NOTES to CRIME and PUNISHMENT; PAGE 1 through First Meeting with Porfiry
NOTES TO CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Page 1:
End of an afternoon in July in St. Petersberg.
Young man unnamed in isolation.
The ubermensch does not need people.
What terrible act is he contemplating?
Page 2:
Conflict of thought vs. action. Example of Hegelian Theory of Synthesis.
“Can I really be capable of that?”
Root of the name Raskolnikov is Raskol which means schism in Russian.
Page 3:
Contemplating an unspeakable, but at this point to the reader, unknown act. Raskolnikov is concerned with the conspicuousness of his hat. He is a
young man strikingly good looking: taller than average; darkly handsome, but dressed in rags and wearing a ridiculous hat.
Pages 4-5:
Description of the pawnbroker, Alena Ivanovna.
The color yellow motif is introduced: the walls of the pawnbroker’s apartment; her fur, her skin.
Alena refers to Raskolnikov’s family heirloom as trash and undervalues the worth of Raskolnikov’s father’s silver watch.
Page 7:
He goes to a tavern for beer. He hasn’t eaten in several days.
Chapter 2:
Page 8 - 23:
Raskolnikov meets Marmeladov, a drunken civil servant. Marmeladov mentions Lebezyatnikov, a follower of the Utilitarianism Theory (the Utilitarianism Theory holds that one can use a mathematical formula that shows that the greater number of people content in a society, the better the society. The majority’s happiness is more important than the happiness of a few. A Hegelian application of dialectics: a dialectic will create its opposite which in turn will create a synthesis: French Revolution is a prime example of this theory: the needs of the aristocrats (the few) versus the needs of the many (the peasants). The excesses of the aristocrats created its opposite, extreme reaction, the bloody revolution of the peasants; the pendulum eventually swung to the middle (a synthesis) where the individual rights of all were respected in a democratic form of government. Lebezyatnikov has beaten Marmeladov’s wife. This sets up a theme of expendable people who are at the mercy of uncaring humanity.
Page 10: The motif of no place to turn, of hopelessness, is introduced. This motif of utter spiritual loneliness tolls throughout the passage as Raskolnikov, this strange, isolated youth, sits in a bar with a pathetic, broken down drunk.
Pages 11, 12 and 13: Marmeladov confesses to drinking his family to destitution; he lost his last job due to drink; his daughter has been forced into prostitution (she carries a yellow i.d. card. Again, yellow represents disease and moral disrepute.)
There is a description of his wife, Katerina Ivanovna: she is well born; speaks French; danced the “Shawl Dance” for the province’s governor; she was married to an infantry officer and had three children but the officer died and left her destitute; Marmeladov took pity on her and married her. Katerina was reduced by desperation to marry Marmeladov.
Page 13: Katerina is Sonia’s stepmother. Sonia has been driven into prostitution by the sharp tongue of Katerina, who is angry, hysterical and dying of consumption. Shy, timid, plain little Sonia comes back from streetwalking and gives Katerina 30 pieces of silver, an allusion to Judas Iscariot betraying Christ for thirty pieces of silver.
Page 14: *Beautiful and deeply moving description of how Katerina drove Sonia into streetwalking. Marmeladov, cringing with shame, recounts the story how Sonia, shaking, in shock, and brutalized by her first sexual encounter, comes back with the silver rubles and hands them over wordlessly to Katerina.
Sonia, because of her yellow i.d. card signifying her as a prostitute, is no longer allowed by the landlady, Amalie Fedorovna, to stay in the family tenement apartment.
Pages 20-23: Marmeladov takes Raskolnikov back to his apartment which is of unimaginable squalor. Raskolnikov sees Katerina beat Marmeladov and sees her three small children’s destitution - they are starving. It is revealed that Marmeladov stole his paycheck from Katerina and went on a bender for five days, missing work and drinking up all the money. When his paycheck ran out, he sold his expensive civil servant uniform for more drink, and wound up falling asleep in a pile of hay on a barge. He has not been home for a week and this is the first time Katerina has seen him since he stole the money . Katerina is furious and beats him. Seeing the family's wretched poverty, Raskolnikov quietly leaves on the window sill the money he got by pawning his father's watch at the pawnbroker and walks out unnoticed by the squabbling, exhausted couple.
Chapter 3; Pages 23-
Page 23: Raskolnikov wakes up bilious (yellow) and feverish, which echoes the color of the wallpaper in his flat. Nastasya, the good humored maid, enters his room.
Nastasya gives him a letter from his mother, Pulkheria Raskolnikova.
Dounia is Raskolnikov’s sister.
Pages 26 - 29: The letter reveals the following about the plight of Raskolnikov's family. His mother writes that Dounia, Raskolnikov's sister, had been working as a governess for the Svidrigaylovs, a rich family in the provinces. Marfa, the wife, had been an older, wealthy widow, who married Svidrigaylov, a much younger man. This Svidrigaylov is a lout and has fallen in love with the beautiful Dounia. Marfa thinks that Dounia intentionally stole her husband away from her and has run around the community gossiping and besmirching Dounia’s name. Svidragaylov felt guilty and showed his wife a letter from Dounia proving her innocence. Now Marfa is running around the town showing people Dounia's letter and writing out copies and allowing other people to copy the letter to show to their friends.
Pages 29 - 33: Raskolnikov continues reading his mother's letter. The letter reveals that Dounia is now engaged to be married to an older man by the name of Luzhin. This Luzhin is 45 years old and has let it slip that he wants to marry a woman who is destitute so that she will be grateful to him for rescuing her from poverty. Totally motivated by self interest, this Luzhin wants to be considered young and current with fashion, and is a follower of all the new ideas that are pouring out of the university (such as Utilitarianism). It is obvious that Dounia is marrying him to sacrifice herself for Raskolnikov. Luzhin is rich, a lawyer and would probably help Raskolnikov - although he only paid for the transportation of Dounia’s and Pulkheria’s luggage to St. Petersberg. He allowed Dounia, his fiancee and her mother, to fend for themselves. They had to pay for third class travel by an old cart for 90 versts (similar to miles). Raskolnikov cries at the end of reading the letter and his anguish drives him out into the streets where he wanders agitated, talking and muttering to himself.
Chapter Four:
Pages 33 - : Raskolnikov is tortured by Dounia’s sacrifice. Religious symbolism: “The way to Golgotha is hard”. This allusion refers to Christ's travail on the cross on the hill of Golgotha. Raskolnikov is commenting on how difficult his and Dounia's sacrifices are - like those of Christ on the cross. (page 34) Raskolnikov, in his mind, rails against Luzhin. Not understanding her son at all, Pulkheria has written in the letter as a selling point to Raskolnikov that Luzhin is up on all the latest theories. She doesn't realize that Raskolnikov has only contempt for those who take up fancy philosophies because they are fashionable.
Dounia's willingness to sacrifice her brilliance, life and beauty for her brother is an example of the low value placed on women.
The low status of women: The sacrifice of the daughter for the son.
(Page 37) Raskolnikov compares Dounia’s marriage to Luzhin to Sonia’s prostitution. However, marriage to Luzhin will bring physical comfort and Sonia’s prostitution only provides a temporary respite from starvation.
“....we invent cauistical arguments for ourselves, we take a lesson from the Jesuits...” We invent intellectual rationalizations.
His mother’s letter shows that destruction is imminent and that he cannot put off taking action any longer. He must be a man of action (an ubermensche!)
Page 38: Pivotal moment: Raskolnikov suddenly realizes as he is walking, “Or renounce life all together! Submit obediently, once and for all, to destiny....”
Page 39 - 43: Raskolnikov sees a very young girl (fifteen or sixteen) tottering down the street looking very drunk. It appears that she may have been violated, with her dress hastily put back on by rough male hands. She is followed by a fat, dandyish man of about 30 or so, pinkish white skin and red lips who clearly wants to further abuse her. Raskolnikov is so angered by the dandy’s lechery that he actually seizes upon him to hit him until he is stopped by a policeman. Raskolnikov informs on the dandy and points out the girl to the policeman who is moved to compassion by the obviously abused young girl. Raskolnikov gives the cop money to get a cab for the girl, but when Raskolnikov tries to get the girl to tell them her address, she suddenly gets up from the bench she was slouched on, and staggers away muttering about how they won’t stop pestering her. Raskolnikov is suddenly filled with revulsion and tells the cop to let the dandy have his way with the girl - that it doesn’t matter. Afterwards he realizes that he just gave 20 copecks to the cop.
Failure of the Hegelian theory: Raskolnikov cannot overcome the chasm between his emotions, his impulses and his intellect - there is no synthesis.
According to the Utilitarianism a few must die so that the majority will live. According to Jeremy Bentham it is a mathematical formula that a society’s happiness can be determined by what percentage of its people are happy.
Raskolnikov recounts what will probably happen to this girl: she will be hunted by a pimp (the Darya Franzovnas of the world) and after trips to the hospital, drunkenness and drug use, her life will be over at 18 or 19.
Background: Rasolnikov keeps to himself at the University - another example of an ubermensche.
He finds himself at Razumikhin’s apartment (Rah zu mee khin). (Page 44) Description of Razumikhin: friend at the university, generous, loud, carousing, loving, kind, compassionate, emotional, physically very strong, tough. He is described as knowing a thousand and one ways to make money. He is the foil to Raskolnikov's dark, introverted, and self absorbed soul.
Chapter V (pages 44 - )
Again delirious, Raskolnikov finds himself at Razumikhin’s apartment. Razumikhin has given him work - translations, etc. Raskolnikov tells himself he will see Razumikhin "after the event" - which he cannot bear to utter or clearly think through. He cannot bear to go home and crosses the bridge to the beautiful rich part of town which is filled with greenery. He has spent quite a bit of his money - 3 copecks to Nastasya for his mother’s letter, 20 to the cop to take care of the drunken young girl and about 37 - 40 to the Marmeladovs. He has about 30 copecks left. He buys a drink of vodka and a pastry and becomes very sleepy from the alcohol. He falls asleep and has a deeply disturbing dream about a peasant Mikolka who beats his old mare to death (47 - 50). Raskolnikov is a little boy with his father who witnesses the horrible torture and death of the poor old mare. The mare is a symbol of the treatment of women. The scene may be a recollection of an actual event and takes place near a tavern and a winding road that leads to a church cemetary where his younger brother, who died at the age of 6 months and whom Raskolnikov does not remember, and his grandmother are buried.
After the horrific dream, he is again feverish and asks himself in astonishment could he really have contemplated taking an ax and ......which he then shakes his head and reassures himself that he could never do anything so vile. He is then relieved and is freed from the terrible burden he was carrying of planning to kill the old woman.
(Pages 52 - 53) Raskolnikov cuts across the Haymarket Square to go home and there overhears a conversation between Lizaveta and two rag salespeople. They are a countryish man and woman who are newly arrived in St. Petersburg with women’s clothing to sell. They want Lizaveta to sell the clothes for them, figuring they would make a bigger profit going through her than through a retail merchant. The couple tell her to meet with them tomorrow at 6 pm and not to tell Alyona, her sister, where she is going. Raskolnikov is thunderstruck that fate should place this so neatly in his hands - that tomorrow at 6 the pawnbroker will be alone, quite alone in her apartment. Omens and signs are signaling him to do this deed. He is indeed an ubermensche for the universe is smiling its approval on his unspoken deed.
Chapter Vl (pages 53 -) Raskolnikov recounts six weeks earlier the first time he visited the old pawnbroker to pawn a keepsake from his sister - a ring with three red stones. He had taken an almost immediate dislike to the old woman. On the way back with his few copecks he has stopped at a tavern for a drink and overheard a young student and a soldier discussing the old wretched pawnbroker. The student laid out the Utilitarian doctrine which is that it is not a crime - or not much of one - to kill someone who is so clearly a parasite on society. It would actually benefit society to kill someone like the pawnbroker so that all the money she has been hoarding could be released, allowed to circulate and benefit all those impoverished people whom she has ripped off. Instead of the money being given to a priest to pray for her shriveled up soul after her death so she can go to heaven, the money could be given to students to go to school or to impoverished families so they could eat and pay rent. The student was advocating that someone should kill the pawnbroker.
Raskolnikov has become quite superstitious and has in subsequent years mulled over those few hours, days, weeks and months looking for the strange coincidences, the omens ordaining the murder.
Lizaveta is Alyona’s half sister (they had different mothers) and she is 35, stands about 5’ 10”, compliant as a child and is totally under the control of the old woman who beats her, and forces her to clean and cook, and to hand over all her money to her. Lizaveta, according to the student, may also be pregnant.
Utilitarian Theory: That according to Jonathan Bentham and John Mills (18th Century philosophers/thinkers) a society’s happiness can be calibrated mathematically by the ratio of happy people to unhappy people, and that there will always be those who will be unhappy, who will “fall between the cracks” and that that is the price to be paid for the greater good of society.
The student offers the following theory that by killing the nasty old woman, robbing her of her fortune, and by spreading the fortune to those who are in great need, one would actually be doing the world a favor, and that this good would negate the deed of the murder - essentially, the end would justify the means.
Nature must be guided and corrected, otherwise there will never be one great man (Nietzsche’s Ubermensche theory).
Raskolnikov ponders WHY he should overhear THIS particular conversation after visiting the wretched old woman, AFTER he had thought the EXACT SAME THOUGHT himself??? He sees this as yet another example of this event as preordained and predetermined.
He returns home and is again plagued with chills and fevers, and fall into a dreamless sleep. Nastasya, the maid, wakens him the next day and gives himself something to eat and drink - although he hasn’t paid his room or board in quite a while. He is quite weak.
This all gives the lie to his being an ubermensche because he falls into a weakened feverish state after contemplating murder and a simple maid is taking care of him. An Ubermenche does not need help - and an ubermensche is strong in the face of a great moral task and not given to feverish deliriums from the mere contemplation of an unsavory but necessary deed.
(Page 58) He is having calming dreams of being in an oasis in the middle of the Egyptian desert (one of Napoleon’s campaigns, perhaps?) He wakens with a start, hearing the tolling of a bell - is it six already? Is this his call to his fate? And so he begins the preparation for the murder, tearing a strip from an old shirt and making a loop inside his jacket to suspend the ax from.
The more he prepares, the more absurd it’s beginning to seem.
Raskolnikov maintains that most crimes fail because of the collapse of the criminal’s will. He falls into a state of childish heedlessness when he should be the most focused. It begins right before the commission of the crime and continues until sometime past the crime. He maintains that he will not be like that, seemingly not making the connection that the mere thinking of his deed had plunged him into delirium the day before.
