Crime and Punishment
Poor district of St. Petersburg in the 60s. XIX century, adjacent to Sennaya Square and the Catherine Canal. Summer evening. Former student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leaves his closet in the attic and takes his last valuable thing as a pawn to the old pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna, whom she is preparing to kill. On the way back, he goes into one of the cheap drinking establishments, where he accidentally meets the official Marmeladov, who has drunk himself and lost his job. He tells how consumption, poverty and her husband’s drunkenness pushed his wife, Katerina Ivanovna, to a cruel act - to send his daughter from her first marriage, Sonya, to work at the panel to earn money.
The next morning, Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother from the provinces describing the troubles suffered by his younger sister Dunya in the house of the depraved landowner Svidrigailov. He learns about the imminent arrival of his mother and sister in St. Petersburg in connection with Dunya's upcoming marriage. The groom is a calculating businessman Luzhin, who wants to build a marriage not on love, but on the poverty and dependence of the bride. The mother hopes that Luzhin will financially help her son complete his course at the university. Reflecting on the sacrifices that Sonya and Dunya make for the sake of their loved ones, Raskolnikov strengthens his intention to kill the pawnbroker - a worthless evil "louse". After all, thanks to her money, “hundreds, thousands” of girls and boys will be spared from undeserved suffering. However, disgust for bloody violence rises again in the hero’s soul after a dream he saw, a memory of his childhood: the boy’s heart breaks with pity for the nag being beaten to death.
And yet, Raskolnikov kills with an ax not only the “ugly old woman,” but also her kind, meek sister Lizaveta, who unexpectedly returned to the apartment. Miraculously leaving unnoticed, he hides the stolen goods in a random place, without even assessing its value.
Soon Raskolnikov discovers with horror the alienation between himself and other people. Sick from his experience, he is, however, unable to reject the burdensome concerns of his university friend Razumikhin. From the latter’s conversation with the doctor, Raskolnikov learns that the painter Mikolka, a simple village guy, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering the old woman. Reacting painfully to conversations about crime, he himself also arouses suspicion among others.
Luzhin, who came for a visit, is shocked by the squalor of the hero’s closet; their conversation develops into a quarrel and ends in a breakup. Raskolnikov is especially offended by the closeness of practical conclusions from Luzhin’s “reasonable egoism” (which seems vulgar to him) and his own “theory”: “people can be cut up...”
Wandering around St. Petersburg, a sick young man suffers from his alienation from the world and is ready to confess to a crime to the authorities when he sees a man crushed by a carriage. This is Marmeladov. Out of compassion, Raskolnikov spends his last money on the dying man: he is carried into the house, the doctor is called. Rodion meets Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya, who is saying goodbye to her father in an inappropriately bright outfit of a prostitute. Thanks to good deed the hero briefly felt a community with people. However, having met his mother and sister who had arrived at his apartment, he suddenly realizes that he is “dead” to their love and rudely drives them away. He is lonely again, but he has hope of getting closer to Sonya, who, like him, “transgressed” the absolute commandment.
Razumikhin, who almost at first sight fell in love with the beautiful Dunya, takes care of Raskolnikov’s relatives. Meanwhile, the offended Luzhin confronts the bride with a choice: either he or his brother.
In order to find out about the fate of the things pawned by the murdered woman, and in fact to dispel the suspicions of some acquaintances, Rodion himself asks for a meeting with Porfiry Petrovich, the investigator in the case of the murder of the old pawnbroker. The latter recalls Raskolnikov’s recently published article “On Crime,” inviting the author to explain his “theory” about “two classes of people.” It turns out that the “ordinary” (“lower”) majority is just material for the reproduction of their own kind; it is they who need a strict moral law and must be obedient. These are "trembling creatures." “People” (“higher ones”) have a different nature, possessing the gift of a “new word”, they destroy the present in the name of the better, even if it is necessary to “step over” the moral norms previously established for the “lower” majority, for example, by shedding someone else’s blood. These "criminals" then become the "new legislators." Thus, not recognizing the biblical commandments ("thou shalt not kill", "thou shalt not steal", etc.), Raskolnikov "allows" "those who have the right" - "blood according to their conscience." The intelligent and insightful Porfiry discerns in the hero an ideological murderer who claims to be the new Napoleon. However, the investigator has no evidence against Rodion - and he releases the young man in the hope that his good nature will overcome the delusions of his mind and will itself lead him to confess to his crime.
Indeed, the hero is increasingly convinced that he has made a mistake in himself: “a real ruler<...>destroys Toulon, carries out a massacre in Paris, forgets the army in Egypt, wastes half a million people in the Moscow campaign,” and he, Raskolnikov, is tormented by the “vulgarity” and “meanness” of a single murder. Clearly, he is a “trembling creature”: even after killing , “did not step over” the moral law. The very motives of the crime are twofold in the hero’s consciousness: this is both a test of himself for the “highest level”, and an act of “justice”, according to revolutionary socialist teachings, transferring the property of “predators” to their victims.
Svidrigailov, who came after Dunya to St. Petersburg, apparently guilty of the recent death of his wife, meets Raskolnikov and notes that they are “birds of a feather,” although the latter has not completely conquered the “Schiller” within himself. Despite all the disgust for the offender, Rodion’s sister is attracted by his apparent ability to enjoy life, despite the crimes he has committed..
During lunch in the cheap rooms where Luzhin, out of economy, settled Dunya and his mother, a decisive explanation takes place. Luzhin is accused of slandering Raskolnikov and Sonya, to whom he allegedly gave for base services the money selflessly collected by his poor mother for his studies. The relatives are convinced of the purity and nobility of the young man and sympathize with Sonya’s fate. Expelled in disgrace, Luzhin is looking for a way to discredit Raskolnikov in the eyes of his sister and mother.
The latter, meanwhile, again feeling a painful alienation from his loved ones, comes to Sonya. From her, who “transgressed” the commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery,” he seeks salvation from unbearable loneliness. But Sonya herself is not alone. She sacrificed herself for the sake of others (hungry brothers and sisters), and not others for herself, like her interlocutor. Love and compassion for loved ones, faith in the mercy of God never left her. She reads the gospel lines to Rodion about Christ’s resurrection of Lazarus, hoping for a miracle in her life. The hero fails to captivate the girl with the “Napoleonic” plan for power over “the entire anthill.”
Tormented by both fear and the desire to be exposed, Raskolnikov again comes to Porfiry, as if worried about his mortgage. A seemingly abstract conversation about the psychology of criminals eventually leads the young man to a nervous breakdown, and he almost gives himself away to the investigator. What saves him is his unexpected confession to the murder of the pawnbroker Mikolka.
In the passage room of the Marmeladovs, a wake was held for her husband and father, during which Katerina Ivanovna, in a fit of morbid pride, insults the owner of the apartment. She tells her and the children to move out immediately. Suddenly Luzhin, who lives in the same house, enters and accuses Sonya of stealing a hundred-ruble banknote. The girl’s “guilt” has been proven: money is found in her apron pocket. Now in the eyes of others she is also a thief. But unexpectedly there is a witness that Luzhin himself quietly slipped Sonya a piece of paper. The slanderer is put to shame, and Raskolnikov explains to those present the reasons for his action: having humiliated his brother and Sonya in the eyes of Dunya, he hoped to regain the favor of the bride.
Rodion and Sonya go to her apartment, where the hero confesses to the girl about the murder of the old woman and Lizaveta. She pities him for the moral torment to which he has doomed himself, and offers to atone for his guilt by voluntary confession and hard labor. Raskolnikov only laments that he turned out to be a “trembling creature”, with a conscience and a need for human love. “I’ll still fight,” he disagrees with Sonya.
Meanwhile, Katerina Ivanovna and her children find themselves on the street. She begins to bleed from the throat and dies, refusing the services of a priest. Svidrigailov, who is present here, undertakes to pay for the funeral and provide for the children and Sonya.
At his home, Raskolnikov finds Porfiry, who convinces the young man to confess: the “theory”, which denies the absoluteness of the moral law, tears away from the only source of life - God, the creator of humanity, united by nature - and thereby dooms its captive to death. "Now you<...>I need air, air, air!” Porfiry does not believe in the guilt of Mikolka, who “accepted suffering” out of an age-old popular need: to atone for the sin of not conforming to the ideal - Christ.
But Raskolnikov still hopes to “transcend” morality. Before him is the example of Svidrigailov. Their meeting in the tavern reveals to the hero a sad truth: the life of this “insignificant villain” is empty and painful for him.
Dunya's reciprocity is the only hope for Svidrigailov to return to the source of being. Having become convinced of her irrevocable dislike for himself during a heated conversation in his apartment, he shoots himself a few hours later.
Meanwhile, Raskolnikov, driven by the lack of “air,” says goodbye to his family and Sonya before confessing. He is still convinced of the truth of the “theory” and is full of self-contempt. However, at Sonya’s insistence, in front of the people, he repentantly kisses the land before which he “sinned.” At the police office, he learns about Svidrigailov’s suicide and makes an official confession.
Raskolnikov finds himself in Siberia, in a convict prison. The mother died of grief, Dunya married Razumikhin. Sonya settled near Raskolnikov and visits the hero, patiently enduring his gloom and indifference. The nightmare of alienation continues here: the common convicts hate him as an “atheist.” On the contrary, Sonya is treated with tenderness and love. Once in the prison hospital, Rodion sees a dream reminiscent of pictures from the Apocalypse: mysterious “trichinas”, moving into people, give rise to a fanatical conviction in everyone’s own rightness and intolerance to the “truths” of others. "People killed each other in<...>senseless malice," until the entire human race was exterminated, except for a few "pure and chosen ones." It is finally revealed to him that the pride of the mind leads to discord and destruction, and the humility of the heart leads to unity in love and to the fullness of life. The "infinite love" for Sonya. On the threshold of "resurrection in new life"Raskolnikov picks up the Gospel.
