CRIME AND PUNISHMENT – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

PART ONE

Summary: Chapter I
A young man leaves his boardinghouse room on an uncomfortably hot summer’s day in St. Petersburg. As he descends
the steps, he is overcome with a dread of meeting his landlady, who lives on the floor below. He owes her several
months’ rent and recoils at the thought of having to make excuses to her. The narrator states that this young man “had
fallen into a state of nervous depression akin to hypochondria” and so avoids contact with other people. As he leaves
the boardinghouse, the young man turns his thoughts to an extreme, though unspecified, act that he is thinking about
committing. He considers himself incapable of the act—if he lacks the stomach even to face his landlady, it seems
impossible that he would ever go through with the deed that he now mulls. The narrator identifies the young man as
the protagonist (“our hero”) and describes him as tall and handsome, with “dark auburn hair and fine dark eyes.”
The young man wears ridiculously tattered clothes, but he is so contemptuous of the people who live in his wretched
neighborhood—which is filthy and populated with drunks, prostitutes, and tradesmen—that he feels no embarrassment
about his shoddy appearance. He walks along in a trancelike state, thinking over his awful plan, again considering the
idea and then dismissing it. The narrator informs us that, over the last month, the young man has grown increasingly
serious about taking action, even though the idea of doing so has disturbed and troubled him. At this particular
moment, he is in the middle of a “rehearsal” of the act. He arrives at the apartment house of Alyona Ivanovna, a
pawnbroker. As he walks up the stairs to her apartment, he carefully observes the building and its inhabitants in
connection with his plan. He introduces himself to the pawnbroker, whom he had first met a month earlier, as a
student, and we learn that the young man’s name is Raskolnikov. The pawnbroker is an unattractive, shabbily dressed
old woman who is suspicious, crude, and has “eyes sparkling with malice.”
Though the apartment’s furnishings are old and ugly, Raskolnikov notices that they are immaculately clean, thanks to
the hard work of the old woman’s younger sister, Lizaveta. The pawnbroker treats the young man rudely, reminding
him of the money that he already owes her and offering him a small, inadequate sum for a watch that he now offers
her. Raskolnikov grudgingly accepts the money, remembering that his purpose is twofold, as he is both pawning the
watch for much-needed money and rehearsing the crime that he may commit. He observes that the old woman keeps
her money and “pledges,” or pawned items, in a chest in a back room and her keys on a ring in her right pocket. Before
leaving, he tells her that he will return in a few days with another pledge and asks whether Lizaveta is usually at home
at that time. Once outside, Raskolnikov is physically overcome with disgust at his plan and renounces it. Filled with a
sudden thirst for alcohol, he descends into a tavern for the first time in his life and sits in a dark corner. After drinking
a beer, he feels much better and again scoffs at his plan.

Summary: Chapter II
Inside the tavern, Raskolnikov meets a drunk man who looks like a retired government official. The man’s physical
appearance has obviously suffered as a result of his habitual drinking. Although his clothes are tattered, he manages to
convey an air of dignity and education. Despite the jeers of the tavern’s patrons and staff, the man proceeds to tell his
life story to Raskolnikov. He is a self-professed drunkard married to a proud woman of noble background, Katerina
Ivanovna. She married him out of desperation after a bad first marriage that resulted in three children and her
disinheritance. The man, whose name is Marmeladov, has a daughter of his own, named Sonya, who has been forced to
prostitute herself to support her family. Recently, Marmeladov managed to regain a job in the civil service, raising the
hopes of his wife, but he lost the job in a fit of drunkenness and has not dared return home for five days. Throughout
his story, Marmeladov alternates between self-reproach and justification of his behavior. He leaves the tavern for his
home, taking Raskolnikov with him. The nearby Marmeladov household is a scene of misery. Though no older than
thirty, Katerina is sickly and agitated. Upon seeing Marmeladov, she grabs him by the hair and loudly criticizes him.
Other tenants arrive to mock the family squabble, and the landlady orders Katerina to move out. As Raskolnikov
departs, he leaves the family a small amount of money, something he promptly regrets doing. He holds the
Marmeladovs in disdain, especially for forcing Sonya to sacrifice herself for their sake.

