How does the novel's setting affect the plot?

The fact that Crime and Punishment is
set in a city has a significant impact on the action of the story and the meaning of the
action.

Roskolnikov hopes to prove that he is a man above
other men. He wishes to be separated by superiority, separated from the mass of men by
an ethical and intellectual integrity which will be proven by his ability to commit a
murder and get away with the crime.

The novel explores all
the ways in which Roskolnikov fails to achieve his aims. He does not rise above the
masses, but finds himself plunged deeper into the group of wretched people in the city.
He is surrounded by people who he can neither connect to nor escape
from.

The police investigators are city policemen,
accustomed to crime of a certain sort. Roskolnikov’s uniqueness is seen in the police
response to his particular crime and his particular motivation. Yet it is also the city
police investigators who demonstrate how far Roskolnikov really is from being the
superior man he had hoped. Men accustomed to dealing with common criminals have no
trouble capturing Roskolnikov and are even able to manipulate him with relative
ease.

Set in the countryside, the themes of “one among
many” and “striving for superiority over the masses” would have played very
differently.