PART ONE Main character novel Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov dropped out of university a few months ago. He is very poor, wears rags, lives in a wretched closet, but he has nothing to pay for it; he has to hide from his landlady. This happens in the summer, the terrible stuffiness aggravates the difficult nervous condition young men. Raskolnikov goes to the moneylender to get money as collateral. But this is not his only goal. A plan is brewing in his head, he is mentally and mentally preparing for its implementation. He already knows how many steps separate his house from the moneylender’s house; he notes to himself that his worn hat is too noticeable, it needs to be replaced; climbing the stairs to the pawnbroker's apartment, he sees that an apartment on her floor is being vacated, therefore, only one occupied will remain... The old pawnbroker, Alena Ivanovna, lives in a two-room apartment with her younger sister Lizaveta, a downtrodden and dumb creature. Lizaveta “walks around pregnant every minute,” works day and night for the old woman and is “in complete slavery” to her. Raskolnikov leaves a silver watch as collateral. On the way back, he goes into a tavern, where he meets Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, a drunken retired official; he tells Raskolnikov about his family. His wife, Katerina Ivanovna, the widow of an officer, has three children from her first marriage. After the death of her gambler husband, she was left without any means of support and, out of hopelessness, married Marmeladov, an official who soon lost his job, started drinking and is still drinking. Marmeladov’s daughter from his first marriage, Sonya, was forced to go to the panel because there was nothing to feed Katerina Ivanovna’s children. Marmeladov begs for money from his daughter and steals the last from his wife. At the same time, he loves to engage in self-flagellation in public, beating his chest and drunken sobs. Raskolnikov takes the drunkard home, where a scandal arises. Raskolnikov leaves, quietly leaving a few coins on the windowsill. The next morning he receives a letter from his mother, who explains to him why she could not send him money before - she herself and Raskolnikov’s sister Dunya, trying to provide him with what he needed, got into big debts. Dunya had to enter the service of the Svidrigailovs and take a hundred rubles in advance to send to her brother Rodion. For this reason, when Svidrigailov began to harass Dunya, she could not immediately leave there. Svidrigailov's wife, Marfa Petrovna, mistakenly blamed Dunya for everything and expelled her from the house, disgracing the whole city. But then Svidrigailov’s conscience woke up, and he gives his wife Dunya’s letter, in which she angrily rejects his advances and stands up for his wife. Marfa Petrovna travels around all the city houses, restoring the girl’s reputation. There is also a groom for Dunya - court councilor Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, who is about to arrive in St. Petersburg on business. Reading a letter from his mother, who is trying in vain to discover at least some positive qualities in the man Dunya agreed to marry, Raskolnikov understands that his sister is selling herself in order to help him finish his studies and get (this is what she hopes) a job in a law office, which is going to open in St. Petersburg future husband. Mother calls Luzhin a straightforward man, citing as an example his words that he wants to marry an honest girl, but certainly poor and who has experienced trouble, because, in his opinion, a husband should not owe anything to his wife; on the contrary, a wife should see in the husband of his benefactor. The indignant Rodion decides to prevent this marriage. He believes that what Dunya is going to do is even worse than the act of Sonya Marmeladova, who is simply saving children from starvation. At the end of the letter, the mother says that one of these days she will send her son money, and soon she and Dunya themselves will come to St. Petersburg. Raskolnikov leaves the house and wanders around the city, talking to himself. He understands that years will pass before he finishes his studies and gets a job, and what will happen to his mother and sister during this time? And again the thought of the pawnbroker comes to him. Suddenly he notices a drunk, torn girl, almost a girl, wandering along the boulevard, whom some fat gentleman is about to approach, obviously with dirty intentions. Raskolnikov drives him away and calls a policeman, to whom he gives money for a cab driver to take the girl home. She was clearly deceived, drunk, dishonored and thrown out onto the street. Raskolnikov reflects with sympathy on the future fate of the girl, realizing at the same time that he cannot do anything - some “percentage” ends up on this path. Raskolnikov catches himself leaving the house and planning to go to his university friend Razumikhin, whom he has not seen for four months. Unexpectedly for himself, he decides to go to him not now, but “after, when it’s already over...”. His own decision horrifies Rodion. He walks wherever his eyes lead him, wanders for a long time, then turns towards the house and, completely exhausted, leaves the road, falls on the grass and falls asleep. He's dreaming horrible dream: he, a boy of about seven, walks with his father along the road to the cemetery past a tavern, near which stands a draft horse harnessed to a cart. A drunken horse owner, Mikolka, and his friends emerge from a tavern. Everyone gets into the cart, but the horse is old and does not have the strength to move the cart. Mikolka mercilessly whips the horse, and the others join in the beating. They beat the horse to death. Raskolnikov ( a little boy ) runs up to the horse with a scream, kisses its dead muzzle, then rushes in a frenzy at Mikolka. His father grabs him and takes him away. Raskolnikov, waking up, thinks: will he really take an ax and start hitting him on the head?.. No, he is incapable of this, he “will not tolerate this.” This thought makes his soul feel lighter. But then an unexpected meeting occurs, returning him to the old plan. He runs into the pawnbroker's sister Lizaveta - she makes an agreement with her friends to come to them tomorrow on some business. This means that tomorrow evening the old woman will be left at home alone. Raskolnikov feels that “he no longer has freedom of mind or will, and that everything has suddenly been finally decided.” Just a month and a half ago, Raskolnikov, heading to an old woman-pawnbroker with a ring for which he wanted to borrow money, went into a tavern on the way and there heard an officer talking with a student about this same old woman and her half-sister. The student said that Lizaveta is very kind and meek, and the old woman, in her will, is not going to leave her a penny. “I would kill and rob this old woman... without any remorse,” he added. So many people disappear without support, how much good can be done with an old woman’s money! What does the life of this... evil old woman mean on the general scale?” However, when the officer asked the interlocutor if he could kill the old woman himself, he answered “no.” That tavern conversation had a strong effect on Raskolnikov. Rodion goes home and goes to bed. The next day he wakes up late and can’t get his thoughts together. Meanwhile, the day was already approaching evening. “And an extraordinary and kind of confused bustle suddenly seized him, instead of sleep and stupor.” He quickly prepares for the murder: he sews a loop for an ax on the inside of his coat, wraps it in paper and ties a fake “pledge” with a ribbon - a board and a piece of iron - to distract the old woman’s attention, and carefully goes down the stairs, steals an ax from the janitor and “gradually, not “in a hurry,” so as not to arouse suspicion, he goes to the pawnbroker’s house. Climbing the stairs, Raskolnikov notices that the apartment on the third floor, just below the old woman’s apartment, is also empty - it is being renovated. He rings the doorbell and the old woman opens it for him. Trying to untie the ribbon on the “pledge,” she turns her back to Raskolnikov, and he hits her on the head with his butt, then again and again. Carefully taking the keys out of the dead old woman’s pocket, he begins to rummage through the chests, stuffing other people’s deposits and money into his pockets. His hands are shaking, the keys can’t get into the locks, he wants to drop everything and leave. There is a noise in the next room, Raskolnikov, grabbing an ax, runs there and encounters Lizaveta who suddenly arrived, who saw him, and “her lips were twisted, like those of little children...”. Poor Lizaveta was so overwhelmed that she didn’t even raise her hands to defend herself. Raskolnikov kills her. Then he washes the blood off his hands and the axe. A daze takes over him. He shakes himself, telling himself to run. And then he notices that Entrance door unlocked He bolts it. But we have to leave! He opens the door again and stands listening. Someone is climbing the stairs. He had already passed the third floor. Only then Raskolnikov rushes back into the apartment and locks the door. The door bell keeps ringing. Someone else approached the visitor at the door. Both visitors chatter in bewilderment - after all, the old woman never leaves the house! We need to send for the janitor. One goes down, the second, after waiting a little, also leaves. Raskolnikov leaves the apartment, hides in an empty apartment on the third floor while recent visitors and the janitor climb the stairs to the fourth floor, and runs out of the house into the street. He is dying of fear and has difficulty figuring out what to do next. Approaching his house, he remembers the ax and puts it in its place in the janitor's room, where again there was no one. Finally Raskolnikov is in his room. Oya, exhausted, throws himself onto the sofa.
PART TWO Raskolnikov wakes up early in the morning. He gets a nervous chill. He carefully examines the clothes, eliminating traces of blood. Then he suddenly remembers the stolen things and frantically hides them behind the torn wallpaper. He feels feverish and drowsy, and falls asleep every now and then. He is finally awakened by a strong knock on the door - they brought a summons from the police. Raskolnikov leaves the house and plunges into unbearable heat. “If they ask, maybe I’ll tell you,” he thinks. “I’ll come in, kneel down and tell you everything...” Raskolnikov decides, approaching the office of the quarterly overseer. It turned out that he was summoned in a case of collecting a debt from his landlady. Raskolnikov, listening to the clerk’s explanations, feels the weight pressing on him subside and is filled with animal joy. At this moment there is a commotion in the office: the policeman’s assistant attacks with abuse a magnificent lady sitting in the hallway, the owner of the brothel, Luisa Ivanovna. Raskolnikov, in hysterical animation, begins to tell the clerk about his life, relatives, that he was going to marry the daughter of his landlady, but she died of typhus. They cut him off, order him to write an undertaking that he will pay the debt, etc. He writes, gives it, he can leave, but he doesn’t leave. He gets the idea to tell about the crime. And then Raskolnikov hears a conversation about the murder of the old woman and Lizaveta. He tries to leave, but loses consciousness. Having woken up, Raskolnikov tells the police, looking at him with some suspicion, that he is sick. They let him go, he hurries home - he needs to get rid of things. He wants to throw them into the water, but there are people around. Finally, he hides things under a stone in a remote, deserted courtyard. The legs themselves carry Raskolnikov to Razumikhin. He says something incomprehensible to him, refuses help and leaves. On the street he almost gets run over by a carriage; he is mistaken for a beggar and given twenty kopecks. He stops on the bridge over the Neva, where he loved to stand in the old days, looks for a long time at the panorama of the city and throws a coin into the water. “It seemed to him that he seemed to cut himself off from everyone and everything with scissors at that moment.” After long wanderings, Raskolnikov returns home and falls into half-sleep, which is interrupted by delirium: he hears the terrible screams of the landlady, who is being beaten by the assistant of the quarterly warden. He is terrified that they will come for him now. The cook Nastasya appears, pitying and feeding Raskolnikov, and says that he imagined it. Raskolnikov loses consciousness. Waking up on the fourth day, he sees Razumikhin and the cook Nastasya in his closet, who were caring for him. Thirty-five rubles sent by his mother are brought to Raskolnikov. Razumikhin settled the matter with the debt for which Raskolnikov was called to the police. With the money he receives, he buys Raskolnikov new clothes. Razumikhin’s friend, medical student Zosimov, comes to Raskolnikov. The friends are talking about their own things: tomorrow is Razumikhin’s housewarming party, local investigator Porfiry Petrovich will be among the guests; The house painter Mikolai, who worked in the house where the murder took place, was accused of murdering the old pawnbroker and Lizaveta - he found a box of gold earrings in the apartment being renovated and tried to pawn them with the owner of the tavern. Zosimov and Razumikhin discuss the details of the case. Razumikhin reconstructs the picture of the murder: Koch and Pestryakov, who came to the pawnbroker, found the killer in the apartment, but when they went down to get the janitor, the killer hid on the floor below, from where the fooling painters had just run out. There the killer dropped the case. When everyone went up to the old woman’s apartment, the killer left unnoticed. The conversation is interrupted by the appearance of an elderly, portly gentleman with a grumpy face. This is Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin - Dunya's fiancé. He informs Raskolnikov that his mother and sister are about to arrive and will stay in rooms (of the lowest standard) at his expense. Luzhin has already bought a permanent apartment for himself and Dunya, but it is now being finished off. He himself stayed nearby with his young friend Andrei Semenovich Lebezyatnikov. Luzhin starts a conversation about young people, about new trends that he tirelessly follows, about economic science, which comes to the conclusion that the more private affairs are organized in society, the better the general affairs are organized. In other words, love yourself first, because what does “love your neighbor” mean? - this means tear off your caftan, give him half and you will both find yourself half dressed. Razumikhin interrupts Luzhin's ranting. Zosimov and Razumikhin return to murder. The first believes that the old woman was probably killed by one of those to whom she lent money. The second agrees with him, reports that investigator Porfiry Petrovich is interrogating them. Luzhin, intervening in the conversation, begins to rant about the increase in crime not only in the lower strata of society, but also in the upper strata. Raskolnikov intervenes in the conversation. In his opinion, the reason for this lies precisely in Mr. Luzhin’s theory - if it is carried through to the end, it turns out that people can be killed too. Raskolnikov demands Luzhin to answer whether it is true that he is most glad that his bride is a beggar, because it is more profitable to marry a beggar in order to then rule over her. He drives Luzhin away. When everyone leaves, Raskolnikov gets dressed and goes to wander around the city. He finds himself in an alley where there are “very entertaining establishments.” The thought comes to his mind about those sentenced to death who are ready to live on a rock, on a narrow platform, just to be left alive. “Scoundrel man! - thinks Raskolnikov. “And the one who calls him a scoundrel for this is a scoundrel.” He enters the tavern and asks for newspapers. Zametov, a clerk from the police station, a friend of Razumikhin, who brought him to Raskolnikov when he was unconscious, approaches him. Raskolnikov’s feverish excitement seems strange to him; in the process of talking with him, Zametov becomes suspicious. They talk about counterfeiters. Raskolnikov tells how he himself would have acted in their place later - what he would have done with the old woman’s things if he had killed her. He actually talks about the place where he hid them. And suddenly Zametova asks: “What if I killed the old woman and Lizaveta?.. Admit it, would you believe it? Yes?" Raskolnikov leaves in a state of complete nervous exhaustion. Zametov comes to the conclusion that his suspicions are groundless. At the door, Raskolnikov runs into Razumikhin. He demands to know what is happening to him and invites him to a housewarming party. Raskolnikov refuses and asks to leave him alone. He stops on the bridge, looks at the water, at the city. Suddenly a woman throws herself into the river nearby. The policeman pulls her out. Discarding the fleeting thought of suicide, Raskolnikov heads to the police station, but soon finds himself at the house where he committed the murder. He enters the house, talks to the workers who are renovating the apartment of the murdered old woman, asks them about the blood, then talks to the janitor, and seems suspicious to all of them. Raskolnikov is pondering whether to go to the quarter warden, but then he sees a man who has fallen under the hooves of horses. He recognizes Marmeladov. Feeling relieved that his visit to the police station is postponed, Raskolnikov takes care of the wounded man. Marmeladov is being carried home. His wife Katerina Ivanovna and her three children are there. Marmeladov is dying, they send for the priest and Sonya. The dying man asks Sonya for forgiveness. Raskolnikov gives Katerina Ivanovna all his money (from those sent to him by his mother) and leaves. Katerina Ivanovna's daughter Polinka catches up with him to thank him. Raskolnikov asks the girl to pray for him, gives her his address and promises to come again. He feels a surge of strength and confidence that he too “can live, that there is still life, that his life with the old woman has not died.” Raskolnikov goes to Razumikhin and calls him into the hallway. Razumikhin accompanies him home, on the way he says that, in Zosimov’s opinion, his friend is crazy, that Zametov repents of his suspicions about Raskolnikov, that he and Porfiry Petrovich were really looking forward to his arrival. The light is on in Raskolnikov's closet - his mother and sister have been waiting for him for three hours. Raskolnikov faints.
