Chapter 1:

It is early July in St. Petersburg, and very hot. A good-looking young man who is nearly destitute and greatly in debt to his landlady manages to slip out of the house unnoticed. He is relieved, not because he is a coward by nature but because he has been irritable and tense for some time and dreads meeting anyone at all, let alone his landlady.

The young man thinks to himself in a rapidly rambling fashion about some unknown deed which he seems torn about committing. On the one hand, he wants to do it, but on the other he tries to convince himself that he is merely toying with the idea and isn't serious about pursuing it into action.

The youth is revolted by the heat and stench of his surroundings, but loses himself in his thoughts, which sometimes become muddled as he has not eaten much in two days. He is roused from his reverie by a drunk shouting an insult about his hat. Suddenly afraid, he clutches his hat, and mutters feverishly to himself that the hat is too conspicuous and can be "noticed . . . and remembered" as evidence.

He approaches a house, where he is to "make a trial of his undertaking" (i.e. the unknown deed preying on his mind). He climbs up the back stairs to the fourth floor, noting that one of the tenants on that floor is moving out, so that "for a while only the old woman's apartment will be left occupied. That's good . . . just in case . . .," he thinks before ringing the bell.

The door is answered by a suspicious sixty-year-old woman, who mistrustfully lets him in.

The young man introduces himself as "Raskolnikov, a student," who had been to her a month ago. The woman remembers him, and lets him come into another room. With his characteristic hyper-awareness, Raskolnikov notes every detail of the spotless room and its furniture.

It turns out that this old lady, Alyona Ivanovna, is a pawnbroker, and Raskolnikov had gone to her a month ago with a ring of his father's. His pledge has expired, but he begs her to be patient and presents her with an old watch. He asks four roubles; she offers one and a half with interest paid in advance. Raskolnikov is angered, but he has no other way, and recalling his original purpose of a "trial," he reluctantly accepts her offer.

He watches Alyona Ivanovna get out her keys and go into another room. As he waits, he listens and figures out what she is doing‹opening the top drawer, with which key, etc. She returns with his money, having deducted the interest from not only the current pledge but the previous one as well, so he gets only one rouble 15 kopecks.

Raskolnikov doesn't argue, and takes the money, then mumbles something about bringing her a nice silver cigarette case later. As he walks out, he asks casually whether she stays at home alone, without her sister, but is answered with a suspicious question only. He leaves as quickly as he can, feeling disturbed, and his agitation increases until, in the middle of the street, he bursts out incredulously about his contemplation of "such horror," which has been dogging his thoughts for a month.

This outburst does nothing to relieve him, however, and weaves down the street unevenly until he returns to his senses near a tavern. He immediately enters, suddenly realizing how faint he is from hunger and thirst.

Once he drinks a cold beer, he feels relieved, and starts to think more rationally, trying to tell himself that he only needed some nourishment and that there is really nothing to worry about. However, he does sense a dim foreboding that his cheerfulness is just as morbid as his previous state.

There are not many people in the tavern: a tradesman, his friend‹who has dozed off and awakens every so often to sing some maudlin tune‹and someone who looks like a retired official and appears agitated.

Analysis

This chapter introduces us to Raskolnikov, our protagonist, who is clearly troubled by something. His inner monologue is deftly interwoven with his observations to simultaneously plunge us immediately into his paranoia while only revealing the nature of the crisis very gradually. By the end of the chapter, we still do not know what it is that is troubling Raskolnikov; but we are aware that it must be some crime involving the pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna, given Raskolnikov's characterization of this visit as a "trial" and his acute and intense observation of every detail of the visit.

Dostoevsky's detailed description immerses the reader into a world of bleak poverty. It does not take long to determine that Raskolnikov is poor; but when we are led through the burning, stinking streets, among drunks and prostitutes, we see that his environment is just as poor as he is. His clothes are described as "rags" and he has not eaten enough in two days. The setting reinforces the young man's near-destitution.

Yet Raskolnikov does present something of a contrast. Even in appearance, he is called "remarkably good-looking, taller than average" and distinguished from the general population by his beauty. Not only is he physically something of an Adonis, through our glimpses into his thoughts we can tell that he is a thinker. We know he is a student, but his endless dwelling on "that" (the unknown crime) reveals a deep thinker, used to unfolding and contemplating the inner philosophies of complex problems. Right now, he is mired in a problem‹of which the nature is not yet understood‹which has preoccupied him for months to the point where he no longer attends to his affairs.

A theme of mistrust runs through this chapter, setting the stage for things to come while giving a sense of the hostility of Raskolnikov's surroundings. The pawnbroker mistrusts Raskolnikov despite the fact that she has seen him before; one gets the sense that she mistrusts everyone, clients or otherwise. The tradesman in the tavern mistrusts his drunken friend, who keeps bursting into song; this suspicion of happiness suggests the downtroddenness of life in St. Petersburg, where everyone is so gloomy that any instance of joy is looked upon with narrowed eyes. It is somewhat ironic that the one man who achieves the desired effect of drinking alcohol‹namely, pleasant oblivion‹is regarded with hostility. Even Raskolnikov mistrusts his own cheerfulness once he has had a beer, sensing vaguely that it is just as morbid as his agitated paranoia.

Chapter 2:

Although he has been avoiding people for the past month, Raskolnikov feels suddenly drawn to be with them, and actually enjoys sitting in the tavern despite its dirty dinginess. He feels a keen interest in the retired official, who apparently feels a similar interest, since he keeps looking at Raskolnikov with the evident desire to strike up a conversation. He is ragged in appearance, and seems agitated.

Finally he addresses Raskolnikov directly, introducing himself as Marmeladov, a titular councillor. He asks Raskolnikov whether he is in the civil service as well; the young man, surprised at the direct address and at Marmeladov's strangely ornate speech, replies that he is a student. Delighted, and clearly drunk, Marmeladov sits himself with Raskolnikov and starts to talk about his life.

He is a self-proclaimed drunk, berating himself while yet not changing his ways; a certain Mr. Lebezyatnikov had beaten Marmeladov's wife a month ago and he had done nothing about it; his daughter has prostituted herself to provide money for the family, because of his incompetence. Those in the tavern listen mockingly, laughing at him; but he only increases his dignity as they do so.

As he babbles on, a picture of his miserable existence begins to emerge. His wife, Katerina Ivanovna, drags him about by the hair (of which he seems almost proud) and is ill while having to care for their three small children. A widow, she had consented to marry him "weeping and sobbing and wringing her hands," and he had not touched alcohol for an entire year; but upon losing his job he turned to the bottle. Since then the family had moved around and Marmeladov had obtained a position and lost it through drinking. Sonya, his daughter from a previous marriage, had had minimal education (though she appears intelligent); unfortunately she had not been able to earn much money through her handiwork. Finally Katerina Ivanovna, upset and ill, had bullied Sonya into prostituting herself. Shortly thereafter, Sonya was no longer allowed to live in the apartment with her family, and had to rent a room from a tailor named Kapernaumov.

Marmeladov had then gone to beg a job from one Ivan Afanasyevich (apparently a higher official), and had obtained one. The family rejoiced and prepared him with a uniform and good food; and he had brought home his salary of 23 roubles 40 kopecks six days ago, causing his wife much joy. Marmeladov himself had indulged in sweet dreams of success and happiness. But the very next evening, he had stolen the money and spent it all on drink, thereby losing everything. He had run away from home, but had even gone back to Sonya to ask her for money for drink.

Amidst laughter and derision, Marmeladov declares he deserves no pity, but that all along he has only sought sorrow, not joy. He then goes off on a long impassioned speech about how the Lord will forgive his whole family on Judgement Day. The words temporarily impress his hearers, but they are soon laughing and mocking him again.

Marmeladov asks Raskolnikov to take him back home to his wife. Raskolnikov does so, leading him into his miserably poor room, where Katerina Ivanovna paces almost deliriously, wasted from consumption as well as worry.

When she sees Marmeladov, she drags him inside by his hair, wailing loudly and berating him for drinking up all the money while his children go hungry. She kicks Raskolnikov out, assuming him to be a drinking partner of her husband's; he is only too glad to hasten out, as neighbors are starting to peek in and laugh at the scene. Amalia Lippewechsel, the landlady, barges in at last and shouts at the Marmeladovs to clear out by the next day.

As he leaves, Raskolnikov digs up all the change he has and lays it unobserved on the windowsill. Within minutes, he is questioning his own act and wants to get it back, but he knows he can't and wouldn't take it anyway. He reflects on how the family is using Sonya for money.

Analysis:

Religion, which permeates all of Dostoevsky's works, is given a heavy introduction in this chapter. Marmeladov's speeches are peppered with incessant Biblical references, but so is his life. He calls Sonya his "only-begotten daughter"‹a literally true title since he has no children with Katerina Ivanovna, but also an obvious reference to Christ as God the Father's "only-begotten son." Sonya lives with the Kapernaumovs, whose name seems too similar to that of the Biblical Capernaum (a city of Galilee where Jesus spent a lot of time) to be coincidential.

Marmeladov resembles some sort of degraded Christ-figure. He talks about crucifixion: "I ought to be crucified, crucified on a cross, and not pitied!" He also goes to great lengths to assure his hearers that he seeks only sorrow and enjoys suffering. Yet this comes across as merely an excuse with which he attempts to justify his destructive behavior, rather than the sort of suffering which absolves sins. Rather than suffering to right wrongs‹e.g., working hard to feed and clothe his family, giving up alcohol, etc.‹he is suffering as the result of persisting in wrongdoing. In short, he is not saving anyone, as is abundantly clear by the wretched condition of both his family and his personal dignity. In fact, he desperately needs saving himself.

Sonya, of course, is the true savior here. Her tragic story is the first instance of a theme which will recur again and again throughout the novel: that of women saving men. Sonya has been forced into dishonor by her own family, through the utter ineptitude of her father. As Raskolnikov reflects bitterly at the end of the chapter, her family (or perhaps more appropriately, her father) "wept a bit and got accustomed" to living off of Sonya's disgrace; "Man gets accustomed to everything, the scoundrel!" Through her suffering‹not only of public dishonor but personal loss as well‹she keeps her family clothed and fed, not well, but better than her father can.

Dostoevsky adroitly uses Marmeladov as a vehicle for social commentary as well as textual themes. Marmeladov, for instance, respectfully quotes Mr. Lebezyatnikov as saying, "In our time compassion is even forbidden by science, as is already happening in England..." This comment reflects Dostoevsky's rejection of Western ideas, a theme which, like religion, informs much of his later and greater works. Dostoevsky became convinced that Western social models and theories could not successfully be applied to Russian society, which required its own special spiritual and practical methods. His sly jab at the dehumanization brought about by "political economy" and other such sciences is even more poignant amidst the gross poverty of Raskolnikov's world.

Once again, poverty and the degradation of the soul are highlighted, this time in the person of Marmeladov. His search for pity and compassion stands out, but as seen earlier, people are too mistrustful of one another to do anything but mock and mistrust.

Chapter 3:

Raskolnikov awakens the next day feeling unrested, and angrily looks around his tiny, shabby room.

Nastasya, the landlady's cook and only servant, wakes him up by shouting at him. Though her conversation is slighting, she is kind enough to bring him some of her own tea and offer him leftovers from the previous day's meal (his landlady has stopped sending up his dinners because he is behind in his rent). As Raskolnikov eats, Nastasya prattles on about how his landlady is going to report him to the police for not paying his rent but refusing to vacate, and upbraids him for not doing anything. He replies that he does work. She asks what kind of work, and he replies that he thinks, which response sends her into gales of laughter.

After some further uncomfortable exchange, she remembers that she has a letter for him, and gives it to him. Seeing that it is from his mother, he orders Nastasya to leave, and after lingering adoringly on it, he opens it up.

Clearly, his mother has been having troubles and has been unable to send her son any money, though she wished to in order to help him continue his studies. Now, however, she feels she has good news, and proceeds to tell the following story:

Dunya, Raskolnikov's sister, had been working as a governess in the home of the Svidrigailovs, where she suffered a fair amount of rudeness and discourtesy from Mr. Svidrigailov. As it turned out, he had been attracted to her, and at last he propositioned her. Naturally, Dunya refused, but Svidrigailov persisted in pursuing her.

Unfortunately for Dunya, Marfa Petrovna, the lady of the house, overheard her husband and Dunya in the garden one day, and confronted them with the assumption that Dunya was at fault. Marfa Petrovna slapped Dunya and kicked her out, sending her back home in an open peasant cart in the rain. She then proceeded to stain Dunya's reputation all over town, making life very difficult for the girl and her mother.

