Summary: Chapter I
Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya are grief-stricken at
Raskolnikov’s condition, but he becomes annoyed with them and orders them
out. He upsets them both by commanding Dunya to break off her engagement.
Razumikhin promises to abandon his party and stay the night with
Raskolnikov. Speaking to them on the stairs, the half-drunk Razumikhin
tries to convince Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna to leave Raskolnikov
alone, offering to bring Zossimov to look after him. At first, Razumikhin
frightens them with his intensity, but they soon both trust him.
He, in turn, appears to be strongly attracted to Dunya. He makes
drunken declarations of loyalty to her and says that Luzhin is unworthy
of her. The mother and daughter return to their lodgings. The narrator
describes Razumikhin’s attraction to Dunya, explaining that she
is beautiful, self-confident, strong, and tender, and, as if that
weren’t enough, Razumikhin is also somewhat drunk. After checking
up on Raskolnikov, Razumikhin visits the two women, first by -himself, then
accompanied by Zossimov, who is thrilled to calm their fears. He
remarks, however, that he believes Raskolnikov to be suffering from
some sort of obsession. Outside, Razumikhin becomes violently jealous
when the doctor idly compliments Dunya, and he tries to fix the
doctor up with Raskolnikov’s -landlady instead.
Summary: Chapter II
At times, however, he’s . . . just inhumanly
cold and callous, as if there really were two opposite characters
in him.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
The next morning, Razumikhin rises from bed overcome with
regret at the bold things that he said the previous night. He renounces
his desire for Dunya as absurd. Still, he washes and dresses himself
with extra care in preparation for his next visit with Dunya and
Pulcheria Alexandrovna. He finds them quite glad to see him. He
relates how Raskolnikov is doing, emphasizing his self-involvement
and even cruelty. He remains calm for most of the conversation but
cannot help letting his feelings for Dunya slip out again. They
show him a worrisome letter from Luzhin in which Luzhin asks not
to see Raskolnikov again. Luzhin also tells them that Raskolnikov donated
a large portion of the money that they sent him to Marmeladov’s
family. Razumikhin advises Pulcheria Alexandrovna to follow her
daughter’s wishes in the matter. Dunya thinks Raskolnikov should
meet with her fiancé despite Luzhin’s request. Pulcheria Alexandrovna
declares her trust in Razumikhin, to his delight. The three then
go to Raskolnikov’s room.
Summary: Chapter III
Zossimov greets mother, daughter, and friend
and informs them that Raskolnikov’s condition has greatly improved.
Raskolnikov pretends to be in a better mood and apologizes profusely
to Zossimov and Razumikhin for his ingratitude. He apologizes to Pulcheria
Alexandrovna for his thoughtlessness and warmly extends his hand
to Dunya, a gesture that touches everyone in the room. Raskolnikov
confesses to having given the money that he received from Pulcheria
Alexandrovna to the Marmeladovs, and she forgives him. But the tranquillity
of the scene is soon ruined when Raskolnikov becomes anxious and
annoyed again. He commands Dunya not to marry Luzhin, saying that
the engagement is dirty and “sordid.” She retorts that she is doing
nothing wrong, stating, for emphasis, that she is “guilty of no
one’s death.” At this remark, Raskolnikov faints but recovers quickly. His
sister explains to him her plan for testing her fiancé, showing him
Luzhin’s letter, and adding that she plans to defy his request that
Raskolnikov not meet with them that evening. Luzhin’s response to
the situation, she declares, will reveal his true feelings for her.
Raskolnikov agrees to meet with them that night.
Analysis: Chapters I–III
Razumikhin’s falling in love with Dunya complicates the
subplot of her engagement to Luzhin. His attachment comes about
with almost incredible suddenness, as he becomes infatuated with
her almost as soon as he meets her. This development can be explained plausibly
by Razumikhin’s honesty and straightforwardness, Dunya’s undeniable
charms, and Razumikhin’s state of drunkenness when he first meets
her. Besides illustrating Razumikhin’s character and advancing the
plot, his mad declarations of loyalty and burning affection provide
a break in the heavy tone of the novel, which has been dominated
so far by descriptions of Raskolnikov’s delirious downward spiral
and the suffering of the Marmeladovs. In fact, the subplot of Dunya’s
engagement constitutes one of the few bright spots in an otherwise
overwhelmingly gloomy narrative.
With the character of Zossimov, the novel takes another
short break from its seriousness to inject a bit of dry humor. Zossimov, while
certainly not a boor like Luzhin, has a high opinion of himself and
is not afraid to show it: “the doctor retired delighted with his call,
and still more with himself.” But Zossimov is a minor character in
the novel, and the fact that he is a doctor has little effect beyond impressing
Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya. Perhaps his most important contribution
is his suspicion that Raskolnikov is mentally ill. That others perceive
Raskolnikov’s guilty conscience as mental illness may be a comment
on the connection between a criminal mindset and madness, or on
the inability of the medical profession to tell the difference between
the two.
Dostoevsky develops Dunya thoroughly in these
chapters. He shows her to be intelligent, thoughtful, and practical.
Her plan for testing her fiancé and her willingness to leave herself
stranded in St. Petersburg if he doesn’t measure up show that she
is much stronger and more resourceful than Raskolnikov believes
her to be. Dunya, in fact, faces the same problems that Raskolnikov does,
but she confronts them with dignity and pride. It is interesting
to note that, in Raskolnikov’s behavior toward Dunya, Dostoevsky
reverses the conventional gender roles in nineteenth-century fiction:
Dunya, a woman, proves the model of collected rationality and practicality,
while Raskolnikov, a man, is lost in abstractions and prone to fainting.
