Chapter 1
And each time he passed, the young man had a sick, frightened feeling, which made him scowl and feel ashamed. He was hopelessly in debt to his landlady, and was afraid of meeting her.
- from the very beginning we can see he is disturbed
- also he seems to be always disturbed
This was not because he was cowardly and abject, quite the contrary; but for some time past he had been in an overstrained irritable condition, verging on hypochondria.
- the author is trying to put him as a nice guy, so basically
his money is not his fault
From time to time, he would
mutter something, from the habit of talking to himself, to
which he had just confessed. At these moments he would
become conscious that his ideas were sometimes in a
tangle and that he was very weak; for two days he had
scarcely tasted food.
Why, it's just such trifles that always ruin everything...."
He had not far to go; he knew indeed how many steps it was from the gate of his lodging house: exactly seven hundred and thirty. He had counted them once when he had been lost in dreams.
- very obsessed about this plan, this shows how much
you have to plan and think about before doing something bad such as killing. "tomar coragem", is about normalizing something abnormal
the old woman eyed her visitor with evident distrust through the crack, and nothing could be seen but her little eyes, glittering in the darkness.
But no words, no exclamations, could express his agitation. The feeling of intense repulsion, which had begun to oppress and torture his heart while he was on his way to the old woman, had by now reached such a pitch and had taken such a definite form that he did not know what to do with himself to escape from his wretchedness.
Chapter 2
Raskolnikov was not used to crowds, and, as we said before, he avoided society of every sort, more especially of late.
He was
so weary after a whole month of concentrated
wretchedness and gloomy excitement that he longed to
rest, if only for a moment, in some other world
- very accurate description
- my theory is that given what happened, the author
simply writes in the most accurate way possible, that's it
The master of the establishment was in another room, but he frequently came down some steps into the main room, his jaunty, tarred boots with red turn‐over tops coming into view each time before the rest of his person.
- he describes exactly what happened
On the counter lay some sliced cucumber, some pieces of dried black bread, and some fish, chopped up small, all smelling very bad. It was insufferably close, and so heavy with the fumes of spirits that five minutes in such an atmosphere might well make a man drunk.
- I think this description is interesting because it shows
how hard life is and why many people get drunk, simply to alienate from reality
The young man often recalled this impression afterwards, and even ascribed it to presentiment.
- very interesting, he is making us antecipate something
But there was something very strange in him; there was a light in his eyes as though of intense feeling—perhaps there were even thought and intelligence, but at the same time there was a gleam of something like madness.
- creating more anticipation of the character
He was wearing an old and hopelessly ragged black dress coat, with all its buttons missing except one, and that one he had buttoned, evidently clinging to this last trace of respectability.
- a good metaphor
"No, I am studying," answered the young man, somewhat surprised at the grandiloquent style of the speaker and also at being so directly addressed. In spite of the momentary desire he had just been feeling for company of any sort, on being actually spoken to he felt immediately his habitual irritable and uneasy aversion for any stranger who approached or attempted to approach him.
"poverty is not a vice, that's a true saying. Yet I know too that drunkenness is not a virtue, and that that's even truer. But beggary, honoured sir, beggary is a vice. In poverty you may still retain your innate nobility of soul, but in beggary—never—no one.
It seemed quite probable that he had not undressed or washed for the last five days. His hands, particularly, were filthy. They were fat and red, with black nails.
- it is interesting how the exterior can tell us the interior
of a person
Evidently Marmeladov was a familiar figure here, and he had most likely acquired his weakness for high‐ flown speeches from the habit of frequently entering into conversation with strangers of all sorts in the tavern.
- interesting, the way he was to desabafar with others
is to talk to random people in taverns
- the author manages to create very peculiar characters
Excuse me, young man, has it ever happened to you... hm... well, to petition hopelessly for a loan?"
- both of them have many troubles
will on no consideration give you money; and indeed I ask you why should he? For he knows of course that I shan't pay it back. From compassion? But Mr. Lebeziatnikov who keeps up with modern ideas explained the other day that compassion is forbidden nowadays by science itself, and that that's what is done now in England, where there is political economy.
- this can be both interpreted as left wing ideology
- or simply showing the selfish of man
"Why do you go?" put in Raskolnikov.
"Well, when one has no one, nowhere else one can go!
- interesting saying
Critics
- Marmeladov wife's story is very tragic
But her chest is weak and she has a tendency to consumption and I feel it! Do you suppose I don't feel it? And the more I drink the more I feel it. That's why I drink too. I try to find sympathy and feeling in drink.... I drink so that I may suffer twice as much!" And as though in despair he laid his head down on the table.
