Reading Notes--Adam Kissel

Using Norton Critical Edition, Coulson translation, ed. George Gibian

Things to track: shifting emotions and feelings; understanding and lack of understanding; dream-states; decision and indecision--wavering and wandering; conscience; perceived role of education for character; the causes of good and bad actions; the new and its role for "extraordinary persons"; being a man, human being, citizen; psychological transfer of one character's attributes to another, mainly regarding severe stresses to women; suffering; pale faces; nature; truth and untruth; inside and outside; on bridges and turning corners.

Part One       Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Epilogue

Ch. 1: THE CITY. St. Petersburg. Very hot; airless.
       Raskolnikov is in debt; afraid; self-absorbed; irritable; impractical; hopeless; avoids contact; only somewhat self-aware; perceives himself as chatterer; do-nothing; non-committal; lacks resolution; overwrought with overstrained nerves; unaware of particulars; non-observant; tangled thoughts/ideas; young; handsome, but poorly dressed; a bad eater; accumulated bitterness and contempt; doesn't want to be noticed; is against trivial chatter; weak; "a student" (4)--about 23 or 24 years old (see 458).
       "all is in a man's hands and he lets it slip from cowardice, that's an axiom" [from another translation]; "a man holds the fate of the world in his two hands, and yet, simply because he is afraid, he just lets things/drift--that is a truism" (1-2)--well, because of either cowardice or lack of planning. "Trifles are important! . . . [sic] Trifles . . . can bring disaster" (3).
       What do men fear; what do they fear most?--the NEW: "Any new departure, and especially a new word" (2).

OLD WOMAN'S APARTMENT. Rehearsal. Practicing according to his dream; it's becoming habitual. Apartment is yellow; shows Lizaveta's cleaning work
       Old woman mistrusts, distrusts. He wavers about pawning the watch; feels degraded by the details; leaves in "great confusion" (6); pawning seems worth it because he's really there with another goal is mind--perhaps [or perhaps it's simply easier to pawn the watch if he makes himself think there could be a greater purpose behind doing so]

TAVERN. Confused--is it merely physical? The liquor seems to free him from his burden, providing an abnormal kind of gladness. A drunk man is singing: "My old lost love I chanced to meet" (7) [thematic for the book, esp. re TRANSFER] Singer's companion is also generally suspicious and hostile. There's also a disturbed government clerk -- Marmeladov.

Ch. 2: THE TAVERN. "Unbearably stuffy" (8). Tavern as a safe alter-nether-world; the clerk as an alter-ego?
       Raskolnikov "had lately avoided all social contacts, but now he suddenly felt drawn to people. Something as it were new had been accomplished in his soul, and with it had come a thirst for society" (8) [cf. Epilogue].
       Marmeladov: over fifty; yellow; condescending; intense feeling; thoughtful and intelligent, perhaps; mad?; ragged; restless; dejected; seeks polite conversation with the educated and those having "sincerity of feeling" (9); has experience; is fluent and bold but has wild speech; poor; filthy; daughter has a yellow ticket; a drunkard, fading fast.
       Raskolnikov: condescends to meet; "I am studying . . ." (9)--or used to be, guesses Marmeladov. Marmeladov turns out to be just another talkative drunkard--but asks a good question: "Allow me to ask, young man, if you have known what it is to . . . hm . . . well, to plead without hope for a loan?" (10)--knowing there is no chance.
       England: "where they have political economy" (11).
       Marmeladov's wife: Katerina Ivanovna: educated, noble, "filled with sentiments ennobled by education" (11); refined; doesn't love him enough; had been a dancer and always recalls her former glory; spirited; proud; determined; was once happy. The husband and wife each had nowhere to turn.

1. Re their daughter, Sonia: her education in suffering; became a prostitute to save the family's finances, pressured by Katerina Ivanovna, who then feels terrible at what she'd encouraged.

2. He'd gotten a job in the service; the day after getting a paycheck he steals the money from his wife's stores and then drinks it all to zero.

MARMELADOV'S POVERTY-STRICKEN FLAT, where the family is. Raskolnikov goes too. Marmeladov meets justice gladly (21) [so does Raskolnikov later on, 38 and elsewhere]. Raskolnikov gives them money; but wavers and almost goes back for it.

OUTSIDE. Raskolnikov: "Men are scoundrels; they can get used to anything! . . . if men are not really scoundrels, men in general; the whole human/race, I mean,--then all the rest is just prejudice, imaginary fears, and there are no real barriers, and that is as it should be!" (22-23)

Ch. 3: RASKOLNIKOV'S ROOM. DAY 2. Yellow wallpaper; small; poor. Linen: "clean and dirty, bundled together" (23). Raskolnikov is withdrawn from society; his work is thinking. He's studying law [30]; he's a former student [80]. He was taught to read by his mother. [Father is dead; see 436.]