At last, Svidrigailov stepped in and showed his wife a letter Dunya had written to him while she had been at their house, reproaching him for his behavior and refusing to meet with him. This, in addition to the word of the servants in the Svidrigailov household, served to vindicate Dunya.

Marfa Petrovna, shamed and convinced, then proceeded to right the wrongs she had inflicted, going to remarkable and perhaps unnecessary lengths to restore Dunya's reputation (notably by copying the letter Dunya had written and going from house to house reading it for several days). Dunya was given job offers and the whole town began treating her with respect, and one Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, a distant relative of Marfa Petrovna, proposed to her. After a sleepless night of pacing and prayer, Dunya accepted him.

This gentleman, 45 years old, well-off and respectable, does not love Dunya, as is clear, but the marriage will be one of convenience to both parties. He currently is on his way to Petersburg, and the hope is expressed that he might be able to get Raskolnikov a job. Dunya has been making future plans on the expectation that her influence will help her family to better themselves, although apparently Luzhin has not asked her mother to stay with them.

Finally his mother writes that she and Dunya will be going to Petersburg very soon, and are excited about seeing Raskolnikov, though the trip will cost them as Luzhin is not paying for the trip but only for the transport of their luggage.

Raskolnikov lays his head down and thinks for a long while, but starts to feel confined and jumps up and goes out. He heads for Vasilievsky Island, talking to himself so that he appears drunk to passersby.

Analysis:

The theme of women sacrificing themselves to save the men they love is expanded in this chapter with the story of Dunya, Raskolnikov's sister. At first she sacrificed her salary for him, virtually enslaving herself to the Svidrigailovs until she could pay back the 100 rouble advance she had obtained from them. The greater sacrifice, however, is of herself as she plans to marry Luzhin in the hopes that the match will materially better her family's circumstances.

Despite the optimism of the mother's letter, Dunya knows (as would anyone reading between the all-too-clear lines) that Luzhin is a conceited, stingy snob. She, as her mother writes, paced all night and prayed before finally making the decision to accept this man. Dunya knows Luzhin's character and does not love him, and she is perfectly aware that he does not love her‹she is simply making the sacrifice for Raskolnikov's sake.

It is surprising, however, that Dunya should assume that Luzhin would give any money or employment to her brother. She plans on using her influence with him; but already Luzhin has proved that he has no interest in helping her family financially‹he did not even offer to pay their way to Petersburg, though he is part of the reason they are going, and clearly he has no intent to invite his future mother-in-law to live with him and Dunya. This apparent blindness on Dunya's part seems a refinement of her mother's tendency to gloss everything and hope for the best.

The cruelty of Russian society is once more brought in with the story of Marfa Petrovna. Enraged by a seduction she assumes to be on Dunya's part, she sets about to demolish Dunya's honor and credibility as completely as she can. Dunya is fortunate that the truth comes to her aid, and Dostoevsky makes the most of it via a sort of hyperbole of action: Marfa Petrovna makes copies of Dunya's letter, and runs around to people's houses reading it, "and for each reading people even gathered who had heard the letter several times already, in their own homes and in their friends' as well." The author is poking fun at both Marfa Petrovna and the society in which she moves.

Underlying this, however, is a grave contrast. People are given to extremes of behavior, and while they can be excessively kind to those they admire and love, they can be brutally cruel to those they see as dishonored.

Chapter 4:

Raskolnikov has been disturbed by his mother's letter, but he knows one thing: that the marriage of his sister with Mr. Luzhin will not take place as long as he lives!

He can see right through his mother's optimistic writing and his sister's acts. Luzhin is clearly a miser, arrogant, condescending to his future wife's family; and Dunya is clearly everything good, strong and noble. Obviously she is marrying him ("selling herself," as Raskolnikov puts it) for the sake of her brother and mother. Raskolnikov even knows that it is he, above their mother, for whom such a sacrifice is being made. He equates Dunya's sacrifice with Sonya's. Passionately, he rejects the sacrifice.

Suddenly, however, he pulls himself up short. How, he asks himself, is he going to stop it? What can he do? He has no way of finishing his studies to find a position to make money and prevent the necessity of such a marriage. Money is needed immediately.

Raskolnikov has tortured himself with these questions before, and now even takes a sick delight in them. But the letter suddenly blinds him with the realization that "at least something" must be done now. And that "something" is the unnamed deed which has been tormenting him for the past month.

He searches for a bench, feeling like he needs to sit down. He then notices a woman walking before him, and something about her strikes him as strange. He examines her to try and figure out what it is. She is young, and her clothes are untidy and need mending; and as she walks she reels unsteadily. They reach a bench. She collapses on it and closes her eyes. Raskolnikov looks at her closely and realizes that she is drunk; it is strange because she appears only 16 years old and quite pretty.

As he stands perplexed in front of her, he notices a gentleman a short ways away who is eyeing the girl and clearly wishes to approach her with certain intentions. The man is impatiently waiting for Raskolnikov to leave.

Suddenly Raskolnikov gets very angry and is possessed by the desire to insult the man. He does so (calling him "Svidrigailov," a name which suggested a sketchy character) and they get into a fight. A policeman breaks up the fight.

He is a kindly-looking man, and Raskolnikov seizes him and shows him the girl. He explains that she doesn't look like a prostitute, but more as if she has been made drunk and then raped. Indignantly he tells the policeman how the dandy evidently wishes to use this girl as well, and entreats his help in saving her from such a man.

The policeman agrees to help, and tries to get the girl to tell him where she lives. Raskolnikov gives him 20 kopecks to hire a coachman to take her home. The girl, however, doesn't answer satisfactorily, and after a while, gets up and totters off down the street. The dandy follows on the other side of the street, and the policeman takes off to prevent him having his way with her.

Suddenly Raskolnikov shouts at the policeman to forget it, what does it matter to him? The policeman is befuddled, but assumes Raskolnikov is mad or drunk, and ignores him.

Raskolnikov irritably asks himself why he bothered to get involved, losing 20 kopecks in the process. But he sits down on the bench and thinks compassionately about the poor girl's likely fate.

He abruptly wonders where he had been heading when he left his flat, and realizes that he had been automatically on his way to see Razumikhin, one of his only friends from university. Razumikhin, too, has had to leave university, but is attempting to straighten things out so he can continue.

Analysis:

Prostitution threads itself through this chapter in a variety of ways. Raskolnikov quite aptly equates Dunya's imminent marriage with Sonya's prostitution. The drunken girl presents the issue as well. First, after Raskolnikov has left the scene, he reflects that this girl may end up as part of the "certain percentage" of the population which would, according to social science, end up as prostitutes. The reference here is to work published by Europeans attempting to determine whether given percentages of the population were naturally inclined to end up as criminals or prostitutes. Raskolnikov's bitter comment on the use of scientific terms to dilute the impact of such misery again demonstrates Dostoevsky's rejection of Western scientific ideals as too cold or inhuman. But the girl also presents a disturbing ambiguity: is she already a prostitute or has she been ravaged as Raskolnikov conjectures?

Raskolnikov's personal schism, which we have already glimpsed, comes through very clearly in this chapter. He is always questioning himself and reversing his previous decisions, e.g. stopping Dunya's wedding, or preventing the abuse of the drunken girl. In fact, the root of his name, "raskolot," means "to split," and all we have seen of him so far indicates that he is appropriately named: he acts almost as though he holds two personalities within one body, one indolent, cruel and disturbed, and one kind, sensitive and emotional.

The policeman is the first thoroughly kind man we have seen in this novel (we have seen kind women, such as Dunya and Sonya). Perhaps stirred by fatherly impulses, he addresses the situation of the drunken girl with positive action, and notably, he is not a whit deterred by Raskolnikov's sudden retraction of support. It should be noted that Raskolnikov himself is, at heart, kind‹he has flashes of nobility, such as when he leaves the money in his pocket for the suffering Marmeladovs‹but he gets tripped up by his own feverish mental circles too frequently to follow through.

Razumikhin, the second kind man who is hinted at but not yet seen, appears almost the polar opposite to Raskolnikov‹sociable, cheerful, self-supporting and extremely motivated. A telling sentence states, "Razumikhin was also remarkable in that no setbacks ever confounded him, and no bad circumstances seemed able to crush him." Raskolnikov, on the other hand, is completely confounded by setbacks, has lapsed into depression, monomania, and other forms of ill-health, and is crushed both by poverty and by the idea that has been preying on his mind for a month. The contrast between the two seems to preclude any sort of friendship between them, but Razumikhin is exactly the type of person to elicit companionship from anyone, even the forbiddingly unsociable Raskolnikov.

Chapter 5:

Raskolnikov continues to be distracted by his automatic going to Razumikhin, trying to figure out why he had been going there. Suddenly, he decides he will go to him the day after "that" (i.e. the unnamed crime). Just as suddenly, he demands of himself whether "that" will ever really happen, and he jumps up from the bench.

He is about to head home, but the thought repulses him. He walks on feverishly until he finds himself facing the Islands‹a group of small islands in the Neva delta where wealthy people had summer homes. He takes pleasure in the freshness and cleanliness of those surroundings, but soon is pained and irritated by them. On he walks, numbly and mindlessly observing his environs, counting his money, calculating how much he had left at the Marmeladovs'. He enters a nearby cook-shop, where he drinks a glass of vodka and eats a piece of pie. The vodka makes him sleepy and he turns around intending to go home, but he only gets so far before leaving the road and collapsing into sleep on the grass.

He dreams a strange and disturbing dream, in which he is seven years old and walking with his father in the late afternoon of a feast day. He recalls every detail of the little town. He and his father are walking past the tavern toward the cemetery. Outside the tavern stands a very large cart to which a small, skinny mare is harnessed. A group of drunken peasants comes boisterously out of the tavern; one of them, a young beefy man called Mikolka, shouts that he will take everyone for a ride in his cart. His invitation is greeted with derision and laughter, the general observation resting on the age and unfitness of the nag. Mikolka, however, swears he will make her gallop, and brandishes his whip with relish at the idea. Several men and one woman get in; everyone both in and around the cart is laughing at the idea. Two other men take whips to help Mikolka "whip her up."

Predictably, the horse can barely move the cart. The crowd and passengers laugh, but Mikolka is angered and beats the horse savagely. The young Raskolnikov protests to his father in fear and sadness, but his father tells him, "Come along, don't look!" The child breaks away from his father and runs to the horse, which is struggling painfully. Some remonstrances come from the crowd, but Mikolka is impervious. The mare starts to kick. Two men from the crowd grab whips and begin to beat the horse from the sides; Mikolka shouts at them to beat her on the eyes, and they do. Everyone starts to sing. Raskolnikov is crying and shouting and wringing his hands, but no one stops the outrage. The mare starts to kick again, though she is practically dead. Mikolka, enraged, grabs a shaft from the cart and, shouting "It's my goods!", brings it down heavily on the horse. However, she is not killed, and she even tries to drag the cart forward under three more blows and endless whipping. Mikolka grabs an iron crowbar and beats the mare with it until she dies. There is some reproach from the crowd. Raskolnikov is in a frenzy, and embraces and kisses the poor beast, then flies at Mikolka in a rage. His father grabs him and takes him out of the crowd.

Raskolnikov awakens damp with sweat, and is profoundly thankful that it was only a dream. But he buries his head in his hands and asks himself whether he will really kill "her" with an axe and steal from her‹at last, the unnamed crime is named.

He draws himself up with the thought that he knows he would not be able to endure committing such a crime‹so why has he been torturing himself for so long? This thought seems to clear his mind somewhat, and he feels relieved of a burden. He prays for guidance, saying, "I renounce this cursed . . . dream of mine!"

He feels calm, at peace, free as he gazes at the Neva.

He returns home via a long detour through the Haymarket (which he later regards as a strange twist of fate), and there hears Lizaveta Ivanovna, half-sister of the pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna, talking with a tradesman and his wife. The couple convince Lizaveta to see them the next day between 6 and 7 pm to arrange some sort of deal.

Raskolnikov leaves, possessed by the thought that at exactly 7:00 the next evening, the pawnbroker will be at home alone. He feels that he no longer has freedom of mind or will, and that the course of events has been abruptly and irrevocably set by this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Analysis

Raskolnikov's psychological disease, his schizoid fluctuations, continue as his "pleasant sensations [turn] painful and irritating" as he gazes upon the mansions of the rich. Dostoevsky's style in this section mirrors Raskolnikov's inability to think clearly about anything important: he very simply describes Raskolnikov's random and unrelated acts, with no analysis, just as Raskolnikov is performing them without thinking. Clearly our protagonist is suffering both mental and physical strain from his month of brooding morbidly.