- very tragic
I do not wish to make myself a laughing‐stock before these idle listeners, who indeed know all about it already, but I am looking for a man of feeling and education
- he sees himself somehow in the main character, that's why
he started talking
I don't condemn her for it, I don't blame her, for the one thing left her is recollection of the past, and all the rest is dust and ashes.
- this remind a bit of IMO
Yes, yes, she is a lady of spirit, proud and determined. She scrubs the floors herself and has nothing but black bread to eat, but won't allow herself to be treated with disrespect.
- interestin
She married her first husband, an infantry officer, for love, and ran away with him from her father's house. She was exceedingly fond of her husband; but he gave way to cards, got into trouble and with that he died.
- very tragedy, because she will always blame herself for
what she did
- did she change? does she continue to follow her heart
And she was proud, too, excessively proud...
Do you understand, sir, do you understand what it means when you have absolutely nowhere to turn?
- she
Yellow ticket, yellow passport or yellow card[1] (Russian: жёлтый билет[2]) was an informal name of a personal identification document of a prostitute in the Russian Empire between 1843 and 1909.
Critics
- when Marmeladov got his job back you will feel how the
employee treats the employer as a favour, and an object
Boots, cotton shirt‐fronts— most magnificent, a uniform, they got up all in splendid style, for eleven roubles and a half.
- interesting how money is valuable to poor people
She had not any dresses... none at all, but she got herself up as though she were going on a visit; and not that she'd anything to do it with, she smartened herself up with nothing at all, she'd done her hair nicely, put on a clean collar of some sort, cuffs, and there she was, quite a different person, she was younger and better looking.
- money is morale
Critics
- Marmeladov story is sad because he had the opportunity
to recuperar a good life, and he blew it, damn, he literraly stole money of his wife for some Piece of clothing
Sonia is a really nice person, even after all her father has done she is still with him
And here I, her own father, here I took thirty copecks of that money for a drink! And I am drinking it! And I have already drunk it! Come, who will have pity on a man like me, eh? Are you sorry for me, sir, or not? Tell me, sir, are you sorry or not? He‐he‐he!"
Indeed it will be better if she does begin pulling it, that's not what I am afraid of... it's her eyes I am afraid of... yes, her eyes... the red on her cheeks, too, frightens me... and her breathing too....
They went in from the yard and up to the fourth storey.
The staircase got darker and darker as they went up. It
was nearly eleven o'clock and although in summer in
Petersburg there is no real night, yet it was quite dark at
the top of the stairs.
A grimy little door at the very top of the stairs stood
ajar. A very poor‐looking room about ten paces long was
lighted up by a candle‐end; the whole of it was visible
from the entrance.
- describing real poverty makes it more sad
Chapter 3
He waked up late next day after a broken sleep.
- life is a constant source of misery for him
It was a tiny cupboard of a room about six paces in length. It had a poverty‐stricken appearance with its dusty yellow paper peeling off the walls, and it was so low‐pitched that a man of more than average height was ill at ease in it and felt every moment that he would knock his head against the ceiling.
- poverty in russia is insane
He had got completely away from everyone, like a tortoise in its shell, and even the sight of a servant girl who had to wait upon him and looked sometimes into his room made him writhe with nervous irritation.
"Praskovya Pavlovna means to complain to the police about you," she said.
"Nastasya, leave me alone, for goodness' sake; here are your three copecks, but for goodness' sake, make haste and go!"
- we can see his mother brings anxiety to him
But at last he lost all control and had the face to make Dounia an open and shameful proposal, promising her all sorts of inducements and offering, besides, to throw up everything and take her to another estate of his, or even abroad.
- Dounia must be very beautiful
You know Dounia, of course; you know how clever she is and what a strong will she has.
Critics
- it is interesting the impact of being poor. Due to being poor
Dounia has to put her self in situations that are not good for money, and since there is no better alternative. In some sense money means more options and more freedom.
For a whole month the town was full of gossip about this scandal, and it came to such a pass that Dounia and I dared not even go to church on account of the contemptuous looks, whispers, and even remarks made aloud about us.
- it interesting how doomed Raskolnikov's family seems to be doomed
apparently everything bad happens to them, imagine she could go to a regular person's house, but suddenly she goes to a very bad house
so in a short time she had spread her story not only in the town, but over the whole surrounding district
It made me ill, but Dounia bore it better than I did, and if only you could have seen how she endured it all and tried to comfort me and cheer me up!
- she seems to be a really strong woman
Marfa Petrovna is quite a character she is saying sorry for everyone in the neighborhood, she has a high sense of nobility
In my opinion a great deal, a very great deal of all this was unnecessary; but that's Marfa Petrovna's character.