PART THREE Having woken up, Raskolnikov announces that he has kicked out Luzhin and demands that Dunya refuse him. He doesn't accept her sacrifices. “Either me or Luzhin!” - says Rodion. Razumikhin calms his mother and sister, explaining everything with his ill health, asks them to leave, and he will look after the patient and inform them about his condition. He falls in love with Dunya at first sight, is full of delight, and at first even frightens her with his eccentricity. “He’s a spy and a speculator... he’s a fool,” he tells Dunya about her fiancé. “Well, is he a match for you?” Dunya gains complete trust in Razumikhin and calms her upset mother. Razumikhin accompanies Raskolnikov's mother and sister to the hotel, goes to Raskolnikov, from there again to Duna and her mother, bringing with him the doctor Zosimov. He tells the women that Raskolnikov has signs of monomania, but their arrival will help him. Waking up in the morning, Razumikhin scolds himself for yesterday’s behavior - after all, he was drunk after the housewarming party. He dresses carefully and goes to the hotel, where he tells Raskolnikov’s mother and sister what events last year led, according to Razumikhin, Rodion to illness. Raskolnikov's mother says that Luzhin did not meet her and Dunya at the station, as promised, but sent a lackey, who took them to the hotel. He himself was supposed to come this morning, but instead he sent a note. Razumikhin reads the note: Luzhin writes that Rodion Romanovich rudely offended him, and therefore he does not want to see him when he comes to them in the evening. Luzhin also reports that he saw Rodion “in the apartment of one, broken by horses, a drunkard, from this deceased, whose daughter, a girl of notorious behavior, gave up to twenty-five rubles yesterday, under the pretext of a funeral...”. Dunya decides that Rodion should come to them. But first they go to Rodion and find Zosimov with him. Rodion is pale and gloomy.” He talks about Marmeladov, about his widow, about his children, about Sonya, about why he gave them the money. Rodion’s mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, speaks about the sudden death of Svidrigailov’s wife, Marfa Petrovna, rumored to be from her husband’s beatings. Raskolnikov remembers the late daughter of the landlady, whom he was going to marry, then again starts talking about Dunya’s fiancé. “Either I or Luzhin,” he repeats. Dunya tells him in response that she will not marry Luzhin if he is not worthy of respect, and whether he is worthy of it or not will become clear tonight. Dunya shows her brother the groom’s letter and asks him to be present at their meeting. Suddenly Sonya Marmeladova enters the room. She invites Raskolnikov to the funeral service and commemoration. He promises to come and introduces Sonya to his mother and sister. Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna leave, inviting Razumikhin to their place for dinner. Raskolnikov tells Razumikhin that the murdered old woman also had his pledge - a watch inherited from his father, and a ring, a gift from Dunya. He is afraid that they will disappear. Shouldn't he turn to Porfiry Petrovich? Razumikhin replies that, of course, he will apply, he will be glad to meet Rodion. All three leave the house. Raskolnikov asks Sonya Marmeladova for her address, and she leaves in horror that he will see how she lives. Meanwhile, some well-dressed gentleman is watching her. He quietly accompanies Sonya to the very door of her room and speaks to her there. They, it turns out, are neighbors - he lives nearby and recently arrived in town. Razumikhin and Raskolnikov go to Porfiry. Raskolnikov has one thought beating in his brain: “The most important thing is, does Porfiry know or not know that yesterday... I was in the apartment... and asked about the blood? I need to recognize it in an instant, from the first step, as soon as I walk in, to recognize it by the face. ..” He comes up with a trick - he starts a humorous conversation with “Razumikhin, hinting at his attitude towards Duna. He is embarrassed, Rodion laughs and so, laughing, enters Porfiry Petrovich. He laughs and laughs, trying to the laughter sounded natural, and Razumikhin is quite sincerely angry and accidentally touches the glass of tea standing on the table. He falls. “Why break the chairs, gentlemen, it’s a loss for the treasury!” - Porfiry Petrovich shouted cheerfully. Then Raskolnikov notices Zametov sitting in the corner. This seems suspicious to him. The conversation is about the hidden things. It seems to Raskolnikov that they are talking about the crime as such. Razumikhin does not agree with the socialists, who explain the crime exclusively. social reasons- supposedly, as soon as you come up with a normal society, crime will disappear. Porfiry Petrovich mentions Raskolnikov’s article “On Crime,” published in the newspaper. Raskolnikov did not know about the publication; he wrote this article six months ago. The article is devoted to the psychological state of the criminal during the crime process. Porfiry Petrovich claims that Raskolnikov in the article hints that there are people who have every right to commit a crime and for them the law is not written. This is a distortion of Raskolnikov's idea. In his opinion, all extraordinary people who are capable of saying something new must certainly be, by nature, criminals to one degree or another. People are generally divided into two categories: the lowest (ordinary), which is material for the reproduction of their own kind, and real people, that is, those who are able to say a new word. If such a person needs, for his idea, to step over even a corpse, over blood, then he can, in good conscience, give himself permission to step over blood. The first category is conservative people inclined to obedience. Those who belong to the second all break the law, they are destroyers or are inclined to do so, depending on their abilities. The first category is the master of the present, the second is the master of the future. The former preserve humanity and increase it numerically, while the latter move it and lead it to the goal. Porfiry Petrovich asks: “How... to distinguish these extraordinary ones from the ordinary ones?” Raskolnikov believes that only first-class people can make mistakes. Many of them sincerely consider myself advanced people , “destroyers.” In fact, they often do not notice new people and even despise them. But very few such new people are born. Razumikhin is outraged that Raskolnikov believes that a person can afford to shed blood. According to Razumikhin, this “permission to blood according to conscience... is more terrible than the official permission to shed blood, legal...”. Porfiry Petrovich asks: what if some ordinary young man imagines himself as Lycurgus or Mohammed and begins to remove all obstacles? And Raskolnikov, when he wrote his article, didn’t he really consider himself, at least a little bit, also an “extraordinary” person who spoke a new word? “It may very well be,” Raskolnikov answers. Would Raskolnikov, because of some failures or something else, also decide to kill and rob for the sake of all mankind? - Porfiry Petrovich does not lag behind and winks at Raskolnikov. “If I overstepped, then, of course, I wouldn’t tell you,” Raskolnikov answers and adds that he does not consider himself Mohammed or Napoleon. “Who in Rus' doesn’t consider himself Napoleon now?” - Porfiry Petrovich objects. “Wasn’t it some future Napoleon who killed our Alena Ivanovna with an ax last week?” - Zametov suddenly says. The gloomy Raskolnikov is getting ready to leave and agrees with the investigator that he will come see him tomorrow. Porfiry Petrovich finally tries to confuse Raskolnikov with his questions, allegedly confusing the day of the murder with the day when Raskolnikov took the watch to the moneylender. Raskolnikov and Razumikhin go to Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Duna. Razumikhin is outraged that Porfiry Petrovich and Zametov are suspected of Raskolnikov’s murder. Already upon approaching the hotel, Raskolnikov has an alarming thought. He quickly goes home, locks the door and carefully searches the hole behind the wallpaper to see if there is anything left there. There is nothing. He goes out into the yard and sees: the janitor is pointing his hand at some bourgeois dressed man. Raskolnikov approaches the janitor. The tradesman silently leaves. Raskolnikov catches up with him and asks what it all means. The man looks up at him and says quietly and clearly: “Murderer!” Raskolnikov does not lag behind the stranger; he again calls him a murderer. Raskolnikov freezes in place; on trembling legs he returns to his closet and lies down. His thoughts are confused. When he wakes up, he wonders what kind of person it was. He despises himself for his weakness; he should have known in advance how difficult it would be for him. “The old lady is nonsense! ...it's not her fault! ...I wanted to cross as quickly as possible... I didn’t kill a person, I killed a principle! ... But he didn’t cross, he stayed on this side... All he managed to do was kill. ...I’m an aesthetic louse, and nothing more...” thinks Raskolnikov. He was obliged to know in advance what would happen to him after the crime... and he knew it! Those other people are not made like him: “a real ruler... smashes Toulon, commits massacres in Paris, forgets the army in Egypt, wastes half a million people in the Moscow campaign...”, and after his death they erect monuments to him. This means that everything is allowed to them. But he doesn't. He wanted to help his mother and sister, for a whole month he convinced himself that he was committing a crime for a good purpose, he chose the most disgusting old woman as a victim, and so what? He suffers and despises himself: that’s what he needs. If he is a “trembling creature,” then his destiny is to obey and not desire more, this is not his business. In Raskolnikov’s soul, hatred for everyone rises and at the same time love for the “poor, meek, dear” - for Lizaveta, whom he killed, for his mother, for Sonya... He understands that at some moment “he will be able” to tell everything mother... Raskolnikov falls asleep and sees a terrible dream: a tradesman lures him into the old woman’s apartment, and she, alive, is hiding there in the corner. He hits her with the ax again - and she laughs. He rushes to run - and people are already waiting for him. Raskolnikov wakes up in horror and sees a stranger on the threshold. This is Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov.
PART FOUR Svidrigailov says that he needs Raskolnikov’s help in a matter concerning his sister. She won’t even let him into her doorstep alone, but together with his brother... Raskolnikov refuses Svidrigailov. He explains his vile behavior towards Dunya with love, passion. Raskolnikov says that he heard that Svidrigailov killed his wife, to which he replies that Marfa Petrovna died of an apoplexy, and he “only hit her twice with a whip.” Svidrigailov speaks without stopping. Raskolnikov, taking a closer look at him, remarks: “It seems to me... that you are in a very good society, at least you know how to be a decent person on occasion.” “...I’m not particularly interested in anyone’s opinion,” Svidrigailov replies, “and therefore why not be vulgar.... especially if you have a natural inclination towards that.” Svidrigailov tells the story of his marriage to Marfa Petrovna. She bought him out of prison, where he ended up for debt, married him and took him to the village. She loved him very much. She kept the document about the thirty thousand paid all her life as a guarantee that her husband would not leave her, and only a year before her death she returned it to him and gave him a decent amount of money. The late Marfa Petrovna appears to Svidri-Gailov. Raskolnikov is amazed - after all, the old woman he killed also appeared to him in a dream. “Why did I think that something like this would definitely happen to you!” - he exclaims. Svidrigailov was delighted: he felt that there was something in common between them; when he saw Raskolnikov, he immediately thought: “This is the one!” To the question: “Which one is the one?” - he cannot answer. Raskolnikov advises Svidrigailov to go to the doctor, he considers him “crazy.” Svidrigailov declares that Luzhin is not a match for Raskolnikov’s sister and that he is ready to offer Duna ten thousand rubles to make it easier for her to break up with her fiancé. He had a quarrel with Marfa Petrovna because she “concocted this wedding.” Marfa Petrovna bequeathed three thousand to Duna. Before his possible “voyage,” Svidrigailov wants to “finish off Mr. Luzhin” and see Dunya. In addition, he is going to soon marry “some girl.” As he leaves, Svidrigailov runs into Razumikhin at the door. At eight o'clock, Raskolnikov and a friend go to the hotel to visit his mother and sister. In the corridor they encounter Luzhin. Everyone enters the room. Luzhin is angry - his order not to let Rodion in was violated. Pulcheria Alexandrovna, trying to maintain the conversation, mentions the death of Marfa Petrovna. Luzhin reports the arrival of Svidrigailov and talks about the crime of this man, which he allegedly knows about from the words of the deceased. Svidrigailov made acquaintance with a certain Resslich, a pawnbroker, and her niece, a deaf-mute girl of fourteen, lived with her, whom she reproached with every piece and beat. One day the girl was found hanged in the attic. A denunciation was received - the girl was “cruelly insulted” by Svidrigailov. Thanks to the efforts and money of Marfa Petrovna, the matter was hushed up. Luzhin also mentions another crime of Svidrigailov - during serfdom, he tortured and drove his servant Philip to suicide. Dunya objects to Luzhin, saying that Svidrigailov treated his servants well. Raskolnikov reports about Svidrigailov’s visit, that he is asking for a meeting with Dunya, and that Marfa Petrovna left Dunya money in her will. Luzhin is about to leave, since his request was not fulfilled. Dunya asks him to stay to clarify the misunderstanding. She asks Luzhin to be “that smart and noble man” that she considered him and wants to consider him. Luzhin is offended that he is put on the same level as Rodion Raskolnikov. In his opinion, love for a husband should be higher than love for a brother. Luzhin also attacks Pulcheria Alexandrovna, who allegedly misinterpreted his words in her letter that it is better to marry a poor girl who has experienced adversity, “more useful for morality” than one who lived in contentment. Raskolnikov intervenes. Luzhin, he says, slandered him in his letter, saying that he gave it away! the money is not to the widow of the deceased, but to his daughter, about whom he reported insulting information, although he does not know her. According to Raskolnikov, Luzhin is not worth it? and this girl's little finger. A quarrel begins, ending with Dunya ordering Luzhin to leave, and Rodion sending him out. Luzhin leaves. He is full of hatred for Raskolnikov; he cannot believe that two sewing women could get out from under his power. Luzhin knew that the rumors about Dunya were false, and yet he considered his decision to marry her a feat that everyone should admire. It is simply unthinkable for him to give up Dunya. For many years he dreamed of marrying a noble, educated, poor and frightened girl who would revere him and obey him in everything. And finally he met Dunya - beautiful, educated and helpless. Marrying her would help his career; a beautiful and intelligent wife would attract people to him. And then everything collapsed! Luzhin hopes to improve everything. Meanwhile, everyone is happy about Luzhin’s departure. Dunya admits that she was flattered by his money, but had no idea what an unworthy person he was. Razumikhin is completely delighted. Raskolnikov reports about Svidrigailov's proposal, adding that Svidrigailov seemed strange to him, almost crazy - he either says that he will leave soon, then suddenly announces his intention to get married. Dunya is worried: it seems to her that Svidrigailov is planning something terrible. Razumikhin persuades the women to stay in St. Petersburg. He can get a thousand rubles, he needs to add another thousand - and they will start publishing books