Raskolnikov's dream is heavy with symbolism, not least because dreams play an important role in the novel due to their link with the unconscious and the psychological (with which, of course, Dostoevsky is highly concerned). On the uppermost level, the dream reveals the cruelty we have seen again and again, while throwing into relief Raskolnikov's essential horror at it. More importantly, however, is that the mare may symbolize the women being sacrificed for the survival of their men. "It's my goods!" Mikolka shouts over and over again, as though giving voice to the buried assumption of men like Marmeladov and, perhaps, Raskolnikov himself, if he allows his sister to marry Luzhin for his sake. In addition, as we discover, the brutal slaying of the horse symbolizes and perhaps foreshadows the murder of Alyona Ivanovna, which has obsessed Raskolnikov for the past month. He even calls this fantasy a dream, once he has temporarily recovered his reason: "I renounce this cursed . . . dream of mine!"

This latter moment brings up another theme, that of freedom vs. slavery. There are multiple forms of slavery that we have seen so far: enslavement to poverty, to mad desires, to the exigencies of a cruel system. Raskolnikov's moment of spiritual awakening and freedom from obsession is one of the few instances of true freedom we have seen so far, and it is sadly short-lived. It is intimately linked with religious spirituality as Raskolnikov, for the first time in the book, prays for guidance.

Raskolnikov's religious revival is replaced by superstition the moment he comes across Lizaveta in the Haymarket. Immediately he is back where he started, unable to think clearly, enslaved to the idea that his obsession must be realized. Dostoevsky may be making an oblique comment on faith, notably that Raskolnikov's must not have been very strong if it could be so easily overthrown. Temptation has drawn Raskolnikov off the path to freedom and back into bondage to his own madness. Raskolnikov's sense of inexorable fate in this instance will be seen later as well.

Chapter 6:

As Raskolnikov later discovers, the business the trade couple has with Lizaveta involves her acting as a middleman for a poor family forced to sell off their goods. Lizaveta is successful at this sort of thing, since she is very honest and always names a fair and final price.

Though the matter is an everyday one, Raskolnikov has become too superstitious to help seeing it as a very odd coincidence.

He recalls another "odd coincidence," which occurred just after the first time he had seen Alyona Ivanovna to pawn a ring Dunya had given him. Even that first encounter spawned an intense loathing in him, which stirred a strange thought in his head. He stopped for tea at a tavern, preoccupied by this idea.

Next to him sat a young officer and a student, who brought Raskolnikov out of his thoughts by mentioning Alyona Ivanovna. This coincidence startled Raskolnikov, but what followed surprised him even more as the student began describing the woman's life and character in great detail. The two men discussed Lizaveta as well, and Raskolnikov learned that Lizaveta was 35, Alyona's younger half-sister, and virtually enslaved to the pawnbroker. Awkward but somehow pleasant-looking and kind, Lizaveta was constantly pregnant.

The student clearly liked Lizaveta but added that he could kill and rob Alyona with not a shred of remorse. Raskolnikov started. The student asked the officer whether the thousands of lives that could benefit from Alyona Ivanovna's money would not make up for the "tiny little crime" of killing her‹a stingy, cruel old woman whom everyone hates‹and taking her money to put it to use for the good of humankind. The officer responded by asking the student whether he himself would kill her. The student replied that he certainly wouldn't. The officer rejoined, "If you yourself don't dare, then there's no justice in it at all!"

At the time, Raskolnikov had been amazed and agitated that the student had expressed the exact thoughts that he himself had had. There seemed some sort of predestination in it.

Now he throws himself on the sofa and falls into a heavy sleep. He is awakened by Nastasya the next morning. She is indignant at how much he sleeps, especially as she comes back a few hours later and finds him lying there with his food untouched. She wonders if he is sick. After she leaves, he eats a little and has strange daydreams about being in an oasis drinking clear water and enjoying fresh air. . .

Suddenly the clock strikes, waking him up. He does not know the time, but he has spent the entire day and not done a single thing to prepare. He launches into feverish action. His first task is to sew a loop into his coat, to hold the axe so that he could walk with it completely concealed. He then takes his "pledge"‹a piece of wood bound to a strip of iron, created to appear like a silver cigarette case, and tied and wrapped up in a complicated manner that would slow the woman down.

Suddenly he hears someone shouting that it is long past six. Startled, he rushes to his door and then starts downstairs. His last task is to steal an axe from the kitchen.

In his long analysis prior to this day, he had begun with the question of why crimes should be so easily solved. His conclusion was that the criminal would experience a "failure of will and reason" which would ultimately lead him to make a mistake leading to his detection. Raskolnikov decided that in his case he would allow no such "darkening of reason," and had planned out every detail so that he should be in control of his will and reason throughout the crime; but somehow, even as he makes the final preparations, he cannot believe that he is really going to go through with it.

Unfortunately for him, Nastasya is in the kitchen hanging laundry, so there is no way for him to go in and steal the axe. Forced to keep walking, Raskolnikov is greatly upset at his missed opportunity, and stops at the gateway, uncertain as to his course. His eye falls on a gleam coming from the caretaker's closet. He enters the room, determines that no one is home, and pulls out the gleaming object, which is an axe lodged between a couple of logs under a bench. He slips out, and no one has noticed.

Encouraged, he strolls along as inconspicuously as possible, trying to move casually although a clock indicates it is already 7:10. Somehow he is occupied with completely irrelevant thoughts on his way.

He manages to slip into Alyona Ivanovna's house unnoticed, and climbs the stairs to the fourth floor, where she lives. Her neighbors have moved away and the stairwell is quite empty. "Shouldn't I go away?" pops into his head, but he does not bother to address his own mental question. He tries to calm down, but his heart insists on pounding harder and harder until finally he rings the bell.

There is no answer, but Raskolnikov knows she must be at home. He listens carefully and senses that someone is behind the door, hiding and listening. To dispel any suspicion, he makes a movement and murmurs something, and rings once more, calmly. The latch is lifted.

Analysis:

Through the student's discussion of Alyona Ivanovna, Dostoevsky implies a contrast between Christian acts and Christian institutions. Her money has been "doomed to the monastery," a true waste, as the student sees it, for it will just sit in the coffers or be used only within the monastery, while outside the world is suffering and poor.

He then goes on to posit the big question: "Wouldn't thousands of good deeds make up for one tiny little crime?" The intellectualization of this problem, of course, is what has preoccupied Raskolnikov for the past few weeks. This may be simply the rationalization of a poor and lonely student attempting to couch the impulse to commit a desperate act within academic language.

Raskolnikov is once again caught in his own schism. He obsesses over the plan until he says to himself, "Why not go and try it‹enough of this dreaming!" (once again referring to his violent fantasy as a dream). Yet even as his plans become acts‹as he prepares for his crime‹he is unable to believe in them, and begins to search for objections as a way out. The fact that he cannot find any objections indicates a clear moral gap. It could be conjectured that Raskolnikov's apparent lack of religion or faith (perhaps as a result of a highly Westernized education) has created this void, and thus his downfall. (In fact, "raskolnik" means "a schismatic," with reference to the 17th-century schism in the Russian Orthodox Church.)

Perhaps ironically, Raskolnikov places a good deal of value on reason. His conclusion on why criminals get caught is that they lose control of their reason and make mistakes; he plans to retain a firm hold on his. Clearly this is an over-intellectualization, since in boiling the murder down to a theoretical problem, he has completely lost perspective of the greater moral issues. Again, this coincides with Dostoevsky's message that Western social theories are not all as ideal as they were made out to be.

In addition, the inapplicability of such ideas to Russia is seen in Raskolnikov himself. His feeling of being impelled by unseen forces to carry out his crime belies his rationalization that he will have control over everything through his will and reason. Try as he might, Raskolnikov cannot deny his emotions and natural human impulses. He is very afraid, and out of control since giving himself up to the powers of his plan. Things rush on, and he cannot even control his heart rate, giving the whole thing a sense of inevitability.

Finally, the specter of disease crops up again. From the start of the novel it has been clear that Raskolnikov is ill psychologically and, apparently, physically as well. As he prepares for and starts to execute his grisly plan, he again manifests "symptoms" of his disturbance. But what is intriguing is the fact that he considers the typical criminal's loss of reason and will to be a disease. "The question whether the disease generates the crime, or the crime somehow by its peculiar nature is always accompanied by something akin to disease, he did not yet feel able to resolve." It seems clear, however, that this question will certainly be resolved over the course of the novel.

Chapter 7:

The door is opened a crack and two eyes peer out at him mistrustfully. Flustered, Raskolnikov pushes his way past her into the apartment. She chases after him, demanding who he is and what he wants. He tells her she knows him already and offers her the "pledge." She stares at him without taking it until, somehow afraid of her glance, he bursts out with impatience. Finally she takes it and starts trying to unwrap it. Surreptitiously, he takes hold of the axe and, when she turns to him in vexation, hits her on the head with the butt-end. She falls, and he hits her twice more till she is dead.

Trying not to stain himself with her blood, he takes her keys and goes into the bedroom. Seized by a sudden uncertainty that she may not be dead, he rushes back. It is clear she is dead, but he notices something on a string around her neck, and takes it‹a purse with two crosses. He takes the purse and drops the crosses on the body, then returns to the bedroom.

After some agonizing failed attempts to use the keys, Raskolnikov remembers that the large key must be for some sort of trunk. He finds the chest under the bed, opens it, and rummages through the clothes he finds to discover that numerous gold objects have been hidden among the folds. Immediately, he starts stuffing his pockets with these.

Suddenly, he hears footsteps. He freezes. There is a soft cry of pain. After a moment, he grabs his axe and rushes out of the bedroom.

There stands Lizaveta. She sees him, and backs into a corner, never even screaming or making an effectual movement to defend herself. He rushes at her and strikes her on the head with the sharp edge, splitting her skull.

This unexpected second murder grips Raskolnikov with animal fear. He cannot think clearly, cannot see the situation as a whole. He notices a bucket of water in the kitchen, and goes to wash his hands and the axe. He tries to inspect his clothes as well, but he knows that he may be missing something obvious, and fears that he is losing his reason. Panicked, he thinks he must run away, and rushes to the entryway of the apartment.

There he finds that the outside door, between the entryway and the stairs, is open! He realizes that Lizaveta must have opened it on her way in. In terror, he runs to the door and hooks it. After a moment, he unhooks it again and listens in the stairway. When at last, things seem to subside, he steps out‹but then hears new footsteps. Somehow he knows these are destined for the pawnbroker's apartment. He is frozen to the spot, feeling as though he is in a dream, until the footsteps reach the fourth flight, and at that point manages to slip into the apartment and quietly close and hook the door. He crouches behind the door, listening.

The visitor, who sounds to Raskolnikov as though he is rather portly, rings the bell a couple of times, then starts tugging at the door with all his might. Raskolnikov feels like he is about to faint. The visitor shouts through the door and rings again.

Another person joins the large gentleman, whom he addresses as Koch. Raskolnikov guesses from his voice that the newcomer is younger. The two men outside the door discuss why no one is answering, and conclude that it is strange that Alyona Ivanovna should be out. Just as Koch is ready to leave, he gives the door a final tug, and the younger fellow notices that the door must be hooked but not locked, since it gives when Koch pulls it. That means someone must be inside, otherwise the door couldn't be latched from inside and would have to be locked from outside.

Koch sees the young man's logic, and starts to tug again, but the young man stops him, knowing something is not right. He decides that he should run downstairs to fetch the caretaker, while Koch should stay there just in case.

The young man, a future public investigator, rushes downstairs. Koch stays for a while, his presence sending Raskolnikov into a delirium of fear. At last, suddenly, Koch impatiently runs downstairs.

Raskolnikov, still not quite thinking, opens the door and listens; and abruptly closes the door as tightly as possible and starts down the stairs. As he goes, he is scared by people shouting at one another, and then hears the investigative party, led by Koch and the young man, coming up the stairs. Raskolnikov decides to meet them; but on the second floor, an apartment which is being painted stands wide open, and he slips into it and hides until the party passes. Then he rushes downstairs and outside, encountering no one.

Though he knows that the investigators will be surprised at finding the door open and shocked at discovering the murders, and that they will not take long to surmise what had happened while they had left the apartment door unattended, he refuses to hurry or alter his course. Nearly collapsing, he somehow manages to get home, return the axe unnoticed, and goes to his room, where he lies oblivious, unable to rest on a single one of the thoughts swirling around his head.