Nastasya is hanging linen on the line so he cannot immediately go into the kitchen to get the ax, but later, on his way out, he sees the axe in the porter’s lodge - with the door open and the porter no where to be seen! He quickly dives for the axe and leaves to fulfill his destiny. It is the devil’s doing, he thinks to himself.
Page 63: He arrives at the pawnbroker’s apartment. Painters are on the second floor painting an empty flat with the door open, but they do not look up as he passes.
The third floor flat below the old woman’s is unoccupied, as is the flat opposite the old woman’s flat on the fourth floor.
Page 64: Here is a Hitchcockian description of Raskolnikov knocking on the door three times and his sensation that Alyona is on the other side of the door breathing and listening. At that moment his mind clouds over and he loses consciousness of his body. A moment later, he hears the bolt being lifted.
Chapter Vll (pages 64 - 74)
The killing of the pawnbroker and her sister.
The old woman is distrustful, suspicious when he comes in. She demands to know why he is so pale and trembling. He responds that he is feverish from lack of food. As she attempts to undo the complicated knot on the “pledge” (it’s a piece of metal between two pieces of wood which he says is a cigarette case) she turns to the windows (all of which are closed on this hot, muggy day in St. Petersburg) and fumbles with the package.
(Page 65) Raskolnikov pulls the axe out of the loop inside his coat pocket, but all the strength has drained out of him and he can barely lift the axe to strike but as soon as the axe descends on her head (“almost mechanically, without any force behind it”) his strength returns and he strikes her several more times.
His mind is clear but his hands are trembling at first, but when he gets the key ring he has trouble finding the right key to fit into the keyhole of the chest of drawers in the bedroom. He finally figures out that the larger key is probably to a large trunk which he finds under her bed and sure enough, the toothed key fits it.
Note: Dostoevsky goes into great detail describing Raskolnikov’s thinking and behavior in these moments after the crime.
He stashes into his pockets a bag full of money that he has cut from a cord hanging from around the old woman’s neck, and valuables he finds from the trunk.
Then he hears footsteps!
It is Lizaveta! He runs into the room to find her standing with an armload of clothing by the slain body of her sister. She is so horrified she cannot cry out and when she sees Raskolnikov run into the room her face twitches spasmodically.
(Page 68) Raskolnikov raises the ax. Lizaveta is so beaten down by life and by her sister, that she doesn’t even put up a defensive arm to shield her face. Her mouth twitches like a frightened child and she stares at the object that will murder her. She holds out her arm as if to push the hated object away.
He kills her with one blow, splitting her skull into two. Horrible, pathetic murder!
Raskolnikov then loses focus and begins doing the very thing he said he would not do, he begins to behave erratically and foolishly. He forgets the important things and begins to focus on the unimportant, trivial things:
He spends long moments washing the blood from the axe. He is suddenly struck with the terrifying thought that he has gone mad and is incapable of reasoning, or protecting himself.
He is in a state of terror and repulsion over the two bodies that are in the other room.
Then he realizes that he has left the door to the apartment open! The door is standing open a hand’s breadth! He closes and bolts the door and then decides, “NO! NO!” He must leave immediately! He unbolts, opens the door and is about to leave when he hears voices - a quarrel in the courtyard, and then a ruckus from the flat below him. When it dies down he is about to leave again when he hears voices on the stairs. The voices are floating up the stairs towards him!
Page 70: Alfred Hitchcock suspense. At the last moment he steps back inside the apartment and instinctively bolts the lock.
He and the intruders are positioned just like he and the old woman were earlier - except that now he is on the inside and he can hear the heavy breathing of the intruders.
One of the intruders goes to get the porter, leaving the other, Koch, to wait at the door. Koch plays with the bell, rattles the handle of the door, and stoops down to look through the keyhole. This builds almost unbearable tension and suspense. Koch rattles the door so hard that the latch almost jumps out of the lock. A few more shakes and the latch will almost certainly fly free, leaving the door open and Raskolnikov exposed on the other side with the dead bodies behind him. Luckily for Raskolnikov, Koch becomes impatient and goes to find the porter himself.
Lizaveta is Alyona’s half sister (they had different mothers) and she is 35, stands about 5’ 10”, compliant as a child and is totally under the control of the old woman who beats her, and forces her to clean and cook, and to hand over all her money to her. Lizaveta, according to the student, may also be pregnant.
Utilitarian Theory: That according to Jonathan Bentham and John Mills (18th Century philosophers/thinkers) a society’s happiness can be calibrated mathematically by the ratio of happy people to unhappy people, and that there will always be those who will be unhappy, who will “fall between the cracks” and that that is the price to be paid for the greater good of society.
The student offers the following theory that by killing the nasty old woman, robbing her of her fortune, and by spreading the fortune to those who are in great need, one would actually be doing the world a favor, and that this good would negate the deed of the murder - essentially, the end would justify the means.
Nature must be guided and corrected, otherwise there will never be one great man (Nietzsche’s Ubermensche theory).
Raskolnikov ponders WHY he should overhear THIS particular conversation after visiting the wretched old woman, AFTER he had thought the EXACT SAME THOUGHT himself??? He sees this as yet another example of this event as preordained and predetermined.
He returns home and is again plagued with chills and fevers, and fall into a dreamless sleep. Nastasya, the maid, wakens him the next day and gives himself something to eat and drink - although he hasn’t paid his room or board in quite a while. He is quite weak.
This all gives the lie to his being an ubermensche because he falls into a weakened feverish state after contemplating murder and a simple maid is taking care of him. An Ubermenche does not need help - and an ubermensche is strong in the face of a great moral task and not given to feverish deliriums from the mere contemplation of an unsavory but necessary deed.
(Page 58) He is having calming dreams of being in an oasis in the middle of the Egyptian desert (one of Napoleon’s campaigns, perhaps?) He wakens with a start, hearing the tolling of a bell - is it six already? Is this his call to his fate? And so he begins the preparation for the murder, tearing a strip from an old shirt and making a loop inside his jacket to suspend the ax from.
The more he prepares, the more absurd it’s beginning to seem.
Raskolnikov maintains that most crimes fail because of the collapse of the criminal’s will. He falls into a state of childish heedlessness when he should be the most focused. It begins right before the commission of the crime and continues until sometime past the crime. He maintains that he will not be like that, seemingly not making the connection that the mere thinking of his deed had plunged him into delirium the day before.
Nastasya is hanging linen on the line so he cannot immediately go into the kitchen to get the ax, but later, on his way out, he sees the axe in the porter’s lodge - with the door open and the porter no where to be seen! He quickly dives for the axe and leaves to fulfill his destiny. It is the devil’s doing, he thinks to himself.
Page 63: He arrives at the pawnbroker’s apartment. Painters are on the second floor painting an empty flat with the door open, but they do not look up as he passes.
The third floor flat below the old woman’s is unoccupied, as is the flat opposite the old woman’s flat on the fourth floor.
Page 64: Here is a Hitchcockian description of Raskolnikov knocking on the door three times and his sensation that Alyona is on the other side of the door breathing and listening. At that moment his mind clouds over and he loses consciousness of his body. A moment later, he hears the bolt being lifted.
Chapter Vll (pages 64 - 74)
The killing of the pawnbroker and her sister.
The old woman is distrustful, suspicious when he comes in. She demands to know why he is so pale and trembling. He responds that he is feverish from lack of food. As she attempts to undo the complicated knot on the “pledge” (it’s a piece of metal between two pieces of wood which he says is a cigarette case) she turns to the windows (all of which are closed on this hot, muggy day in St. Petersburg) and fumbles with the package.
(Page 65) Raskolnikov pulls the axe out of the loop inside his coat pocket, but all the strength has drained out of him and he can barely lift the axe to strike but as soon as the axe descends on her head (“almost mechanically, without any force behind it”) his strength returns and he strikes her several more times.
His mind is clear but his hands are trembling at first, but when he gets the key ring he has trouble finding the right key to fit into the keyhole of the chest of drawers in the bedroom. He finally figures out that the larger key is probably to a large trunk which he finds under her bed and sure enough, the toothed key fits it.
Note: Dostoevsky goes into great detail describing Raskolnikov’s thinking and behavior in these moments after the crime.
He stashes into his pockets a bag full of money that he has cut from a cord hanging from around the old woman’s neck, and valuables he finds from the trunk.
Then he hears footsteps!
It is Lizaveta! He runs into the room to find her standing with an armload of clothing by the slain body of her sister. She is so horrified she cannot cry out and when she sees Raskolnikov run into the room her face twitches spasmodically.
(Page 68) Raskolnikov raises the ax. Lizaveta is so beaten down by life and by her sister, that she doesn’t even put up a defensive arm to shield her face. Her mouth twitches like a frightened child and she stares at the object that will murder her. She holds out her arm as if to push the hated object away.
He kills her with one blow, splitting her skull into two. Horrible, pathetic murder!
Raskolnikov then loses focus and begins doing the very thing he said he would not do, he begins to behave erratically and foolishly. He forgets the important things and begins to focus on the unimportant, trivial things:
He spends long moments washing the blood from the axe. He is suddenly struck with the terrifying thought that he has gone mad and is incapable of reasoning, or protecting himself.
He is in a state of terror and repulsion over the two bodies that are in the other room.
Then he realizes that he has left the door to the apartment open! The door is standing open a hand’s breadth! He closes and bolts the door and then decides, “NO! NO!” He must leave immediately! He unbolts, opens the door and is about to leave when he hears voices - a quarrel in the courtyard, and then a ruckus from the flat below him. When it dies down he is about to leave again when he hears voices on the stairs. The voices are floating up the stairs towards him!
Page 70: Alfred Hitchcock suspense. At the last moment he steps back inside the apartment and instinctively bolts the lock.
He and the intruders are positioned just like he and the old woman were earlier - except that now he is on the inside and he can hear the heavy breathing of the intruders.
One of the intruders goes to get the porter, leaving the other, Koch, to wait at the door. Koch plays with the bell, rattles the handle of the door, and stoops down to look through the keyhole. This builds almost unbearable tension and suspense. Koch rattles the door so hard that the latch almost jumps out of the lock. A few more shakes and the latch will almost certainly fly free, leaving the door open and Raskolnikov exposed on the other side with the dead bodies behind him. Luckily for Raskolnikov, Koch becomes impatient and goes to find the porter himself.
Now Raskolnikov makes his exit and runs downstairs. He hears laughter from below him: “Mitka!” A shriek and a tumble of steps down the stairs and out the courtyard. Then a stampede of steps coming up the stairs towards him! Again, luck is with Raskolnikov - he steps into the empty apartment on the second floor - the one that the painters had been in - just in time to avoid the men (Koch) returning up the stairs. He waits a few moments and then makes his escape from the apartment.
He returns home and replaces the axe in the porter’s apartment right where he found it. He then falls into a stupor on his sofa.
Part 2; Chapter 1:
In this chapter:
Raskolnikov cannot trust his own mind.
Nastasya discovers him asleep clutching a ragged sock.
Raskolnikov receives a summons to go to the police station.
He is overcome with chills and realizes that he has forgotten to bolt the door. Raskolnikov, in a state of paranoia and not trusting his mind, takes off his clothes and examines them three times for blood. The old woman’s purse is still in his pocket which he pulls out and stuffs inside a hole in the wall, but the contents are bulging through the wallpaper. He is now convinced that he is covered in blood but that his mind is gone and he cannot see it. He is in a paranoiac panic.
He throws himself back on his couch covering himself with his coat and is in a state of delirium.
He is awakened by a loud knock at the door - it is Nastasya the maid and the porter with a summons for him from the police. Nastasya is eyeing him with concern. Raskolnikov is horrified to realize that he still has his bloodied sock in his hand, which Nastasya notices and laughs at. “Look, he has spent the whole night with his sock in his hand.”
Raksolnikov is shaking with fever and has a bad headache. He overcomes a desire to pray, and leaves his wretched little apartment, and enters the filthy, hot streets of St. Petersburg to go to the police station.
He enters the police station which smells of new paint (symbol of things being regenerated or cleansed.) There is a large German woman who is defending herself against a complaint of disturbing the peace. It is a comic turn but shows Dostoevsky’s anti-German emigre prejudice. Raskolnikov gets in a shouting match with the assistant to the police captain, a lieutenant, for not showing proper obsequiousness. The summons is for the back rent on Raskolnikov’s apartment which he vigorously denies he owes. A year or so ago, Raskolnikov agreed to marry the landlady’s daughter and for that he received free rent, but when the daughter died, Raskolnikov continued not to pay rent. Now the landlady is charging him for all the back rent he owes.
(pages 84 - 85) There is a comic interlude where the lieutenant berates the German woman who uses as her defense the ill behavior of a guest in her house, a little drunken swine, a writer! Dostoevksy continues jokes about the degenerate nature of writers.
Nikodim Fomich enters, the police chief, an affable man who teases the lieutenant, Ilya Petrovich. The cops begin discussing the murders of the old woman and her sister, and Koch’s alibi. Nikodim correctly figures out that the murderer was in the apartment at the time Koch was knocking at the door. Raskolnikov faints. When he comes to he is given a tumbler of dirty, yellow water (at that time, St. Petersburg did not have a sewage system nor a municipal water system; the citizens got their water from rivers and streams.) When he comes to, Fomich begins asking him questions: How long has he been ill? Did he go out yesterday when he was sick? The tone in the room changes. Nikodim is about to ask Raskolnikov another question but the chief clerk is staring at Fomich fixedly. A silence descends on the room. When Raskolnikov leaves, he can hear raised voices rapidly talking with Fomich’s voice rising above them. Raskolnikov is convinced that he will be detained. Note that the police offered Raskolnikov filthy yellow water - water is usually a symbol of purification but that he was offered defiled water which cannot purify or wash away his horrific double murder, particularly the killing of the innocent Lizaveta.
Part 2; Chapter 2 (pages 90 - 99)
In this chapter:
Raskolnikov realizes he is irrevocably a changed man
We see that others see him as worthy of pity
We meet Razumikhin
Raskolnikov returns to his little hovel and is horrified at how he tried to hide the jewelry - shoved into a torn hole in the wallpaper. He takes the purse and the cases with the intention of throwing them in the water - a decision he made last night during his delirium - and he leaves his tiny apartment trying to head toward the canal. Raskolnikov wanders aimlessly around for a while (losing focus, which he swore he would never do) and then decides to hide the stolen goods under a wheel in a courtyard. He then realizes he’s never examined the contents of the purse so he doesn’t even know how much he has gained from the murder of the old pawnbroker. After he disposes of the stolen goods he wanders up to the tenement apartment of his friend and fellow student, Razumikin (Roo zu mee kin) whom he has not seen for four months. Razumikhin is concerned about his friend’s tattered clothes and obviously feverish state. He attempts to give Raskolnikov work translating silly pamphlets from German into Russian (Is Woman a Human Being?) but after taking the translation and the money and leaving, Raskolnikov returns, puts the money and translation back on Razumikhin’s table, and leaves again without a word. This proves to be too much for the loving and generous Razumikhin, who follows, screaming at Raskolnikov for being so stupid and obstinate.