His mother's letter: it has been two months since last contact; three years since they've seen each other. Dunya had been a governess; was propositioned by her boss, Svidrigaylov and refused; is steadfast and longsuffering; was fired by his boss's wife, who told everyone is town; Svidrigaylov finally repented and Dunya was exonerated; the wife shows Dunya's exculpatory letter all around town, repentant; she arranges Dunya's engagement to Peter Petrovich Luzhin; Raskolnikov could become Luzhin's secretary now. They all will be reunited in St. Petersburg very soon.
       What it takes to know someone: 29, 31, 35 (cf. 36), etc.

Raskolnikov's response: tears; thinking; agitation; no fear; unaware; seems drunk.

Ch. 4: RASKOLNIKOV'S ROOM.
       Response continued: Dunya may not get married without his input and consent! Close reading, with a vengeance--in a whirlwind. TRANSFER: SONYA-->DUNYA. Daughter's "sacrifice" (35)--but it's hard to believe she would offer herself as such a sacrifice (36, 37)--but we do sacrifice all for those we love. Raskolnikov cannot accept the sacrifice. But he reverses: they already sacrifice for him, to support him, so he loses either way: he resolves to do it now, to decide--making a decision as a kind of sacrifice.

BENCH. Hot; midday. Raskolnikov sees a woman walking: young; acting strange; haggard; drunk. Being followed by a letch: TRANSFER: SVIDRIGAYLOV-->FOLLOWER; SONIA-->DUNYA-->GIRL. Raskolnikov defends her, then reverses--maybe it's none of his business. Wants his money back. Depressed. Goes back to the bench (it now has extra meaning and connects him to thoughts of family? No, he generalizes: thinking about "others like her" (43)--the statistics, and percentages--and then does think about family again.
       Resolves to see Razumikhin, his friend: resourceful; has fortitude; active, lively, and talkative; goodhearted; has depth and merit; simple.
       More on Raskolnikov: university loner; hard worker; poor and proud; condescending.

Ch. 5: BENCH. Raskolnikov still considering a visit to Razumikhin. Reverses, then decides again to go, after the murder--this idea frenzies him; he wanders aimlessly; keeps "relapsing into abstraction" (45); continually forgets his purpose. Drinks vodka, falls asleep.

DREAMS. A child. Treeless. Tavern bustle. Cemetery with church, family graves. Cart by the tavern, with old and tired horse. Mikolka to command the horse to carry his drunk friends home [cf. the Marmeladov's neighbors; family as the horse]. The load is impossible. Mikolka whips the horse; a child tries to defend it [representing Raskolnikov: TRANSFER: SONYA-->DUNYA-->GIRL-->HORSE]. Can't save the horse; is hit by whip; some sober onlookers also show pity. The horse kicks back to the end; Mikolka bludgeons the horse with a wooden shaft, then an iron crowbar (horse is his own property, after all!) -- she dies. Father tells child: it's none of our business; they're drunk.

AWAKENS. Evening. Raskolnikov thinks: can he really kill her? Does he have the resolution to back up his calculations? He's confused. Decides not to do it; feels free. Chooses to go home the long way, via Haymarket: fateful. Comes across Lizaveta: clumsy and feeble. Learns that the old woman will tomorrow be alone: fate makes him "no longer free"--"like a man condemned to death" (53)--now he has his chance, and he'll take it.

Ch. 6: RECOLLECTIONS AT HAYMARKET. Coincidences had sealed his fate; e.g., hearing another student say he "could kill that damned old woman and rob her, without a single twinge of conscience" (55)--as an exercise, not for personal reasons (56). Political economy (55-56): does an "actively harmful" old woman "deserve to live"? Shouldn't they get rid of the bad for the sake of the good; the weak, for the strong? Raskolnikov feels disturbed.

HOME. DAYS 2-3. Raskolnikov in a stupor; sleeps calmly, before the deed. A maze of dreams: drinking from the oasis. Wakes, makes a few preparations. Still can't believe he'll do it: "In spite of his agonizing internal struggles he could never throughout the whole time believe for one instant in the practicability of his schemes" (59). Thoroughly wavering. Reflects on crime and criminals, how they usually fail because of a failure of reason or will.

STARTS OUT. But can't get to the axe! But finds another axe! To the gate. Load of hay nearby. Goes upstairs. "Still time to go away" (63). Rings her bell cunningly [ironic narrator].

Ch. 7: HER APARTMENT. Barges in; she is mistrustful; he feels frightened. Bludgeons her with blunt side of axe. Takes keys; is startled by a jingle; wavers. Without cutting the body, takes the purse from the body. Gets and opens trunk and loots it.
       Lizaveta returns unexpectedly; he uses front of axe to kill her in one blow. Distracted, washes axe and hands. Terrified. Unsure of himself. Time to go! In returning, hears footsteps; goes back in; visitors on business notice that somebody is home but not answering, and they go for the porter; he leaves; hides in an empty room on the way down; gets home without incident.