Analysis:

An intriguing element of this very full chapter is the fact that Raskolnikov sees everything quite clearly, but keeps making mistakes. His clarity is evoked by the extremely, painfully intricate detail Dostoevsky provides of the woman's apartment and its furnishings and contents. Although he sees these tiny details, he does not notice bigger things, such as the open door between the apartment entryway and the staircase. This consistent lapse‹wherein Raskolnikov, unable to perceive the big picture, focuses on details‹characterizes his behavior elsewhere, especially in his approach to the crime itself (plotting it out carefully, and noting all material or practical objections, but not able to see the glaring moral issues at stake).

It is also testament to his overwhelming fear. He had been able, when at a distance, to coolly observe that other criminals failed because somehow or other they had lost control of their reason; when in the situation, however, he, too, slips through fear. Yet the thing that really makes him panic is the thought that he is losing his reason and slipping into madness so that "he was perhaps not doing at all what he should have been doing." He has placed so much emphasis on the brain and his ability to think clearly that the threat of losing these is more horrifying to him than the acts he has committed.

But his fear is still there, and things start happening to scare him. Koch and the young man show up at the door, and in fact figure out that something is amiss and someone is inside. As he slips down the stairs after they have gone to get the caretaker, someone shouts, "Hey, you hairy devil! Stop him!", but it turns out that the "hairy devil" is someone else. Remarkably, he does not get caught, but he is subjected to these little shocks, which may foreshadow what is to come.

Chapter 1:

Raskolnikov has lain stupefied on his sofa for hours. He awakens after 2:00 a.m. and suddenly recalls everything. Seized by panic, he is astonished that he had thrown himself down without bothering to undress or even check his clothes for bloodstains; he proceeds to do so now, taking everything off and searching each piece several times over. He finds blood on a frayed trouser-cuff, and cuts it off.

He remembers suddenly that the stolen goods are still in his pockets, and again is astonished at his own irresponsibility. He stuffs everything into a hole in the wall concealed by the wallpaper, and is temporarily pleased with himself, but moments later upbraids himself with his clumsiness in merely shoving everything out of sight. Exhausted, and fearful that he is losing the ability to think clearly, he sits down on the couch once again, and slips into sleep‹but only for five minutes.

He leaps up again, having recalled the loop that is still sewn into his coat, and removes it, then tears it into strips and stuffs it under his pillow. Again he despairs that he is losing his reason, especially as the bloodstained fringe had been left on the floor in the middle of his room.

When he reasons that because there was blood on the purse, there must be some on the lining of his pocket, he is considerably cheered to find that his pocket-lining indeed has blood on it, because it indicates that he has not completely lost his mind. Then he finds that his sock also has blood (since his boots have holes in them). Holding the evidence, he tries to figure out where to hide it, and resolves to throw it away somewhere, but he sits down on the sofa . . . then lies down and covers his shivering body with his coat . . . and falls into a fitful sleep.

He is awakened by Nastasya knocking on his door. He hears the caretaker with her, and is alarmed: what could he possibly want? Without getting out of bed (his room is cramped enough to enable him to do this), he unhooks the door and lets them in.

The caretaker hands Raskolnikov a summons from the police station. Raskolnikov is frozen. Nastasya observes that he must have really been ill, and tells him not to go, then notices he's holding something. He looks at it, and finds that he has been holding the bloody cloths. Nastasya laughs nervously at him. Raskolnikov resolves to go to the station to find out what they want.

As soon as she and the caretaker leave, Raskolnikov rushes to the light to check the bloodstained scraps he had been clutching, but to his relief, they are dirty and discolored by now, so it is unlikely that Nastasya would have noticed anything. He then opens the summons; it is an ordinary summons to come down to the station at 9:30 a.m.

Bewildered, he tries to figure out what it is; kneels down to pray, but instead gets up, laughing at himself, figuring that he might as well get it over with. As he dresses, he has considerable trouble about the bloody sock, but finally leaves it on. He heads for the station, in a fever, speculating that the summons is a trap to catch him.

He enters the station and makes his way to the appropriate room. As he waits, he starts to relax, as no one appears particularly excited at his presence. He cautions himself to keep his cool and not give himself away altogether on the basis of trifling fears.

To steady his disordered thoughts, Raskolnikov examines the people in the office. A conspicuously-dressed woman, Louisa Ivanovna, and the clerk, young and foppish, interest him greatly.

After a while, the police chief's assistant, a lieutenant, comes in. He looks scornfully at the ill-dressed Raskolnikov, who stares back, thereby offending the lieutenant. As the latter begins to castigate the student, the clerk pulls out the summons and mentions that the case has to do with "the recovery of money," and Raskolnikov realizes with joyful relief that he has not been called in on account of the murders. Raskolnikov, now somewhat cocky, goads the lieutenant, enjoying the argument.

The clerk explains that Raskolnikov's landlady‹to whom Raskolnikov had given an I.O.U. for 115 roubles a while ago‹had used this note to pay a court councillor Chebarov, who is now demanding payment.

Raskolnikov's uncomprehending relief at not having been suspected is interrupted by the lieutenant blowing up at Louisa Ivanovna, a rather comic figure of German extraction who is apparently a madam. Once the lieutenant, Ilya Petrovich, dismisses her, the chief of police, Nikodim Fomich, enters.

Nikodim Fomich is an amiable man, who teases his assistant (known, he tells Raskolnikov, as "Lieutenant Gunpowder") and brings some air of cordiality to the office. Raskolnikov, suddenly seized with a desire to be very sociable and pleasant, starts to explain his poverty and the debt to his landlady. Surprisingly, he goes into very personal detail, revealing that the landlady had allowed his I.O.U. to stand indefinitely and to grant him a good deal of credit because he had been engaged to her daughter, whose death from typhus prevented the marriage.

The officials seem unwilling to hear such things‹Ilya Petrovich is rude, Nikodim Fomich is ashamed somehow, and the clerk tells Raskolnikov to take a dictation to resolve the case of the promissory note. Raskolnikov, sensing somehow that he is completely isolated and unable to talk to anyone about anything ever again, suddenly doesn't care what they think of him. The clerk notices that Raskolnikov appears ill.

Raskolnikov is suddenly seized with the desire to confess everything to Nikodim Fomich, "just to get it off [his] back." But at that moment he hears the police chief talking with Ilya Petrovich about the very case. They are arguing about suspects: Nikodim Fomich thinks it is clear that Koch and the student (Pestryakov) cannot possibly be guilty, while Ilya Petrovich disagrees.

Raskolnikov gets up and heads for the door, but passes out.

He recovers to find himself in a chair. The officials observe that he is ill, and Ilya Petrovich starts to interrogate him about his actions and whereabouts the day before. Nikodim Fomich is indignant at such suspicion. Raskolnikov is dismissed, and hears a lively conversation begin after his exit. Fearing a search of his flat, he hurries home.

Analysis

The theme of disease (first touched upon in Part One, Chapter 6) starts to manifest itself through Raskolnikov. In his panic, Raskolnikov is physically feverish and mentally disoriented, continually asking himself, "What is wrong with me?" He fears the disease of losing his reason, and seems to be suffering it quite clearly. Notably, his panicked confusion after his crime is accompanied by a pronounced physical illness: he falls in and out of fitful sleep, shivering, and faints in the police station at the mention of the crime.

The building of Raskolnikov's paranoia is deftly executed through the small events which, little by little, add to his terror. He leaves his bloody fringe on the floor and then is struck that anyone could have walked in and seen it; similarly he falls asleep clutching the rags, which are then noticed by Nastasya. The caretaker's coming to his room with a summons from the police immediately makes him think that it is a "ruse" to capture him, though there does not appear any reason why they should, since nothing links Raskolnikov to the crime. Furthermore, the discussion of the case in the station seizes him with such fear that he faints, causing Ilya Petrovich to then pepper him with suspicious questions. All these certainly contribute to the claustrophobia of Raskolnikov's world.

Bound up with his psychological dilemma is his relationship with religion. Before he goes to the station, he attempts to pray but is unable to; indeed he leaps up almost immediately, laughing at himself. It seems he does not see the rational point to praying if he is doomed. On his way to the station, Raskolnikov does think about confessing: "I'll walk in, fall on my knees, and tell them everything." He also considers it after finishing up his business with the promissory note. But his desire to confess may be less out of sincere repentance than simply the need to get the weight of fear off his chest. This is borne out by the fact that he does not end up confessing at all‹if he were truly repentant of his crime, he would have.

Raskolnikov's behavior, as always, is marked by his inner schism, the perpetual split between his emotions and his reasoning. When he considers confessing to Nikodim Fomich, he tells himself, "better do it without thinking!" Strangely, Raskolnikov is aware of his personal schism. He knows that his thinking gets in the way of his (perhaps better) action. Even in his joy, Raskolnikov acts mechanically, maintaining the split between his outer comportment and his inner emotions. This thematic contrast between emotion and hyperrationalization is one that defines Raskolnikov and will recur throughout the novel. There is an implicit judgement on Dostoevsky's part that too much thinking and rationalization, and not enough attention to instinct and emotion, creates people who are cold, heartless, and inhuman.

Chapter 2:

Raskolnikov anxiously returns to his room, but no one has been there. He hurries to the corner and takes out all the stolen goods hidden behind the wallpaper. Stuffing them in his pockets, he leaves the flat, hurrying for fear of being followed or watched.

He had planned to throw it all into the canal, but when he gets to the Ekaterininsky Canal he walks up and down for so long that people start to look at him, and he reasons that the things would float anyway. At last he decides to go to a less conspicuous part of the Neva instead.

He realizes that he has wasted valuable time and that he is "becoming extremely distracted and forgetful," so he hurries off. As he walks down the prospect, he thinks that there is no particular reason why he should throw everything into the water, and that perhaps he should bury everything in the woods instead.

He happens upon a deserted courtyard, and hides everything under a stone. He leaves and is filled with joy once again at having gotten rid of the evidence. His joy is cut short, however, when he comes upon the Boulevard where, two days before, he had encountered the ravished girl and the kindly policeman. He feels full of spite towards the whole world.

He is given pause by the question that suddenly occurs to him: If he had truly been in control of his reason, and committed the crime with a definite purpose, how come he doesn't even know what he has gained through the theft? How come he hasn't even looked at the goods but had been considering throwing them into the water?

He decides that he must be very sick, and walks on, full of hatred and loathing for the world. He ends up at Razumikhin's, and decides to go up.

Razumikhin is utterly surprised to see his sullen friend, and almost immediately notes his illness and extreme poverty. Raskolnikov gets up to leave almost as soon as he arrives, astonishing Razumikhin further and hurting his feelings somewhat. Raskolnikov, frustrated, explains that he had come to see Razumikhin because he is kind and intelligent, but that he has realized that he doesn't need anything from Razumikhin, and just wants to be left alone. Razumikhin attempts to share some of his translation work with Raskolnikov, who silently accepts it, then turns around, gives it back, and leaves without a word. Razumikhin, infuriated, shouts at him but gets no satisfactory answer as Raskolnikov wordlessly goes down the stairs and out to the street.

Outside, Raskolnikov is lashed with a whip for having almost been trampled by a horse-driven carriage as he unconsciously walked along. He is enraged at the insult, and laughed at by onlookers, but almost immediately a woman gives him 20 kopecks for charity.

He walks on and stops on a bridge to look at the cathedral rising beautifully above the river. He had stopped at this place before quite often as a student. Torn, Raskolnikov wonders how it could be possible for him to ever have the same thoughts as he had had then; he feels that he is looking at his past. He throws the 20-kopeck piece into the water, and with this gesture cuts himself off from the world. . .

After hours of walking, he returns home and goes to sleep. In the middle of the night, he hears a horrible fight going on outside his door. He listens and hears, to his amazement, that Ilya Petrovich is ruthlessly beating the landlady on the stairs. A crowd gathers. Raskolnikov is paralyzed by fear and unable to latch the door. The commotion finally subsides, Ilya Petrovich leaves, the landlady returns sobbing to her quarters, and the crowd disperses. Raskolnikov is tormented by fearful questions as to why Ilya Petrovich had come.

He lies there horrified until Nastasya comes in with some food. He asks her why Ilya Petrovich had been beating the landlady, and Nastasya looks at him strangely and doesn't answer. Finally she says, "It's the blood," alarming him. She tells him that no one was beating the landlady and that his own blood is causing hallucinations. At last he asks for some water; but after one sip he falls unconscious.

