Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a
former student, lives in a tiny garret on the top floor of a run-down apartment
building in St. Petersburg. He is sickly, dressed in rags, short
on money, and talks to himself, but he is also handsome, proud,
and intelligent. He is contemplating committing an awful crime,
but the nature of the crime is not yet clear. He goes to the apartment
of an old pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, to get money for
a watch and to plan the crime. Afterward, he stops for a drink at
a tavern, where he meets a man named Marmeladov, who, in a fit of
drunkenness, has abandoned his job and proceeded on a five-day drinking
binge, afraid to return home to his family. Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov
about his sickly wife, Katerina Ivanovna, and his daughter, Sonya,
who has been forced into prostitution to support the family. Raskolnikov
walks with Marmeladov to Marmeladov’s apartment, where he meets
Katerina and sees firsthand the squalid conditions in which they
live.
The next day, Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother,
Pulcheria Alexandrovna, informing him that his sister, Dunya, is engaged
to be married to a government official named Luzhin and that they
are all moving to St. Petersburg. He goes to another tavern, where
he overhears a student talking about how society would be better
off if the old pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna were dead. Later, in the
streets, Raskolnikov hears that the pawnbroker will be alone in
her apartment the next evening. He sleeps fitfully and wakes up the
next day, finds an ax, and fashions a fake item to pawn to distract
the pawnbroker. That night, he goes to her apartment and kills her.
While he is rummaging through her bedroom, looking for money, her
sister, Lizaveta, walks in, and Raskolnikov kills her as well. He
barely escapes from the apartment without being seen, then returns
to his apartment and collapses on the sofa.
Waking up the next day, Raskolnikov frantically searches
his clothing for traces of blood. He receives a summons from the
police, but it seems to be unrelated to the murders. At the police
station, he learns that his landlady is trying to collect money
that he owes her. During a conversation about the murders, Raskolnikov
faints, and the police begin to suspect him. Raskolnikov returns
to his room, collects the goods that he stole from the pawnbroker,
and buries them under a rock in an out-of-the-way courtyard. He
visits his friend Razumikhin and refuses his offer of work. Returning
to his apartment, Raskolnikov falls into a fitful, nightmare-ridden
sleep. After four days of fever and delirium, he wakes up to find
out that his housekeeper, Nastasya, and Razumikhin have been taking
care of him. He learns that Zossimov, a doctor, and Zamyotov, a
young police detective, have also been visiting him. They have all
noticed that Raskolnikov becomes extremely uncomfortable whenever
the murders of the pawnbroker and her sister are mentioned. Luzhin, Dunya’s
fiancé, also makes a visit. After a confrontation with Luzhin, Raskolnikov
goes to a café, where he almost confesses to Zamyotov that he is
the murderer. Afterward, he impulsively goes to the apartment of
the pawnbroker. On his way back home, he discovers that Marmeladov
has been run over by a carriage. Raskolnikov helps to carry him
back to his apartment, where Marmeladov dies. At the apartment,
he meets Sonya and gives the family twenty rubles that he received
from his mother. Returning with Razumikhin to his own apartment,
Raskolnikov faints when he discovers that his sister and mother
are there waiting for him.
Raskolnikov becomes annoyed with Pulcheria Alexandrovna and
Dunya and orders them out of the room. He also commands Dunya to
break her engagement with Luzhin. Razumikhin, meanwhile, falls in
love with Dunya. The next morning, Razumikhin tries to explain Raskolnikov’s
character to Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and then the three
return to Raskolnikov’s apartment. There, Zossimov greets them and
tells them that Raskolnikov’s condition is much improved. Raskolnikov
apologizes for his behavior the night before and confesses to giving
all his money to the Marmeladovs. But he soon grows angry
and irritable again and demands that Dunya not marry Luzhin. Dunya
tells him that she is meeting with Luzhin that evening, and that
although Luzhin has requested specifically that Raskolnikov not
be there, she would like him to come nevertheless. Raskolnikov agrees.