Raskolnikov wanders into the street and almost stumbles in front of a horse drawn carriage. He is beaten on the back by the irate carriage driver who accuses him of running a well known scam of pretending to be hurt in an accident and then suing. A well dressed woman witnesses the incident, and taking pity on Raskonikov, who is feverish, ill and destitute, gives him money and blesses him in Christ’s name. He then stops and surveys the magnificent view of a beautiful church which has always inspired in him confusion and awe - which it does again, but this time he realizes that he is a different man gazing at the cathedral than he was the times before. He realizes he is clutching the money the woman gave him, and irritated, throws the money into the canal.
The moment of Raskolnikov staring at the magnificent church echoes the moment in Dostoyevsky's life when he was waiting to be executed and staring at the sun shining on a distant church spire and thinking that this was the last thing he would ever see. Of course, at the last minute, Dostoyevsky and the other condemned men's sentences were commuted and instead they were sent to Siberia to do hard labor for their insurrection against the Russian czar.
He stumbles home, falls into a delirium and dreams that Ilya Petrovich is his room and beating the landlady. A group of people are on the landing yelling, screaming, arguing, watching the beating. He wakes up and finds Nastasya is in his room. He asks her why Petrovich was beating the landlady and she says, “It’s because of the blood.” A cool bit of irony there. Nastasya explains that Raskolnikov's blood is clotted, causing him to have visions. She doesn't realize that it is indeed due to the blood, but not in the way she imagines. She gets him cool water and he falls back into a tortured sleep.
Chapter lll (pages 99 - 111):
Razumikhin has brought a fellow with him who has money - 35 rubles - for Raskolnikov from his mother. Nastasya brings food for Raskolnikov and in a comic turn, Razumikhin (Ra zu-mee khin) like a bear encircles his friend's head with his arm and tries to spoon feed him. Razumikhin shamelessly flirts with Nastasya. The landlady has sold Raskolnikov’s i.o.u. to a businessman because she knows Raskolnikov’s mother will pay his back rent. Razumikhin bought the i.o.u. from the business man and gave it to Raskolnikov for 10 rubles out of the 35 rubles he received from his mother. During Raskolnikov’s illness Razumikhin brought
Dr. Zosimov to see him but he was too delirious to receive visitors. After Razumikhin leaves, Raskolnikov becomes agitated, drinks some more beer, and then falls into a more restful sleep for six hours. When he awakes Razumikhin is back with new clothes for him. There is another funny comic turn with Razumikhin showing him the new clothes he has bought him and explaining how he paid for them with a very complex mathematical scheme with Raskolnikov’s own money which has been sent to him from his mother. At the end of the scene Zosimov, a young, twenty seven year old doctor, has entered the apartment.
Chapter lV (pages 112 - 121)
Razumikhin is discussing a house warming party he is throwing and mentions that Porfiry Petrovich, the detective who interrogated Raskolnikov at the police station, will be there. Razumikhin starts discussing the arrest of the painter in the murder of the pawnbroker, Alyona. Koch and Pestryakov (the two men at the door when Raskolnikov was hiding inside the pawnbroker's apartment) had been detained for questioning. Razumikhin mentions Raskolnikov fainting in Porfiry’s office in passing. In the retelling of the murders, Razumikhin acts out all the parts of the actors in this scene. Through psychological insight, he figures out the crime's sequence of events which he recounts.
He returns home and replaces the axe in the porter’s apartment right where he found it. He then falls into a stupor on his sofa.
Part 2; Chapter 1:
In this chapter:
Raskolnikov cannot trust his own mind.
Nastasya discovers him asleep clutching a ragged sock.
Raskolnikov receives a summons to go to the police station.
He is overcome with chills and realizes that he has forgotten to bolt the door. Raskolnikov, in a state of paranoia and not trusting his mind, takes off his clothes and examines them three times for blood. The old woman’s purse is still in his pocket which he pulls out and stuffs inside a hole in the wall, but the contents are bulging through the wallpaper. He is now convinced that he is covered in blood but that his mind is gone and he cannot see it. He is in a paranoiac panic.
He throws himself back on his couch covering himself with his coat and is in a state of delirium.
He is awakened by a loud knock at the door - it is Nastasya the maid and the porter with a summons for him from the police. Nastasya is eyeing him with concern. Raskolnikov is horrified to realize that he still has his bloodied sock in his hand, which Nastasya notices and laughs at. “Look, he has spent the whole night with his sock in his hand.”
Raksolnikov is shaking with fever and has a bad headache. He overcomes a desire to pray, and leaves his wretched little apartment, and enters the filthy, hot streets of St. Petersburg to go to the police station.
He enters the police station which smells of new paint (symbol of things being regenerated or cleansed.) There is a large German woman who is defending herself against a complaint of disturbing the peace. It is a comic turn but shows Dostoevsky’s anti-German emigre prejudice. Raskolnikov gets in a shouting match with the assistant to the police captain, a lieutenant, for not showing proper obsequiousness. The summons is for the back rent on Raskolnikov’s apartment which he vigorously denies he owes. A year or so ago, Raskolnikov agreed to marry the landlady’s daughter and for that he received free rent, but when the daughter died, Raskolnikov continued not to pay rent. Now the landlady is charging him for all the back rent he owes.
(pages 84 - 85) There is a comic interlude where the lieutenant berates the German woman who uses as her defense the ill behavior of a guest in her house, a little drunken swine, a writer! Dostoevksy continues jokes about the degenerate nature of writers.
Nikodim Fomich enters, the police chief, an affable man who teases the lieutenant, Ilya Petrovich. The cops begin discussing the murders of the old woman and her sister, and Koch’s alibi. Nikodim correctly figures out that the murderer was in the apartment at the time Koch was knocking at the door. Raskolnikov faints. When he comes to he is given a tumbler of dirty, yellow water (at that time, St. Petersburg did not have a sewage system nor a municipal water system; the citizens got their water from rivers and streams.) When he comes to, Fomich begins asking him questions: How long has he been ill? Did he go out yesterday when he was sick? The tone in the room changes. Nikodim is about to ask Raskolnikov another question but the chief clerk is staring at Fomich fixedly. A silence descends on the room. When Raskolnikov leaves, he can hear raised voices rapidly talking with Fomich’s voice rising above them. Raskolnikov is convinced that he will be detained. Note that the police offered Raskolnikov filthy yellow water - water is usually a symbol of purification but that he was offered defiled water which cannot purify or wash away his horrific double murder, particularly the killing of the innocent Lizaveta.
Part 2; Chapter 2 (pages 90 - 99)
In this chapter:
Raskolnikov realizes he is irrevocably a changed man
We see that others see him as worthy of pity
We meet Razumikhin
Raskolnikov returns to his little hovel and is horrified at how he tried to hide the jewelry - shoved into a torn hole in the wallpaper. He takes the purse and the cases with the intention of throwing them in the water - a decision he made last night during his delirium - and he leaves his tiny apartment trying to head toward the canal. Raskolnikov wanders aimlessly around for a while (losing focus, which he swore he would never do) and then decides to hide the stolen goods under a wheel in a courtyard. He then realizes he’s never examined the contents of the purse so he doesn’t even know how much he has gained from the murder of the old pawnbroker. After he disposes of the stolen goods he wanders up to the tenement apartment of his friend and fellow student, Razumikin (Roo zu mee kin) whom he has not seen for four months. Razumikhin is concerned about his friend’s tattered clothes and obviously feverish state. He attempts to give Raskolnikov work translating silly pamphlets from German into Russian (Is Woman a Human Being?) but after taking the translation and the money and leaving, Raskolnikov returns, puts the money and translation back on Razumikhin’s table, and leaves again without a word. This proves to be too much for the loving and generous Razumikhin, who follows, screaming at Raskolnikov for being so stupid and obstinate.
Raskolnikov wanders into the street and almost stumbles in front of a horse drawn carriage. He is beaten on the back by the irate carriage driver who accuses him of running a well known scam of pretending to be hurt in an accident and then suing. A well dressed woman witnesses the incident, and taking pity on Raskonikov, who is feverish, ill and destitute, gives him money and blesses him in Christ’s name. He then stops and surveys the magnificent view of a beautiful church which has always inspired in him confusion and awe - which it does again, but this time he realizes that he is a different man gazing at the cathedral than he was the times before. He realizes he is clutching the money the woman gave him, and irritated, throws the money into the canal.
The moment of Raskolnikov staring at the magnificent church echoes the moment in Dostoyevsky's life when he was waiting to be executed and staring at the sun shining on a distant church spire and thinking that this was the last thing he would ever see. Of course, at the last minute, Dostoyevsky and the other condemned men's sentences were commuted and instead they were sent to Siberia to do hard labor for their insurrection against the Russian czar.
He stumbles home, falls into a delirium and dreams that Ilya Petrovich is his room and beating the landlady. A group of people are on the landing yelling, screaming, arguing, watching the beating. He wakes up and finds Nastasya is in his room. He asks her why Petrovich was beating the landlady and she says, “It’s because of the blood.” A cool bit of irony there. Nastasya explains that Raskolnikov's blood is clotted, causing him to have visions. She doesn't realize that it is indeed due to the blood, but not in the way she imagines. She gets him cool water and he falls back into a tortured sleep.
Chapter lll (pages 99 - 111):
Razumikhin has brought a fellow with him who has money - 35 rubles - for Raskolnikov from his mother. Nastasya brings food for Raskolnikov and in a comic turn, Razumikhin (Ra zu-mee khin) like a bear encircles his friend's head with his arm and tries to spoon feed him. Razumikhin shamelessly flirts with Nastasya. The landlady has sold Raskolnikov’s i.o.u. to a businessman because she knows Raskolnikov’s mother will pay his back rent. Razumikhin bought the i.o.u. from the business man and gave it to Raskolnikov for 10 rubles out of the 35 rubles he received from his mother. During Raskolnikov’s illness Razumikhin brought
Dr. Zosimov to see him but he was too delirious to receive visitors. After Razumikhin leaves, Raskolnikov becomes agitated, drinks some more beer, and then falls into a more restful sleep for six hours. When he awakes Razumikhin is back with new clothes for him. There is another funny comic turn with Razumikhin showing him the new clothes he has bought him and explaining how he paid for them with a very complex mathematical scheme with Raskolnikov’s own money which has been sent to him from his mother. At the end of the scene Zosimov, a young, twenty seven year old doctor, has entered the apartment.
Chapter lV (pages 112 - 121)
Razumikhin is discussing a house warming party he is throwing and mentions that Porfiry Petrovich, the detective who interrogated Raskolnikov at the police station, will be there. Razumikhin starts discussing the arrest of the painter in the murder of the pawnbroker, Alyona. Koch and Pestryakov (the two men at the door when Raskolnikov was hiding inside the pawnbroker's apartment) had been detained for questioning. Razumikhin mentions Raskolnikov fainting in Porfiry’s office in passing. In the retelling of the murders, Razumikhin acts out all the parts of the actors in this scene. Through psychological insight, he figures out the crime's sequence of events which he recounts.
The painters are being held as suspects in the murders because they have Alyona’s jewelry but Razumikhin uses human psychology to determine that they are not the murderers. Razumikhin begins acting out the story: Five minutes after the murders, the painters Dimitri and Nikolay ran down the stairs screaming with laughter. They were play fighting so much that they fell in a heap laughing and hitting each other in the gate, blocking the way of a large group of people who were entering the court yard. The porter and his wife and several others in the group yelled at them to get out of the way. Using psychology, Razumikhin reasons that this is not the behavior of men who have just committed cold blooded murder. Later, when Nikolay came back to the flat to straighten up he found a box of jewels behind the door. He pawned the earrings to Dushkin, the proprietor of a tavern, for some beer and then went on a two day roaring drinking spree. A few days later, Mikolay (or Nickolay) came back into the tavern for another drink and was asked by Dushkin where he had been for the past three days, and where did he get the earrings he pawned three days earlier. Nickolay replied, not very convincingly, that he found the earrings in the streets. Dushkin informed Nickolay what had happened three days ago in the very building he and Mitrey had been working in. Mikolay panicked when he heard this and bolted out the door and down an alley. Mikolay's running convinced Dushkin he was guilty of the old woman's death.
The police searched both Dushkin's and the other painter (Mitrey's) abodes, but found nothing. A few days later, Mikolay went into an inn and traded his silver cross for another drink. He then went into a nearby cart shed, tied his belt around a beam and was about to hang himself when a woman spied him through a crack in the wall and began to scream, causing a huge crowd to gather. Mikolay began to scream, "Take me to the police! I will confess everything." He was taken to the police where he was questioned about the last few days. Mikolay said he had been working with Mitrey painting the rooms in the old lady's building; he hadn't noticed anything unusual at the time of the murders; he had found the earrings in the street, and that he had gone on a three day bender on the jewels.
Suddenly, a guest appears in Raskolnikov's doorway. It is Luzhin, otherwise known as Peter Petrovich.
Chapter V
Pages 121 - 131:
Luzhin is a very well dressed, well groomed man of about 45 years of age. He reveals himself to be Dounia’s fiance and that he has made arrangements for Dounia and her mother to stay in a hotel which Razumikhin identifies as wretched, and crime- and roach-infested. Luzhin reveals that Lebezyatnikov was his ward when he was a minor. Luzhin begins spouting views that curiously presage the “trickle-down theory” of Reagan’s in the 80’s. Luzhin is an advocate of the “self interested humanitarianism”. If I take care of myself and prosper then that prosperity will spill out and benefit my neighbor. Razumikhin becomes enraged with his theories and shouts and insults him into silence.
Razumikhin then mentions that Porfiry is interviewing the clients of the pawnbroker. Rasumikhin seems to be defending the murderer by saying that the crime was clearly done by a noncriminal - someone who had never committed a crime before because the whole crime was so badly bungled from start to finish. The murderer did not check the drawers in which a large amount of money was stashed, but fumbled instead with a trunk in which a few paltry items were hidden. He got away not by skill but by sheer luck.