Analysis:

Water is a recurring symbol in this novel. After the murder, he had determined to throw the stolen goods into the water during his delirium, so as to "wash away all traces, and that will be the end of it." Precisely what "it" is is not defined. But we can infer that water, the purifying element, can wash away stains, and that Raskolnikov's resolve may resonate on a deeper level than the literal, a level that speaks to Lady Macbeth's dilemma in Shakespeare's tragedy. Raskolnikov's wish to remove all traces of the crime, all physical evidence, is a manifestation of his inner desire to clean his soul and his conscience of the crime.

Additionally, in a previous chapter, Raskolnikov had dreamt of drinking clear, cool water from an oasis in the desert. Water, especially in the desert, symbolizes life. Raskolnikov has killed, but by throwing the evidence of the crime into the water he may be hoping to regain his own life, which can be seen as having been lost through the murder.

Raskolnikov, on this day after his crime, begins a trend of rejecting kindness. He rejects Razumikhin's kind offer of work, and he throws away the charitable woman's 20-kopeck piece. Though the latter is given as a sole instance of kindness among the cruelty of whipping and laughter, and though Raskolnikov is enraged by the whipping, he nevertheless rejects the money. This may seem puzzling, since it seems clear that he needs help, and he is obviously ill and disturbed. But within his own diseased reason Raskolnikov feels that he cannot bear to be around people and he proudly rejects charity. Underneath, he may quite possibly feel that he is unworthy of anyone's kindness now that he has committed such a sin.

The delusion regarding the beating of the landlady is a cross between Raskolnikov's dream of the horse, his murder of Alyona Ivanovna, and his fears. Dostoevsky has created a strangely plausible dream, by interweaving Raskolnikov's obsession with violence with the personages he has encountered, in one way or another, that day. Raskolnikov does not appear to be moved to help the landlady, nor does anyone else‹the crowd gathers to watch, as he hears it. (Again, this is testament to the lack of pity and compassion in society.) Instead, he is gripped by fear of Ilya Petrovich's coming for him. The fact that this is a delusion testifies both to his psychological terror and his physical illness.

Chapter 3:

Ill, Raskolnikov drifts in and out of consciousness and delirium. He is aware of people, including Nastasya and someone familiar whom he cannot recognize, around him. He forgets about the murder, but knows that he has forgotten something he shouldn't have forgotten.

Finally he recovers to find Nastasya and a strange man at his bedside and the landlady peeking through the door. Razumikhin enters. He introduces himself to the stranger as "Vrazumikhin" (see Analysis for explanation), and proceeds to address Raskolnikov cheerily; apparently a Dr. Zossimov has tended Rodya through his illness.

The stranger is an agent from a merchant's office, sent to give Raskolnikov 35 roubles sent by his mother. At first Rodya refuses to sign for the money, saying he doesn't need it, but Razumikhin laughs and makes him sign. The agent hands over the money and leaves.

Razumikhin, who has ingratiated himself with both Nastasya and Praskovya Pavlovna, asks "Nastasyushka" for food and proceeds to feed Raskolnikov a little and himself a good deal. Rodya watches and listens, having decided to "lie low" and learn as much as he can about what has been going on during his illness.

In his humorous, teasing prattle, Razumikhin explains that he had become so angry after Raskolnikov's strange visit that he resolved to find out where he lived, and after searching a number of neighborhoods he finally went to the address bureau, which located Rodya's address within minutes. He then proceeded to find out everything he could about Rodion's affairs, and made the acquaintance of Ilya Petrovich, Nikodim Fomich, and Alexander Grigorievich Zamyotov, the clerk in the police station.

He prattles on, delighting Nastasya and making observations on the "unexpected character" Praskovya Pavlovna, whose behavior in the matter of the promissory note he explains. Razumikhin himself went to Chebarov, the court councillor whose claim on the note had caused Rodya's summons to the police station, and vouched for Rodya's intention and ability to pay, thereby getting the note back from him.

Razumikhin at this point lays the note on the table. With only a glance, and certainly not a word of thanks, Rodya turns his face to the wall. Razumikhin winces, and drily apologizes for "having made a fool of himself again" in irritating Rodya with chatter he had meant as amusement.

Rodya asks if Razumikhin was the person he had not recognized in his delirium; he was. Razumikhin tells him that he has moved into the neighborhood. Rodya asks if he had been raving during his illness; Razumikhin replies that he had. Rodya anxiously asks what he had raved about. Razumikhin, amused, finally tells him: an odd assortment of names, objects, and places, and a strange obsession with a sock and a fringe.

Razumikhin then takes 10 of the 35 roubles, and commending Rodion to Nastasya's care, he leaves. Nastasya, unable to control her curiosity and clearly charmed by Razumikhin, follows him downstairs, leaving Rodya alone. He immediately jumps out of bed to "get down to business"‹but realizes he doesn't know what business. He wonders whether they know, and racks his brain to remember what it is he needs to do.

Suddenly he recalls, and searches all over for the sock, fringe, and pocket lining that had been stained with blood. The sock was on the bed, and the other scraps were in the stove, meaning no one had looked there and consequently no one had found them.

He starts asking himself all sorts of questions, then "remembers" that he must flee, and starts plotting how he will take the money and escape to another apartment, or possibly America . . . He thinks they know everything and that they have placed guards outside.

He then grabs the rest of his beer and drinks it. The alcohol sends him off into a pleasant sleep.

He wakes up upon hearing Razumikhin enter. Rodya is alarmed that he has slept for more than six hours, which puzzles the good-natured Razumikhin. However, he opens up the bundle he has brought with him, and takes out a complete second-hand wardrobe. He goes through the whole with great humor, and gives the final reckoning: 9 roubles 55 kopecks, so Rodya is given 45 kopecks in change from the 10 roubles Razumikhin had taken earlier. Rodya has listened with disgust to this entire speech, and feebly protests when Razumikhin and Nastasya change his shirt; they manage to anyway, but he does not speak for a full two minutes. He wishes that they would leave him alone.

He asks Razumikhin where the money had come from; Razumikhin reminds him. (This is not the first time since waking up that Rodya has had to be reminded of something.) Dr. Zossimov, whom Razumikhin has been expecting, enters the room.

Analysis:

The clever, kind Razumikhin enters the novel more definitively at this point, as Rodya's savior. He has restored order, cleanliness and meals, and probably indirectly Rodya's health. Despite Rodya's rudeness and ingratitude, he persists in helping him because he simply is full of love for humankind. He has made several friends from Rodion's recent history, and addresses the ladies with affection, using diminutives such as "Nastasyuskha" and "Pashenka" to refer to or address them. Clearly, they love him, which is likely no small part of why Raskolnikov's own situation has improved.

The introduction to the agent brings up an interesting point regarding Razumikhin's name (note that many of the names in this novel have some sort of significance). "Razumikhin" comes from the verb "to reason," and "Vrazumikhin" comes from "to bring to reason." Razumikhin may be joking with the agent, or it may be that his name is actually Vrazumikhin but is generally simplified to Razumikhin. In any case, to a degree, Razumikhin has brought Rodya back to reason, by watching over him through his illness and delirium until he was restored to his senses.

Razumikhin presents, as noted before, an utter contrast to Raskolnikov. Rodya is silent, sullen, suspicious; Razumikhin is talkative, cheery and open, always ready to help. Razumikhin overall is more balanced, more whole than Raskolnikov, who suffers from the internal schism which has led him to commit murder. It is intriguing that Razumikhin should be the one who represents "reason" while Rodya, who prides himself on the superiority of his reason, has clearly lost control of it (even symbolically through his illness).

Raskolnikov is impossible‹full of loathing, ungrateful, and in a hurry to escape. His fears are rasped by the unknowing Razumikhin's chatter and comment that he knows "all his innermost secrets now." Despite knowing Razumikhin has been the savior of his credit as well as his health, Rodya reacts negatively, because he hates himself. A clue to this is found in his rare interruption of Razumikhin's account of recent events: when Razumikhin mentions how Raskolnikov had reassured Praskovya Pavlovna that he would pay through his mother, Raskolnikov interrupts to say, "It was my own baseness that made me say that," and he explains that his mother is very poor as well and he had been lying. Such detail in such an unexpected and uncharacteristic interruption clearly indicates a deep self-loathing on Rodya's part. Underneath, he probably feels he is not worth saving, and resents Razumikhin's insistent attempts to do so. Symbolically, he does not even want his shirt to be changed‹he wishes to cling to his old rags, just as he clung to the bloodstained sock during his illness. His rejection of his past life, seen in the last chapter with the disposal of the 20-kopeck coin, makes him turn to the murder, the only thing he has now, and he cannot accept Razumikhin's persistent intrusions into his morbidly claustrophobic existence.

Chapter 4:

Dr. Zossimov is a man of "loose, foppish" appearance and languid pretension, but he knows his work. He checks on Raskolnikov, asking some questions. Rodya is sullen. Zossimov discusses Raskolnikov's condition with Razumikhin; then they start to discuss the housewarming party Razumikhin is holding that night. It turns out Razumikhin has invited Porfiry Petrovich, an old uncle of his and a local police investigator, as well as Zamyotov, the clerk at the police station.

Then Razumikhin mentions that he and Zamyotov have "got something started together," namely, to establish the innocence of a certain house-painter named Nikolai Dementiev, who has been accused of murdering Alyona Ivanovna and Lizaveta, her sister. Raskolnikov is paralyzed. Razumikhin gets worked up discussing the case with Zossimov. Razumikhin is greatly upset by how the authorities "lie and then worship their own lies," and passionately advocates another way to investigate cases, which admits for psychological circumstance in the interpretation of fact.

He proceeds to detail Nikolai Dementiev (Mikolai)'s story. He had been one of the painters working on the second floor of Alyona Ivanovna's stairway. He had pawned a pair of gold earrings to a man named Dushkin, who was suspicious about where they had come from and alerted the authorities. Mikolai was caught trying to hang himself, and interrogated by the authorities. When they asked why he had run away from Dushkin, he replied that he had been scared of "having the law on me," to which they demanded why he would have been scared if he had nothing to hide. This in particular infuriates Razumikhin.

He continues to relate the story. Mikolai had had a friendly skirmish with Mitrei, his fellow painter, and then returned to the room they were painting, where he discovered the box of earrings on the floor behind the door. At this point Raskolnikov rouses himself and cries out in alarm, surprising Razumikhin. But he finishes the story: Mikolai took the earrings, pawned them, and went on a drinking binge. He keeps telling the authorities, however, that he knew nothing of the murder until three days after it happened.

Razumikhin is ferociously indignant that they have dubbed Mikolai the murderer, and tries to explain how Mikolai has been telling the whole truth. He takes the incident of the skirmish with Mitrei, which was childish and occurred in the presence of other people, as evidence that Mikolai could not possibly have been in the state of mind of one who had just committed a bloody murder. Zossimov agrees, but points out that the earrings go against Mikolai, and that no one saw him while Koch and Pestryakov, the student, were upstairs at the old woman's door.

When Zossimov asks Razumikhin to explain, Razumikhin states that the real murderer must have hidden from Koch and Pestryakov in the empty apartment after Mikolai and Mitrei had left it, dropped the box, and exited the building calmly so as not to have been noticed.

Just then, a stranger enters.

Analysis:

Dostoevsky's keen sense of parodic humor is given some play with the comic sketching of Zossimov's character. On the outside, he is rather thick, like molasses, and portentously pretentious in both dress and manner. His speeches about Raskolnikov are not so much speeches as pauses interspersed with phrases‹and sometimes mutually contradictory phrases at that ("I wouldn't budge him tomorrow; though maybe . . . a little . . . well, we'll see"). Yet Dostoevsky also deliberately gives us the impression that Zossimov is more intelligent than he appears. It is widely acknowledged that Zossimov knows his work, and some of his own words reveal an acute mind. He says that he is interested in the murder case "for a certain reason," and he looks at Raskolnikov when Razumikhin mentions how Rodya fainted in the police station while the case was being discussed. He also knows that Raskolnikov was not "dozing," as Razumikhin suggests, when he suddenly bursts out in alarm about the earrings being behind the door of the vacant apartment. We get the sense that Zossimov is watching and putting his own ideas together regarding Raskolnikov and his interest in the murder case.

Again, Rodya is unable to escape his crime: even his friend and doctor are discussing it in his room. In what must be a chilling way for Rodya, Razumikhin uses his reason (note again the meaning of his name) and psychological facts to figure the case out correctly. In a sense, the novel is all about the psychology of crime (though it is about a number of other themes as well). Rodion's guilt and his anxiousness to escape detection close in on him as his entire world seems to begin revolving around the case.