together. Dunya likes the plan. Razumikhin has already looked at Pulkheria Alexandrovna and Dunya nice apartment. Suddenly everyone notices that Rodion is about to leave. “...Who knows, maybe last time See you,” comes out of his lips. Rodion asks his mother and sister to leave him alone for a while, to forget him completely. Razumikhin runs in alarm after Raskolnikov, who asks him not to abandon Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya. They look into each other's eyes, and suddenly the truth dawns on Razumikhin. He shudders and turns pale. "Do you understand now?" - says Raskolnikov. Razumikhin returns to the room and tries to calm the women down. Meanwhile, Raskolnikov goes to Sonya. A strange, irregularly shaped, gloomy, shabbyly furnished room. Sonya praises the owners, who are very kind to her. She loves Katerina Ivanovna - she is so unhappy and sick, she believes that there should be justice in everything, and she herself is fair. Sonya's face expresses “some kind of insatiable compassion.” Sonya suffers because a week before her father’s death she refused to read a book to him, and she did not give Katerina Ivanovna the collar she bought from the merchant Lizaveta, the pawnbroker’s sister. Raskolnikov tells Sonya that after all, Katerina Ivanovna is sick with consumption and will soon die, she herself may also get sick, and she will be sent to the hospital... What will happen to the children then, because with Polechka it will be the same as with her, with Sonya. “No!.. God will not allow such horror!.. God will protect her!” - Sonya shouts. “Yes, maybe there is no God at all,” Raskolnikov answers. Sonya sobs inconsolably. Raskolnikov looks at her and suddenly kneels down and kisses her foot. “I didn’t bow to you, I bowed to all human suffering,” he says. Sonya considers herself “dishonest... a great sinner.” Raskolnikov tells her that her greatest sin is that she “killed and betrayed herself in vain,” that she lives in the dirt, which she hates, and that by doing this she will not save anyone from anything, and it would be better for her to simply commit suicide. “What will happen to them?” - Sonya objects. Rodion understands from her look that she has actually thought about suicide more than once, but love and compassion for the “pathetic, half-crazy Katerina Ivanovna” and her children make her live. Raskolnikov sees that the dirt surrounding Sonya has not touched her soul, it is pure. She places all her hopes in God. She reads and knows the Gospel well - Lizaveta brought her the book. Sonya doesn’t go to church, but last week she attended a memorial service for the murdered Lizaveta, who was a “just” person. Sonya reads Raskolnikov the parable of the resurrection of Lazarus. Raskolnikov tells Sonya that he abandoned his family and now he only has her left. “We are cursed together, let's go together! “he says. "Where to go?" - Sonya asks in fear. “You also stepped over... were able to step over. You committed suicide, you ruined your life... yours (it’s all the same!)... But... if you’re left alone, you’ll go crazy, just like me. ...So, we should go together, along the same road!” We must break everything and take on the suffering... Power over all the trembling creatures and over the entire anthill - that is the goal. Raskolnikov tells Sonya that he is leaving now, and if he comes to her tomorrow, he will tell her who killed Lizaveta. In the next, previously empty room, during the entire conversation between Raskolnikov and Sonya, Svidrigailov stood listening. The next morning, Raskolnikov goes to see investigator Porfiry Petrovich. He is sure that the person who met him yesterday and called him a murderer has already reported him. But in the office no one pays attention to Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov is very afraid of the investigator. He greets him kindly. Raskolnikov gives him a receipt for the pawned watch. Porfiry Petrovich, seeing Raskolnikov’s nervous state, starts a conversation about this and that, testing his patience. Raskolnikov really can’t stand it, he demands that the investigator interrogate him properly, but he remains faithful to his chosen tactics - he continues the florid monologue. Raskolnikov notices that he seems to be waiting for someone. Meanwhile, Porfiry Petrovich starts talking about Raskolnikov’s article, about criminals. He says a criminal should not be arrested too early. He explains at length and at length why this should not be done - the criminal, remaining free and at the same time knowing that the investigator is vigilantly watching him and knows all his ins and outs, will eventually come and confess. This is especially likely with developed, nervous person. As for the fact that a criminal can run away, “he won’t run away from me psychologically,” says Porfiry Petrovich. Raskolnikov listens to the investigator, from last bit of strength trying to hold on. And he starts a conversation about how the criminal sometimes does not take into account that, in addition to his speculative constructions, there is also the soul, the nature of man. So it turns out that the young man will cunningly come up with everything, lie, it would seem that he can triumph, but he just faints! Raskolnikov clearly sees that Porfiry Petrovich suspects him of murder. “I won’t allow it, sir!” - he shouts. The investigator tells him that he knows how he went to rent an apartment, rang the bell and asked about the blood, but explains all this with Raskolnikov’s illness - he allegedly did all this in delirium. Raskolnikov cannot stand it and shouts in rage: “It was not in delirium! It was real!” Porfiry Petrovich continues his crafty speeches, completely confusing Raskolnikov - he either believes or does not believe that he is suspected. “I will not allow myself to be tortured - arrest me, search me, but if you please act according to form, and not play with me, sir!” - he finally shouts. At this time, Nikolai, arrested without guilt, bursts into the room and loudly confesses to the crime he allegedly committed. Raskolnikov perks up and decides to leave. At parting, the investigator tells him that they will definitely see each other again. Arriving home, Raskolnikov reflects on what happened at the investigator's. He remembers the man who was waiting for him yesterday. And so, when he, getting ready to leave, goes to the door, it suddenly opens by itself - this is the same person. Raskolnikov died. But the man asks for forgiveness for yesterday. Raskolnikov suddenly remembers that he had seen him before, when he went to the apartment of the murdered old woman. This means that the investigator has nothing but psychology on Raskolnikov! “Now we will fight again,” Raskolnikov thinks.
PART FIVE Luzhin, getting out of bed the next morning, tries to come to terms with the thought of breaking up with Dunya. He is angry that yesterday he reported the failure to his friend Lebezyatnikov and he laughed at him. Other troubles also irritate him: his efforts on one case in the Senate ended in nothing, the owner of the apartment he rented demands payment of the penalty in full, in furniture store They don't want to return the deposit. All this increases Luzhin's hatred for Raskolnikov. He regrets that he did not give money to Duna and her mother - because in this case they would feel obligated to him. Luzhin recalls that he was invited to Marmeladov’s funeral. He finds out that Raskolnikov will also be there. Luzhin despises and hates Lebezyatnikov, his former pet, with whom he stayed, having found out about him in the provinces that he was a progressive from the most advanced and seemed to play an important role in some circles. Luzhin had heard about some progressives, nihilists, denouncers, etc., existing in the capital. And he is most afraid of reproof. Therefore, heading to St. Petersburg, Luzhin decided to quickly find out what and how, and, if necessary, just in case, get closer to “our younger generations.” And Andrei Semenovich Lebezyatnikov was supposed to help him with this, although he turned out to be a “vulgar and simple-minded” person. This is one of those numerous vulgarities, half-educated tyrants who cling to every fashionable idea, turning it into a caricature, although they serve it sincerely. Lebezyatnikov also dislikes his former guardian, although he sometimes starts conversations with him about all sorts of “progressive” things. He is going to set up a commune, in which he intends to involve Sonya, whom he himself once moved out of the apartment. In the meantime, he “continues to develop” Sonya and is surprised that she is somehow fearfully chaste and shy with him.” Taking advantage of the fact that the conversation has started about Sonya, Luzhin asks Lebezyatnikov to call her to his room. She comes, and Luzhin gives her ten rubles for the widow. Lebezyatnikov is delighted with his action. The pride of the poor and vanity forced Katerina Ivanovna to spend almost half of the money she received from Raskolnikov on the funeral. Amalia Ivanovna, the landlady with whom Katerina Ivanovna had previously been at enmity, takes an active part in the preparations. To Katerina Ivanovna’s displeasure, of all the “respectable” people she invited, not one showed up. There is no Luzhin or even Lebezyatnikov. Raskolnikov arrives. Katerina Ivanovna is very happy with him. Sonya apologizes on behalf of Luzhin. Katerina Ivanovna is very excited, she talks incessantly, coughs up blood, and is close to hysterics. Sonya is afraid that all this will end badly. And so it happens - a quarrel breaks out between Katerina Ivanovna and the landlady. At the height of the scandal, Luzhin appears. He claims that one hundred rubles disappeared from his table when Sonya was in the room. The girl says that he himself gave her ten rubles, and she didn’t take anything else. Luzhin demands to call the police. Katerina Ivanovna rushes to Sonya’s defense, turning out the pockets of her dress, wanting to show that there is nothing there. A hundred-ruble banknote falls to the floor. Katerina Ivanovna shouts that Sonya is incapable of stealing, turns to Raskolnikov for protection, and cries. This is enough for Luzhin - he publicly forgives Sonya. Lebezyatnikov, who appeared at that moment, refutes Luzhin’s accusation: he himself saw how Luzhin quietly put the banknote in Sonya’s pocket. He thought then that Luzhin was doing this out of nobility, in order to avoid words of gratitude. Lebezyatnikov is ready to swear before the police, but he will not understand why Luzhin committed such a vile act. “I can explain!” - says Raskolnikov. He reports that Luzhin wooed his sister, on the day of his arrival he quarreled with him, Raskolnikov, and accidentally saw him give money to Katerina Ivanovna. To quarrel between Rodion and his mother and sister, Luzhin wrote to them that he had given Sonya their last money, and hinted at some kind of connection between him and Sonya. The truth was restored, Luzhin was driven out. If now Luzhin convinced everyone that Sonya was a thief, then he would thereby prove to Raskolnikov’s mother and sister the validity of his suspicions. In general, he wanted to quarrel between Raskolnikov and his family. Sonya is confused, does not take her eyes off Raskolnikov, seeing him as a protector. Luzhin is looking for a way out of insolence. He intends to sue, he will find justice for “the atheists, troublemakers and freethinkers”! With this Luzhin disappears. Sonya becomes hysterical and runs home crying. Amalia Ivanovna drives Marmeladov’s widow out of the apartment. Drunk residents are rowdy. Raskolnikov goes to Sonya. Raskolnikov feels: “he must” tell Sonya who killed Lizaveta, and anticipates the terrible torment that will result from this confession. He hesitates and is afraid, but is aware of “his powerlessness before the need” to say everything. Raskolnikov asks Sonya a question: what would she do if she had to decide whether Luzhin or Katerina Ivanovna should die? Sonya replies: she had a presentiment that Rodion would ask her such a question. She does not know God’s providence, she is not a judge and it is not for her to decide who should live and who should not live. She asks Raskolnikov to speak directly. He obi-vyakami confesses to the intentional murder of the old woman and the accidental murder of Dyazaveta. “Why did you do this to yourself! ...There is no one more unhappy than you in the whole world now!” - Sonya screams in despair, hugging Raskolnikov. She will go to hard labor with Rodion! But suddenly Sonya realizes that Raskolnikov has not yet fully realized the gravity of what he has done. She asks about the details of the crime. “...I wanted to become Napoleon, that’s why I killed...” says Raskolnikov. It would never have occurred to Napoleon to think about whether to kill the old woman or not if he needed it. He, Raskolnikov, killed only a louse, useless, disgusting, harmful. No, he refutes himself, he is not a louse, but he wanted to dare and killed... The main thing that pushed Raskolnikov to murder, he explains this way: “I needed to find out... am I a louse, like everyone else, or a man? Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right... The devil dragged me then, and after that he explained to me that I had no right to go there, because I was just a louse like everyone else!.. Am I not? Did you kill the old lady? I killed myself!.. What should I do now?..” - Raskolnikov addresses Sonya. She answers him that he must go to the crossroads, kiss the ground that he desecrated by murder, bow on all four sides and say out loud to everyone: “I killed!” Raskolnikov must accept suffering and atone for his guilt with it. But he does not want to repent before people who “harass millions of people, and even consider them to be virtues... They are rogues and scoundrels... they will not understand anything...”. “I’ll still fight,” says Raskolnikov. “Maybe I’m still a human being, not a louse, and I’m hasty in condemning myself... I won’t give in to them.” And then he asks Sonya if she will come to him in prison. She wants to give him her pectoral cross, but he doesn’t take it, he says: “It’s better later.” Lebezyatnikov looks into the room. He reports that Katerina Ivanovna is not herself: she went to her husband’s former boss, caused a scandal there, came home, beats the children, sews some kind of hats for them, is going to take them out into the street, walk around the yards and beat them in the basin, instead music, and the children will sing and dance... Sonya runs away, followed by Raskolnikov and Lebezyatnikov. Raskolnikov goes to his closet. He scolds himself for going to Sonya and making her unhappy with his confession. Dunya arrives. Razumi-hin told her about the investigator's groundless suspicions. Dunya assures her brother that she is ready to give him her whole life, if only he will call her. Rodion praises Razumikhin as “an honest man and capable of loving deeply” and says to his sister: “Farewell.” Dunya leaves in alarm. Raskolnikov leaves the house. A feeling of melancholy and foreboding falls upon him for long years filled with this longing. They call out to Raskolnikov - this is Lebezyatnikov. He reports that Katerina Ivanovna walks the streets, beats a frying pan and makes children sing and dance. They are crying. Sonya unsuccessfully tries to take her home. The young people reach a small crowd of onlookers gawking at the strange spectacle. Katerina Ivanovna is in a complete frenzy, beating the children, shouting at the audience, trying to sing, coughing, crying... Some gentleman hands her three rubles. A policeman comes up and demands “not to be disgraceful.” The children run away, Katerina Ivanovna rushes after them, screaming and crying, stumbles and falls, her throat begins to bleed. They take her to Sonya. People gather in the room, and among them is Svidrigailov. Katerina Ivanovna is delirious. Dies. Svidrigailov offers to pay for the funeral, place the children in an orphanage and put one thousand five hundred rubles in the bank for each until they reach adulthood. He is going to “pull Sonya out of the pool” too. From Svidrigailov’s speeches, Raskolnikov understands that he heard his conversation with Sonya. Svidrigailov himself does not deny this. “After all, I said that we would get together,” he says to Raskolpkov.