- that looks sketchy
Anyway she succeeded in completely re‐establishing Dounia's reputation and the whole ignominy of this affair rested as an indelible disgrace upon her husband, as the only person to blame, so that I really began to feel sorry for him; it was really treating the crazy fellow too harshly.
- maybe she did that to screw her husband and not to save Dounia,
I don't think she would be that nice
He is a well‐to‐do man, to be depended upon, he has two posts in the government and has already made his fortune. It is true that he is forty‐five years old
- why a guy like this would want to marry Dounia, that sounds
suspicious
You know your sister's character, Rodya. She is a resolute, sensible, patient and generous girl, but she has a passionate heart, as I know very well
Of course, there is no great love either on his side, or on hers, but Dounia is a clever girl and has the heart of an angel, and will make it her duty to make her husband happy who on his side will make her happiness
- Dounia is the type of woman that once starts a commitment
she will go all the way
But Dounia was vexed, and answered that 'words are not deeds,' and that, of course, is perfectly true.
- Dounia cares only not the presentation of the man,
but is actual feelings in his heart
We have even ventured already to drop a few words on the subject to Pyotr Petrovitch. He was cautious in his answer, and said that, of course, as he could not get on without a secretary, it would be better to be paying a salary to a relation than to a stranger,
- this is too good to be true, some how the main character
will be fucked
She has been in a sort of fever for the last few days, and has already made a regular plan for your becoming in the end an associate and even a partner in Pyotr Petrovitch's business, which might well be, seeing that you are a student of law.
- Dounia really loves her brother
I have noticed more than once in my life that husbands don't quite get on with their mothers‐in‐law, and I don't want to be the least bit in anyone's way,
- the main character's mom is very sweet, interesting how
she and her daugther have a different sweetness, her daughter is more like a harsh sweet, like though love
I have kept for the end of my letter: know then, my dear boy, that we may, perhaps, be all together in a very short time and may embrace one another again after a separation of almost three years!
- oh my god it couldn't be worst, the main character
would never like that
Dounia is all excitement at the joyful thought of seeing you, she said one day in joke that she would be ready to marry Pyotr Petrovitch for that alone.
Love Dounia your sister, Rodya; love her as she loves you and understand that she loves you beyond everything, more than herself. She is an angel and you, Rodya, you are everything to us—our one hope, our one consolation.
- this is even more sad, because not only the main character
is screwed but he is also the only hopes of his sister mother
He laid his head down on his threadbare dirty pillow and pondered, pondered a long time. His heart was beating violently, and his brain was in a turmoil.
- this is effective because we know how much he suffers, and
we can feel the implications of the letter
Chapter 4
"Never such a marriage while I am alive and Mr. Luzhin be damned!"
- he is so prideful, how could he not be married
Raskolnikov is deeply offended by Luzhin's offer of marriage because he views Dunya as sacrificing herself to benefit him, and he cannot stand the idea of someone making such a sacrifice for him.
- damn that's really bad
(about Dounia) but I know she would rather be a nigger on a plantation or a Lett with a German master than degrade her soul, and her moral dignity,
It's clear enough: for herself, for her comfort, to save her life she would not sell herself, but for someone else she is doing it! For one she loves, for one she adores, she will sell herself!
Critcs
- very interesting, how Casuistry morale can lead us to do something
without thinking rationally of the consequences
And I? Yes, indeed, what have you taken me for? I won't have your sacrifice, Dounia, I won't have it, mother! It shall not be, so long as I am alive, it shall not, it shall not! I won't accept it!
- I think he is overacting only based on the letter he can't
be sure that the guy is so bad
So he tortured himself, fr etting himself with such questions, and finding a kind of enjoyment in it. And yet all these questions were not new ones suddenly confronting him, they were old familiar aches.
- interesting how bad this is, and how much that happens with
myself too
Long, long ago
his present anguish had its first beginnings; it had waxed
and gathered strength, it had matured and concentrated,
until it had taken the form of a fearful, frenzied and
fantastic question, which tortured his heart and mind,
clamouring insistently for an answer
- this feels a lot like me
"Do you understand, sir, do you understand what it means when you have absolutely nowhere to turn?" Marmeladov's question came suddenly into his mind, "for every man must have somewhere to turn...."
A certain percentage, they tell us, must every year go... that way... to the devil, I suppose, so that the rest may remain chaste, and not be interfered with. A percentage! What splendid words they have; they are so scientific, so consolatory.... Once you've said 'percentage' there's nothing more to worry about. But what if Dounia were one of the percentage! Of another one if not that one?
He was an exceptionally good‐humoured and candid youth, good‐natured to the point of simplicity, though both depth and dignity lay concealed under that simplicity.