Razumikhin is on an eternal search for understanding and truth. He cries out to Zossimov, "Eh, you progressive dimwits, you really don't understand anything! You disparage man and damage yourselves . . ." Though this comment was not inspired by the murder case, it still seems to resonate with both Dostoevsky's rejection of Western "progress" and the idea that such science and methodology, without human understanding, can cloud truth and ruin lives. Razumikhin's heat on the subject of truth versus lying suggests that he is characterized by a search for truth; being an honest and upright man, perhaps even a great man and a hero in his own way, he seeks truth and justice always. Again, he and Rodya are almost complete opposites: Rodya has sought greatness through crime, while Razumikhin has achieved it (or will) through acts of goodness and a life of kindness and compassion.

Chapter 5:

The stranger, a prim and peevish-looking man, looks with stern astonishment at Raskolnikov's unkempt appearance and his lowly quarters. After some time of silent disdainful observation, the stranger politely addresses Zossimov (the most gentlemanly-looking man in the room) and asks for Rodion Romanych Raskolnikov.

Raskolnikov fears he may be an investigator or policeman, but it turns out that the man is Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, his sister's fiancé.

As usual Rodya is rude in his silence, and Razumikhin invites Luzhin in and explains that Rodya has been ill. Luzhin begins to explain who he is, but Rodya rudely cuts him off, then observes him carefully and without a word goes back to staring at the ceiling.

Luzhin attempts conversation once again. He mentions that he has found rooms for Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Avdotya Romanovna (Rodya's mother and sister) in what turns out to be a dreadful and ill-reputed place; and also that he has taken a room with one Andrei Semyonych Lebeznyatikov, whose guardian Luzhin had used to be. The name is familiar to Raskolnikov.

Luzhin begins to discuss new theories and ideas with Razumikhin, extolling "useful" ideas and books, and "progress." Razumikhin, disgusted, finally cuts Luzhin off and returns to discussing the murder with Zossimov, arguing that the murderer must have been a first-time killer and not at all cunning. Luzhin again attempts to enter the conversation, and mentions that he is disturbed by the rise in crime among the upper classes.

Raskolnikov breaks in, and soon diverts the discussion from the murder to Luzhin's own dubious behavior toward his sister and mother. Luzhin bristles and claims that Rodya's mother must have distorted the truth. Rodya, enraged, tells him that if he ever mentions his mother again he will throw him down the stairs. Luzhin abandons all pretense of civility and Rodya kicks him out.

Shortly afterwards, Rodya‹desperate to be left alone‹kicks out Razumikhin and Zossimov as well. On the stairs, Zossimov tells Razumikhin that Rodya should not be vexed and that he apparently has something preying on his mind. Zossimov also notes that the only thing Rodya responds to is the murder, and they agree to discuss it in further detail that night.

Nastasya is the last person to be kicked out, and at last Rodya is left alone.

Analysis

Luzhin is perhaps the definition of Razumikhin's "progressive dimwit." He is a proponent of theories and sciences which "have cut [Russians] off irrevocably from the past, and that in itself, I think, is already something." He believes in "useful" books as opposed to "the former dreamy and romantic ones"‹perhaps, interestingly, a sharp foreshadowing on Dostoevsky's part of the utilitarian propaganda adopted by the Russian Communists decades later. Luzhin also specifically rejects religious values. "Love thy neighbor" gets him nowhere; to love himself, however, as science preaches, seems correct and less wasteful.

The rest of the men in the room are disgusted. Razumikhin cuts Luzhin off, sharply telling him he is merely reciting commonplaces and disgusting ones at that. Raskolnikov also scoffs that he is reciting everything "by rote," and indeed Luzhin has informed them that he has been attempting to learn as much as possible about the new theories by spending his time in the company of the "younger generations." Through his lampooning of Luzhin and his blunt exposure of the self-serving nature of such dangerous ideas, Dostoevsky once again makes his case for traditional values over scientific theory.

Strangely, however, it appears that Raskolnikov, though he rejects Luzhin's ideas in theory (or perhaps simply because he loathes the man), has accepted a certain version of them. He has not loved his neighbor, and does not; he has also killed, another rejection of the commandments and, in general, religious values. He has spent too much time theorizing and rationalizing his crime in a scientific way. Indeed, his crime is a manifestation (almost literal) of Luzhin's creed of self-interest: he has killed in order to prove his own theory and justified it by thinking that he can use the money he has stolen to better his neighbor. Yet the money lies unused under a rock, and no one is the better for the crime.

Razumikhin and Zossimov are a foil to Raskolnikov and Luzhin in that they see clearly. Razumikhin quite aptly deduces the correct sequence of events in the crime, and that the murderer is inexperienced. Zossimov has been observing Rodya's agitation over the murder, and seems to be putting two and two together, telling Razumikhin, "He interests me, very much so!" It does not seem unlikely that by putting their heads together, they may arrive at the correct solution to the case.

Chapter 6:

As soon as Nastasya has left, Raskolnikov gets up and gets dressed. He is resolved to do something this day, and is somehow quite calm. He takes all of the money on the table, and slips out of the building unnoticed.

He does not know where he is going, but is somehow resolved that "all this must be ended today, at once, right now . . . because he did not want to live like that." He must make some sort of a change.

He goes to the Haymarket, where he sees a street singer and accompanist. He gives them some money, then starts to talk to a surprised fellow-listener, who hastens away. He goes to the spot where the tradesman and his wife had been talking to Lizaveta the day before the murder, and talks briefly with another man.

He wanders about and comes to an area of taverns and whorehouses. He stops to listen to a singer and talks briefly with a prostitute among a group of her colleagues. She asks for money for a drink; he gives it; an older woman in the group, covered with bruises, remarks how shameful such brazenness is, without seeming to note the irony in her comment.

Rodya walks on, thinking of something he had once read: a man condemned to death said or thought that if he had to live on a cramped square foot of space forever, it would be better than to die. He believes this is true.

He enters a tavern called the Crystal Palace, which Razumikhin had mentioned taking him to, with the purpose of reading the newspapers to learn about the murder investigation. He is busy searching among the papers when Zamyotov suddenly sits down next to him.

Zamyotov is astonished to see him. Raskolnikov is somehow possessed with a strange excitement, and talks to Zamyotov with a combination of friendly condescension and demonic taunting. He tells Zamyotov that he has been reading about the murder, and eggs him on to voice a suspicion that he is the murderer.

They start to discuss a recent case where a ring of counterfeiters was caught in Moscow. Zamyotov is of the opinion that it is only natural for one of them to have been betrayed by his own hands, i.e. his own fearful and thus suspicious actions. Raskolnikov tells him that he would do it differently, and details exactly how. Zamyotov laughs, saying that Rodya is just talking but if he had to do it he would "be sure to make a slip."

The conversation comes back to the murder case, as Zamyotov claims that even there, the murderer's hands betrayed him because he wasn't even able to steal. Rodya then tells him exactly how he would act in that case, as well, detailing the very stone under which he would hide the stolen goods. Zamyotov tells him he is mad. On the verge of confessing, Rodya whispers, "And what if it was I who killed the old woman and Lizaveta?" Zamyotov goes pale, but Rodya then brings him up short, acting as though he meant to trick Zamyotov into believing him. To Zamyotov's protests, Rodya makes a sharp remark or two that if he didn't suspect him, why was Rodya interrogated at the station and what exactly did they talk about after he left? Strangely excited, he leaves. Zamyotov, left in the tavern, decides that Rodya cannot possibly be guilty.

As he is leaving, Rodya bumps into Razumikhin. Razumikhin is enraged to find him here after he had gone missing from his room, and yells at him to "confess" what it is all about. Rodya calmly replies that he just wants to be left alone. They argue. Razumikhin still invites him to the party; though Rodya refuses, Razumikhin predicts that he will come, and shouts out his address to Rodya a few times as he leaves. After some hesitation, Razumikhin thinks that perhaps Rodya might try to drown himself, and rushes back to find him but cannot. Frustrated, he goes into the tavern to question Zamyotov.

Rodya goes to a bridge, and a woman nearby suddenly jumps off it. She is rescued. Rodya is disgusted by the scene, and mutters things to himself which indicate that he had indeed been considering drowning himself.

He decides to turn himself in to the police, but on his way to the station he passes by Alyona Ivanovna's house. He is inexplicably and inexorably impelled to go in and look at the apartment. There are two workmen there, and the place is unfurnished; somehow he had been expecting it to remain unchanged since the murder. He enters and sits down for a little while. Then he goes into the other room and looks around. When he comes back out, the older workman asks him what he is doing. He goes out to the landing and rings the bell, over and over again, getting a strange thrill out of it.

The workman is by now rather scared at this wild man, and demands to know what he wants. Rodya says he wishes to rent the apartment, and asks about the blood that had been on the floor. The workman is terrified and confused. Rodya taunts them to take him to the police.

He himself goes outside, where a group of people is standing in front of the building, and addresses them. He asks about the police. The workman tells them what Rodya had done and said in the apartment. There are suggestions, seconded by Rodya himself, that he be taken to the police; but after a while he is pronounced a "scofflaw" and kicked off the premises.

He stops in the middle of a street and once again asks himself whether or not he should go to the police. Suddenly he notices a commotion down the street and approaches it.

Analysis:

At the start of the chapter, Rodya exhibits a strange and sudden desire to talk to people, perhaps because he plans to kill himself and wants some sort of human contact before he does so. However, he seeks people who do not want to talk to him, because they don't know him and/or are turned off by his strange eagerness to talk. This phase seems to echo the episode in the police station, where he is possessed by a desire to talk in detail about his personal life with complete strangers. It is as if, having committed such a crime as he has, he wishes to make sure he is still somehow part of the human race, although he has nominally rejected this.

In a typical contradiction, Rodya (who has evidently been considering suicide) leaves the group of prostitutes with the feeling that he, like the man on death row, wants to live, if only on a square foot of space. As usual, Rodya is torn between his two selves, one of which seeks life and the other death. After a full month of morbid seclusion, it appears that his life-seeking side has been awakened only after he has killed.

His split is very pronounced in this chapter. Rodya's strange attempt to confess to Zamyotov is not fully a confession attempt, because it is more like he wants Zamyotov to figure it out on his own so that he, Rodya, does not need to confess. Yet the attempt can double as a way to deflect suspicion. Raskolnikov is desperately trying to distance himself from the crime while attempting to confess it and get it off his chest; again, we see the clash between his reason and his emotion/instinct.

This pattern repeats itself when he goes to the apartment and languidly suggests that the people there take him to the police; it seems he wants to go, but only if he is taken. However, he is thwarted; nobody is going to do it for him and no one is going to answer his questions. His decision, at the end of the chapter, seems ambiguous: "It was as if he were snatching at anything, and he grinned coldly as he thought of it, because he had firmly decided about the police and knew for certain that now it was all going to end." It appears from the latter part of the sentence that he plans to turn himself in and "end it all," but then again he is "snatching at anything"‹and for what reason? To avoid having to turn himself in?

Once again, Razumikhin appears as his Christ or savior, even to the point where Raskolnikov scoffs at his kindness the same way Christ's deeds were scoffed at. "Who wants to do good deeds for someone who . . . spits on them?" Rodya demands. "Why did you seek me out at the start of my illness? Maybe I would have been quite happy to die!" Rodya symbolizes ungrateful humanity rejecting redemption. Sin and death are equated throughout the Bible, and Dostoevsky draws the same equation in Raskolnikov's case over and over again. In the New Testament, Jesus died for the sake of the world, taking humanity's sins on his own shoulders and through his struggle with death bringing about the possibility of eternal life.

In addition, Razumikhin's invitation to his party symbolizes the banquet mentioned several times in the Bible, the feast which represents the eternal life granted to those who embrace God's Word. Raskolnikov declines the invitation, but Razumikhin shouts at him, "How can you tell? You can't answer for yourself!" This intriguing response can be read both as a literal comment on Rodya's delirium and illness, and as a deeper remark on the idea that Rodya's life is not his own‹he is one of God's children and he, like everyone else, has a calling or is a vessel for some greater purpose.

Razumikhin also has a strange ability to predict Raskolnikov's behavior. In this chapter, he guesses that Rodya may try to drown himself; and that is exactly what Rodya plans to do, though we don't find it out until after the woman's suicide attempt convinces Rodya otherwise. This uncanny ability to see clearly, which seems to characterize the good Razumikhin, also lends him an aura of divinity.

