For Leatherbarrow, the principle of uncertainty is prevalent in many of Dostoevsky's novels but particularly in Crime and Punishment. In the following excerpt, Leatherbarrow asserts that not only is the motive for the crime unclear to the reader and the perpetrator, but time, space, and point of view as well deliberately lack clarity and objectivity.

As the novel [Crime and Punishment] grew under Dostoevsky's pen, his notebooks and drafts show that he went from uncertainty to uncertainty in depicting Raskolnikov and his crime, even jotting down reminders to himself to elucidate the murderer's motives more clearly. It would be easy enough to conclude from this that Dostoevsky... had simply not suspected the full richness and potential of his character and his theme, but this would be too simple a conclusion. Uncertainty is an Important artistic principle in much of Dostoevsky's work, and it is at the very...