have as horrible a fate as hers. Raskolnikov replies, what if there is no god? He, at the end, bows down and kisses her feet, in representation that he is bowing down to the suffering of humanity.
After that we notice the "doucheness" as my classmates would say, of Svidrigailov listening in on Raskolnikov and Sonia's conversation. As they recite the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, ironically, and when Raskolnikov tells Sonia that he will tell her who killed Lizaveta the next day...Svidrigailov gets a chair to get comfortable.
The next day he goes to see Porfiry...we all know why...to see what he knows. Raskolnikovs tells him that if he is suspected then throw him in jail, if not then let him go, but he will not be made a mockery of. He finds out that Porfiry belongs to a religious sect that emphasizes suffering for sins of others.
Then the painter confesses to the murder and bada bing bada boom Raskolnikov is of the leash.
He goes on with a new light. He embraces life. He has found a new determination to live and overcome the distress of his crime. He has received emotional redemption of his crime from Sonia and intellectual redemption from Porfiry. Even though just before his whole life depended on the validity of his theory.
Raskolnikov throws down Existentialism and embraces a view of the world similar to Dostoyevsky's Christian Orthodox view. :)
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