Raskolnikov says a painful goodbye to his mother, without telling her the truth. Dunya is waiting for him at his room, and he tells her that he will be going to the police to confess to the murders. He stops at Sonya’s place on the way and she gives him a crucifix. At the bureau, he learns of Svidrigailov’s suicide, and almost changes his mind, even leaving the building. However, he sees Sonya (who has followed him) looking at him in despair, and he returns to make a full and frank confession to the murders.
Epilogue
Due to the fullness of his confession at a time when another man had already confessed, Raskolnikov is sentenced to only eight years of penal servitude. Dunya and Razumikhin marry and plan to move to Siberia, but Raskolnikov’s mother falls ill and dies. Sonya follows Raskolnikov to Siberia, but he is initially hostile towards her as he is still struggling to acknowledge moral culpability for his crime, feeling himself to be guilty only of weakness. It is only after some time in prison that his redemption and moral regeneration begin under Sonya’s loving influence.
Characters
In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky fuses the personality of his main character, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, with his new anti-radical ideological themes. The main plot involves a murder as the result of “ideological intoxication,” and depicts all the disastrous moral and psychological consequences that result from the murder.
Raskolnikov’s psychology is placed at the center, and carefully interwoven with the ideas behind his transgression; every other feature of the novel illuminates the agonizing dilemma in which Raskolnikov is caught. From another point of view, the novel’s plot is another variation of a conventional nineteenth-century theme: an innocent young provincial comes to seek his fortune in the capital, where he succumbs to corruption, and loses all traces of his former freshness and purity. However, as Gary Rosenshield points out, “Raskolnikov succumbs not to the temptations of high society as Honoré de Balzac’s Rastignac or Stendhal’s Julien Sorel, but to those of rationalistic Petersburg”.
Major characters
Raskolnikov (Rodion Romanovitch) is the protagonist, and the novel focuses primarily on his perspective. A 23-year-old former student, now destitute, Raskolnikov is described in the novel as “exceptionally handsome, taller than average in height, slim, well built, with beautiful dark eyes and dark brown hair.” On the one hand, he is cold, apathetic, and antisocial; on the other, he can be surprisingly warm and compassionate. He commits murder as well as acts of impulsive charity. His chaotic interaction with the external world and his nihilistic worldview might be seen as causes of his social alienation or consequences of it.
Despite its title, the novel does not so much deal with the crime and its formal punishment as with Raskolnikov’s internal struggle – the torments of his own conscience, rather than the legal consequences of committing the crime. Believing society would be better for it, Raskolnikov commits murder with the idea that he possesses enough intellectual and emotional fortitude to deal with the ramifications, but his sense of guilt soon overwhelms him to the point of psychological and somatic illness. It is only in the epilogue that he realizes his formal punishment, having decided to confess and end his alienation from society.
Sonya (Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova) is the daughter of a drunkard named Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, whom Raskolnikov meets in a tavern at the beginning of the novel. She is often characterized as self-sacrificial, shy, and innocent, despite being forced into prostitution to help her family. Raskolnikov discerns in her the same feelings of shame and alienation that he experiences, and she becomes the first person to whom he confesses his crime. Sensing his deep unhappiness, she supports him, even though she was friends with one of the victims (Lizaveta). Throughout the novel, Sonya is an important source of moral strength and rehabilitation for Raskolnikov.
Razumíkhin (Dmitry Prokofyich) is Raskolnikov’s loyal friend and also a former law student. The character is intended to represent something of a reconciliation between faith and reason (razum, “sense”, “intelligence”). He jokes that his name is actually Vrazumíkhin – a name suggesting “to bring someone to their senses”. He is upright, strong, resourceful and intelligent, but also somewhat naïve – qualities that are of great importance to Raskolnikov in his desperate situation. He admires Raskolnikov’s intelligence and character, refuses to give any credence to others’ suspicions, and supports him at all times. He looks after Raskolnikov’s family when they come to Petersburg, falling in love with and later marrying Dunya.
Dunya (Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova) – Raskolnikov’s beautiful and strong-willed sister who works as a governess. She initially plans to marry the wealthy but unsavory lawyer Luzhin, thinking it will enable her to ease her family’s desperate financial situation and escape her former employer Svidrigailov. Her situation is a factor in Raskolnikov’s decision to commit the murder. In St. Petersburg, she is eventually able to escape the clutches of both Luzhin and Svidrigailov, and later marries Razumikhin.
