Summary: Chapter I
A young man leaves his boardinghouse room on an uncomfortably hot
summer’s day in St. Petersburg. As he descends the steps, he is overcome
with a dread of meeting his landlady, who lives on the floor below.
He owes her several months’ rent and recoils at the thought of having
to make excuses to her. The narrator states that this young man
“had fallen into a state of nervous depression akin to hypochondria”
and so avoids contact with other people. As he leaves the boardinghouse,
the young man turns his thoughts to an extreme, though unspecified,
act that he is thinking about committing. He considers himself incapable
of the act—if he lacks the stomach even to face his landlady, it
seems impossible that he would ever go through with the deed that
he now mulls. The narrator identifies the young man as the protagonist
(“our hero”) and describes him as tall and handsome, with “dark
auburn hair and fine dark eyes.”
The young man wears ridiculously tattered clothes, but
he is so contemptuous of the people who live in his wretched neighborhood—which
is filthy and populated with drunks, prostitutes, and tradesmen—that
he feels no embarrassment about his shoddy appearance. He walks
along in a trancelike state, thinking over his awful plan, again
considering the idea and then dismissing it. The narrator informs
us that, over the last month, the young man has grown increasingly
serious about taking action, even though the idea of doing so has
disturbed and troubled him. At this particular moment, he is in
the middle of a “rehearsal” of the act. He arrives at the apartment
house of Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker. As he walks up the stairs
to her apartment, he carefully observes the building and its inhabitants
in connection with his plan. He introduces himself to the pawnbroker,
whom he had first met a month earlier, as a student, and we learn
that the young man’s name is Raskolnikov. The pawnbroker is an unattractive,
shabbily dressed old woman who is suspicious, crude, and has “eyes
sparkling with malice.”
Though the apartment’s furnishings are old
and ugly, Raskolnikov notices that they are immaculately clean,
thanks to the hard work of the old woman’s younger sister, Lizaveta.
The pawnbroker treats the young man rudely, reminding him of the money
that he already owes her and offering him a small, inadequate sum
for a watch that he now offers her. Raskolnikov grudgingly accepts
the money, remembering that his purpose is twofold, as he is both
pawning the watch for much-needed money and rehearsing the crime
that he may commit. He observes that the old woman keeps her money
and “pledges,” or pawned items, in a chest in a back room and her
keys on a ring in her right pocket. Before leaving, he tells her
that he will return in a few days with another pledge and asks whether
Lizaveta is usually at home at that time. Once outside, Raskolnikov
is physically overcome with disgust at his plan and renounces it.
Filled with a sudden thirst for alcohol, he descends into a tavern
for the first time in his life and sits in a dark corner. After
drinking a beer, he feels much better and again scoffs at his plan.
Analysis: Chapter I
The opening chapter of Crime and Punishment illuminates
aspects of Raskolnikov’s character that prove central to the novel.
He is extremely proud, contemptuous, emotionally detached from the
rest of humanity, and is in a complex, semidelirious mental state.
Why he has developed this troubling mix of qualities remains an
important question throughout the novel. A few clues are given at
the outset: Raskolnikov is tall and handsome, which may foster his
pride, while his squalid surroundings—the neighborhood in which
Raskolnikov and the pawnbroker live is described in vivid terms
that convey the chaos and filthiness of poor, urban neighborhoods—may
have helped bring about his deteriorated mental condition. The narrator
describes the heat and “the odor” coming off of the city, as well
as the crowds and disorder, saying that all of these factors “contributed
to irritate the young man’s already excited nerves.” Most important,
though, each quality seems to reinforce the others, and Raskolnikov
seems caught in an ever-deepening spiral: his pride leads him to
perceive others as inferior, his lack of human contact leads him
to increasingly abstract and inhuman ideas, and his crazed ideas
cause him to separate himself from society.
Chapter I also explores the character of the
pawnbroker. In some respects, Alyona Ivanovna is a foil to Raskolnikov—that
is, her character contrasts with his and serves to emphasize his
distinct characteristics. She is old and unattractive, while he
is young and handsome; she is alert and concerned with practical
business matters, while he is semidelirious and deeply in debt.
The only apparent similarity between the two is that they both wear
worn and tattered clothes. But even this similarity, examined more
closely, reveals the difference in wealth between the two, since
Raskolnikov dresses in rags because of poverty whereas the pawnbroker
does so out of miserliness.
The conflict in this chapter is primarily internal,
as it is throughout the novel. Here, the struggle is mostly between
Raskolnikov’s desire to commit the crime and his revulsion at the
thought of doing so. Significantly, this inner conflict is not between
his hatred of the pawnbroker and a moral objection to killing but
rather between his desire to kill her and his disgust at the idea
of the actual, physical performance of the deed. Morality seems
to play little role in his decision and does not become a strong
force in his life until the very end of the novel.