Summary: Chapter III

The next morning, Raskolnikov, in his room, is awakened by the maid, Nastasya, who brings him tea and soup and a
letter from his mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna. Nastasya tells him that the landlady wants to evict him for not paying
rent. In the letter, his mother relates the experience of his sister, Dunya, as a maid. Dunya was trying to earn money
to help support Raskolnikov but her employer, Svidrigailov, made improper advances toward her and her reputation in
the town was nearly ruined. She has now accepted a proposal of marriage from a man named Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin,
who wants to marry her because she is poor and thus will regard him as her savior. Pulcheria Alexandrovna adds that
she and Dunya were not sure about the marriage at first but that Dunya agreed to it after much consideration. Both
hope that Dunya’s new husband will eventually be able to help Raskolnikov with his career. Mother, daughter, and
fiancé will be arriving in St. Petersburg shortly. Crying, Raskolnikov finishes reading the letter and goes for a walk,
talking to himself like a drunk.

Summary: Chapter IV
On his walk, Raskolnikov decides that he will not allow the marriage to take place, as Dunya is plainly sacrificing
herself to help him. Luzhin sounds stingy and disrespectful, and Raskolnikov develops a passionate hatred of him. The
sight of an older man pursuing a drunk young woman interrupts his thoughts. Disgusted, he confronts the older man. A
policeman shows up, and Raskolnikov explains the situation, giving the policeman some money for a cab to take the girl
home. The girl goes, followed by the stranger and the policeman. Raskolnikov grows annoyed at this waste of money.
The policeman, he thinks, will let the man have the girl as soon as Raskolnikov is out of sight. He suddenly realizes that
he has been walking toward the home of his best friend from university, Razumikhin, whom he has not seen in four
months. Razumikhin is described as warm and outgoing.

Summary: Chapter V
Raskolnikov resolves not to meet with his old friend Razumikhin until after he has committed his awful act, if he ever
does commit it. After drinking some brandy, he falls asleep in a grassy area. He dreams of an incident from his
childhood in which he witnessed a group of peasants sadistically beating an old mare to death and delighting in their
cruelty. In his dream, a young boy cries out against the act and nestles the dead mare’s head in his arms before his
father carries him away. Raskolnikov wakes stricken with horror at the act that he is contemplating and again
renounces it. On a whim, he walks home through a public market, the Haymarket, where he happens to overhear
Lizaveta, the pawnbroker’s sister, say that she will be out of the house the next day at seven. Raskolnikov realizes that
such a chance will not present itself again. He walks home terror-stricken, feeling that “all liberty of action and free-
will were gone.”

Summary: Chapter VI
The narrator recounts how Raskolnikov first developed the idea to kill Alyona Ivanovna (the first explicit identification
of the awful deed that he is contemplating committing). Raskolnikov developed a strong hatred of her the first time he
saw her. Soon after, in a bar, he overheard a conversation between a student and an officer in which the student
denounced the old woman as a hateful parasite and argued that humanity would be better off if she were killed and
her wealth distributed among the poor. These ideas echoed Raskolnikov’s own thoughts, and he was struck by the
coincidence of hearing them spoken by someone else. He became sure that it was his destiny to kill the pawnbroker.
The narrative then shifts back to the present. Raskolnikov falls into a deep sleep and doesn’t wake until the following
evening. Realizing it is already six o’clock, he hastily makes preparations for the crime, preparing a fake “pledge” to
give to Alyona and a loop in his overcoat in which he plans to carry the ax that he will use to commit the murder. Still
unsure at first, his resolve increases when he conveniently finds an ax in the caretaker’s shed. He goes to Alyona’s
apartment, his intent to commit the crime stronger than ever. At seven-thirty, he is at Alyona’s door, ringing the bell
in a deliberately nonchalant manner. Someone inside unlocks the door.

Summary: Chapter VII

The old woman lets the feverish-looking Raskolnikov in. He presents her with a fake cigarette case wrapped with a
difficult knot in order to distract her. As she turns away to undo the knot, he reaches for the ax. After several blows,
Alyona lies dead on the floor in a bloody heap. Raskolnikov takes her keys and goes to the back room, overcoming an
urge to give up and leave. He takes a purse that had hung on her neck but is unable to find more than a few trinkets in
the back room. Just then, Lizaveta enters the apartment and is paralyzed with horror at the sight of her dead sister.
Raskolnikov kills her with a single blow but then realizes that the door to the apartment has been open the whole time.
Terrified and desperate, he washes the blood from his hands and the ax and locks the door. Two strange men come to
the door, determined to enter. When they leave for a minute, Raskolnikov manages to escape by hiding in a vacant
apartment in which two painters have been working until it is safe to leave the building through the front door.
Feverish, Raskolnikov takes a circuitous route home and puts the ax back where he found it before returning to his
room.