The police searched both Dushkin's and the other painter (Mitrey's) abodes, but found nothing. A few days later, Mikolay went into an inn and traded his silver cross for another drink. He then went into a nearby cart shed, tied his belt around a beam and was about to hang himself when a woman spied him through a crack in the wall and began to scream, causing a huge crowd to gather. Mikolay began to scream, "Take me to the police! I will confess everything." He was taken to the police where he was questioned about the last few days. Mikolay said he had been working with Mitrey painting the rooms in the old lady's building; he hadn't noticed anything unusual at the time of the murders; he had found the earrings in the street, and that he had gone on a three day bender on the jewels.
Suddenly, a guest appears in Raskolnikov's doorway. It is Luzhin, otherwise known as Peter Petrovich.
Chapter V
Pages 121 - 131:
Luzhin is a very well dressed, well groomed man of about 45 years of age. He reveals himself to be Dounia’s fiance and that he has made arrangements for Dounia and her mother to stay in a hotel which Razumikhin identifies as wretched, and crime- and roach-infested. Luzhin reveals that Lebezyatnikov was his ward when he was a minor. Luzhin begins spouting views that curiously presage the “trickle-down theory” of Reagan’s in the 80’s. Luzhin is an advocate of the “self interested humanitarianism”. If I take care of myself and prosper then that prosperity will spill out and benefit my neighbor. Razumikhin becomes enraged with his theories and shouts and insults him into silence.
Razumikhin then mentions that Porfiry is interviewing the clients of the pawnbroker. Rasumikhin seems to be defending the murderer by saying that the crime was clearly done by a noncriminal - someone who had never committed a crime before because the whole crime was so badly bungled from start to finish. The murderer did not check the drawers in which a large amount of money was stashed, but fumbled instead with a trunk in which a few paltry items were hidden. He got away not by skill but by sheer luck.
Luzhin again brings up the rise in crime among even the upper, well educated classes which Razumikhin points out proves the flaw in his “self-interested humanitarianism” or rising water causes all boats to rise. The logical conclusion to this theory is that everyone will be slitting everyone else’s throat. Raskolnikov rouses himself and accuses Luzhin of marrying his sister because she is poor and grateful to him for raising her up. Luzhin thoroughly denies it and storms out.
Razumikhim and Zosimov also leave but as they are walking home, they compare notes and both notice that Raskolnikov only gets upset when the murders are brought up. Razumikhin mentions that Raskolnikov fainted in the police station when they began discussing the murders. Both men are concerned. It seems that Razumikhin knows or at least strongly suspects his good friend.
Part 2, Chapter 6:
Raskolnikov waits until everyone leaves and then quickly puts on clothes brought by Razumikhin which he bought with Raskolnikov’s money. Raskolnikov leaves the hot, squalid apartment and goes into the St. Peterburg street where it is still hot at 8 pm. In a state of confusion, he wanders around, stopping at one point to listen to buskers performing - a handsome young organ grinder is accompanying a beautiful young girl with a lovely voice but as soon as Raskolnikov gives them money for their singing, the girl breaks off on the highest, tenderest note and in a rough coarse voice tells her companion, “That will do”, and they trudge off to the next shop, the next customer, the next kopeck. Dostoevsky makes a point to show that regardless of how angelic the voice or seemingly pure the emotion, a performance is a cynical, artificial act designed for personal gain. He seems to suggest that this is true of all human enterprises.
Raskolnikov is acting strangely, babbling and saying bizarre things to strangers: “I like to hear street singing on cold, damp days....” He goes to where he last saw the dealer and his wife talk to Lizaveta, and asks an unpleasant fellow about them, but the man is very defensive and rude. Raskolnikov is filled with the desire to speak and be social (not very ubermensche-like) and he is jostled along the streets by noisy peasants who pay no attention to him. He notices a group of women of various ages - some over 40 and some as young as 17 but he notices that almost all of them have black eyes which suggests male violence. They are listening to a man strumming the guitar. Everywhere the women are battered, pockmarked. An attractive young woman asks him for money for drink which he gives her. Another woman criticizes her for her forwardness.
Raskolnikov walks away remembering a thought - that it would be better to be on a tiny ledge in darkness, in isolation for an eternity than to be dead within the hour.
He enters a tavern, orders a drink and newspapers to read about the old pawnbroker’s murder. Zametov, the police chief’s clerk, who was in the police station yesterday, is sitting at another table drinking with some men. When he sees that Raskolnikov is alone, he winds his way to Raskolnikov’s table and sits down next to him. In a high-wire act of crazed, self-destructive bravado, Raskolnikov taunts Zametov by mentioning that he has been reading the papers about the murder of Alyona, the pawnbroker and her sister. He says, "I want to make a confession" and "I want to make a statement". Then bringing his face very close to that of Zametov's, he stares at him for a full minute without speaking(!) (a full minute is a very long time to do that - try it with your friends and see if they don't think you're nuts!) Raskolnikov then bursts into a fit of nervous laughter and in that moment relives with vivid clarity the moment of standing behind the door of the murdered old woman, holding the bloody ax, hearing the bolt rattling, and outside the door, people are swearing and trying to force their way in. He is overcome with a desire to laugh and mock and stick his tongue at the world. And in the next instant he is plunged into a deep melancholy, and he sits there for long moments thoughtful and almost forgetting the presence of Zametov. Zametov stares at him and murmurs that he is either insane or....but doesn't finish what he is about to say.
Wishing to break the strange, depressive mood, Zametov turns the conversation to a recent story in the paper about a ring of novice counterfeiters who were caught passing bad notes. Raskolnikov ridicules their bad planning and says of course they got busted because one of the crooks would give himself away by his trembling hands - which describes the state Raskolnikov was in after the murders. Raskolnikov boasts that would never happen to him and he explains how he would run the scheme by counting the money over and over again in front of the teller and then demanding that several of the bank notes be exchanged for better notes because he suspects they are counterfeit. Zametov scoffs at that and brings up the old pawnbroker’s murder as proof that the murderer was also a scared novice and that he "didn't get caught only by a miracle" and that "the murderer's hands trembled".
Apparently offended by being called a novice and lucky and having trembling hands, Raskolnikov takes a malicious pleasure taunting Zametov to catch the killer. He mocks Zametov by saying that if he, Raskolnikov, was investigating the murder, the only clue he would look for is,"Is he spending money he doesn't have?" and "Is he spending a lot of money drinking in the taverns?" Zametov protests and says that throwing a lot of money around in taverns is precisely what killers and robbers do (which in this case is true). And then he looks at Raskolnikov and says,"Not everybody is as clever as you are. Of course, you wouldn't run off to the pub, would you?"
Where is Raskolnikov now? He is in a tavern. What is he doing? He is drinking. A delicious bit of irony, there. Does Zametov suspect Raskolnikov? If he does, then it's verbal irony. If he doesn't, then it's dramatic. But who is really unaware? Is Raskolnikov on a suicide mission and unconsciously trying to get caught or is he testing his ubermensche credentials by proving to himself how superior he is to the herd?
Raskolnikov tells Zametov what he would have done had he committed the murders - and he proceeds to tell him EXACTLY what he DID do - bury the money under a wheel in a market garden. And in another bit of irony, Raskolnikov says, "Well, NOW look for your murderer! Vanished into thin air!" Another bit of dramatic irony for, of course, the murderer is sitting right in front of the police chief's clerk. Zametov whispers, "You're mad!" and recoils from him. Raskolnikov draws his face again close to Zametov's, attempts to talk, but his upper lip can only twitch and tremble. His lips begin to move but no sound can come out. He is in this pose for half a minute (again a really long time) with his face drawn close to Zametov's, his upper lip twitching, his mouth moving. He comes achingly close to letting the words fall out that it was he who killed the old pawnbroker and her innocent sister - his lips twitching and moving like the latch on the old woman's door as the men in the hall swore and rattled it to get inside.
Raskolnikov's lips are like the door with the latch rattling in the lock right after the pawnbroker’s murder - his lips are about to burst letting the words and the truth pour out - “Yes, I did it!” - like the men and the porters and the police pouring through the door, discovering the old woman’s dead body. “Now, now, the bolt will give way; now, now, the word will slip out; oh, only to say it”... and at last the words tumble out, and Raskolnikov proclaims in a state of almost delicious hysteria, "And what if it were I who killed the old woman and Lizaveta?" But at this point Zametov is in a state of confusion and protests that he doesn't think he is the murderer. In frenzied hysteria, Raskolnikov asks him if that is so, then what were he and the other cops talking about after he left the precinct? In a fit to show the cops' stupidity and his own cleverness, Raskolnikov calls the waiter over, pulls out large wads of money ("...his shaking hand full of notes.... - note that his hands are trembling) and asks where did he get the money then, and what about these new clothes, eh? After giving the waiter an obscenely large tip, Raskolnikov bids adieu to the astounded Zametov and exits the bar in a state of wild, exultant hysteria tinged with exhaustion and despair.
Raskolnikov unexpectedly runs into Razumikhin who is astounded to see his very sick friend coming out of a tavern. They stand measuring each other warily for a few minutes, until Razumikhin explodes in very real anger and threatens to pick him up bodily and carry him back home. Raskolnikov begins to quite calmly and reasonably insult Razumikhin, calling him boring and that he spits on his kindness and finds it quite beyond endurance, but what begins calmly enough quickly escalates and before long, Raskolnikov has worked himself into a state, spitting and hissing, as he continues to insult Razumikhin. Razumikhin quietly releases him, allows him to take a step and then flies into a rage himself, ordering him to stop and begins to scream at Raskolnikov, calling him a fool, among other things. The two men are standing in the middle of the street screaming at each other and then, as Raskolnikov is preparing to storm off, Razumikhin suddenly invites him to his house warming party - which Raskolnilov coldly inform him he will not attend.
Here, Raskolnikov is trying to assert his "ubermensch" status by refusing the kindness of a very generous and loving friend, who states the truth about Raskolnikov - that he is intelligent but a fool, unoriginal, touchy and trying very hard not to resemble a human being.
On his way home from the tavern, Raskolnikov crosses a bridge. He is contemplating something - to go to the police to make a confession, perhaps? To throw himself off the bridge in a despairing act of suicide? His contemplation is interrupted with a start when he sees a tall gangly woman attempting suicide by jumping into the river. The woman bears an uncanny resemblance to another gangly woman, the murdered Lizaveta. She is the "double" of Lizaveta. The woman's suicide is thwarted by a quick acting policeman who pulls her to safety. Raskolnikov's energy is depleted by the appalling spectacle of the dirty water, and the failed suicide attempt. Whatever he was contemplating he is now too depleted to do.
The "double" is a device frequently used by Dostoevsky in which a double or doppelganger of a character appears, heightening tension or adding to the psychological complexity or confusion of a character's state of mind. Seeing Lizaveta's "double" might suggest the depth of guilt Raskolnikov is feeling for the unavoidable murder of an innocent, and that the failed suicide attempt might suggest that suicide is not the resolution he seeks, and that the dirty water would not provide the purification he needs.
Razumikhim and Zosimov also leave but as they are walking home, they compare notes and both notice that Raskolnikov only gets upset when the murders are brought up. Razumikhin mentions that Raskolnikov fainted in the police station when they began discussing the murders. Both men are concerned. It seems that Razumikhin knows or at least strongly suspects his good friend.
Part 2, Chapter 6:
Raskolnikov waits until everyone leaves and then quickly puts on clothes brought by Razumikhin which he bought with Raskolnikov’s money. Raskolnikov leaves the hot, squalid apartment and goes into the St. Peterburg street where it is still hot at 8 pm. In a state of confusion, he wanders around, stopping at one point to listen to buskers performing - a handsome young organ grinder is accompanying a beautiful young girl with a lovely voice but as soon as Raskolnikov gives them money for their singing, the girl breaks off on the highest, tenderest note and in a rough coarse voice tells her companion, “That will do”, and they trudge off to the next shop, the next customer, the next kopeck. Dostoevsky makes a point to show that regardless of how angelic the voice or seemingly pure the emotion, a performance is a cynical, artificial act designed for personal gain. He seems to suggest that this is true of all human enterprises.
Raskolnikov is acting strangely, babbling and saying bizarre things to strangers: “I like to hear street singing on cold, damp days....” He goes to where he last saw the dealer and his wife talk to Lizaveta, and asks an unpleasant fellow about them, but the man is very defensive and rude. Raskolnikov is filled with the desire to speak and be social (not very ubermensche-like) and he is jostled along the streets by noisy peasants who pay no attention to him. He notices a group of women of various ages - some over 40 and some as young as 17 but he notices that almost all of them have black eyes which suggests male violence. They are listening to a man strumming the guitar. Everywhere the women are battered, pockmarked. An attractive young woman asks him for money for drink which he gives her. Another woman criticizes her for her forwardness.
Raskolnikov walks away remembering a thought - that it would be better to be on a tiny ledge in darkness, in isolation for an eternity than to be dead within the hour.
He enters a tavern, orders a drink and newspapers to read about the old pawnbroker’s murder. Zametov, the police chief’s clerk, who was in the police station yesterday, is sitting at another table drinking with some men. When he sees that Raskolnikov is alone, he winds his way to Raskolnikov’s table and sits down next to him. In a high-wire act of crazed, self-destructive bravado, Raskolnikov taunts Zametov by mentioning that he has been reading the papers about the murder of Alyona, the pawnbroker and her sister. He says, "I want to make a confession" and "I want to make a statement". Then bringing his face very close to that of Zametov's, he stares at him for a full minute without speaking(!) (a full minute is a very long time to do that - try it with your friends and see if they don't think you're nuts!) Raskolnikov then bursts into a fit of nervous laughter and in that moment relives with vivid clarity the moment of standing behind the door of the murdered old woman, holding the bloody ax, hearing the bolt rattling, and outside the door, people are swearing and trying to force their way in. He is overcome with a desire to laugh and mock and stick his tongue at the world. And in the next instant he is plunged into a deep melancholy, and he sits there for long moments thoughtful and almost forgetting the presence of Zametov. Zametov stares at him and murmurs that he is either insane or....but doesn't finish what he is about to say.
Wishing to break the strange, depressive mood, Zametov turns the conversation to a recent story in the paper about a ring of novice counterfeiters who were caught passing bad notes. Raskolnikov ridicules their bad planning and says of course they got busted because one of the crooks would give himself away by his trembling hands - which describes the state Raskolnikov was in after the murders. Raskolnikov boasts that would never happen to him and he explains how he would run the scheme by counting the money over and over again in front of the teller and then demanding that several of the bank notes be exchanged for better notes because he suspects they are counterfeit. Zametov scoffs at that and brings up the old pawnbroker’s murder as proof that the murderer was also a scared novice and that he "didn't get caught only by a miracle" and that "the murderer's hands trembled".