PART SIX Raskolnikov is in a strange state of mind: he confuses events, cannot comprehend what is happening, and is overwhelmed either by anxiety or apathy. His attention focuses on Svidrigailov. In the two or three days that passed after the death of Katerina Ivanovna, he met with him twice. Svidrigailov is busy with the funeral, arranging the fate of her children. Razumikhin comes to Raskolnikov. He reports that Rodion’s mother is sick and still came here yesterday with Dunya and him, but no one was home. Raskolnikov tells his friend that Dunya “maybe already loves” him. Razumikhin, intrigued by Raskolnikov's behavior, decides that he is a political conspirator. He casually mentions the letter Dunya received, which greatly alarmed her, then he talks about the painter who confessed to the murder, and says that Porfiry Petrovich told him about him. After Razumikhin leaves, Raskolnikov reflects on his situation. He doesn’t understand why the investigator is trying to convince Razumikhin of the painter’s guilt. The arrival of Porfiry Petrovich himself amazes Raskolnikov. The investigator reports that he was here two days ago, but did not find Raskolnikov at home. After a long and chaotic monologue, interrupted from time to time by Raskolnikov, Porfiry Petrovich concludes that the murder was not committed by Mikolka (pious, sectarian, decided to “accept suffering”), but by a completely different person - the one who “seemed to have not come to the crime with his own feet.” .. killed, killed two, according to theory. He killed, and he couldn’t take the money, but what he managed to grab, he took down under a stone... then he went to an empty apartment, half-delirious... he walked, he needed to experience the cold in his spine again... he killed, but for honest man He respects himself, despises people...” “So... who... killed?..” - Raskolnikov cannot stand it. “Yes, you killed,” replies Porfiry Petrovich. “If you think I’m guilty, why don’t you take me to prison?” - “I have nothing against you yet.” Porfiry Petrovich wants Raskolnikov to confess. “Why on earth should I confess?” Porfiry Petrovich replies that in this case he will present the crime as the result of insanity. Raskolnikov does not want such relief from his guilt. The investigator convinces him: “Don’t disdain life!.. There will be a lot of it ahead.” Raskolnikov laughs. Porfiry Petrovich tells him that he invented the theory, and now he is ashamed that he fell through, that it turned out to be completely unoriginal, vile. And yet, Raskolnikov “is not a hopeless scoundrel... At least, he didn’t fool himself for a long time, and at once reached the last pillars.” According to Porfiry Petrovich, Raskolnikov is one of those people who will endure any torment with a smile, if only they find “faith or God.” We must surrender to life without reasoning - “it will take you straight to the shore and put you on your feet.” Since Raskolnikov has already taken such a step, he should not be afraid now, he must do what justice requires. Answering Raskolnikov’s question, the investigator says that he will arrest him in two days. He knows that Raskolnikov will not run away. “You can’t do without us,” he tells him. Porfiry Petrovich is sure that Raskolnikov will admit everything anyway, “he will decide to accept suffering.” Well, if Raskolnikov decides to commit suicide, then let him leave a detailed note. He will tell you about the stone under which he hid the loot. After the investigator leaves, Raskolnikov hurries to Svidrigailov, not knowing why. He heard everything - so did he go to Porfiry Petrovich or is he still planning to go? Maybe it won't work at all? Raskolnikov cannot understand Svidrigailov. What if he has plans for Dunya and is going to use what he learned about him, Raskolnikov, for this purpose? The meeting takes place in a tavern. Raskolnikov threatens to kill Svidrigailov if he intends to pursue his sister. He says that he came to St. Petersburg “more about women.” Svidrigailov considers debauchery to be an occupation no worse than others - in it, in his opinion, “there is something permanent, based even on nature and not subject to fantasy...”. It's a disease, yes, if you don't follow the limit. But otherwise the only thing left to do would be to shoot himself. “Well, the abomination of this whole situation no longer affects you? Or have you lost the strength to stop? “- asks Raskolnikov. Svidrigailov responds by calling him an idealist. He tells the story of his life. Marfa Petrovna bought him out of debtor's prison. “Do you know to what degree of stupor a woman can sometimes fall in love?” Marfa Petrovna was much older than Svidrigailov and suffered from some kind of illness. Svidrigailov did not promise her fidelity. They agreed: 1. Svidrigailov will never leave his wife. 2. He won’t go anywhere without her permission. 3. He will never have a permanent mistress. 4. You can sometimes have relationships with maids, but only with the knowledge of your wife. 5. Under no circumstances will he fall in love with a woman from his own class. 6. If he falls in love, he must open up to Marfa Petrovna. They had quarrels, but everything worked out until Dunya appeared. Marfa Petrovna herself took her as a governess and loved her very much. Svidrigailov, as soon as he saw Avdotya Romanovna, realized that things were bad, and tried not to look at her and not to respond to his wife’s enthusiastic words about this beauty. Marfa Petrovna did not fail to tell Duna “all the ins and outs” of her husband, did not hide family secrets from her and constantly complained to her about him. Dunya finally felt sorry for Svidrigailov as a lost man. Well, in such cases, the girl “will certainly want to “save” and bring her to her senses and resurrect... and revive her to a new life...”. Moreover, Dunya “she herself only yearns for this... to quickly accept some kind of torment for someone...”. At the same time, she is “chaste, perhaps to the point of illness.” And just then a girl, Parasha, was brought to the estate, pretty, but stupid. Svidrigailov's harassment of her ended in a scandal. Dunya demanded that he leave Parasha alone. Svidrigailov pretended to be ashamed, blamed everything on his fate, and began to flatter Dunya. But she did not succumb to flattery, Svidrigailova figured it out. Then he began to mock Dunya’s efforts to “resurrect” him, and went all out with Parasha, and not only with her. They quarreled. What did Svidrigailov do? He, knowing Dunya’s poverty, offered her all his money so that she would run away with him to St. Petersburg. He was madly in love with Dunya. As soon as he told her: kill or poison Marfa Petrovna and marry me, he would have done it immediately. But it all ended in disaster. Svidrigailov was infuriated to learn that Marfa Petrovna “got on with that vile clerk, Luzhin, and almost staged a wedding, which, in essence, would have been the same thing” as what Svidrigailov proposed. Raskolnikov suggests that Svidrigailov has not yet given up the idea of getting Dunya. He informs him that he is going to marry a sixteen-year-old girl from a poor family. Next, Svidrigailov tells how, having arrived in St. Petersburg, he hurried to the dirty dens that he remembered while living on the estate. And so, at one dance evening, he saw a girl of about thirteen. Her mother explained that they had come to St. Petersburg to work on some business, were poor, and had ended up attending this evening by mistake. Svidrigailov began helping them with money and still keeps in touch with them. Svidrigailov, with a worried, gloomy look, headed towards the exit of the tavern. Raskolnikov followed, fearing that he might go to Duna. He declares to Svidrigailov that he is going to Sonya to apologize for not being at the funeral, but he says that she is not at home now - she has a meeting with the owner of the orphanage where he placed Katerina Ivanovna’s children. We are talking about the conversation between Raskolnikov and Sonya that Svidrigailov overheard. Raskolnikov believes that it is dishonorable to eavesdrop at the door, to which Svidrigailov responds: “If... you are convinced that you cannot eavesdrop at the door, and you can piss off old ladies with whatever you like, for your own pleasure, then go somewhere as soon as possible to America!” He offers Raskolnikov money for the journey. As for moral questions, we must discard them, otherwise “there was no need to meddle; there’s no point in minding your own business.” Or let Raskolnikov shoot himself. Filled with disgust for Svidrigailov, Raskolnikov breaks up with him. He, having taken a cab (he was supposedly going to go to the islands for a spree), soon lets him go. Raskolnikov stops thoughtfully on the bridge. Dunya approaches him, whom he passed by without noticing her. Dunya hesitates whether to call out to her brother, and then notices Svid-Rigailov approaching. He, stopping at a distance so that Raskolnikov would not notice him, beckons Dunya with signs. She comes up. Svidrigailov asks her to go with him - she must listen to Sonya, and he will show her some documents. He knows her brother's secret. They go to Sonya, who is not at home. The conversation continues in Svidrigailov’s room. Dunya puts what she received on the table. she receives a letter from Svidrigailov, in which he hints at a crime committed by her brother, and tells him that she does not believe in it. Then why did she come here? Svidrigailov informs Duna about Raskolnikov’s conversation with Sonya, that it was he, her brother, who killed the old woman and Lizaveta. He took money and things, but did not use them. Raskolnikov killed according to the theory according to which people are divided into material and special people for whom the law is not written. Raskolnikov imagined that he, too, was a genius, and now he suffers because he invented a theory, but could not step beyond it, therefore, he is not a genius. Dunya wants to see Sonya. Svidrigailov volunteers to save Raskolnikov and take him abroad. Everything depends on Dunya, who must stay with him, Svidrigailov. Dunya demands that Svidrigailov unlock the door and let her out. She takes a revolver out of her pocket. Let only Svidrigailov dare to approach her - she will kill him! Svidrigailov mocks Dunya. Dunya shoots, the bullet, gliding through Svidrigailov’s hair, hits the wall. Svidrigailov advances on Dunya. She shoots again - it misfires. Dunya throws the revolver. Svidrigailov hugs her, Dunya begs to let her go. “So you don’t like me?” - asks Svidrigailov. Dunya shakes her head negatively. "Never?" - he whispers. "Never!" - Dunya answers. He gives her the key. Svidrigailov notices the revolver, puts it in his pocket and leaves. He spends the evening moving from one hot spot to another, then goes to Sonya. Svidrigailov tells her that maybe he will go to America, gives her receipts for the money he left to the children, and gives Sonya herself three thousand rubles. To Sonya’s objections, he replies: “Rodion Romanovich has two roads: either a bullet in the forehead, or in Vladimirka...” Sonya will probably go to hard labor with him, which means she will need money. Svidrigailov asks to convey his regards to Raskolnikov and Razumikhin and leaves into the rain. Later he appears at his fiancee's, tells her that he must leave urgently and gives a large amount money. Then he wanders the streets and, somewhere on the outskirts, rents a room in a squalid hotel. He lies on the bed and thinks about Duna, about the suicidal girl, then jumps up and goes to the window, then wanders along the corridor, where he notices crying girl about five years old, soaked in the rain. Svidrigailov takes her to his room and puts her on the bed. He tries to leave, but he feels sorry for the girl. And suddenly he sees that the girl is not sleeping, she is winking at him slyly, there is shamelessness in her eyes, she is stretching her hands towards him... Svidrigailov screams in horror... and wakes up. The girl is sleeping. Svidrigailov leaves. He stops at the fire tower and shoots himself in front of the fireman (there will be an official witness). In the evening of the same day, Raskolnikov comes to his mother and sister. Dunya is not at home. Pulcheria Alexandrovna starts talking about Rodion’s article, which she is reading for the third time, but does not understand much. She believes that Rodion will soon become famous. Rodion says goodbye to his mother. “I will never stop loving you,” he tells her. “I see from everything that great grief is in store for you,” says the mother. The son tells his mother that he is leaving and asks his mother to pray for him. Raskolnikov goes home, Dunya is waiting for him there. He tells her: “If I considered myself strong until now, then let me not be afraid of shame now. I’m going to betray myself now.” “Aren’t you, by going to suffer, already washing away half your crime?” - asks Dunya. Raskolnikov flies into a rage: “What crime? The fact that I killed a nasty, malicious louse, an old pawnbroker, useless to anyone... who sucked the juice out of the poor, and this is a crime? I don’t think about it and I don’t think about washing it off.” “But you shed blood!” - Dunya shouts. “Which everyone pours,” he picked up almost in a frenzy, “which flows and has always flowed in the world like a waterfall... for which they are crowned in the Capitol and then called the benefactor of humanity... I myself wanted good for people and would do hundreds , thousands of good deeds instead of this one stupidity... since this whole idea was not at all as stupid as it seems now, given the failure... I wanted... to take the first step, to achieve the means, and then everything would be smoothed over immeasurably ... benefit... I don’t understand: why hitting people with bombs, a proper siege, is a more respectable form? ...I don’t understand my crime!” But seeing the torment in his sister’s eyes, Rodion comes to his senses. He asks Dunya to take care of his mother and not cry for him: he will try “to be both courageous and honest, all his life,” even though he is a murderer. Raskolnikov walks down the street thoughtfully. “Why do they love menl so much if I’m not worth it! Oh, if I were alone and no one loved me, and I myself would never love anyone! All this wouldn’t exist*, he thinks. Will his soul reconcile himself in the next fifteen to twenty years? “Why live after this, why am I going now, when I myself know that all this will be exactly like this... and not otherwise!” Evening had already come when Raskolnikov appeared at Sonya’s. She waited for him in excitement all day. In the morning Dunya came to her and they talked for a long time about Rodion. Dunya, who could not sit still from anxiety, went to her brother’s apartment - it seemed to her that he would come there. And so, when Sonya almost believed in Raskolnikov’s suicide, he entered her room. “I’m behind your crosses... You yourself sent me to the crossroads!..” - Raskolnikov tells her. He is extremely excited, cannot concentrate on anything, his hands are shaking. Sonya puts a cypress cross on his chest. Lizavetin, copper, she keeps for herself. “Cross yourself, pray at least once,” Sonya asks. Raskolnikov is baptized. Sonya throws a scarf over her head - she wants to go with him. On the way, Raskolnikov remembers Sonya's words about the crossroads. “He trembled all over, remembering this. And he was so overwhelmed by the hopeless melancholy and anxiety of this time... that he rushed into the possibility of this whole, new, complete sensation. It suddenly came to him like a fit: it ignited in his soul with one spark and suddenly, like fire, it engulfed him all. Everything in him softened at once, and tears flowed. As he stood, he fell to the ground... He knelt down in the middle of the square, bowed to the ground and kissed this dirty earth, with pleasure and with
IN PART. He stood up and bowed another time.” They laugh at him. He notices Sonya, who is secretly following him. Raskolnikov goes to the police station, where he learns about Svidrigailov’s suicide. Raskolnikov, shocked, goes out into the street, where he runs into Sonya. With a lost smile, he turns back and confesses to the murder.