At that moment, Sonya enters the room, greatly embarrassed to be
in the presence of Raskolnikov’s family. She invites Raskolnikov
to her father’s funeral, and he accepts. On her way back to her
apartment, Sonya is followed by a strange man, who we later learn
is Svidrigailov—Dunya’s lecherous former employer who is obsessively
attracted to her.
Under the pretense of trying to recover a watch he pawned, Raskolnikov
visits the magistrate in charge of the murder investigation, Porfiry
Petrovich, a relative of Razumikhin’s. Zamyotov is at the detective’s
house when Raskolnikov arrives. Raskolnikov and Porfiry have a tense
conversation about the murders. Raskolnikov starts to believe that
Porfiry suspects him and is trying to lead him into a trap. Afterward,
Raskolnikov and Razumikhin discuss the conversation, trying to figure
out if Porfiry suspects him. When Raskolnikov returns to his apartment,
he learns that a man had come there looking for him. When he catches
up to the man in the street, the man calls him a murderer. That
night Raskolnikov dreams about the pawnbroker’s murder. When he
wakes up, there is a stranger in the room.
The stranger is Svidrigailov. He explains that he would
like Dunya to break her engagement with Luzhin, whom he esteems unworthy
of her. He offers to give Dunya the enormous sum of ten thousand
rubles. He also tells Raskolnikov that his late wife, Marfa Petrovna,
left Dunya three thousand rubles in her will. Raskolnikov rejects
Svidrigailov’s offer of money and, after hearing him talk about
seeing the ghost of Marfa, suspects that he is insane. After Svidrigailov
leaves, Raskolnikov and Razumikhin walk to a restaurant to meet
Dunya, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and Luzhin. Razumikhin tells Raskolnikov
that he is certain that the police suspect Raskolnikov. Luzhin is
insulted to find that Raskolnikov, contrary to his wishes, is in
attendance at the meal. They discuss Svidrigailov’s arrival in the
city and the money that has been offered to Dunya. Luzhin and Raskolnikov
get into an argument, during the course of which Luzhin offends
everyone in the room, including his fiancée and prospective mother-in-law.
Dunya breaks the engagement and forces him to leave. Everyone is
overjoyed at his departure. Razumikhin starts to talk about plans
to go into the publishing business as a family, but Raskolnikov
ruins the mood by telling them that he does not want to see them
anymore. When Raskolnikov leaves the room, Razumikhin chases him
down the stairs. They stop, face-to-face, and Razumikhin realizes,
without a word being spoken, that Raskolnikov is guilty of the murders.
He rushes back to Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna to reassure them
that he will help them through whatever difficulties they encounter.
Raskolnikov goes to the apartment of Sonya Marmeladov.
During their conversation, he learns that Sonya was a friend of
one of his victims, Lizaveta. He forces Sonya to read to him the
biblical story of Lazarus, who was resurrected by Jesus. Meanwhile,
Svidrigailov eavesdrops from the apartment next door.
The following morning, Raskolnikov visits Porfiry Petrovich
at the police department, supposedly in order to turn in a formal request
for his pawned watch. As they converse, Raskolnikov starts to feel
again that Porfiry is trying to lead him into a trap. Eventually, he
breaks under the pressure and accuses Porfiry of playing psychological
games with him. At the height of tension between them, Nikolai,
a workman who is being held under suspicion for the murders, bursts
into the room and confesses to the murders. On the way to Katerina
Ivanovna’s memorial dinner for Marmeladov, Raskolnikov meets the
mysterious man who called him a murderer and learns that the man
actually knows very little about the case.
The scene shifts to the apartment of Luzhin and his roommate, Lebezyatnikov,
where Luzhin is nursing his hatred for Raskolnikov, whom he blames
for the breaking of his engagement to Dunya. Although Luzhin has
been invited to Marmeladov’s memorial dinner, he refuses to go.
