Crime and Punishment and Othello: Comparison and Contrast Essay In both Crime and Punishment and Othello there is a theme of necessary balance. Crime and Punishment's theme that man must be balanced in order to function properly is very similar to Othello's theme that, tragically, jealousy is destructive, even to the one that holds it. In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov's extreme intellectualism caused him to stop functioning as a complete and balanced individual which ultimately cost him his freedom. For Othello, it was his extreme jealousy that caused him to become emotionally unbalanced, which cost him both Desdemona and his o