EPILOGUE “Siberia. On the banks of a wide, deserted river stands a city, one of the administrative centers of Russia; in the city there is a fortress, in the fortress there is a prison. A second-class convict, Rodion Raskolnikov, has been imprisoned in prison for nine months. Almost a year and a half has passed since his crime.” At the trial, Raskolnikov did not hide anything. The fact that he hid his wallet and things under a stone, without using them and without even knowing what and how much he had stolen, how much money was in the wallet, amazed the investigator and the judges. From this they concluded that the crime “occurred during some temporary insanity.” “The criminal not only did not want to justify himself, but even seemed to express a desire to accuse himself even more.” Sincere confession and everything said above contributed to the mitigation of the sentence. In addition, other circumstances favorable to the defendant were adopted: while studying at the university, he supported a consumptive comrade from his last means, and after his death he looked after his sick father, placed him in a hospital, and after his “392 death, he buried him. Raskolnikov's landlady reported at the trial that Raskolnikov once saved two small children from a fire. In a word, the criminal was sentenced to only eight years of hard labor. Pulcheria Alexandrovna, whom everyone assured that her son had gone somewhere abroad, nevertheless feels something sinister in her soul and lives only in anticipation of a letter from Rodion. Her mind becomes clouded, and soon she dies. Dunya marries Razumikhin, inviting Porfiry Petrovich and Zosimov to the wedding. Razumikhin resumed his studies at the university and was determined to move to Siberia in a few years, for which he was forced to confess.” He is also tormented by the thought of why he didn’t commit suicide? Everyone doesn’t like him and avoids him, then they hate him. “You are a master! - they told him... - You are an atheist! ...We need to kill you.” Raskolnikov is silent. He is surprised by one thing: why did everyone fall in love with Sonya so much? Raskolnikov is admitted to the hospital. In his delirium, he imagines that the world is about to perish due to some unprecedented disease. Only a select few will survive. People affected by the microbe go crazy and consider any thought, any belief, to be the ultimate truth. Everyone believes that the truth lies in him alone. Nobody knows what is good and what is evil. There is a war of all against all. Everything is dying. Throughout Raskolnikov’s illness, Sonya is on duty under his windows, and one day Raskolnikov accidentally saw her through the window. Sonya did not come for two days. Raskolnikov, returning to the prison, learns that she is sick and lying at home. Sonya tells him in a note that she will soon recover and will come to see him. “When he read this note, his heart beat strongly and painfully.” The next day, when Raskolnikov was working on the firing of a kiln by the river, Sonya approaches him and timidly extends her hand to him. “But suddenly something seemed to pick him up and seem to throw him at her feet. He cried and hugged her knees...” Sonya understands that Raskolnikov loves her. “Both were pale and thin; but in these sick and pale faces the dawn of a renewed future, a complete resurrection into a new life, was already shining.” They decide to wait and be patient. There are still seven years left. “But he was resurrected - and he knew it, he felt it with his entire being renewed...” In the evening, lying on his bunk, he takes out from under the pillow the Gospel brought by Sonya.
The main character is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a student who dropped out of university. He lives in a cramped closet, like a coffin, in poverty. He avoids his landlady because he owes her money. The action takes place in the summer, in a terrible stuffiness (the theme of “yellow Petersburg” runs through the entire novel). Raskolnikov goes to an old woman who lends money on bail. The old woman’s name is Alena Ivanovna, she lives with her half-sister, the dumb, downtrodden creature Lizaveta, who “walks around pregnant every minute,” works for the old woman and is completely enslaved by her. Raskolnikov brings a watch as collateral, remembering all the smallest details along the way, as he prepares to carry out his plan - to kill the old woman.
On the way back, he goes into a tavern, where he meets Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, a drunken official who talks about himself. His wife, Katerina Ivanovna, has three children from her first marriage. Her first husband was an officer, with whom she ran away from her parents' house, played cards, and beat her. Then he died, and out of despair and poverty she had to marry Marmeladov, who was an official, but then lost his job. From his first marriage, Marmeladov has a daughter, Sonya, who was forced to go to work in order to somehow feed herself and feed the rest of her children. Marmeladov drinks with her money and steals money from the house. Suffering from this. Raskolnikov takes him home. There is a scandal at home, Raskolnikov leaves, discreetly placing the money that the Marmeladov family so needs on the window. The next morning, Raskolnikov receives a letter from home from his mother, who apologizes for not being able to send money. The mother says that Raskolnikov’s sister Dunya entered the service of the Svidrigailovs. Svidrigailov treated her badly, then began to persuade her to have a love affair, promising all sorts of benefits. Svidrigailov's wife, Marfa Petrovna, overheard the conversation, blamed Dunya for everything and kicked her out of the house. Acquaintances turned away from the Raskolnikovs, since Marfa Petrovna rang about this throughout the district. Then everything became clear (Svidrigailov repented, Dunya’s indignant letter was found, the servants confessed). Marfa Petrovna told her friends about everything, the attitude changed, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin wooed Dunya, who was going to St. Petersburg to open a law office. Raskolnikov understands that his sister is selling herself in order to be able to help her brother, and decides to prevent the marriage. Raskolnikov goes out into the street and meets on the boulevard with drunk girl, almost a girl who, apparently, was drunk, dishonored and put out on the street. A guy walks nearby, trying on the girl. Raskolnikov gives money to the policeman so that he can take the girl home in a cab. She thinks about her future unenviable fate. Understands that a certain “percentage” goes exactly this way life path, but doesn’t want to put up with it. He goes to his friend Razumikhin and changes his mind along the way. Before reaching home, he falls asleep in the bushes. He has a terrible dream that he, little, is walking with his father to the cemetery where his younger brother is buried, past a tavern. There is a draft horse harnessed to a cart. The drunken owner of the horse, Mikola, comes out of the tavern and invites his friends to sit down. The horse is old and cannot move the cart. Mikolka frantically whips her. Several more people join him. Mikolka kills a nag with a crowbar. The boy (Raskolnikov) throws his fists at Mikolka, his father takes him away. Raskolnikov wakes up and thinks about whether he can kill or not. Walking down the street, he accidentally hears a conversation between Lizaveta (the old woman’s sister) and friends who invite her to visit, i.e. the old woman will be left alone tomorrow. Raskolnikov enters a tavern, where he overhears a conversation between an officer and a student playing billiards about the old money-lender and about Lizaveta. They say that the old woman is vile and sucks blood from people. Student: I would kill her, rob her without a twinge of conscience, how many people disappear, and the vile old woman herself will die not today or tomorrow. Raskolnikov comes home and goes to bed. Then he prepares for the murder: he sews a loop for an ax under his coat, wraps a piece of wood with a piece of iron in paper, like a new “mortgage”, to distract the old woman. Then he steals an ax from the janitor's room. He goes to the old woman, gives her the “mortgage”, quietly takes out an ax and kills the pawnbroker. After that, he begins to rummage through cabinets, chests, etc. Suddenly Lizaveta returns. Raskolnikov is forced to kill her too. Then someone rings the doorbell. Raskolnikov doesn’t open it. Those who come notice that the door is locked from the inside with a latch, and feel something is wrong. Two go down after the janitor, one remains on the stairs, but then he can’t stand it and also goes down. Raskolnikov runs out of the apartment. The floor below is undergoing renovation. The visitors and the janitor are already climbing the stairs; Raskolnikov is taking refuge in the apartment, which is being renovated. The group goes up, Raskolnikov runs away.
Part 2
Raskolnikov wakes up, examines the clothes, destroys the evidence, and wants to hide the things he took from the old woman. The janitor comes and brings a summons to the police. Raskolnikov goes to the police station. It turns out that they are demanding that the landlady collect money in the case. At the station, Raskolnikov sees Luisa Ivanovna, the owner of the brothel. Raskolnikov explains to the clerk that at one time he promised to marry the daughter of his landlady, spent a lot, and issued bills. Then the owner's daughter died of typhus, and the owner began to demand payment of bills. Out of the corner of his ear, Raskolnikov hears a conversation at the police station about the murder of an old woman - the interlocutors are discussing the circumstances of the case.
Raskolnikov faints, then explains that he is unwell. Coming from the station, Raskolnikov takes the old woman’s things from home and hides them under a stone in a remote alley. After that, he goes to his friend Razumikhin and tries to chaotically explain something. Razumikhin offers to help, but Raskolnikov leaves. On the embankment, Raskolnikov almost falls under the carriage. Some merchant's wife and her daughter, mistaking him for a beggar, give Raskolnikov 20 kopecks. Raskolnikov takes it, but then throws the money into the Neva. It seemed to him that he was now completely cut off from the whole world. He comes home and goes to bed. Delirium begins: Raskolnikov imagines that the mistress is being beaten. When Raskolnikov woke up, he saw Razumikhin and the cook Nastasya in his room, who were caring for him during his illness. The artel worker comes and brings money from his mother (35 rubles). Razumikhin took the bill from the landlady and vouched for Raskolnikov that he would pay. Buys clothes for Raskolnikov. Zosimov, a medical student, comes to Raskolnikov’s closet to examine the patient. He talks with Razumikhin about the murder of the old pawnbroker. It turns out that the dyer Mikolay was arrested on suspicion of murder, and Koch and Pestryakov (those who came to the old woman during the murder) were released. Mikolai brought the owner of the liquor store a case with gold earrings, which he allegedly found on the street. She and Mitriy were painting right on the stairs where the old woman lived. The owner of the tavern began to find out and found out that Mikolay had been drinking for several days, and when he hinted at the murder, Mikolay started to run. Then he was arrested when he wanted to hang himself drunk in a barn (he had pawned a cross before that). He denies his guilt, he only admitted that he did not find the earrings on the street, but behind the door on the floor where they were painting. Zosimov and Razumikhin argue about the circumstances. Razumikhin reconstructs the whole picture of the murder - both how the killer was found in the apartment, and how he hid from the janitor, Kokh and Pestryakov on the floor below. At this time, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin comes to Raskolnikov. He is neatly dressed, but does not make the best impression on Raskolnikov. Luzhin reports that Raskolnikov's sister and mother are coming. They will stay in rooms (a cheap and dirty hotel), for which Luzhin pays. An acquaintance of Luzhin’s, Andrei Semenych Lebezyatnikov, also lives there. Luzhin philosophizes about what progress is. In his opinion, progress is driven by selfishness, that is, personal interest. If you share your last shirt with your neighbor, then neither he nor you will have a shirt, and you will both walk around half naked. The richer and more organized an individual is and the more such individuals there are, the richer and more comfortable the society is. The conversation turns again to the murder of the old woman. Zosimov says that the investigator is interrogating the pawnbrokers, that is, those who brought things to the old woman. Luzhin philosophizes about why crime has increased not only among the “lower classes,” but also among the relatively wealthy. Raskolnikov says that “according to your theory it happened” - if everyone is for himself, then people can be killed. “Is it true that you said that it is better to take a wife out of poverty, so that later you can better rule over her?” Luzhin is indignant and says that Raskolnikov’s mother is spreading this gossip. Raskolnikov quarrels with Luzhin and threatens to throw him down the stairs. After everyone has left, Raskolnikov gets dressed and goes to wander the streets. He ends up in an alley where brothels are located, etc. He thinks about those sentenced to death, who, before execution, are ready to agree to live in a space of a meter, on a rock, just to live. “Scoundrel man. And the one who calls him a scoundrel for this is a scoundrel.” Raskolnikov goes to a tavern and reads newspapers there. Zametov approaches him (the one who was at the police station when Raskolnikov fainted, and then came to Raskolnikov during his illness, an acquaintance of Razumikhin). They are talking about counterfeiters. Raskolnikov feels as if Zametov suspects him. He talks about what he would have done in the place of the counterfeiters, then about what he would have done with the old woman’s things if he had killed her. Then he asks directly: “What if I killed the old woman and Lizaveta? After all, you suspect me!” Leaves. Zosimov is sure that the suspicions about Raskolnikov are wrong.