Apparently offended by being called a novice and lucky and having trembling hands, Raskolnikov takes a malicious pleasure taunting Zametov to catch the killer. He mocks Zametov by saying that if he, Raskolnikov, was investigating the murder, the only clue he would look for is,"Is he spending money he doesn't have?" and "Is he spending a lot of money drinking in the taverns?" Zametov protests and says that throwing a lot of money around in taverns is precisely what killers and robbers do (which in this case is true). And then he looks at Raskolnikov and says,"Not everybody is as clever as you are. Of course, you wouldn't run off to the pub, would you?"
Where is Raskolnikov now? He is in a tavern. What is he doing? He is drinking. A delicious bit of irony, there. Does Zametov suspect Raskolnikov? If he does, then it's verbal irony. If he doesn't, then it's dramatic. But who is really unaware? Is Raskolnikov on a suicide mission and unconsciously trying to get caught or is he testing his ubermensche credentials by proving to himself how superior he is to the herd?
Raskolnikov tells Zametov what he would have done had he committed the murders - and he proceeds to tell him EXACTLY what he DID do - bury the money under a wheel in a market garden. And in another bit of irony, Raskolnikov says, "Well, NOW look for your murderer! Vanished into thin air!" Another bit of dramatic irony for, of course, the murderer is sitting right in front of the police chief's clerk. Zametov whispers, "You're mad!" and recoils from him. Raskolnikov draws his face again close to Zametov's, attempts to talk, but his upper lip can only twitch and tremble. His lips begin to move but no sound can come out. He is in this pose for half a minute (again a really long time) with his face drawn close to Zametov's, his upper lip twitching, his mouth moving. He comes achingly close to letting the words fall out that it was he who killed the old pawnbroker and her innocent sister - his lips twitching and moving like the latch on the old woman's door as the men in the hall swore and rattled it to get inside.
Raskolnikov's lips are like the door with the latch rattling in the lock right after the pawnbroker’s murder - his lips are about to burst letting the words and the truth pour out - “Yes, I did it!” - like the men and the porters and the police pouring through the door, discovering the old woman’s dead body. “Now, now, the bolt will give way; now, now, the word will slip out; oh, only to say it”... and at last the words tumble out, and Raskolnikov proclaims in a state of almost delicious hysteria, "And what if it were I who killed the old woman and Lizaveta?" But at this point Zametov is in a state of confusion and protests that he doesn't think he is the murderer. In frenzied hysteria, Raskolnikov asks him if that is so, then what were he and the other cops talking about after he left the precinct? In a fit to show the cops' stupidity and his own cleverness, Raskolnikov calls the waiter over, pulls out large wads of money ("...his shaking hand full of notes.... - note that his hands are trembling) and asks where did he get the money then, and what about these new clothes, eh? After giving the waiter an obscenely large tip, Raskolnikov bids adieu to the astounded Zametov and exits the bar in a state of wild, exultant hysteria tinged with exhaustion and despair.
Raskolnikov unexpectedly runs into Razumikhin who is astounded to see his very sick friend coming out of a tavern. They stand measuring each other warily for a few minutes, until Razumikhin explodes in very real anger and threatens to pick him up bodily and carry him back home. Raskolnikov begins to quite calmly and reasonably insult Razumikhin, calling him boring and that he spits on his kindness and finds it quite beyond endurance, but what begins calmly enough quickly escalates and before long, Raskolnikov has worked himself into a state, spitting and hissing, as he continues to insult Razumikhin. Razumikhin quietly releases him, allows him to take a step and then flies into a rage himself, ordering him to stop and begins to scream at Raskolnikov, calling him a fool, among other things. The two men are standing in the middle of the street screaming at each other and then, as Raskolnikov is preparing to storm off, Razumikhin suddenly invites him to his house warming party - which Raskolnilov coldly inform him he will not attend.
Here, Raskolnikov is trying to assert his "ubermensch" status by refusing the kindness of a very generous and loving friend, who states the truth about Raskolnikov - that he is intelligent but a fool, unoriginal, touchy and trying very hard not to resemble a human being.
On his way home from the tavern, Raskolnikov crosses a bridge. He is contemplating something - to go to the police to make a confession, perhaps? To throw himself off the bridge in a despairing act of suicide? His contemplation is interrupted with a start when he sees a tall gangly woman attempting suicide by jumping into the river. The woman bears an uncanny resemblance to another gangly woman, the murdered Lizaveta. She is the "double" of Lizaveta. The woman's suicide is thwarted by a quick acting policeman who pulls her to safety. Raskolnikov's energy is depleted by the appalling spectacle of the dirty water, and the failed suicide attempt. Whatever he was contemplating he is now too depleted to do.
The "double" is a device frequently used by Dostoevsky in which a double or doppelganger of a character appears, heightening tension or adding to the psychological complexity or confusion of a character's state of mind. Seeing Lizaveta's "double" might suggest the depth of guilt Raskolnikov is feeling for the unavoidable murder of an innocent, and that the failed suicide attempt might suggest that suicide is not the resolution he seeks, and that the dirty water would not provide the purification he needs.
Pages 145 - 152: Raskolnikov does what every criminal does: he returns to the scene of the crime where he finds two young, naive workmen painting the old pawnbroker's apartment. Raskolnikov walks around the flat and thinks how small it now looks - suggesting how insignificant the murders were in the largeness of the world. He begins to ring the bell over and over again, and each clang brings fresh, vivid memories of that day when he raised the ax against the old woman, memories which are tormenting and yet delicious. The older of the two painters demand to know what he wants. He replies that he wants to rent the room, and then asks about the blood stains on the floor. Unnerved, the painters say that it's late and they have to leave. Raskolnikov walks downstairs and finds the apartment's two porters, along with a group of other people, whom he taunts about the murders, suggesting they go with him to the police station. Angered and unsettled by his bizarre behavior, one of the porters shoves him roughly out into the street, away from the presence of the people in the courtyard.
Suddenly, Raskolnikov finds himself alone in the street, cut off from the rest of the world. He looks around searching for a word from some quarter, but there is no word, from any quarter for him The world is dead to him and to him alone. Suddenly noise flares up, some sort of tumult is occurring in the street. He begins to move toward the chaos, smiling coldly, his mind firmly made up to go to the police to confess.
Part 2, Chapter 7
Pages 152 - 165:
Death of Marmeladov:
Raskolnikov sees a huge crowd ahead. A gentleman’s elegant carriage is stopped in the middle of the street. The carriage driver is quickly coming up with excuses and defenses as to why it wasn’t his fault that the man had fallen under his carriage and was trampled by the horses. It is obvious that the carriage driver works for a rich, powerful man and is not too concerned about his responsibility for the man crushed under his wheels - the police are also quick to expedite the matter: carry the man to the police station and then to the hospital. Raskolnikov recognizes the man - it is Marmeladov. He is horrified and offers the police a bribe to carry Marmeladov to his apartment which is only thirty paces away.
Part 2, Chapter 7
Pages 152 - 165:
Death of Marmeladov:
Raskolnikov sees a huge crowd ahead. A gentleman’s elegant carriage is stopped in the middle of the street. The carriage driver is quickly coming up with excuses and defenses as to why it wasn’t his fault that the man had fallen under his carriage and was trampled by the horses. It is obvious that the carriage driver works for a rich, powerful man and is not too concerned about his responsibility for the man crushed under his wheels - the police are also quick to expedite the matter: carry the man to the police station and then to the hospital. Raskolnikov recognizes the man - it is Marmeladov. He is horrified and offers the police a bribe to carry Marmeladov to his apartment which is only thirty paces away.
Katerina is pacing the floor coughing from the tobacco smoke wafting through their apartment from the neighbors next door. Polenka, the ten year old daughter, is trying to be a good girl helping her mother undress her little brother. The youngest daughter is dressed in rags waiting her turn to be undressed. Katerina is fretting because she must wash the children’s only clothing that night. She begins to reminisce about her youth, about how respected and important her father was, how she danced the shawl dance for the governor, how a rich dashing man had asked for her hand in marriage but how she had turned him down to marry the children’s father - now dead. Suddenly, Raskolnikov comes bursting in, disturbing Katerina's feverish reverie, with a crowd bearing Marmeladov’s mutilated body. Katerina springs into action and begins to care for the dying man. She sends her daugher, Palenka, to fetch the child's half sister, Sonia.
The neighbors begin crowding in, along with the landlady, a German woman - which allows Dostoevsky to take an anti-immigrant poke at the Germans. The neighbors’ crudeness and vulgarity deeply offend Katerina and she flies into a rage, driving them out of the apartment. The landlady bulldozes her way past the others, and Katerina begins to dress her down, referring to her by her German name and not allowing her to forget that Katerina is her social superior. Outside, a man’s voice can be heard laughing, “They’re at it again!” Even in the midst of great human tragedy, Dostoevsky shows the grimly funny aspect of human nature - which is something the Germans have a name for - schaudenfraude, which means happiness at another's misfortune.
The doctor arrives but it is too late. Marmeladov's chest is crushed and his head has sustained significant injury. He will be dead in five or ten minutes the doctor predicts. Soon the priest arrives to give last rites but Marmeladov is too far gone to understand what he is saying. Katerina takes the children to the corner where they kneel and pray; meanwhile the neighbors and the crowd, no longer cowed by the sharp tongued Katerina, return and are pressing through the door watching. Suddenly, a young, pale and terribly thin girl appears and is timidly making her way through the mob. Her cheap and gaudy finery reveals to the others what she is - a prostitute. Whispers from the crowd begin to fly, and embarrassed, the girl lowers her eyes.
The doctor arrives but it is too late. Marmeladov's chest is crushed and his head has sustained significant injury. He will be dead in five or ten minutes the doctor predicts. Soon the priest arrives to give last rites but Marmeladov is too far gone to understand what he is saying. Katerina takes the children to the corner where they kneel and pray; meanwhile the neighbors and the crowd, no longer cowed by the sharp tongued Katerina, return and are pressing through the door watching. Suddenly, a young, pale and terribly thin girl appears and is timidly making her way through the mob. Her cheap and gaudy finery reveals to the others what she is - a prostitute. Whispers from the crowd begin to fly, and embarrassed, the girl lowers her eyes.
The priest approaches Katerina and tells her that God is merciful and to put her faith in Him. Katerina bitterly replies that He is merciful to everyone but to her. The priest admonishes her that that sentiment is a sin. Katerina bitterly asks what can she do with this - pointing to her husband. The priest tells her that she may be able to get compensation from the wealthy owner of the carriage, but Katerina cannot afford to be unrealistic and paints the truth of the situation - that her husband was a drunk and it was his fault and nobody else’s that he was trampled, that if he hadn’t gotten trampled he would have come home, drunk and dirty, and she would have been forced to stay up all night - like every other night - washing and mending his clothes. And that is the tragic truth of the matter. Her tirade is cut short by a deep seated cough. She spits into a handkerchief, turning it bright red with her blood. The priest’s words are empty, meaningless platitudes next to the shattered body of the dying drunk, the starving, half naked children, and the red stained handkerchief in the consumptive widow's hand.
Marmeladov lies dying on the couch; his eyes dumbly searching the room until they fall on the pitiful sight of Sonia, humiliated, embarrassed, dressed in her cheap prostitute costume, waiting to say her final farewells to him. He has never seen her dressed like that; realizing for the first time what his drinking has done to this family Marmeladov raises himself from his couch and begs her forgiveness. He falls to the floor. Sonia runs to him. She takes him in her arms where he dies.
Marmeladov lies dying on the couch; his eyes dumbly searching the room until they fall on the pitiful sight of Sonia, humiliated, embarrassed, dressed in her cheap prostitute costume, waiting to say her final farewells to him. He has never seen her dressed like that; realizing for the first time what his drinking has done to this family Marmeladov raises himself from his couch and begs her forgiveness. He falls to the floor. Sonia runs to him. She takes him in her arms where he dies.
But there is no time for sentiment; there is only harshness of a cold reality. Katerina begins to fret how she is going to bury him and how is she going to feed her children. Raskolnikov steps forward and offers to pay for the funeral. He tells her he knew her husband and that Marmeladov has told him all about their lives. He offers her twenty rubles to pay for the burial. As he leaves he runs into Nikodim Fomich who has been informed of the accident. Fomich looks Raskolnikov up and down and comments that he is covered in blood (dramatic irony) to which Raskolnikov responds with a strange smile and agrees.
He leaves, and is in a feverish yet renewed state of boundless power - much like a condemned man who has been unexpectedly reprieved (story of Dostoevsky’s life). Polenka chases after Raskolnikov to find out his name and address which he tells her and he makes her promise to pray for him. He departs from the little girl and winds up on the exact spot where earlier in the day he saw the woman (Lizaveta's double) attempt suicide, but now he is filled with an expansive sense of power and strength. He proclaims, “Life is!” and to the pawnbroker's spirit, he utters these words, “May she rest in peace - but her time has come!”
Although he is ill and feverish, he turns his steps to Razumikhin’s house warming party. He declines to go inside the apartment but talks briefly to Razumikhin outside. Razumikhin insists that he will walk his sick, feverish friend home. Zosimov, the doctor, scurries over to Raskolnikov with a strange look and gives him some sleeping potion. Razumikhin whispers to him that the doctor told him to keep him talking on the walk home to “find out things”. Razumikhin tells him that Zosimov has an idea about him and that although he is a surgeon, he is obsessed with mental illness. Razumikhin tells him that Zametov, the police clerk who drank with him in the tavern, told him all about the strange encounter and that he too has an idea about Raskolnikov. But Razumikhin is loyal and drunk and informs Raskolnikov that he is much smarter then those two, that he has defended him against Zametov, and that Ilya Petrovich took unfair advantage over him when he fainted in the police precinct, and besides, the house painter has been arrested for the pawnbroker’s murder.
Razumikhin escorts him home to his apartment where they see from the street that the lights are on in his room. They go upstairs and discover Raskolnikov’s mother and sister sitting and waiting for him in a state of anxiety and fear. Although he had been told about their coming, their arrival has completely slipped his mind. The women rush to him, laughing, crying, kissing him with joy, but Raskolnikov cannot return their embraces or kisses, but is struck by a terrible thought. He tries to take a step, but falters. Suddenly the floor rushes up to him and he faints. Razumikhin rushes forward, and taking him in his powerful arms, helps him to the sofa, while babbling to his mother that Raskolnikov is fine and - almost twisting her head - makes her stoop to get a better look at her son. The women respond with gratitude to this crazy and generous friend about whom Nastasya, the maid, has already told them - his brilliance, his generosity and all his many kindnesses to their dear Raskolnikov.