He invites Sonya to his room and gives her a ten-ruble bill. Katerina’s
memorial dinner goes poorly. The widow is extremely fussy and proud,
but few guests have shown up, and, except for Raskolnikov, those
that have are drunk and crude. Luzhin then enters the room and accuses
Sonya of stealing a one-hundred-ruble bill. Sonya denies his claim,
but the bill is discovered in one of her pockets. Just as everyone
is about to label Sonya a thief, however, Lebezyatnikov enters and
tells the room that he saw Luzhin slip the bill into Sonya’s pocket
as she was leaving his room. Raskolnikov explains that Luzhin was
probably trying to embarrass him by discrediting Sonya. Luzhin leaves,
and a fight breaks out between Katerina and her landlady.
After the dinner, Raskolnikov goes to Sonya’s
room and confesses the murders to her. They have a long conversation
about his confused motives. Sonya tries to convince him to confess
to the authorities. Lebezyatnikov then enters and informs them that
Katerina Ivanovna seems to have gone mad—she is parading the children
in the streets, begging for money. Sonya rushes out to find them
while Raskolnikov goes back to his room and talks to Dunya. He soon
returns to the street and sees Katerina dancing and singing wildly.
She collapses after a confrontation with a policeman and, soon after
being brought back to her room, dies. Svidrigailov appears and offers
to pay for the funeral and the care of the children. He reveals
to Raskolnikov that he knows Raskolnikov is the murderer.
Raskolnikov wanders around in a haze after his confession
to Sonya and the death of Katerina. Razumikhin confronts him in
his room, asking him whether he has gone mad and telling him of
the pain that he has caused his mother and sister. After their conversation,
Porfiry Petrovich appears and apologizes for his treatment of Raskolnikov
in the police station. Nonetheless, he does not believe Nikolai’s
confession. He accuses Raskolnikov of the murders but admits that
he does not have enough evidence to arrest him. Finally, he urges
him to confess, telling him that he will receive a lighter sentence
if he does so. Raskolnikov goes looking for Svidrigailov, eventually
finding him in a café. Svidrigailov tells him that though he is still
attracted to Dunya, he has gotten engaged to a sixteen-year-old girl.
Svidrigailov parts from Raskolnikov and manages to bring Dunya to
his room, where he threatens to rape her after she refuses to marry
him. She fires several shots at him with a revolver and misses,
but when he sees how strongly she dislikes him, he allows her to
leave. He takes her revolver and wanders aimlessly around St. Petersburg.
He gives three thousand rubles to Dunya, fifteen thousand rubles
to the family of his fiancée, and then books a room in a hotel.
He sleeps fitfully and dreams of a flood and a seductive five-year-old
girl. In the morning, he kills himself.
Raskolnikov, who is visiting his mother, tells her that
he will always love her and then returns to his room, where he tells
Dunya that he is planning to confess. After she leaves, he goes
to visit Sonya, who gives him a cross to wear. On the way to the
police station, he stops in a marketplace and kisses the ground.
He almost pulls back from confessing when he reaches the police
station and learns of Svidrigailov’s suicide. The sight of Sonya,
however, convinces him to go through with it, and he confesses to
one of the police officials, Ilya Petrovich.
A year and a half later, Raskolnikov is in prison
in Siberia, where he has been for nine months. Sonya has moved to
the town outside the prison, and she visits Raskolnikov regularly
and tries to ease his burden. Because of his confession, his mental
confusion surrounding the murders, and testimony about his past
good deeds, he has received, instead of a death sentence, a reduced
sentence of eight years of hard labor in Siberia. After Raskolnikov’s
arrest, his mother became delirious and died. Razumikhin and Dunya
were married. For a short while, Raskolnikov remains as proud and
alienated from humanity as he was before his confession, but he
eventually realizes that he truly loves Sonya and expresses remorse
for his crime.