Raskolnikov collides with Razumikhin. He invites Raskolnikov to a housewarming party. He refuses and asks everyone to leave him alone. Walking across the bridge. In front of his eyes, a woman tries to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge. They pull her out. Raskolnikov has thoughts of suicide. He goes to the crime scene and tries to question the workers and the janitor. They kick him out. Raskolnikov walks down the street, wondering whether to go to the police or not. Suddenly he hears screams and noise. He goes at them. The man was crushed by the crew. Raskolnikov recognizes Marmeladov. They take him home. At home, a wife with three children: two daughters - Polenka and Lidochka - and a son. Marmeladov dies, they send for the priest and Sonya. Katerina Ivanovna is hysterical, she blames the dying man, people, God. Marmeladov tries to ask Sonya for forgiveness before his death. Dies. Before leaving, Raskolnikov gives all the money he has left to Katerina Ivanovna, he says to Polenka, who catches up with him with words of gratitude so that she can pray for him. Raskolnikov understands that his life is not over yet. “Haven’t I lived now? My life with the old woman hasn’t died yet!” He goes to Razumikhin. He, despite the housewarming party, accompanies Raskolnikov home. The dear one says that Zametov and Ilya Petrovich suspected Raskolnikov, and now Zametov repents, and that Porfiry Petrovich (the investigator) wants to meet Raskolnikov. Zosimov has his own theory that Raskolnikov is crazy. Raskolnikov and Razumikhin come to Raskolnikov’s closet and find his mother and sister there. Raskolnikov takes a few steps back and faints.
"Crime and Punishment"- novel by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, first published in 1866.
“Crime and Punishment” summary by chapter
"Crime and Punishment" Dostoevsky summary by chapter should only be done if you do not have enough time to read the story in full. “Crime and Punishment” in abbreviation will not be able to convey all the small details from the lives of the heroes and will not immerse you in the atmosphere of that time. “Crime and Punishment” a summary of the chapters is presented below.
Part 1 “Crime and Punishment” summary
The action takes place in a hot, stuffy summer in St. Petersburg. Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a student who dropped out, lives in a cramped room in poverty. To delay paying rent, he avoids the landlady. Raskolnikov brings a watch as collateral to the old pawnbroker, Alena Ivanovna, who lives with her half-sister. A plan is brewing in his head to kill the old woman. In the tavern, Raskolnikov meets Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov. He talks about his wife and his daughter from his first marriage, Sonya. The girl was forced to sell herself on the panel in order to feed herself, her sisters and brothers. Raskolnikov takes Marmeladov home and quietly leaves the money there. In the morning, Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother. She apologizes for not being able to send the money and talks about her sister Duna. She entered the service of the Svidrigailovs. Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailova, having learned that her husband was persuading Dunya to have an affair, refused the girl her place. But soon everything was revealed. Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin wooes Duna. Luzhin goes to St. Petersburg to open a law office. Raskolnikov decides to prevent the marriage, because he understands that his sister agrees to become Luzhin’s wife for his sake. On the street, Rodion meets a drunken girl who is ready to be seduced by some scoundrel, and gives money to a policeman to take the girl home. Raskolnikov understands that this life cannot be changed, but does not want to put up with it. He is going to see his friend Razumikhin, but changes his mind. On the way home, he falls asleep in the bushes. Raskolnikov has a dream about a horse being beaten to death. When he wakes up, he thinks about murder again. Heading home, Raskolnikov accidentally hears the old woman’s sister Lizaveta being invited to visit. The old woman must be left alone. In the tavern, Raskolnikov overhears a conversation between an officer and a student about an old woman and her sister. The student says that he would have robbed and killed her without a twinge of conscience. At home, Rodion prepares for murder: he steals an ax from the janitor, wraps a piece of wood with a piece of iron in paper - “a new mortgage.” He comes to the old woman, distracts her with a “mortgage” and kills the pawnbroker. Lizaveta, who suddenly returned, also had to be killed. Someone rings the doorbell, but he doesn't answer. The newcomers follow the janitor, Raskolnikov hides in the apartment under renovation and runs away.
Part 2 “Crime and Punishment” summary
At home, Raskolnikov destroys traces of the crime. The janitor brings him a summons. At the police station it turns out that he was called about non-payment of money to the landlady. At the station, he hears a conversation about the murder of an old woman. From excitement, Raskolnikov faints and says that he is unwell. Having taken the old woman’s things from home, Rodion hides them under a stone in the alley. Razumikhin, having listened to Raskolnikov’s story, offers him his help. On the street, Raskolnikov almost fell under the wheels of a carriage; some merchant's wife gave him 20 kopecks, and he threw them into the Neva. Raskolnikov fell ill and became delirious. Razumikhin and the cook Nastasya look after him. The artel worker brought money from his mother. Razumikhin buys clothes for Raskolnikov with them. From a conversation between Razumikhin and medical student Zosimov, Raskolnikov learns that the dyer Mikolai has been arrested on suspicion of murdering the old woman. But he denies his guilt. Luzhin comes to Raskolnikov and reports that Rodion’s sister and mother are coming. In the same hotel where they stayed and for which Luzhin pays, his friend Andrei Semenych Lebezyatnikov lives. Luzhin talks about what progress is. But the conversation returns to the murder of the old woman. Zosimov says that the investigator is interviewing all those who pawned things from the old woman. While walking, Raskolnikov ends up in an alley where brothels are located. And Zametov meets him at the tavern and talks to him about counterfeiters. Zametov, who was at the station with Raskolnikov and saw him faint, suspects him of murder. Raskolnikov refuses Razumikhin's invitation to go to the housewarming party. On the bridge, he sees a woman jumping from the bridge and being pulled out. Raskolnikov is thinking about suicide. He goes to the crime scene but is kicked out. Rodion is hesitating whether or not to go to the police. Hearing noise on the street, Raskolnikov heads towards the crowd. A man was run over by a horse. Recognizing Marmeladov, Raskolnikov carries him home. At home Marmeladov dies, they send for the Priest and Sonya. Before his death, Marmeladov asks Sonya for forgiveness. Raskolnikov gives all his money to Marmeladov's wife. He goes to Razumikhin. Then they go together to Raskolnikov's house. On the way they talk about Zametov, Zosimov and Norfiry Petrovich. At home, Raskolnikov sees his mother and sister and faints.
Part 3“Crime and Punishment” summary part 3
Having come to his senses, Raskolnikov tries to persuade his sister not to marry Luzhin. Razumikhin, who fell in love with Dunya, also dissuades her from marrying Luzhin. Razumikhin comes to Raskolnikov’s sister and mother, brings Zosimov to them, who says that everything is fine with Rodion. Luzhin writes a note to Dunya asking her not to host Rodion in his presence. Dunya decides to definitely call her brother. Raskolnikov explains to his mother why he gave the money to Marmeladov’s family. Sonya Marmeladova comes to Raskolnikov’s apartment and invites him to the wake. Raskolnikov tells Razumikhin that he left his watch and ring with the murdered old woman. Razumikhin advises Raskolnikov to go to Porfiry Petrovich to pick them up. Svidrigailov is watching Sonya and Rodion. Razumikhin and Raskolnikov go to the investigator. There they meet Zametov. They argue about the process of life. Porfiry asks Raskolnikov who he thinks he is and invites him to the police station the next day. Raskolnikov runs home to check if there is anything left of the old woman there. He notices a person who asks about him. The man calls him a murderer. Raskolnikov in his reasoning rushes between “trembling creatures” and “those who have power.” Waking up, Raskolnikov sees Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov in his apartment.
Part 4 “Crime and Punishment” summary
Svidrigailov tells Raskolnikov about the incident with Dunya, about the death of his wife. He says he had the best intentions. He says that he was in prison, from where Marfa Petrovna bought him out. He offers to disrupt the wedding of Dunya and Luzhin, which was arranged by his wife. Luzhin, Raskolnikov and Razumikhin meet in Rodion’s sister and mother’s rooms.
Luzhin says that Svidrigailov caused the death of not only his wife, but also the pawnbroker Resslich and the servant Philip. Dunya objects to Luzhin. Raskolnikov reports about his meeting with Luzhin, about the money that he promises Duna. Luzhin is kicked out.
Hatching a plan for revenge, Luzhin leaves. He planned to marry Duna for his career, since everyone would pay attention to his beautiful wife. Razumikhin wants to use Svidrigailov’s money to start book publishing. Raskolnikov asks Razumikhin not to leave his mother and sister and leaves. He goes to Sonya. When Raskolnikov asks why Sonya hasn’t committed suicide yet, she replies that she doesn’t want to leave her family. It turns out that Sonya was friends with Lisa-veta, and she gave her the Gospel. Sonya reads the Gospel. Svidrigailov overheard the conversation between Sonya and Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov goes to the investigator. He is suspected of murder. Porfiry Petrovich says that he knows how Raskolnikov went to the old woman’s apartment after the murder. Mikolai, bursting into the room, shouts that it was he who killed the old woman and her sister. Porfiry Petrovich has to let Raskolnikov go. Because of all this, Rodion is late for Marmeladov's funeral.
Part 5 “Crime and Punishment” summary
Luzhin and Lebezyatnikov were invited to the wake. Despite his beliefs, Luzhin speaks well of Sonya. When Sonya comes to him, he gives her ten rubles in the form of help.
Almost none of those invited came to the funeral. Here the landlady and Katerina Ivanovna quarrel. Luzhin appears and accuses Sonya of stealing money. Sonya returns the money given to her. During the search of Sonya, a hundred rubles fall out of her pocket. Lebezyatnikov testifies that Luzhin himself planted this money on Sonya. Thus, Luzhin wanted to quarrel between Raskolnikov and his family by proving that his friend Sonya was a thief. Luzhin, having collected his things, moves out of the apartment. The landlady kicks out Katerina Ivanovna and the children.
Raskolnikov confesses to Sonya that he killed the old woman. Sonya says that we need to go to the crossroads and tell people about our actions. Raskolnikov believes that he has nothing to repent of. Lebezyatnikov, who came, talks about Katerina Ivanovna, who sews hats for children to walk along the roads and collect alms.
At home, Raskolnikov meets with Dunya, she assures him that she does not believe he is guilty. Raskolnikov wanders the streets. He meets Lebezyatnikov, who tells him that Sonya is walking down the street after her mother and is trying to take her home.
Raskolnikov wants to help Sonya persuade her mother, but she does not agree. The official gives her three rubles. The policeman demands to stop the hooliganism. The children get scared and run away. Running after them, Katerina Ivanovna falls. She is taken home to Sonya, where she dies. Svidrigailov takes over the funeral, arranges for the children in an orphanage, and provides for them. money.
In a conversation with Raskolnikov, Razumikhin mentions Mikolai who confessed. Porfiry Petrovich knows that Raskolnikov actually killed the old woman. He visits Raskolnikov and says that Mikolai, a pious man, decided to suffer for another. Porfiry Petrovich invites Raskolnikov to confess before it’s too late.
Rodion meets Svidrigailov in a tavern, who shares with Raskolnikov his cynical views on love and marriage. In marriage, Svidrigailov’s wife forgave him for his affairs with the “hay” girls, but was jealous of the women of “her circle.” Noticing that Svidrigailov had genuine feelings for Duna, Marfa Petrovna decided to marry her off.