Part 3; Chapter 1
(pages 166 - 177)
Raskolnikov's mother and sister are worried about his behavior and his appearance. An argument arises when Raskolnikov orders them to leave but Razumikhin refuses, and insists he will forget about his party and stay with Raskolnikov tonight. Raskolnikov informs Dounia, his sister, that he met Luzhin and she must break off the engagement immediately or he will disown her. He is offended that she would throw away her life for his sake. Both Pulkheria Alexandrovna, his mother, and Avdotya Romanovna, his sister, Dounia, are upset because they heard that he already had had a fight with him, which is corroborated by Razumikhin. The women leave Raskolnikov's wretched rathole of an apartment to return to their almost as wretched hotel room (courtesy of Luzhin, Dounia' s fiance) with Razumikhin accompanying them.
Part 3; Chapter 1
(pages 166 - 177)
Raskolnikov's mother and sister are worried about his behavior and his appearance. An argument arises when Raskolnikov orders them to leave but Razumikhin refuses, and insists he will forget about his party and stay with Raskolnikov tonight. Raskolnikov informs Dounia, his sister, that he met Luzhin and she must break off the engagement immediately or he will disown her. He is offended that she would throw away her life for his sake. Both Pulkheria Alexandrovna, his mother, and Avdotya Romanovna, his sister, Dounia, are upset because they heard that he already had had a fight with him, which is corroborated by Razumikhin. The women leave Raskolnikov's wretched rathole of an apartment to return to their almost as wretched hotel room (courtesy of Luzhin, Dounia' s fiance) with Razumikhin accompanying them.
Razumikhin tells the women it is better to tell your own lies than somebody else’s truth and that someone may stumble through fourteen lies before he lands on the truth. Razumikhin reveals that he is utterly disgusted with Luzhin for he speaks other men's lies, thinking that they are truths and that people will be fooled into thinking he is cleverer than he is. Razumikhin thinks Luzhin is not worthy of Dounia.
Razumikhin, quite drunk and rattling off the most bizarre things, stands with Dounia and Pulkheria on the stairs painfully squeezing their hands with passion - he is, after all, quite drunk. But not so drunk that he fails to notice how beautiful and strong and intelligent Dounia is. He falls in love with Dounia. He tells them that after he escorts them back to their hotel room, he will run back to check on Raskolnikov, then run back to tell them how he is doing, and then get Zosimov to check on him - again. Razumikhin falls to his knees on the sidewalk and vows his absolute love for the both of them, Dounia and her mother, Pulkheria.
Razumikhin fulfills the promise he made to Raskolnikov's family - he checks on Raskolnikov, reports back, and then has Zosimov check on him and report back. Apparently, in his wild, big hearted way Razumikhin has flirted outrageously and made promises to Raskolnikov's landlady a nice enough lady in her forties, who has taken him up on his flirtations. But now that Razumikhin is wildly, madly, passionately in love with Dounia, Razumikhin is trying to palm her off on Zosimov.
Part Three, Chapter 2
(Pages 177 - 187)
Razumikhin grows suspicious of Raskolnikov's behavior
Arrest of one of the painters for murder
Letter from Luzhin has arrived
The point of view has shifted to Razumikhin who has awakened from a night of fantastic dreams, the content of which we may speculate having something to do with the lovely Dounia. Thinking that the realization of such fantasies is certainly impossible, Razumikhin shakes himself awake and is immediately embarrassed by the memories of his drunken and flamboyant behavior in front of the lovely Dounia. Contrast his behavior with that of Raskolnikov's. Razumikhin castigates himself for his ill behavior the night before, and tries to give others the benefit of the doubt - "(he)....abuse[d] her fiance (Luzhin) in front of her, out of stupidity and hastily conceived jealousy, when he knew nothing of their relationship...And what right had he to condemn him so harshly and rashly? Who had appointed him judge?... such a being as Avdotya Romanovana was not capable of giving herself to an unworthy man for money(?) Therefore there must be some worth in him...."
Raskolnikov, so far, has never blamed himself for his behavior nor has he ever given anybody the benefit of the doubt, but has treated everyone with the same level of contempt.
Razumikhin rises and dresses himself with great care, paying particular attention to his personal attire and toilet, telling himself that he should not offend other people's sensibilities- especially when they need his help. Contrast this with Raskolnikov who hasn't bathed, wears filthy rags, and does not accept help but only gives help erratically and spontaneously and then immediately regrets it.
As he dresses, Razumikhin frets about his past and how, as he adds up his qualities and deficits, they pale beside the lovely Dounia. Zosimov, the doctor, who also has spent the night at Raskolnikov's squalid dump, hears Razumikhin's monologue and reminds him that, in addition to his many other social gaffes the night before, he brought up the question of Raskolnikov's mental state in front of his mother and sister. The two men discuss the question of Raskolnikov's behavior, citing his illness, the rude behavior of the police at the precinct as reasons for his outburst. Zosimov reveals that Zametov blabbed about his bizarre encounter with Raskolnikov in the tavern not only with him and Razumikhin but also to Porfiry, the detective.
Later that morning, as the trio, Razumikhin with Dounia and Pulkheria, climb the stairs to Raskolnikov's ratty hovel, there are a pair of lively black eyes peering at them through the half open door of the landlady's flat. When their eyes meet, the door is slammed with a resounding thud. This carries the motif of peering, intruding eyes in the story. Remember the distrustful eyes of the pawnbroker and the eyes of Raskolnikov as he stands on the other side of the door as the two men shake the latched door of the pawnbroker's flat?
Part 3; Chapter 3
Pages 188 - 199
The trio reach their destination, Raskolnikov's wretched apartment, to find the patient in much better physical condition, but he is still cross, defensive, touchy and easy to offend. Zosimov, the doctor, begins to hold forth on his patient and uses the word "deranged" which unsettles Raskolnikov's family. The doctor advances theories that Raskolnikov's illness had been coming on for at least three months, and that it began when he dropped out of school, that he needs concentrated goals to live for, and that it is absolutely necessary that he remove the fixed radical causes that have deteriorated his mental and physical state. Zosimov is also smitten by the beauty of the women in Raskolnikov's family and has become quite taken with his own brilliance, offering sage advice and theories about his family, only to finally notice that the subject of all his brilliant observations is smiling at him with a mocking look.
Uncharacteristically, Raskolnikov admits that he has no idea how he can pay him for all the medical help Zosimov has given him. He even goes so far as to acknowledge Razumikhin's kindness as well, which Razumikhin misterprets as Raskolnikov being sentimental. Dounia, not being drunk and having a more penetrating mind than Razumikhin, clearly sees that her brother is being the very opposite of sentimental - he is being harshly realistic.
Zosimov, with grand generosity, says that young doctors at the beginning of their careers love their patients like their own children and tells Raskolniknov not to worry about the debt, and Razumikhin, for his part, also proclaims his love for his friend. Raskolnikov seems genuinely puzzled by the love and generosity of the two men, particularly considering how rude and insulting he has been to them. This love seems to challenge his views on the nature of men and has left him confused and baffled. He is having a difficult time reconciling his intellectual ideas about the world and the rich, messy, surprising complexity of the world as it really exists. Here, Dostoevsky is showing there is no synthesis between the world as it really is and the ideas and theories touted by would-be intellectuals.
The meeting between Raskolnikov and his mother, Pulkheria, and his sister, Dounia, is stilted and strained by Pulkheria's maternal desire to hold her son and her fear of his irritation that would provoke. Raskolnikov's mother, overwhelmed with love and concern for her son and appalled by the state of his clothes, timidly expresses concern for her son's appearance and behavior. Raskolnikov refers to the blood on his clothes and that he forgot to tell Nastasya to "wash the blood out" (unconscious self damnation) but when questioned about the blood, he says he helped a man yesterday who had been run over - Marmeladov. Raskolnikov says that he remembers perfectly well everything he did; it is the why of his actions he has a hard time understanding, which probably refers to his reasons for the murders. Zosimov, the doctor, comments that in certain morbid states, the patient can perform actions perfectly but the reasons for doing the actions are unclear, which prompts Raskolnikov to think ruefully to himself that it is a good thing Zosimov more or less considers him mad.
Zosimov dangles his favorite word again - deranged - which causes everyone's forehead to wrinkle with worry - when he holds forth that we are all slightly mad. Raskolnikov confesses to his mother that he gave all of her hard earned money to Marmeladov's family which he concedes that he did not have the right to do. When he asks Dounia if she agrees with him that if people are not happy with their lot, then they should die, Dounia snaps, "Certainly not!" Raskolnikov is annoyed by her response and begins to mutter about her "plans" which refer to her impending marriage to Luzhin, and an oblique reference to "stepping over the line which may bring even greater unhappiness" - which refers to his own "stepping over the line" in the commission of the murders. He thinks to himself that it is almost as though his mother and sister are afraid of him - an indication of the huge divide which separates him from others - even those he loves the most. And in what is so typical of human nature, Raskolnikov reflects that he loves his family the most when he sees them the least.
The meeting collapes into uneasy silence which is only broken when Pulheria blurts out that Marfa is dead. Marfa was the wealthy woman who hired Dounia as a live-in governess. There is wild gossip regarding Marfa's relationship with her husband, Svidrigaylov, who beat her and did or did not cause her death. Dounia, for her part, defends Svidrigaylov whom, she claims, was for the most part very patient with her and even perhaps overindulgent for seven years until the end when....he wasn't.
Raskolnikov snaps at his mother for engaging in gossip and then with a twisted smile, asks, "are you all afraid of me, or something?" To which, Dounia replies that as a matter of fact, their mother is quite afraid of him and was crossing herself as she was mounting the stairs. Raskolnikov tries to make amends by saying that there will be plenty of time to talk to each other to their hearts' content when he is suddenly stopped by the enormity of that lie. He will never be able to tell or to explain to them - or to anyone! - what he has done and the gulf that separates him from everybody else widens and threatens to annihilate him. In his confusion and pain, he stands up as if to go and then sits back down again to everyone's perplexity.
In the middle of this awkward social occasion, Zosimov decides to take his leave. Raskolnikov embarrasses his good friend Razumikhin by asking Dounia if she likes him, which she replies that yes, she does. Raskolnikov begins reminiscing about his love for a very plain and sickly girl who died - apparently it is the landlady's daughter to whom he was engaged. But his manner is distracted and vague when he is talking about her.
The state of his room eventually gets to his mother who refers to it as a tomb or a coffin, a resemblance which Raskolnikov can appreciate with irony.
Raskolnikov circles back to the topic of yesterday which is the impending marriage of Dounia to the hateful Luzhin. He is quite adamant about this point - he cannot allow the marriage to go forward for he knows she is sacrificing herself to save him, a charge she vigorously denies, claiming that her life is hard and she is marrying him simply for her own sake. Raskolnikov is provoked, "biting his nails in vicious anger" and rages to himself "Oh, how I hate them all....!" angry and guilt-ridden that his beautiful, brilliant, stubborn sister is sacrificing her life for him. He flashes a bitter, twisted smile which his sister catches. There is a disconnect between his inner self and the outer self, a schism, which in moments where he feels backed into a corner, he will reveal by flashing a mocking, sardonic smile.
Raskolnikov accuses her of selling herself into marriage, which Dounia hotly denies. She asks why he must demand of her a heroism that he himself might not possess. After all, she says, she has not committed murder, a comment which provokes in Raskolnikov a near fainting spell. When he regains himself, Dounia hands him a letter from Luzhin, but as he is about to open it, he suddenly stops himself and as if more to himself than to her, he says that she should marry whomever she chooses. Raskolnikov begins to read the letter and to make snide remarks about Luzhin's writing - "it is pretentious and even illiterate". The letter states that Raskolnikov must not be at the family meeting tomorrow and if he does show, then the marriage is off. Dounia and Pulheria insist that Raskolnikov be present tomorrow despite Luzhin's order. Dounia then turns to Razumikhin and invites him as well, which is a symbolic gesture inviting him into the family.
The meeting between Raskolnikov and his mother, Pulkheria, and his sister, Dounia, is stilted and strained by Pulkheria's maternal desire to hold her son and her fear of his irritation that would provoke. Raskolnikov's mother, overwhelmed with love and concern for her son and appalled by the state of his clothes, timidly expresses concern for her son's appearance and behavior. Raskolnikov refers to the blood on his clothes and that he forgot to tell Nastasya to "wash the blood out" (unconscious self damnation) but when questioned about the blood, he says he helped a man yesterday who had been run over - Marmeladov. Raskolnikov says that he remembers perfectly well everything he did; it is the why of his actions he has a hard time understanding, which probably refers to his reasons for the murders. Zosimov, the doctor, comments that in certain morbid states, the patient can perform actions perfectly but the reasons for doing the actions are unclear, which prompts Raskolnikov to think ruefully to himself that it is a good thing Zosimov more or less considers him mad.
Zosimov dangles his favorite word again - deranged - which causes everyone's forehead to wrinkle with worry - when he holds forth that we are all slightly mad. Raskolnikov confesses to his mother that he gave all of her hard earned money to Marmeladov's family which he concedes that he did not have the right to do. When he asks Dounia if she agrees with him that if people are not happy with their lot, then they should die, Dounia snaps, "Certainly not!" Raskolnikov is annoyed by her response and begins to mutter about her "plans" which refer to her impending marriage to Luzhin, and an oblique reference to "stepping over the line which may bring even greater unhappiness" - which refers to his own "stepping over the line" in the commission of the murders. He thinks to himself that it is almost as though his mother and sister are afraid of him - an indication of the huge divide which separates him from others - even those he loves the most. And in what is so typical of human nature, Raskolnikov reflects that he loves his family the most when he sees them the least.
The meeting collapes into uneasy silence which is only broken when Pulheria blurts out that Marfa is dead. Marfa was the wealthy woman who hired Dounia as a live-in governess. There is wild gossip regarding Marfa's relationship with her husband, Svidrigaylov, who beat her and did or did not cause her death. Dounia, for her part, defends Svidrigaylov whom, she claims, was for the most part very patient with her and even perhaps overindulgent for seven years until the end when....he wasn't.
Raskolnikov snaps at his mother for engaging in gossip and then with a twisted smile, asks, "are you all afraid of me, or something?" To which, Dounia replies that as a matter of fact, their mother is quite afraid of him and was crossing herself as she was mounting the stairs. Raskolnikov tries to make amends by saying that there will be plenty of time to talk to each other to their hearts' content when he is suddenly stopped by the enormity of that lie. He will never be able to tell or to explain to them - or to anyone! - what he has done and the gulf that separates him from everybody else widens and threatens to annihilate him. In his confusion and pain, he stands up as if to go and then sits back down again to everyone's perplexity.