- why a guy like that would be friends with the main character
Chapter 5
Critics
- now he is talking about a dream of the main character
which is quite boring
alguma coisa acontece no meu coracao que so quando sai do metro da consolacao
He was only a few steps from his lodging. He went in like a man condemned to death. He thought of nothing and was incapable of thinking; but he felt suddenly in his whole being that he had no more freedom of thought, no will, and that everything was suddenly and irrevocably decided.
CHAPTER VI
But Raskolnikov had become superstitious of late. The traces of superstition remained in him long after, and were almost ineradicable
All at once he heard the student mention to the officer the pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna and give him her address. This of itself seemed strange to Raskolnikov; he had just come from her and here at once he heard her name.
- interesting coincidence
Lizaveta was of lower rank than her sister, unmarried and awfully uncouth in appearance, remarkably tall with long feet that looked as if they were bent outwards.
- poor girl
Well, listen then. On the other side, fresh young lives thrown away for want of help and by thousands, on every side! A hundred thousand good deeds could be done and helped, on that old woman's money which will be buried in a monastery!
- ver interesting moral dilema
Well, listen then. On the other side, fresh young lives thrown away for want of help and by thousands, on every side! A hundred thousand good deeds could be done and helped, on that old woman's money which will be buried in a monastery!
This trivial talk in a tavern had an
immense influence on him in his later action; as though
there had really been in it something preordained, some
guiding hint....
Meanwhile it got dark; he had no candle and, indeed, it did not occur to him to light up.
He was haunted by day‐dreams and such strange
day‐dreams; in one, that kept recurring, he fancied that he
was in Africa, in Egypt, in some sort of oasis. The caravan
was resting, the camels were peacefully lying down; the
palms stood all around in a complete circle; all the party
were at dinner. But he was drinking water from a spring
which flowed gurgling close by. And it was so cool, it was
wonderful, wonderful, blue, cold water running among the
parti‐coloured stones and over the clean sand which
glistened here and there like gold....
- he can feel how good life will be after the crime
He concentrated all his energies on thinking of everything and forgetting nothing; and his heart kept beating and thumping so that he could hardly breathe.
- the fact that this is a crime movie where the guy doesn't
want to commit a crime is quite interesting
This noose, too, he had designed a fortnight before.
- he has been planning this for quite a while
In spite of all his agonising inward struggle, he never for a single instant all that time could believe in the carrying out of his plans.
- this is very interesting
Almost every criminal is subject to a
failure of will and reasoning power by a childish and
phenomenal heedlessness, at the very instant when
prudence and caution are most essential. It was his
conviction that this eclipse of reason and failure of will
power attacked a man like a disease, developed gradually
and reached its highest point just before the perpetration
of the crime, continued with equal violence at the moment
of the crime and for longer or shorter time after, according
to the individual case, and then passed off like any other
disease.
- very interesting reflection
When he reached these conclusions, he decided that in his own case there could not be such a morbid reaction, that his reason and will would remain unimpaired at the time of carrying out his design, for the simple reason that his design was "not a crime...."
- is this a crime, what is far?
He was crushed and even humiliated. He could have laughed at himself in his anger.... A dull animal rage boiled within him.
- the stress
He moved a little on purpose and muttered something aloud that he might not have the appearance of hiding, then rang a third time, but quietly, soberly, and without impatience, Recalling it afterwards, that moment stood out in his mind vividly, distinctly, for ever; he could not make out how he had had such cunning, for his mind was as it were clouded at moments and he was almost unconscious of his body....
- interesting how we can be clutch at the necessary moments,
it's an instinct of survival
CHAPTER VII
The old woman recovered herself, and her visitor's resolute tone evidently restored her confidence.
His hands were fearfully weak, he felt them every moment growing more numb and more wooden. He was afraid he would let the axe slip and fall.... A sudden giddiness came over him.
- imagine killing someone when you are hungry
She was gazing in stupefaction at her murdered sister, white as a sheet and seeming not to have the strength to cry out.
- very impactful
Fear gained more and more mastery over him, especially after this second, quite unexpected murder.
He stood and gazed and could not believe his eyes: the door, the outer door from the stairs, at which he had not long before waited and rung, was standing unfastened and at least six inches open. No lock, no bolt, all the time, all that time!
- it is amazing how dreadful this things get
- the paranoia will eat him
When he was in his room, he flung himself on the sofa just as he was—he did not sleep, but sank into blank forgetfulness. If anyone had come into his room then, he would have jumped up at once and screamed. Scraps and shreds of thoughts were simply swarming in his brain, but he could not catch at one, he could not rest on one, in spite of all his efforts....