Finally, one last note: the grim situation of women is once again hinted at in this chapter. Aside from the unhappy woman's suicide attempt‹which, we discover, is not her first‹we also encounter a group of prostitutes with black eyes and bruises, as a singer plaintively asks in song why her "soldier-boy" keeps beating her. There is not a little irony in the older prostitute's reproach of Duklida's lack of conscience in asking for money for a drink. Yet it seems to indicate that even among the thoroughly downtrodden, there is some attempt to keep conscience and perhaps even dignity.

Chapter 7:

The scene upon which Rodya happens turns out to be an accident: a carriage has run over a drunken man. The man turns out to be the unfortunate Marmeladov, Rodya's acquaintance from the tavern. Excited, Rodya manages to get help transporting Marmeladov to his lodgings, which are not far away.

Katerina Ivanovna is pacing the tiny room, talking to Polenka, her oldest daughter, about her splendid past, when the crowd brings her husband into the room. They lay him on the sofa. Though she is shocked and the children are scared, Katerina Ivanovna keeps her presence of mind and goes to her husband. Rodya tries to reassure her, and sends for a doctor. He realizes that Katerina Ivanovna herself needs help, and that perhaps it was not the best idea to bring Marmeladov here.

Katerina Ivanovna sends Polenka to get Sonya. She then turns on the public and the other tenants who have started crowding into the room. The landlady, Amalia Lippewechsel, comes in and she and Katerina Ivanovna start to argue, but they are interrupted by Marmeladov groaning. He asks for a priest. Katerina Ivanovna is nearly beside herself.

At last the doctor arrives, and tells Rodya that Marmeladov will die shortly. A priest comes in and ministers confession and communion to Marmeladov. Sonya enters, in her gaudy street garb, and stands timidly by the door as her family kneels by her dying father.

Katerina Ivanovna irritably tells both the priest and her husband that she has already forgiven him. Marmeladov calls to Sonya and asks her forgiveness, then slips and falls to the floor, and dies in Sonya's arms.

Rodya goes to Katerina Ivanovna and gives her 20 or 25 roubles for the funeral, then leaves quickly.

He feels suddenly full of life. Polenka chases after him to ask his name and where he lives. He is happy to talk to her. Both Sonya and Katerina Ivanovna, he is told, sent her. He enjoys looking at Polenka and talking to her, and asks her all sorts of questions, and in the end, asks her to pray for him.

He returns to the bridge where he had stood before, and reflects that he will live, that he did not die with Alyona Ivanovna. Feeling weak but no longer ill, he stops by Razumikhin's. Razumikhin, though a large man and usually not susceptible to getting really drunk, is tipsy. He walks Rodya home, blurting out that Zossimov thinks Rodya is mad and that Zamyotov told them everything.

Rodya, weak and starting to wander, tells Razumikhin about the money he had given to the Marmeladovs. On the stairs they notice that there is a light on in Rodya's room. Rodya thinks it must be the police. Razumikhin goes up the stairs with him and they open the door . . .

There sit Rodya's mother and sister. When they leap up to embrace him, he faints. Razumikhin picks him up and puts him to bed, hastily trying to reassure the women. They, having been informed of his devotion to their Rodya by Nastasya, are already grateful to him for more than he realizes.

Analysis:

Forgiveness plays an important part in this chapter. It is clearest in Marmeladov, who begs Sonya's forgiveness and wants to ask his wife for hers. She shouts at him not to say anything, as she knows what he is about to ask and has already granted it; she tells the priest in no uncertain terms that she forgave her husband long ago, and that this can be read in her acts. Marmeladov begs forgiveness from the women who have sacrificed themselves for him, again setting up a religious scene where they are Christ-figures and he is a sinner, perhaps even the thief on the cross who asked Jesus to "remember him in His kingdom."

Less directly, Rodya asks Polenka's forgiveness. He actually asks her if she will love him, and pray for him; she answers most affirmatively for both. Polenka, an innocent child, may represent the least threatening person in his world, and therefore the one from whom he can most easily ask forgiveness.

There is also a hint that he has been impressed by Sonya. Not only had he known that Sonya would send Polenka after him, but he tells Razumikhin later that he saw two "beings" at Marmeladov's: Polenka, who would still love him even if he killed someone (though he does not finish saying so), and Sonya, "another being there . . . with a flame-colored feather . . ." While this is an actual accoutrement of Sonya's dress, it also seems to indicate that she is some sort of angel, as angels are associated both with fire and wings.

Marmeladov's death, or more precisely the noble act that was enabled by it, gives Rodya life. He seems to be able to pray and can ask Polenka to pray for him now. "Now is the kingdom of reason and light . . . and will and strength," he thinks. He even prays for the soul of the woman he has murdered. He realizes that he "hasn't died with the old crone," an important realization which resonates especially with the themes of sin and death in the previous chapter. Yet perhaps significantly, he does not totally take himself seriously: he laughs when he recalls how he had asked Polenka to pray for him.

Chapter 1:

Rodya recovers from his faint to find his mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and his sister Dunya (Avdotya Romanovna), gazing at him with fear and anxiety. He tells them to go home with Razumikhin and come back tomorrow. Naturally they are upset. Rodya tells them of his meeting with Luzhin, how he kicked him out, and that Dunya must choose between them.

Razumikhin yells at him, but Rodya doesn't answer. Razumikhin coaxes the women outside. He had not felt the effects of the alcohol earlier, when walking home with Rodya, but now he feels twice as drunk as he should because of Dunya's striking beauty. The women are slightly afraid of his eager arguments, bone-crushing hand-grip, and wild look, but they are soon assured of his good sense and intentions.

Razumikhin promises to escort them home, check back in on Rodya, and report to them within 15 minutes of doing so; after which he will drag Zossimov away from the party, get his diagnosis, and bring him back to the ladies to give his report as well. Dunya helps him to convince her mother, for which he is rapturously grateful, and he takes them out, predicting how Pulcheria Alexandrovna is concerned with his state and pouring out his soul with all frankness.

He then goes on a tangent about lying and how it is good because eventually it will get you to the truth, and comically demands, "Right? Am I right? Am I right?" Dunya has been following the arguments and responds that he is right, though she doesn't agree with him about everything, eliciting another rapturous burst of gratitude from Razumikhin, who kneels before her right then and there to kiss her hands.

They arrive at the rooms Luzhin has booked for the ladies, and Razumikhin indignantly starts to castigate Luzhin, is checked by Pulcheria Alexandrovna, but again ends up concluding that Luzhin "is not on a noble path." Prattling on, he escorts the ladies to their room, then takes off on his errands.

Pulcheria Alexandrovna worries about Razumikhin's ability to carry out these errands, and about Rodya's illness and strangely irritable personality. Dunya tries to reassure her, though she knows that Rodya will not change his mind about Luzhin.

After 20 minutes, Razumikhin reports that Rodya is asleep, and then takes off to get Zossimov. The women are somewhat reassured. After about another hour, Razumikhin returns with Zossimov, who gives his report and tries to reassure them about Rodya's health and recovery.

As the two men leave, Zossimov comments on "what a ravishing girl" Dunya is, and is rewarded with Razumikhin immediately flying at his throat in a fury. Zossimov fights him off, looks at him and then laughs heartily.

Razumikhin tells Zossimov he knows he is a "dirty philanderer" and tells him to spend some quality time with Praskovya Pavlovna and make her feel special‹so as to extricate himself, Razumikhin, from Praskovya Pavlovna's dependence on having someone to "sit next to her and sigh." The two of them spend the night in Raskolnikov's building.

Analysis

Once again, Razumikhin displays his preternatural ability to read people's thoughts when he guesses that Pulcheria Alexandrovna is wondering whether he will be able to carry out all he promises, seeing how drunk he is. In addition, there is the unexplained "presentiment" he has had: when begging the ladies to be his friend, he says, "I want it that way . . . I had a presentiment . . . last year, there was a certain moment . . . Not a presentiment at all, however, because it's as if you fell from the sky." He is already set up to be "Providence" for both her and Dunya, given what they know of his care of their beloved Rodya; and his eagerness to take care of them as well, even disregarding his sudden falling for Dunya, will only strengthen this role. He is their savior as well as Rodya's, especially now that Rodya is in such an unexpected state and must be dealt with cautiously.

Razumikhin is no stranger to openness, but his sudden vulnerability to Dunya makes him appealingly adorable, especially in contrast to his physical enormity. His "incoherent and ardent consolations" bring him swervingly close to admitting his attraction to Dunya; indeed, his "drunken" clumsiness outright declares it, so careful is he trying to be. His speech and reactions to her are comical, especially when she agrees with him on sometimes very obvious points (such as that the ladies should leave Rodya to his care for the night): "So you . . . you . . . you understand me, because you're an angel!" Calling her an "angel" and saying she has descended "from the sky" indicate that while Razumikhin is, unawares, a saving figure to others‹perhaps something of a guardian angel himself‹he sees Dunya as a sort of salvation for him. "I'm not worthy to love you," he tells her, "but to worship you is every man's duty. . ."

Among the tangential subjects he touches upon in his wild flight, Razumikhin again brings up his favorite theme: lies versus truth. His words on lying are scattered and seem contradictory to his earlier fight for truth; somehow he argues that through lies truth is eventually discovered. "Lying is what makes me a man," he shouts, but we know that Razumikhin is as honest as can be, with the exception of the little white lies he tells to help people or get them to accept his help. The crux of his argument lies in that other Dostoevskian theme, progress. The people at Razumikhin's party, he says, "insist on total impersonality," meaning they aim "to be least of all like [themselves]." Lying imparts individuality to each person: "lying in one's own way is almost better than telling the truth in someone else's way." It seems that Razumikhin's main argument is with the idea of people blindly accepting what they are told. This is in character; but much of what he says is not. It is not clear whether he is being sarcastic or is really too intoxicated by both Dunya and the wine to make a coherent argument. Ultimately the effect is to highlight how far Razumikhin has been thrown off by Dunya's beauty.

Chapter 2:

Razumikhin awakens the next morning feeling awful both because his dream of marrying Dunya is impossible, and because he is ashamed of having berated her fiancé in front of her and otherwise acted foolish in his inebriation.

Though he decides glumly that he can never wipe out what he had said, he dresses and washes himself carefully. He feels how coarse and unrefined he is, and thinks that even if he were a decent man, that would not be enough for Dunya.

Zossimov comes in and they discuss Raskolnikov's condition. Zossimov characterizes him as a monomaniac and a hypochondriac. He reveals that Zamyotov told Porfiry Petrovich, Razumikhin's uncle, about his encounter with Raskolnikov.

Razumikhin goes to Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya, and enters with dark shame plastered all over him. But the ladies welcome him with such gratitude and esteem that he is embarrassed, but pleasantly so. He makes his report on Rodya, and they sit down to have tea.

The ladies pepper him with questions about Rodya's life over the past year, and he answers them omitting what he thinks should be omitted. Pulcheria Alexandrovna establishes familiarity by finding out Razumikhin's full name, Dmitri Prokofych, then fires a barrage of anxious questions at him, worried because of Rodya's unexpected character and appearance. Razumikhin gives an honest and quite apt assessment of his character (which pains his mother). When Dunya opines that Rodya should have someone to love, Razumikhin tells her darkly that "he doesn't love anyone, and maybe he never will."

They briefly discuss Rodya's dead former fiancée, who apparently was not very good-looking or healthy, and Razumikhin concludes that the whole affair did not make much sense. Pulcheria Alexandrovna asks about the scene between Rodya and Luzhin; Razumikhin speaks carefully about Luzhin and even accuses Rodya of insulting the man on purpose. When the mother asks Razumikhin's opinion of Luzhin, Razumikhin replies that he must be worthy since Dunya had chosen him. He stops, ashamed of his conduct from the previous day; Dunya blushes as well.

The mother then shows Razumikhin a note sent to them that morning by Luzhin. Luzhin requests a meeting with them at 8:00 p.m., and insists that Rodya not be there, or else he will leave. He adds that Rodya had seemed so ill when he visited, but then had gone out, as he knows because he had encountered him at Marmeladov's apartment; there, he writes, Rodya had given 25 roubles‹Pulcheria Alexandrovna's hard-obtained money‹to the daughter, "a girl of notorious behavior . . . on the pretext of a funeral."

Pulcheria Alexandrovna begs Razumikhin's opinion on what to do. He tells her to follow Dunya's decision, which is to have both men come that night at 8:00.

They all get ready and go to Rodya's apartment to see him. Pulcheria Alexandrovna, actually scared of seeing her own son, asks Razumikhin‹whom, she tells him, she considers a part of the family, to his joy‹how to behave with Rodya, and he tries to counsel her. When they arrive, he goes ahead to see whether Rodya is awake.