Svidrigailov tells Raskolnikov that he overheard his conversation with Sonya. Raskolnikov goes to Svidrigailov, who invites him to go to the islands. On the bridge, Svidrigailov meets Dunya and asks her to come with him. They go to Sonya, she is not at home. Svidrigailov and Dunya come to his house. There he tells her that her brother is a murderer. Svidrigailov says that he loves Dunya and offers her his help. She refuses him. Dunya wants to leave, but Svidrigailov does not let her go. Dunya shoots at Svidrigailov, but the gun misfires. When Dunya tells Svidrigailov that she does not love him, he lets her go. He walks wildly all evening. Coming to Sonya, he gives her three thousand as a gift and leaves. He leaves fifteen thousand to his bride. After a night in the hotel, Svidrigailov goes out into the street and shoots himself.
Raskolnikov comes to say goodbye to his mother and sister. Dunya condemns her brother. Raskolnikov is going to go with repentance. In the evening, he takes the cross from Sonya and goes to the office, there he learns about Svidrigailov’s death, wants to leave, but returns.
Epilogue
For murder, thanks to mitigating circumstances, Raskolnikov was given only eight years. He's in Siberia. In his absence, Dunya married Razumikhin.
Sonya followed Raskolnikov to Siberia. They meet on Sundays. Raskolnikov considers himself guilty Only in the fact that he confessed, he could kill himself, like Svidrigailov. All the prisoners fell in love with Sonya. Weak and sick, Sonya still comes on a date with Rodion. Raskolnikov realizes that he loves Sonya. Life started over for him.
The image of Raskolnikov “Crime and Punishment”
The main character of the novel, Rodion Raskolnikov, is the embodiment of internal tossing and constant struggle. At first, the problem seems quite simple: can one person kill another human being, pathetic and insignificant, in order to achieve the undeniable good of those who are more worthy of happiness? Thus, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by the fact that what he stole from the old usurer will help his sister avoid an unwanted marriage. But Rodion couldn’t use the money!
Another motive emerges (formulated by Rodion in an article he wrote): there are chosen people (Napoleons) who can step over public morality, and “trembling creatures” doomed to obey and endure. Raskolnikov committed murder in order to prove to himself that he was by no means a “trembling creature.” At the beginning of the novel, he is in the grip of a false idea; at the end, under the influence of living human feelings, he realizes the depravity of his concept. He understands that he physically killed the old woman, and spiritually - himself. Only remorse? under the influence of Sonya, he leads him on the path of rebirth. Only suffering cleanses the soul and saves him.
But maybe Raskolnikov fails only because he is weak and incapable of decisive action? Are cold-blooded and cruel people, who allow themselves everything without remorse, satisfied and happy? The image of Svidrigailov proves to us that this is not so. Svidrigailov is cold, calculating, he is a libertine and, possibly, a murderer. In his life there is no place for illusions or bright ideals. Sometimes he can help someone, but his soul remains cold and empty. It is the emptiness and meaninglessness of existence that lead this hero to suicide.
Dostoevsky's novel is ambiguous: it is ideological, psychological, and social, as it shows the struggle of ideas, mental suffering and deeply immerses the reader both in the spiritual experiences of its strange, deeply feeling characters, and in the life of the most different strata of society.
60s of the XIX century. A poor area of St. Petersburg, adjacent to Sennaya Square and the Catherine Canal. Summer evening. Former student Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov leaves his closet in the attic and takes his last valuable thing as a pawn to the old pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna, whom she is preparing to kill. On the way back, he goes into one of the cheap taverns, where he accidentally meets the official Marmeladov, who has drunk himself and lost his job. He tells how consumption, poverty and her husband’s drunkenness pushed his wife, Katerina Ivanovna, to a cruel act - to send his daughter from her first marriage, Sonya, to work at the panel to earn money.
The next morning, Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother from the provinces describing the troubles suffered by his younger sister Dunya in the house of the depraved landowner Svidrigailov. He learns about the imminent arrival of his mother and sister in St. Petersburg in connection with Dunya's upcoming marriage. The groom is a calculating businessman Luzhin, who wants to build a marriage not on love, but on the poverty and dependence of the bride. The mother hopes that Luzhin will financially help her son complete his course at the university. Reflecting on the sacrifices that Sonya and Dunya make for the sake of their loved ones, Raskolnikov strengthens his intention to kill the pawnbroker - a worthless evil “louse”. After all, thanks to her money, “hundreds, thousands” of girls and boys will be spared from undeserved suffering. However, disgust for bloody violence rises again in the hero’s soul after a dream he saw, a memory of his childhood: the boy’s heart breaks with pity for the nag being beaten to death.
And yet, Raskolnikov kills with an ax not only the “ugly old woman,” but also her kind, meek sister Lizaveta, who unexpectedly returned to the apartment. Miraculously leaving unnoticed, he hides the stolen goods in a random place, without even assessing its value.
Soon Raskolnikov discovers with horror the alienation between himself and other people. Sick from his experience, he is, however, unable to reject the burdensome concerns of his university friend Razumikhin. From the latter’s conversation with the doctor, Raskolnikov learns that the painter Mikolka, a simple village guy, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering the old woman. Reacting painfully to conversations about crime, he himself also arouses suspicion among others.
Luzhin, who came for a visit, is shocked by the squalor of the hero’s closet; their conversation develops into a quarrel and ends in a breakup. Raskolnikov is especially offended by the closeness of practical conclusions from Luzhin’s “reasonable egoism” (which seems vulgar to him) and his own “theory”: “people can be cut...”
Wandering around St. Petersburg, a sick young man suffers from his alienation from the world and is ready to confess to a crime to the authorities when he sees a man crushed by a carriage. This is Marmeladov. Out of compassion, Raskolnikov spends his last money on the dying man: he is carried into the house, the doctor is called. Rodion meets Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya, who is saying goodbye to her father in an inappropriately bright outfit of a prostitute. Thanks to a good deed, the hero briefly felt a sense of community with people. However, having met his mother and sister who had arrived at his apartment, he suddenly realizes that he is “dead” to their love and rudely drives them away. He is lonely again, but he has hope of getting closer to Sonya, who, like him, “transgressed” the absolute commandment.
Razumikhin, who almost at first sight fell in love with the beautiful Dunya, takes care of Raskolnikov’s relatives. Meanwhile, the insulted Luzhin puts the bride before a choice: either he or his brother.
In order to find out about the fate of the things pawned by the murdered woman, and in fact to dispel the suspicions of some acquaintances, Rodion himself asks for a meeting with Porfiry Petrovich, the investigator in the case of the murder of the old pawnbroker. The latter recalls Raskolnikov’s recently published article “On Crime,” inviting the author to explain his “theory” about “two classes of people.” It turns out that the “ordinary” (“lower”) majority is just material for the reproduction of their own kind; it is they who need a strict moral law and must be obedient. These are “trembling creatures.” “People proper” (“higher ones”) have a different nature, possessing the gift of a “new word”, they destroy the present in the name of the better, even if it is necessary to “step over” the moral norms previously established for the “lower” majority, for example, by shedding someone else’s blood. These “criminals” then become “new legislators.” Thus, not recognizing the biblical commandments (“thou shalt not kill,” “thou shalt not steal,” etc.), Raskolnikov “allows” “those who have the right” - “blood according to conscience.” The intelligent and insightful Porfiry discerns in the hero an ideological murderer who claims to be the new Napoleon. However, the investigator has no evidence against Rodion - and he releases the young man in the hope that his good nature will overcome the delusions of his mind and will itself lead him to confess to his crime.
Indeed, the hero is increasingly convinced that he has made a mistake in himself: “the real ruler is destroying Toulon, committing massacres in Paris, forgetting the army in Egypt, wasting half a million people on the Moscow campaign,” and he, Raskolnikov, is tormented by “vulgarity” and “ meanness" of a single murder. It is clear that he is a “trembling creature”: even after killing, he “did not step over” the moral law. The very motives of the crime are twofold in the hero’s consciousness: this is both a test of oneself for the “highest level”, and an act of “justice”, according to revolutionary socialist teachings, transferring the property of “predators” to their victims.
Svidrigailov, who came after Dunya to St. Petersburg, apparently guilty of the recent death of his wife, meets Raskolnikov and notes that they are “birds of a feather,” although the latter has not completely conquered the “Schiller” within himself. Despite all the disgust for the offender, Rodion’s sister is attracted by his apparent ability to enjoy life, despite the crimes he has committed.
During lunch in the cheap rooms where Luzhin, out of economy, settled Dunya and his mother, a decisive explanation takes place. Luzhin is accused of slandering Raskolnikov and Sonya, to whom he allegedly gave for base services the money selflessly collected by his poor mother for his studies. The relatives are convinced of the purity and nobility of the young man and sympathize with Sonya’s fate. Expelled in disgrace, Luzhin is looking for a way to discredit Raskolnikov in the eyes of his sister and mother.
The latter, meanwhile, again feeling a painful alienation from his loved ones, comes to Sonya. From her, who “transgressed” the commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery,” he seeks salvation from unbearable loneliness. But Sonya herself is not alone. She sacrificed herself for the sake of others (hungry brothers and sisters), and not others for herself, like her interlocutor. Love and compassion for loved ones, faith in the mercy of God never left her. She reads the gospel lines to Rodion about Christ’s resurrection of Lazarus, hoping for a miracle in her life. The hero fails to captivate the girl with the “Napoleonic” plan for power over “the entire anthill.”
Tormented by both fear and the desire to be exposed, Raskolnikov again comes to Porfiry, as if worried about his mortgage. A seemingly abstract conversation about the psychology of criminals eventually leads the young man to a nervous breakdown, and he almost gives himself away to the investigator. What saves him is his unexpected confession to the murder of the pawnbroker Mikolka.
In the passage room of the Marmeladovs, a wake was held for her husband and father, during which Katerina Ivanovna, in a fit of morbid pride, insults the owner of the apartment. She tells her and the children to move out immediately. Suddenly Luzhin, who lives in the same house, enters and accuses Sonya of stealing a hundred-ruble banknote. The girl’s “guilt” is proven: money is found in her apron pocket. Now in the eyes of others she is also a thief. But unexpectedly there is a witness that Luzhin himself quietly slipped Sonya a piece of paper. The slanderer is put to shame, and Raskolnikov explains to those present the reasons for his action: having humiliated his brother and Sonya in the eyes of Dunya, he hoped to regain the favor of the bride.
Rodion and Sonya go to her apartment, where the hero confesses to the girl about the murder of the old woman and Lizaveta. She pities him for the moral torment to which he has doomed himself, and offers to atone for his guilt with voluntary confession and hard labor. Raskolnikov only laments that he turned out to be a “trembling creature”, with a conscience and a need for human love. “I’ll still fight,” he disagrees with Sonya.
Meanwhile, Katerina Ivanovna and her children find themselves on the street. She begins to bleed from the throat and dies, refusing the services of a priest. Svidrigailov, who is present here, undertakes to pay for the funeral and provide for the children and Sonya.
At his home, Raskolnikov finds Porfiry, who convinces the young man to confess: the “theory”, which denies the absoluteness of the moral law, tears away from the only source of life - God, the creator of humanity, united by nature - and thereby dooms its captive to death. “Now you need air, air, air!” Porfiry does not believe in the guilt of Mikolka, who “accepted suffering” out of an primordial popular need: to atone for the sin of not conforming to the ideal - Christ.
But Raskolnikov still hopes to “transcend” morality. Before him is the example of Svidrigailov. Their meeting in the tavern reveals to the hero a sad truth: the life of this “insignificant villain” is empty and painful for himself.
Dunya's reciprocity is the only hope for Svidrigailov to return to the source of being. Having become convinced of her irrevocable dislike for himself during a heated conversation in his apartment, he shoots himself a few hours later.
Meanwhile, Raskolnikov, driven by the lack of “air,” says goodbye to his family and Sonya before confessing. He is still convinced of the “theory” and is full of self-contempt. However, at Sonya’s insistence, in front of the people, he repentantly kisses the land before which he “sinned.” At the police office, he learns about Svidrigailov’s suicide and makes an official confession.
Raskolnikov finds himself in Siberia, in a convict prison. The mother died of grief, Dunya married Razumikhin. Sonya settled near Raskolnikov and visits the hero, patiently enduring his gloom and indifference. The nightmare of alienation continues here: the common convicts hate him as an “atheist.” On the contrary, Sonya is treated with tenderness and love. Once in the prison hospital, Rodion sees a dream reminiscent of pictures from the Apocalypse: mysterious “trichinas”, moving into people, give rise to a fanatical conviction in everyone’s own righteousness and intolerance to the “truths” of others. “People killed each other in senseless rage” until the entire human race was exterminated, except for a few “pure and chosen.” It is finally revealed to him that the pride of the mind leads to discord and destruction, and the humility of the heart leads to unity in love and to the fullness of life. “Endless love” for Sonya awakens in him. On the threshold of “resurrection into a new life,” Raskolnikov picks up the Gospel.