In the middle of this awkward social occasion, Zosimov decides to take his leave. Raskolnikov embarrasses his good friend Razumikhin by asking Dounia if she likes him, which she replies that yes, she does. Raskolnikov begins reminiscing about his love for a very plain and sickly girl who died - apparently it is the landlady's daughter to whom he was engaged. But his manner is distracted and vague when he is talking about her.
The state of his room eventually gets to his mother who refers to it as a tomb or a coffin, a resemblance which Raskolnikov can appreciate with irony.
Raskolnikov circles back to the topic of yesterday which is the impending marriage of Dounia to the hateful Luzhin. He is quite adamant about this point - he cannot allow the marriage to go forward for he knows she is sacrificing herself to save him, a charge she vigorously denies, claiming that her life is hard and she is marrying him simply for her own sake. Raskolnikov is provoked, "biting his nails in vicious anger" and rages to himself "Oh, how I hate them all....!" angry and guilt-ridden that his beautiful, brilliant, stubborn sister is sacrificing her life for him. He flashes a bitter, twisted smile which his sister catches. There is a disconnect between his inner self and the outer self, a schism, which in moments where he feels backed into a corner, he will reveal by flashing a mocking, sardonic smile.
Raskolnikov accuses her of selling herself into marriage, which Dounia hotly denies. She asks why he must demand of her a heroism that he himself might not possess. After all, she says, she has not committed murder, a comment which provokes in Raskolnikov a near fainting spell. When he regains himself, Dounia hands him a letter from Luzhin, but as he is about to open it, he suddenly stops himself and as if more to himself than to her, he says that she should marry whomever she chooses. Raskolnikov begins to read the letter and to make snide remarks about Luzhin's writing - "it is pretentious and even illiterate". The letter states that Raskolnikov must not be at the family meeting tomorrow and if he does show, then the marriage is off. Dounia and Pulheria insist that Raskolnikov be present tomorrow despite Luzhin's order. Dounia then turns to Razumikhin and invites him as well, which is a symbolic gesture inviting him into the family.
Pulkheria says that she does not like this lying and pretending, and that it is better to speak the truth openly - an ironic declaration considering how much her own son is hiding.
Part 3; Chapter 4
Pages 199 - 209
Suddenly, the door opens and a very timid, thin and plainly dressed and perhaps one could say even poorly dressed young girl, hardly more than a child, steps into Raskolnikov's flat. Raskolnikov remembers that he had seen her the day before but in such different circumstances that he didn't recognize her at first. It is Sonia, the prostitute. Conflicting thoughts swirl around in Raskolnikov's mind - he was aware that Dounia and his mother, Pulkheria, knew from Luzhin a little about Sonia's line of work and that just a few moments ago, he was railing against Luzhin for his libellous, scurrilous attacks on Sonia, yet he did not breath a word of defense against the words - "notoriously ill-conducted" - used by Luzhin to describe her, and he himself had insisted that he had only met her once before. All these thoughts swirl around in his head, yet when he sees how humbled, how beaten down, how frightened she is - she bows her head in shame in the presence of these respectable women and almost bolts from the room - Raskolnilov is so moved to pity that he immediately asks her to have a seat with his family.
Perhaps we cannot appreciate how audacious an act of impropriety it is to seat a known prostitute with one's mother and sister, but in the 1800's it would be considered very disrespectful to one's family. Sonia, all too aware of the impropriety, does not know how she could possibly sit down with these ladies, and shaking with fear and embarrassment, springs up again. With bowed head she tells Raskolnikov that Katerina has sent her to invite him to Marmeladov's funeral and to the wake at her flat right after. Raskolnikov, his eyes burning, shudders, and asks her again to sit down and says that he will certainly go. He introduces Sonia to his mother and sister in an almost challenging way, daring them to say a word against her, but the women only study her with interest.
Sonia reveals that they were left alone by the police for it was very obvious what had happened - Marmeladov was drunk, fell in front of the carriage and was killed. It was clearly all Marmeladov's fault and the rich owner of the carriage is absolved of any responsibility. However, the body must be removed immediately to the chapel for the neighbors are beginning to complain of the smell - it is after all very hot....
Sonia thanks Raskolnikov for his money for without his help she doesn't know what they would have done. They are going to use his money, she reveals, to pay for a dinner for the mourners and more importantly, the neighbors - probably not the best use of a destitute family's money. As she speaks, Raskolnikov studies Sonia's face and realizes that although she is eighteen she looks hardly older than a child, and although she could not be described as pretty, her smile is so good hearted that one is charmed by her.
Raskolnikov notices that Sonia is nervously looking about the room and he makes the joke that his mother refers to his home as a coffin - a fitting and ironic metaphor to describe his life. He is a murderer of two women and his guilt has made his mind as restricted and claustrophobic as a coffin. The point of view shifts again and Dostoevsky allows us to hear what Sonia is thinking as she is glancing around the room - she is shocked by Raskolnikov's poverty. The words, "You gave us all you had!" are torn from her and she is so moved by his generosity that she begins to cry. Her outburst moves Dounia and Pulkheria to compassion and they smile at her with kindness.
The women, Dounia and Pulkheria, bidding their adieux to Raskolnikov, and making Razumikhin promise that he will have dinner with them soon, prepare to leave. Pulkheria does not bow to Sonia on her way out; however, tall, beautiful Dounia makes a deep and magnificent bow - the significance of this bow cannot be underestimated. A respectable but ordinary woman would bolt from the room shocked and offended by the presence of a prostitute and would never extend the courtesy of a bow. Yet Dounia bows to her, showing her respect and acceptance. This unexpected kindness and regard confuse Sonia, creating in her feelings almost of torment and oppression.
After they leave, Raskolnikov turns to Sonia and in a serene mood, says,"Heaven rest the dead, but the living must live!" Sonia watches him and remembers all that her father had said about him. But Dostoevsky draws a curtain on what her father told her, forcing us, the readers, to speculate what was said.
The point of view changes again, and we watch mother and daughter quarreling about Rodya (Raskolnikov). Pulkheria exclaims that she's relieved to leave her son's hot, squalid flat. Dounia cautions that Raskolnikov is still ill and that "allowances must be made" - in other words, give him the benefit of the doubt or give him a break. Pulkheria hotly shoots back that she doesn't give her any allowances, and that she is just like her brother - moody and impulsive, arrogant yet generous. Then, Pulkheria worries about what's going to happen at the meeting tonight between them, Raskolnikov and Luzhin, and what will happen to them if Raskolnikov annoys him and the marriage is called off.
Pulkheria brings up the issue of Sonia and with a mother's sharp intuition senses that she will figure importantly in Raskolnikov's life, a presentiment that Dounia immediately dismisses. It is ironic that the mother does not trust the most innocent person in the room but fails to see the moral bankruptcy of her own son. When the mother unwisely brings up the nasty things Luzhin has written about the girl, Dounia retorts that people have written nasty things about them too (remember Marfa?) and then snaps that Peter Petrovich (Luzhin) is a wretched scandal-monger, which causes
her mother to wince.
The point of view shifts to Raskolnikov's flat and the conversation between Raskolnikov and Razumikhin. Sonia is still there and is about to leave to give the two men privacy to talk but Raskolnikov asks her to stay for there are no secrets between them. Raskolnikov brings up Porfiry Petrovich, the lead investigator of Lizaveta's and the pawnbroker's murders, who is also related to Razumikhin. Raskolnikov says that he knows Porfiry has been questioning people who have left pledges with the pawnbrother, and he reveals that he had two pledges with Alyona before she died - a ring from his sister and a watch from his father. He is concerned that his mother will ask about the watch at dinner tonight (probably just a ploy to find out if Razumikhin knows anything and/or what he thinks would be the best way to handle his relative) and asks Razumikhin if he should go in and talk to Porfiry before he is summoned about the pledges. Razumikhin thinks it is a splendid idea! And is strangely pleased to find out that Raskolnikov knew the wretched old woman.
As they leave Raskolnikov makes plans to call on Sonia later that day. He becomes excited and has an intense desire only to stare in the calm blue of Sonia's eyes, which only embarrasses and confuses Sonia. As they leave, he asks Sonia whether she turns to the right to go home - a question that will come up later.
A fellow walks past and overhears the conversation of the departing threesome. He pricks up his ears at Sonia's words, "But where does Mr. Raskolnikov leave?" And gives a searching look at all three people, particularly Raskolnikov, and the residence. The man does all this in a moment and walks past; then turning his steps he begins to follow Sonia around the corner to her house. Sonia is in a state of confusion - she has never felt this way before - and optimism - she feels that a whole new world has risen indistinct before her eyes - and embarrassment when she remembers Raskolnikov is coming to visit her in her apartment today. She inwardly pleads like a small child, "Oh, please, not today" - embarrassed that he will see the place where she takes her clients.
She is so wrapped in thought she does not notice the well dressed man following her. He is about fifty, though he appears much younger, solidly built, thick blond hair and cold, watchful eyes. It is not until she arrives at her flat that he catches up to her and speaks. It appears that he lives in the same building as she. His peculiar gaiety seems strange to Sonia and she ducks into her apartment feeling ashamed and timid.
The scene shifts to Raskolnikov and Razumikhin making their way now to see Porfiry, the investigator. Raskolnikov begins to ask Razumikhin questions about his relative. Razumikhin describes him as brilliant, peculiar, sceptical and cynical. Porfiry likes to "baffle people", Razumikhin continues, he likes to "play with their minds". Last year, he cracked a cold case that everyone else had dismissed as impossible to solve. This description of Porfiry, brilliant, crafty and eccentric, intrigues Raskolnikov who hits upon the idea to throw Porfiry off the scent by walking into his office laughing and joking. He begins to tease Razumikhin about his crush on Dounia which is designed to infuriate Razumikhin. The more he teases him, the more annoyed Razumikhin gets and the more Raskolnilov laughs - all designed to present to the brilliant investigator an image of him as an innocent man who has a clear conscience. By the time they reach the office, Raskolnikov, brilliant strategist and actor that he is, is genuinely laughing at Razumikhin's fuming annoyance. Thus begins a cat and mouse game between the brilliant criminal and the equally brilliant crime investigator.
Part 3; Chapter 5
The Meeting Between Raskoknikov and Porfiry
This chapter marks the first meeting between Raskolnikov and Porfiry. As Raskolnilov makes his carefully contrived entrance into Porfiry's office, he is suffused with laughter at Razumikhin's discomfiture about his teasing. The two men make markedly different entrances, Raskolnikov laughing hysterically at Razumikhin, and Razumikhin, red faced with embarrassment, stumbling along, lanky and gangly, which bring into high relief the differences between the two, each a foil to the other. Raskolnikov, the hunted murderer, is laughing easily and teasing another affectionately; Razumikhin, the love-struck innocent, is shame-faced and shambling. To add to the comedy, Razumikhin careens against a delicate table on which sits a glass of tea, toppling both to the floor with a crash. Porfiry meanwhile gazes on this chaos with a cheerful smile and a good natured laugh.
In the corner, however, Raskolnikov notices with an inside scowl that Zametov is sitting in the corner observing this scene. He thinks to himself with cold calculation, "I'll have to take that into consideration too!" Razumikhin steps forward, addressing Zametov as an old friend, and inquiring what brings him here to Porfiry's office - apparently, he had been badgering Razumikhin to meet Porfiry which he had done at last night's party without Razumikhin being aware of it - perhaps Razumikhin was too drunk or preoccupied with Dounia to notice.
This bit of information - that Porfiry and Zametov have met and perhaps discussed the case and even compared notes - displease Raskolnikov greatly. Here's another unexpected thing he will have to deal with.
Porfiry is an odd looking man - he has the short, squat body of a peasant woman, but with a large head which bulges in the back as if swollen. He is thirty-five, clean-shaven, wearing a dressing gown and well worn slippers, but notice that his linen (his shirt, cuffs, collar and cravat) is immaculate. But it is his eyes that are worth noting - they are unsettling - they are watery with white eyelashes, and they twitch continually as if they were winking. It is the glance of those eyes which make him look much more formidable than first thought.
Porfiry and Raskolnikov begin their business meeting regarding the pledges, his father's silver watch and his sister's ring, that were left unclaimed at Alyona's apartment. Raskolnikov irritatedly notices that Razumikhin is watching this as if it were a spectator sport, like a tennis match, with his head and eyes swinging back and forth like a pendulum, and he silently curses him for a fool. Porfiry never once takes his gaze off Raskolnikov which he finds a little unsettling, but Raskolnikov does not lose his cool. Porfiry states he can write out a letter stating the articles are his and then pay to get them out of hock, but Raskolnikov, trying to SEEM as embarrassed as possible, replies he does not have the funds to retrieve them at the present time. Porfiry turns chilly and then quite unexpectedly in response to a simple question, winks with an openly mocking expression. Raskolnikov is immediately thrown into confusion by the wink - did he just wink at me, or not? Then the thought flashes through Raskolnikov's mind," He knows!"
Razumikhin butts in that Raskolnikov was beside himself last night when he heard that Porfiry was interviewing people who had outstanding pledges with Alyona, the pawnbroker. Trying to restrain his anger at his too helpful friend, Raskolnikov deflects Razumikhin by attributing his panic over the pledges to his mother's silly sentimental and utterly womanish concern over trifles - like his father's silver watch, the only thing he has left from his estate. Again, Raskolnikov, in a brilliant tour de force performance of acting and improvisation, makes up a story that he is concerned his mother will ask him about the family heirlooms.
Porfiry turns his attention to Razumikhin, the bull in the china closet, who is now scattering cigarette ash all over the carpeting. Raskolnikov wonders aloud how Porfiry knew the heirlooms belonged to him, to which Porfiry easily responds with almost perceptible mockery that he was the only one who HADN'T claimed his items. Raskolnikov claims he has been ill. When Porfiry comments that he had heard that and even now he is looking pale, Raskolnikov breaks into a rage denying it. Razumikhin chimes in again that he has indeed been very ill and even last night had sneaked out and was running around in a delirium until midnight. Not very helpful information for Raskolnikov, who is now seething inside with almost uncontrollable rage.
Part 3; Chapter 5
The Meeting Between Raskoknikov and Porfiry
This chapter marks the first meeting between Raskolnikov and Porfiry. As Raskolnilov makes his carefully contrived entrance into Porfiry's office, he is suffused with laughter at Razumikhin's discomfiture about his teasing. The two men make markedly different entrances, Raskolnikov laughing hysterically at Razumikhin, and Razumikhin, red faced with embarrassment, stumbling along, lanky and gangly, which bring into high relief the differences between the two, each a foil to the other. Raskolnikov, the hunted murderer, is laughing easily and teasing another affectionately; Razumikhin, the love-struck innocent, is shame-faced and shambling. To add to the comedy, Razumikhin careens against a delicate table on which sits a glass of tea, toppling both to the floor with a crash. Porfiry meanwhile gazes on this chaos with a cheerful smile and a good natured laugh.
