Reading Notes--Adam Kissel

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

Back to Part One | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Epilogue

Ch. 1. SIBERIA.
       Raskolnikov had been through five months till his conviction, then four months in prison locally; then he'd been at forced labor in Siberia for another nine months [symbol]. He'd given a full confession at trial; the examiners were surprised [as Raskolnikov had predicted] that he didn't much care about the value of what he'd stolen. This and many other things made the murder seem extraordinary. He hadn't gone into the full set of reasons at trial, but he merely hinted at them by speaking of his "career" (452); he let it stand that he murdered as "the consequence of his unstable and cowardly nature" (452). For various reasons, including the above, and in light of Raskolnikov's prior set of humanitarian actions, he'd gotten a lighter sentence: a maximum of eight years in Siberia.

His mother had gone slightly batty [TRANSFER: ETC.-->ETC.-->KATERINA IVANOVNA-->PULKERIA (MOTHER)]; this depressed Raskolnikov. Sonya had, as promised, followed him to Siberia. In month 11 (two months into the forced labor), Razumikhin and Dunya had married, and they planned to move to Siberia in five years, as hoped for earlier. Pulkeria got worse and died.

Sonia exchanged monthly letter with the St. Petersburg crowd, to stay in touch; she described Raskolnikov's situation in great detail and without affectation. Raskolnikov, apparently, finally "had a clear understanding of his position" (457). Sonya gets along fine, and gets along better and better with the prison community. One day Raskolnikov suddenly gets ill.

Ch. 2. THE SAME.
       Raskolnikov ill for a long time, ashamed with wounded pride. He still does not feel guilty, but merely that he'd blundered. He still wants more than "mere existence" in some "new life" after his release (458). No remorse. His idea was not so strange after all, he considers. He now has an easy conscience! He was on the right track but blundered, so probably he can't be an "extraordinary person" after all.
       Why did he not kill himself?--Narrator says that his desire for a richer life was the first step in his resurrection to "a future new outlook on life" (459); Raskolnikov attributes his choice against suicide to mere instinct.

He's very unlike the other criminal-prisoners: "It was as if he and they belonged to different races" (460). They sense that he's an atheist; they hate him. But they feel affection for Sonya as for a mother [TRANSFER].

He finally begins to recover. Dreams: parasites afflict the world; those afflicted believe they're eminently reasonable and rational and wise, but really they're going mad--an apocalyptic vision. "A chosen handful of the pure" nevertheless silently survive. As he recovers, he learns that Sonya is now ill, and he becomes disturbed; but she recovers quickly.

One day Sonya meets him at work; usually he's bitter and silent, this time he weeps. They realize--she especially-- that he loves her: this is "the dawn of a new future, a perfect resurrection into a new life" (463). He begins better relations with the others, and thinks of her; "he was not consciously reasoning at all; he could only feel. Life had taken the place of logic and something quite different must be worked out in his mind" (464).

Back in prison, he opens her New Testament, which he'd asked for but never opened--perhaps he could become a Christian like Sonya: "Could not her beliefs become my beliefs now? Her feelings, her aspirations, at least . . ." (464). Over the next sever years, as they wait, he gradually regenerates.