From what you’ve read, is anybody truly beyond redemption? How is such a redemption achieved?

By KateReads91

Slight spoilers for Demons and Crime and Punishment. I’m asking this because I’ve been reading Dostoevsky’s Demons (I’m basically finishing it today), and it feels like a big theme in his books is redemption. Like, in Crime and Punishment, Rodion kind of resets himself through hard labor as a way to make up for the murder. But then at the other end, Chichikov from Dead Souls feels like he might be too far gone—he keeps saying he’ll do better, but it’s always just talk, and once things loosen up he slips back into his bad habits. Does anyone else see it that way?