Analysis:

Razumikhin's description of Raskolnikov's character is, as noted, remarkably apt. While Rodya is "gloomy and arrogant" he is also "magnanimous and kind"‹we have seen all such aspects of his character in places Razumikhin cannot possibly know about (e.g. Rodya's kindness to the Marmeladovs). Razumikhin's back-and-forth description highlights and directly references the schism in Raskolnikov: sometimes it is "as if there really were two opposite characters in him, changing places with each other." We have seen this quite clearly; that Razumikhin, who is constantly subjected to Rodya's rudeness and ingratitude and who had not seen Rodya for months, can see it as well is testament to his remarkable clarity of vision.

Dunya's character, while in certain respects similar to her brother's (both are proud, intelligent, arrogant to some degree), is more grounded and thus more honorable. Razumikhin has feared that she would look on him with mocking contempt after his drunken behavior the night before; such behavior would be expected of the grim Rodya. But Dunya has more perspective, not having locked herself away to brood on fruitless questions and develop monomania. Being compassionate and giving of herself, Dunya can easily recognize kindness in others and can accept it with gratitude.

Similarly, Razumikhin again presents a striking contrast to Rodya. Rodya is arrogant to the point of monomania. Razumikhin, on the other hand, spends the first part of the chapter berating himself for having behaved so ill to Dunya, though in fact nothing he said or did was rude (at worst it was improper, but never cruel or intentionally rude). His ruminations on how low he is compared with her also serve to show us his true humility, even though he himself attempts to belie it by gruffly refusing to shave and pretending to himself that he doesn't care if he is boorish.

For not appearing in the chapter at all, Rodya certainly gets a good deal of analysis. Aside from Razumikhin's description of his character to his mother and sister, Zossimov gives his personal opinion to Razumikhin as to Rodya's condition. The good doctor, though he does not suspect Rodya of being the murderer, does put his finger on the cause of his illness: "The whole starting point of the illness may well have been sitting right there!" He knows that Rodya has been suffering monomania, and that this has destroyed his perspective completely; he also notes Rodya's "rabid, exceptional vanity," which of course have contributed to his monomania, illness, and crime.

The end of the chapter presents a small but interesting parallel with a previous episode. Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya arrive on the fourth floor of Rodya's building, and see the landlady's "two quick black eyes . . . examining them both from the darkness." While this is likely because, as Razumikhin has noted, Praskovya Pavlovna is jealous of the other women who could take Razumikhin's attention, the incident mirrors Rodya's encounter with Alyona Ivanovna at the very start of the book.

Chapter 3:

When the ladies and their guide enter, they are greeted by a cheery and optimistic Zossimov, and the sight of a newly-washed and -dressed Rodya. Physically he is almost recovered, but he looks troubled and speaks only reluctantly.

He does light up to greet his family, but this does not last long, and Zossimov notices with surprise that Rodya appears to be resigning himself to some torture. Zossimov tries to talk with Rodya about his recovery, but Rodya is cold and contemptuous.

Rodion speaks to his mother and friends as though he is reciting something by rote, though he does take Dunya's hand with a genuine smile, which makes everyone somehow inordinately happy. Still, Pulcheria Alexandrovna feels that she is afraid of something, though she doesn't know what. Dunya notices the lack of true emotion in Rodya's words.

Rodya tells them about how he gave his money to Katerina Ivanovna. He apologizes, saying he had no right to give it away, and says, "Before helping people, one must first have the right . . . Right, Dunya?" But Dunya disagrees, and he looks at her with derision and almost hatred.

The entire conversation has been strangely tense and everyone feels it. Pulcheria Alexandrovna fills an awkward silence with the news that Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailov died. Rodya irritably cuts his mother short, and Dunya reproaches him, saying that they are all afraid of him. This pains him, as does the recollection that he will never really be able to talk with them or anyone else. He nearly leaves, but is caught.

Zossimov leaves shortly thereafter. Rodya teases Razumikhin by asking Dunya if she likes him. Razumikhin gets up to go, but Rodya makes him stay. They discuss Rodya's fiancée. Again, conversation is strained. Rodya repeats to Dunya that she must choose between him or Luzhin. Dunya tells him he is wrong to think she is marrying Luzhin because she wishes to sacrifice herself for someone else, but he does not believe her. They get into an argument and exchange some sharp words, and Rodya is shown Luzhin's letter.

After commenting on the style of the letter, Raskolnikov points out that Luzhin has threatened to abandon the ladies if Rodya is present at their meeting, and rebuts the "slander" regarding Rodya himself giving his money supposedly to Sonya.

Though Dunya does not say so, she has already made up her mind. She asks Rodya and Razumikhin both to be present at the meeting at 8:00.

Analysis:

Dunya and Rodya have a couple of significant, character-revealing disagreements in this chapter. The first regards doing good deeds. Rodya says that he did something "unpardonable" in giving away the money his mother had scraped together for him, explaining significantly, "Before helping people, one must first have the right . . . Right, Dunya?" We have seen this before: in earlier chapters, Rodya had been prompted to help the ravished drunk girl and not to allow Dunya to marry Luzhin; but in both cases he pulled himself up short by demanding of himself whether he had the right to do so.

Naturally, Dunya disagrees because "having the right to help someone" is completely irrelevant. Yet Rodya is contemptuous of her disagreement, muttering, "So you, too . . . have your notions! I should have realized it . . ." He does not see the bitter irony that his own "notions" have led him to murder and psychological trauma.

The second disagreement is over Dunya's engagement to Luzhin. The climax of the argument is her angry speech where she points out Rodya's own assumptions and behaviors. "Why do you demand a heroism of me that you may not even have in yourself?" she cries, more accurately than she realizes. It once again underscores the double standard of self-sacrifice: men expect women to sacrifice themselves, but are never expected to do so. Dunya's next thrust‹"If I ruin anyone, it will only be myself . . . I haven't gone and put a knife into anyone yet!"‹demonstrates the dividing line between the men and women in this novel, and falls terribly on her brother. The women ruin themselves; the men (or at least, Rodya) ruin and even kill others. The implication is that it takes far more courage to ruin oneself than to destroy another; and therefore most of the women in this novel, indeed all the important ones, are braver than the men.

Rodya is pained by his lie that he and his family will be able to talk as much as they like in future, not because of the separation from his loved ones, but because it once again hits him that he will never be able to talk to anyone about anything ever again. This sensation first hit him in the police station the day after the murder. Having cut himself off from everyone, especially his family (who he doubts could ever forgive him), he is more pained by his own isolation than by the loss of his family.

Chapter 4:

The door opens, and a girl enters. It is Sonya (Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov). She is dressed modestly and poorly, and almost leaves upon seeing so many people. Rodya addresses her, and suddenly feels embarrassed also.

He looks at her, recalling that his mother and sister heard of her as "a girl of notorious behavior," and pities her. He asks her to sit down, and she does so, but after a few moments of increasing confusion she gets up again and asks Rodya to attend Marmeladov's funeral service and memorial meal the next morning. He says he will try, then asks her to sit down again, as he wishes to speak with her.

He deliberately introduces her to his mother and sister. She is embarrassed, but he tries to make conversation by asking about the funeral arrangements. He examines her. She is innocent and looks like a child.

Sonya lets slip that Rodya gave them everything he had, causing Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna to brighten up somewhat. The mother then gets up so that she and Dunya can go. Rodya asks Razumikhin to stay a moment; Pulcheria Alexandrovna invites him to dinner, with Dunya's second.

Pulcheria Alexandrovna doesn't quite bow to Sonya, though she means to, and hurries out. Dunya bows fully and politely to the girl, who responds with extreme embarrassment. Rodya takes Dunya's hand once more, and his family leaves. He returns to Sonya looking refreshed and cheerful.

Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya talk as soon as they have left about the visit, and about Rodya and his condition. Pulcheria Alexandrovna worries about Sonya, which vexes Dunya. When the mother puzzles over the difference between Luzhin's account of Sonya and Rodya's treatment of her, Dunya snaps that Luzhin "is a worthless gossip," ending the conversation.

In the apartment, Rodya asks Razumikhin about his uncle Porfiry Petrovich, who has been assigned to the murder case. He tells Razumikhin that he needs to get back his father's watch, which he had pawned, before dinner. They agree to go see Porfiry.

Rodya introduces Sonya and Razumikhin, and tells Sonya he will call on her that day. He asks for her address. Both of them are somehow embarrassed or self-conscious; Rodya wants to look into her calm, clear eyes but can't quite seem to. They part on the street.

Sonya hurries along, reflecting deeply on all that has passed. She is feeling something she has never felt before. Her heart sinks as she thinks of Rodya going to her room and seeing what she does for a living.

Sonya is being followed by a stranger who has exhibited deep interest in the little group upon hearing her address Rodya as "Mr. Raskolnikov." This man notes Rodya's house and, thinking that Sonya looks familiar, follows her home. It turns out they live in the same building, almost next door to one another. He greets her cheerfully and informs her he is a newcomer to Petersburg.

Razumikhin is, in the meantime, very excited that he and Rodya are going to Porfiry. Rodya is watching him carefully and suspiciously, while responding lightly to Razumikhin's inquiries regarding his dealings with the pawnbroker. Razumikhin lets slip that Porfiry, who "likes hoodwinking people," has been very interested in meeting Rodya, and that he had solved a murder case the previous year where "all the traces were lost." Rodya is nervous. He masks it by teasing Razumikhin about Dunya, and enters Porfiry's apartment laughing boisterously . . . exactly as he has wished to.

Analysis:

Sonya's innocence is a remarkable irony given her life and circumstances. Though she has been brought up in destitution, with an alcoholic father and a consumptive, sometimes abusive stepmother, and despite the fact that she has become a prostitute, Sonya is over and over again described as a child. Physically she is slight; her eyes are quiet and clear; she is somehow attractive because of this strangely preserved innocence. She is remarkably timid and thinks herself below everyone; her pain at Dunya's kind bow reflects this awkwardness. It also mirrors Raskolnikov's pain at Razumikhin's insistent kindness, which is also born, we may conjecture, of a feeling of unworthiness.

Rodya is clearly drawn to Sonya for reasons he himself may not understand just yet. Quite likely she presents salvation to his particular case: he is besmirched with sin and misery, and while she is also steeped in sin and misery she somehow has retained purity of soul. He wishes to look into her eyes, but cannot; this would seem to indicate that he is attracted to her both romantically and because she presents a saving angel to him. This parallels Razumikhin's view of Dunya. In fact, when Rodya says, "Right? Right? Isn't that right?" to Sonya, his words echo Razumikhin's eager entreaties of the previous evening.

The last section of the chapter, where Rodya and Razumikhin head for Porfiry's, is a remarkable portrait of the game Raskolnikov is playing. Once again, what is on the outside does not match what is going on inside; Raskolnikov's thoughts are a third, albeit parenthetical, voice in the dialogue between him and Razumikhin. He pretends to be well, and for once conversational, while actually imperceptibly squeezing information from Razumikhin and interpreting his every word. We see Rodya's intelligence in the lightning speed with which he contrives his teasing maneuver, designed not to irk Razumikhin so much as to introduce him to Porfiry as a laughing, carefree, psychologically clear man.

Chapter 5:

Raskolnikov and Razumikhin enter Porfiry's apartment, the former trying to restrain his laughter, the latter making it difficult through his comical appearance. Despite the naturalness of the scene, Rodya is jolted to see Zamyotov in the room as well as Porfiry.

He introduces himself to Porfiry. Razumikhin expresses surprise that Zamyotov is there, asking how long they have known each other. Rodya picks up on this, as well as on Zamyotov's evident unease in answering.

They sit down to business. Porfiry and Rodya observe one another carefully. At one point, Porfiry gives Rodya a look and a possible wink, sending the thought "He knows!" through Rodya.

He attempts to keep his composure. Razumikhin enters the conversation, clumsily attempting to drop very obvious hints that Rodya has had various reasons for his noted reactions to anything involving the murder case.

Porfiry coldly announces that he has been waiting for Rodya . . . because his things had been wrapped up in paper and labeled with his name. Rodya starts to slip, losing confidence in his conversational cunning. He loses his temper and then control over some of what he says, venturing insolent and daring comments.

As Porfiry goes to send for tea, Rodya tries to calm his thoughts, but they are flying thick and fast through the paranoia in his mind.

Porfiry returns, somehow more cheery, and a discussion begins on yesterday evening's discussion topic: Is there such a thing as crime? Razumikhin gets worked up, as usual, and taunted by Porfiry, he tells Rodya that Porfiry l