In the corner, however, Raskolnikov notices with an inside scowl that Zametov is sitting in the corner observing this scene. He thinks to himself with cold calculation, "I'll have to take that into consideration too!" Razumikhin steps forward, addressing Zametov as an old friend, and inquiring what brings him here to Porfiry's office - apparently, he had been badgering Razumikhin to meet Porfiry which he had done at last night's party without Razumikhin being aware of it - perhaps Razumikhin was too drunk or preoccupied with Dounia to notice.
This bit of information - that Porfiry and Zametov have met and perhaps discussed the case and even compared notes - displease Raskolnikov greatly. Here's another unexpected thing he will have to deal with.
Porfiry is an odd looking man - he has the short, squat body of a peasant woman, but with a large head which bulges in the back as if swollen. He is thirty-five, clean-shaven, wearing a dressing gown and well worn slippers, but notice that his linen (his shirt, cuffs, collar and cravat) is immaculate. But it is his eyes that are worth noting - they are unsettling - they are watery with white eyelashes, and they twitch continually as if they were winking. It is the glance of those eyes which make him look much more formidable than first thought.
Porfiry and Raskolnikov begin their business meeting regarding the pledges, his father's silver watch and his sister's ring, that were left unclaimed at Alyona's apartment. Raskolnikov irritatedly notices that Razumikhin is watching this as if it were a spectator sport, like a tennis match, with his head and eyes swinging back and forth like a pendulum, and he silently curses him for a fool. Porfiry never once takes his gaze off Raskolnikov which he finds a little unsettling, but Raskolnikov does not lose his cool. Porfiry states he can write out a letter stating the articles are his and then pay to get them out of hock, but Raskolnikov, trying to SEEM as embarrassed as possible, replies he does not have the funds to retrieve them at the present time. Porfiry turns chilly and then quite unexpectedly in response to a simple question, winks with an openly mocking expression. Raskolnikov is immediately thrown into confusion by the wink - did he just wink at me, or not? Then the thought flashes through Raskolnikov's mind," He knows!"
Razumikhin butts in that Raskolnikov was beside himself last night when he heard that Porfiry was interviewing people who had outstanding pledges with Alyona, the pawnbroker. Trying to restrain his anger at his too helpful friend, Raskolnikov deflects Razumikhin by attributing his panic over the pledges to his mother's silly sentimental and utterly womanish concern over trifles - like his father's silver watch, the only thing he has left from his estate. Again, Raskolnikov, in a brilliant tour de force performance of acting and improvisation, makes up a story that he is concerned his mother will ask him about the family heirlooms.
Porfiry turns his attention to Razumikhin, the bull in the china closet, who is now scattering cigarette ash all over the carpeting. Raskolnikov wonders aloud how Porfiry knew the heirlooms belonged to him, to which Porfiry easily responds with almost perceptible mockery that he was the only one who HADN'T claimed his items. Raskolnikov claims he has been ill. When Porfiry comments that he had heard that and even now he is looking pale, Raskolnikov breaks into a rage denying it. Razumikhin chimes in again that he has indeed been very ill and even last night had sneaked out and was running around in a delirium until midnight. Not very helpful information for Raskolnikov, who is now seething inside with almost uncontrollable rage.
Zametov continues sitting in the corner watching Raskolnikov which sets his teeth on edge. Raskolnikov brings up the incident last night at Alyona's flat, saying he had gone there with quite a bit of money to find rooms where his annoying friends (read Razumikhin) could not find him. He mentions that he ran into Zametov and referring to the conversation he had with him, asks him if he had seemed in his right mind then. Raskolnikov coyly tosses off a little joke that perhaps he had found a treasure some where that Razumikhin did not know about. It seems as if he is again playing a high stakes game with Porfiry, openly making self incriminating admissions that might provoke suspicion.
When Porfiry lets it drop that the police clerk, Nikodim Fomich, had run into him at Marmeladov's apartment after the terrible accident, Raskolnikov is thrown into a rage, thinking that the police are openingly mocking him. They seem to know everything he has done, everywhere he has gone within the last few days. He is on the verge of showing his contempt for them by confessing to the murders, but a frightening thought occurs - what if this is all his imagination? What if he is delusional? Once again, Raskolnikov is suffering a schism between thought and emotion. He is not certain if he is interpreting reality correctly and this lack of faith in his perceptions is making him act irrationally. If these are delusions, then they are crippling him and endangering his safety. This is not how an ubermensch behaves.
The conversation turns to last night's topic at Razumikhin's party - is there or is there not such a thing as crime? Razumikhin openly ridicules the notions of the French Utopian Socialists (Faurier) who believe that "crime is a protest against the unnatural structure of society" and that criminal behavior is the result of the deleterious effects of a bad environment. (Porfiry, interestingly, does not seem to agree with Razumikhin.) Razumikhin rails against the French socialists' views of the perfect society where everything is perfectly organized - the rooms, the buildings, ect., but there is no room for the soul, and for the huge messiness that is life. His argument is that human nature cannot be changed and thousands of years of history prove that, which is why the French socialists hate history so much - it disproves their theory that human nature can be controlled and perfected if the environment is controlled and perfected.
This is a nature versus nurture argument which is still going on today. Most sociologists and psychiatrists today believe that both nature and nurture combine to create a human being with her personality, her intelligence, her talents, abilities, and deficits. The discussion in the Twenty-First Century centers on whether nature or nurture has the larger effect on, say, intelligence (a very controversial subject) or the development of the personality. If one's intelligence is set in stone at birth and cannot be developed with education, then what is the point of public education? If however, intelligence is totally the result of the environment, then low academic performance must be blamed on bad parenting, society and schools. Most agree that both nature (genes/what one inherits from one's parents) and nurture (environment as defined by such things as parenting, home life, education, exposure to culture, etc.) play major roles in the development of the human being, but the disagreement lies in the percentage that each plays in the development.
A hypothetical situation is introduced by Razumikhin (continued from last night's party) in which a forty five year old man assaults a ten year old little girl - is that a case of the environment causing the man to commit the assault? Porfiry answers with astonishing authority that yes, the assault could be the result of the environment, which sends Razumikhin into a rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth fit.
Razumikhin's passionate outburst provokes laughter in Porfiry. Razumikhin mentions again Porfiry's perversity - telling his friends for months that he was going to enter a monastery - and didn't; then later, telling them he was getting married when he wasn't even engaged.
This provides Porfiry the perfect opportunity to offhandedly remark that he had read and enjoyed Raskolnikov's article about criminal behavior, a comment which catches him off-guard. It appears that Porfiry knows more about Raskolnikov's life than he does - that the article he had written for one journal was actually printed in another journal a few months ago.
The discussion then turns to an analysis of Raskolnikov's ideas outlined in his article. Porfiry briefly touches on his statement that criminal behavior is accompanied by morbid conditions but then turns his full attention on Raskolnikov's thesis that the world is divided into two categories - the ordinary people, the herd, the slaves - and the extraordinary, the masters. To the extraordinary, to the master class, all things are permitted. The laws that govern the herd, the slaves, are not for the masters. It is the masters who have the right to make the laws, to impose the laws and to sweep away all the laws that do not suit them. (You may want to refer to the handouts on Nietzsche that were given to you about a month ago which lay out much of this theory.) These laws created by the master class may be salutary to the rest of humanity, but not necessarily.
Raskolnikov states that the master class has the right to step over, to transgress laws which govern the ordinary. The Russian title of CRIME and PUNISHMENT has the word "transgress" or step over which suggests that an action has crossed the boundaries of moral behavior. Several times in the novel there are references to a character "stepping over a line, or transgressing - Raskolnikov says this to Dounia and later to Sonia, that both of them have crossed the line of acceptable human behavior and it is this transgression that binds them as kindred spirits.
Raskolnikov gives as an example that if the development or dissemination of Newton's (or Kepler's) scientific ideas had been hampered or obstructed by one, or ten, or hundreds or many more people, than Newton would have had a perfect right - even an obligation - to destroy any one or any number of people who stood in his way of his brilliant achievement.
Raskolnikov makes the point that the great law givers, Mohammed, Napoleon, were transgressors in their day for they swept aside the ancient laws that were in place at that time.
These great law givers were seen as rebels and common criminals in the beginning of their careers, and were - by necessity - blood thirsty, for their sweeping away of ancient and revered laws laid down by honored fathers met with great resistance from society. Raskolnikov maintains that these masters are by their very nature incapable of running along the same rut as the herd and must assert their will, their dominance and as a result are always very violent.
Raskolnikov states the world is divided into roughly two divisions with many subdivisions within the groups which he will not bother to explain. The first group, Raskolnikov continues, has the primary duty of reproduction of its own kind. The second group, the master class, is composed of the law givers and the transgressors, those who sweep away the existing laws (that were imposed by other masters long ago) in favor of new and better things. But if it is necessary that the fulfillment of his ideas must involve the shedding of blood and the stepping over of thousands of corpses, then - so be it!
He then tells his listeners not to worry, that many times the masses, failing to see or understand the master vision or are afraid of the master vision, rush forward to hang or behead the transgressor. In this way, the masses are fulfilling their conservative function - which is to conserve the present state or status quo. Eventually the very people who were denounced as scandals and were hanged as traitors are, a few years later, resurrected and hailed as visionaries, geniuses, and saviors. The very places they were hanged are now where monuments are built to honor their names. The first group, the slaves, the masses, the herd, are always the rulers of the present (for they conserve the past and the status quo) and the second group, the ubermensch, the masters, the extraordinary, are the lords of the future for they sweep away the past. The first group, the ordinary, preserve the world and multiply, and the extraordinary move the world and guide it to a goal. Raskolnikov holds that each group is absolutely necessary in their function for this creates a tension which holds society together.
Porfiry asks him if he believes in God and does he believe in Lazarus? To both questions, Raskolnikov answers yes. (Lazarus is the story of the man who died and was brought back to life by Christ.) He is then asked if he believes in the new Jerusalem, a symbol of the ideal, perfect society - which occurs after the end of time when there is a heaven on earth presided over by Christ.
Porfiry asks a rather snarky question about distinguishing these special people from the others - aren't there portents or signs to herald their coming? Couldn't they wear special clothing or carry a special brand or something so we will know who they are? And what about those people who are mistaken? Those who think they are special, but are not and go around acting as if they are and killing people? What about them? Raskolnikov notes that his question was even more perceptive than the first, to which Porfiry responds with a very polite "Thank you."
(Raskolnikov either doesn't get Porfiry's sarcasm or chooses to ignore it.) But Raskolnikov does have an answer and that is of course there are a few ordinary people who, through some perverse streak, think they are special but they are not. However, he tells Porfiry not to worry about them for they are of no consequence for they will either be killed and forgotten or killed by some other delusional fool or will be killed by their own hands. That, Raskolnikov tells Porfiry, is the law of nature.
He also says that these men will impose on themselves various public penances (they will give themselves their own "come-uppance" in public or publicly humiliate themselves as punishment) which are beautifully edifying. Pay attention to this - could this perhaps be foreshadowing?
Raskolnikov believes there is some law of nature, unknown at the present, which creates one person in a thousand to stand on his own feet, one in ten thousand with a little more independence, one in a million who is a genius and one in many millions who is the crowning jewel of all men. He does not believe these people are a result of chance.
The point of view shifts to Razumikhin who is upset by Raskolnikov's views but at that moment, finds Raskolnikov's calm, melancholic face contrasting strangely with the obtrusive, aggressive face of Porfiry. He finds most distasteful Raskolnikov's belief that the ubermensch has the moral obligation and permission to shed blood.
Porfiry comes up with a hypothetical situation about a young man fancying himself an ubermensche and resorting to crime to finance his mission, his moral campaign - what then? Raskolnikov replies that there will always be fools who act in that manner - he is not to blame. Society has its methods of punishment. Find the thief and murderer (of Alyona) and punish him.
Porfiry asks about the murderer's conscience, to which he replies that it is of no concern of the police. But for the sake of his humanity, Porfiry persists. Razumikhin asks that for those who have been granted the right to spill blood, surely they ought not to suffer at all? Raskolnikov states that there is no "ought to at all" but that "suffering and pain are always obligatory on those of wide intellect and profound feeling." Truly great men must experience truly great suffering, Raskolnikov says to himself. He smiles pensively, looks up at the men in the room and takes his cap as if to go.
Porfiry stops him with a question - while he was writing the article, did he perhaps consider himself an ubermensche, the genesis of a new idea? Raskolnilov answers bluntly, yes, he did. Porfiry then asks one last, deadly question. If you decided you were an ubermensche, of reduced circumstances, indeed of embarrassingly reduced circumstances, and lacking in some worldly success, and you wanted to commit some act for the betterment of humanity, would you, for instance, kill and steal? And then Porfiry seems to wink and laugh noiselessly as before. Raskolnikov answers with disdain that if that were true he certainly would not tell him.
Porfiry laughs that everyone in Russia thinks that they are Napoleon. Zametov from the corner suddenly blurts that wasn't it some sort of a Napoleon who took the axe to dispatch our Alyona the Pawnbroker?
This is met with bleak silence and then Porfiry, responding with effusive amiability, once again refers to the reason for the meeting - the pledges and then says that since he was the LAST ONE THERE, perhaps he could help with some information.
As Raskolnikov and Razumikhin are leaving, Porfiry asks a question regarding the day of the murder - a question designed to trip up the suspected murderer. He asks Raskolnikov if he were there between seven and eight and did he see either one or both of the painters working in the flat below Alyona's? He urges him to remember for it's very important to them for it will clear them of the murders. Raskolnikov is furiously racking his brain to figure out where Porfiry's hidden trap lies. He answers slowly as if he is trying to cudgel his memory. He says he remembers a clerk moving from the flat opposite Alyona's and that he was squeezed against the wall by a sofa being carried out by some soldiers, but painters? No, he didn't see any. Suddenly, Razumikkhin explodes with excitement - the painters were there on the day of the murders and Raskolnikov was there three days earlier, so of course, he wouldn't have seen the painters.
Porfiry apologizes profusely, excusing the question by "this business is driving me out of my senses!" He ushers Raskolnikov and Razumikhin out of his office with extreme politeness. The men step into the street, sullen and silent. Raskolnikov draws a deep breath. Was he thinking, "That was a close call!"
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