Summary: Chapter IV
Sonya timidly enters Raskolnikov’s room, interrupting
the conversation among Raskolnikov, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Dunya,
and Razumikhin. She bashfully invites Raskolnikov to Marmeladov’s funeral
and the memorial dinner that Katerina has planned to follow it.
She is astonished at Raskolnikov’s apparent poverty. Dunya and Pulcheria
Alexandrovna politely leave. Raskolnikov tells Razumikhin that he
had pawned a valuable watch to Alyona Ivanovna and would like it
back. He asks Razumikhin if he should speak to Porfiry Petrovich,
the magistrate in charge of the case and a relative of Razumikhin’s,
about the missing items. Razumikhin replies that he should. Raskolnikov
agrees to go visit the Marmeladovs the next day, and all three leave.
As Sonya walks back to her room, a strange, middle-aged man (Svidrigailov)
follows her; it turns out that he lives in the room next to hers.
Meanwhile, Razumikhin and Raskolnikov go to Porfiry Petrovich’s
house. Along the way, Raskolnikov teases Razumikhin about his attraction to
Dunya, laughing loudly and trying to appear at ease. He secretly wonders
whether Porfiry has heard of his visit the previous day to the scene
of the crime and contemplates confessing.
Summary: Chapter V
Razumikhin is somewhat embarrassed by Raskolnikov, who
bursts out laughing at him as they enter Porfiry’s house. Raskolnikov
tries to appear calm and confident before Porfiry, but the forced
laughter comes off strangely. He becomes even more uneasy when he
notices Zamyotov’s presence. Razumikhin then makes things even worse
by mentioning Raskolnikov’s obvious distress at the mere mention
of the murder case. Raskolnikov imagines that Porfiry is suspicious
of him and nearly loses his cool when Porfiry mentions that Raskolnikov
was the only one of the pawnbroker’s clients not to come for his things
immediately after the murder. Raskolnikov becomes very excited discussing
his delirious wanderings of the night before. He starts to feel
as though Porfiry is playing games with him. The men enter a discussion
on crime, and Porfiry mentions an article that Raskolnikov had written,
“On Crime,” which, unbeknownst to Raskolnikov, had been published
two months earlier. In the article, he argued that certain men were
above the general run of humanity, and, as such, they have a right
to commit murder. Porfiry coaxes Raskolnikov into elaborating on
this thesis. Razumikhin finds it difficult to believe that his friend
holds such a view. Just before Raskolnikov leaves, Porfiry asks
him if he saw any painters at work in the building on his last visit
to Alyona’s, two days before the crime. Raskolnikov recognizes the
trap, recalling that there were painters there on the day of the
murder but not two days before, and says no.
Summary: Chapter VI
The old woman was a mistake perhaps,
but . . . it wasn’t a human being I killed, it was a principle!
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Razumikhin argues with Raskolnikov about whether or not
the police suspect him of the murders. Raskolnikov believes that
they do; Razumikhin counters that if they did suspect him, they
would never have engaged him so openly in a discussion of crime.
But Razumikhin eventually admits that he, too, got the impression
that the police suspected Raskolnikov. The two try to analyze Porfiry Petrovich’s
methods, arguing over whether his final question was a trap. Raskolnikov
declares that it was and that he escaped it with his answer. The
two reach Raskolnikov’s house, where the porter tells them that
a man has just been inquiring after Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov overtakes
the man in the street. “Murderer,” the man calls to him, giving
him a cold look but no further explanation. Raskolnikov returns
to his room and feverishly wonders about the stranger’s accusation
and Porfiry’s suspicions. He tries to convince himself that Alyona’s
life was worthless. Yet he also questions his own motives for the
crime and whether he actually is the sort of extraordinary “superman”
that he had written about in his article. That night, he has a nightmare
in which he tries to murder the pawnbroker; instead of dying, however,
she laughs. He wakes to find a stranger in his room.
Analysis: Chapters IV–VI
In these chapters, Raskolnikov’s interior conflict intensifies.
He is faced with the dual task of avoiding the suspicion of Porfiry
Petrovich and dealing with his own emotional turmoil. His difficulty
in controlling himself at Porfiry’s home and his strange dream at
the end of Part III demonstrate that he is just barely avoiding
a complete breakdown. The ongoing struggle between his desire to
avoid suspicion and his compulsion to confess leads him to act erratically, sometimes
trying to appear healthy and innocent and other times boldly risking
discovery.
Raskolnikov’s article “On Crime” clues the reader in to
some of the rationale for committing the murder. Introducing the
theme of Raskolnikov’s idea of a “superman,” the article argues
that certain extraordinary people are above the masses of humanity
and so have the right to violate moral codes, for instance, by committing
murder. Razumikhin’s strongly moral character reveals itself in
his immediate rejection of this notion. Porfiry Petrovich, however,
takes great interest in the idea—not because he agrees with it,
but because he sees it as a piece of psychological evidence pointing
to Raskolnikov’s guilt. The discussion takes place on an intellectual
plane, but the fact that Raskolnikov has actually followed through
with his idea and that Porfiry suspects him of it lends the otherwise
abstract discussion a tense immediacy. The conversation serves to
illustrate the enormous gap between talking about violating moral
boundaries and actually doing so. Interestingly, Raskolnikov’s inner
turmoil belies the superiority and righteousness with which his
ideal “superman” is supposed to commit crimes.
The ideas that Raskolnikov expresses in his article have
strong ties to nihilism, a philosophical position developed in Russia
in the 1850s and 1860s.
Nihilism rejected the traditional bonds of family and society as
well as emotional and aesthetic concerns in favor of a strict materialism
promoting the idea that there is no mind or soul outside of the
physical world. A central tenet of nihilism was utilitarianism—the
idea that actions are moral insofar as they work toward the greatest
possible happiness for the largest number of people. As is made
clear in this section, Raskolnikov’s justifications for murdering
Alyona are strongly utilitarian and nihilist.