Luzhin (Pyotr Petrovich) – A well-off lawyer who is engaged to Dunya in the beginning of the novel. His motives for the marriage are dubious, as he more or less states that he has sought a woman who will be completely beholden to him. He slanders and falsely accuses Sonya of theft in an attempt to harm Raskolnikov’s relations with his family. Luzhin represents immorality, in contrast to Svidrigaïlov’s amorality, and Raskolnikov’s misguided morality.
Svidrigaïlov (Arkady Ivanovich) – Sensual, depraved, and wealthy former employer and former pursuer of Dunya. He overhears Raskolnikov’s confessions to Sonya and uses this knowledge to torment both Dunya and Raskolnikov, but does not inform the police. Despite his apparent malevolence, Svidrigaïlov seems to be capable of generosity and compassion. When Dunya tells him she could never love him (after attempting to shoot him) he lets her go. He tells Sonya that he has made financial arrangements for the Marmeladov children to enter an orphanage, and gives her three thousand rubles, enabling her to follow Raskolnikov to Siberia. Having left the rest of his money to his juvenile fiancée, he commits suicide.
Porfiry Petrovich – The head of the Investigation Department in charge of solving the murders of Lizaveta and Alyona Ivanovna, who, along with Sonya, moves Raskolnikov towards confession. Unlike Sonya, however, Porfiry does this through psychological means, seeking to confuse and provoke the volatile Raskolnikov into a voluntary or involuntary confession. He later drops these methods and sincerely urges Raskolnikov to confess for his own good.
Other characters
Pulkheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikova – Raskolnikov’s naïve, hopeful and loving mother. Following Raskolnikov’s sentence, she falls ill (mentally and physically) and eventually dies. She hints in her dying stages that she is slightly more aware of her son’s fate, which was hidden from her by Dunya and Razumikhin.
Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov – Hopeless drunk who Raskolnikov meets while still considering the murder scheme. Raskolnikov is deeply moved by his passionate, almost ecstatic confession of how his abject alcoholism led to the devastation of his life, the destitution of his wife and children, and ultimately to his daughter Sonya being forced into prostitution.
Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova – Semyon Marmeladov’s consumptive and ill-tempered second wife, stepmother to Sonya. She drives Sonya into prostitution in a fit of rage, but later regrets it. She beats her children, but works ferociously to improve their standard of living. She is obsessed with demonstrating that slum life is far below her station. Following Marmeladov’s death, she uses the money Raskolnikov gives her to hold a funeral. She eventually succumbs to her illness.
Andrey Semyonovich Lebezyatnikov – Luzhin’s utopian socialist roommate who witnesses his attempt to frame Sonya and subsequently exposes him. He is proven right by Raskolnikov, the only one knowing of Luzhin’s motives.
Alyona Ivanovna – Suspicious old pawnbroker who hoards money and is merciless to her patrons. She is Raskolnikov’s intended target, and he kills her in the beginning of the book.
Lizaveta Ivanovna – Alyona’s handicapped, innocent and submissive sister. Raskolnikov murders her when she walks in immediately after Raskolnikov had killed Alyona. Lizaveta was a friend of Sonya.
Zosimov (Зосимов) – A friend of Razumikhin and a doctor with a particular interest in ‘psychological’ illnesses. He ministers to Raskolnikov during his delirium and its aftermath.
Nastasya Petrovna (Настасья Петровна) – Raskolnikov’s landlady’s cheerful and talkative servant who is very caring towards Raskolnikov and often brings him food and drink.
Nikodim Fomich (Никодим Фомич) – The amiable chief of police.
Ilya Petrovich (Илья Петрович) – A police official and Nikodim Fomich’s assistant, nicknamed “Gunpowder” for his very bad temper. He is the first to have suspicions about Raskolnikov in relation to the murder, and Raskolnikov ultimately makes his official confession to Gunpowder.
Alexander Grigorievich Zamyotov (Александр Григорьевич Заметов) – Head clerk at the police station and friend to Razumikhin.
Praskovya Pavlovna Zarnitsyna – Raskolnikov’s landlady (called Pashenka). Shy and retiring, Praskovya Pavlovna does not figure prominently in the course of events. Raskolnikov had been engaged to her daughter, a sickly girl who had died, and Praskovya Pavlovna had granted him extensive credit on the basis of
