Summary of the part
The part closes two fronts that were already forming and opens a third that dominates the rest of the novel. Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov comes on stage in person, offering money and speaking of ghosts; Luzhin is shown the door by Dunya, on a night when Raskolnikov enters the fray only to defend Sonia and ends up sending Luzhin out; and Porfiry Petrovich truly begins to close in on him, not with proof but with psychology. In the midst of this, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov breaks with his family and goes to the only place left to him, the room of Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova.
Chapter I: Svidrigailov's Visit
Chapter summary
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov wakes and sees seated before him the man who had been watching him: it is Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov, who says he has come to meet him and to ask for help in a matter that concerns his sister, Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova. First he defends himself against what she suffered in his house, where she was a governess, and presents the pursuit as a passion that no one chooses. Raskolnikov provokes him with the rumor that he too did away with his wife, Marfa Petrovna; Svidrigailov replies that the examination found apoplexy, that he struck her only twice with the whip, and that his conscience is clear. He then says that she visited him three times after her death, and asks whether Raskolnikov believes in ghosts; the latter denies it angrily, and Svidrigailov imagines eternity as a little room in a village, black with soot, with spiders in every corner. Getting to the point, he says that Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin will bring only harm to Dunya, and asks for a meeting with her, with Raskolnikov present, to offer ten thousand rubles to make the break easier. Raskolnikov refuses to pass on the proposal, and Svidrigailov replies that he will seek her out on his own. On his way out, he mentions that Marfa Petrovna left three thousand rubles to Dunya in her will, and bumps into Dmitry Prokofich Razumikhin at the door.
Analysis
Разум-то ведь страсти служит; я, пожалуй, себя еще больше губил, помилуйте!..
, Reason, after all, serves passion; I, if anything, was ruining myself even more, come now!..
Svidrigailov uses the phrase to reverse the positions: whoever acts out of passion is its servant, not its culprit, and whoever ruins himself for it pays more than the victim does. Raskolnikov does not argue the point and answers that he is simply repugnant. Two readings: the irony of someone who knows he is not convincing, or the self-deception in which reason, as he puts it, works for desire.
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Chapter II: The Break with Luzhin
Chapter summary
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov and Dmitry Prokofich Razumikhin hurry off to Bakaleyev's rooms, where Raskolnikov's mother and sister are, to get there before Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin. On the way, Raskolnikov tells Razumikhin who the visitor was and asks him to protect Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova, because he fears this man without being able to explain why, and soon he doubts what he saw and asks whether it might have been an apparition. Razumikhin attributes the doubt to his state, tells that he went to speak with Porfiry Petrovich and did not know how to begin, and concludes that if the friend is not to blame, it is not worth exerting oneself for those people.
Analysis
Chapter III: Raskolnikov's Farewell
Chapter summary
On the stairs, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin goes down surprised by the rupture, because he had counted to the end on the dependence of Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova and her mother, out of vanity and attachment to money, and he plans to set everything right the next day. In the room, Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikova thank God and laugh, and only Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov stays gloomy. He recounts dryly his conversation with Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov, without the apparitions. Dmitry Prokofich Razumikhin proposes a publishing company with money from his uncle and from Dunya's three thousand, and an apartment in the same house for everyone. Raskolnikov asks them to forget him, because he wants to be alone. In the corridor, he asks Razumikhin to stay with them and never ask him anything; the two look at each other in silence, and Razumikhin turns pale. From that night on he becomes, for them, son and brother.
Analysis
Chapter IV: The Reading of Lazarus
Chapter summary
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov goes to the house of Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova, by the canal, at night, and says he has come for the last time and has a word to say. He examines the room, large, low, and crooked, and asks about the owners of the house. Sonia defends Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova, who is like a child and has lost her wits from grief. He asks what will become of them all if Katerina dies or if Sonia falls ill, and he insists until she repeats that God will not allow such horror; he answers that perhaps there is no God at all. Then he bows down to the floor and kisses her foot: it is not before her, he says, but before all human suffering. He calls her a great sinner, for having ruined herself for nothing, and asks what sustains her; she asks what would become of her without God, and he calls her a holy fool. On the chest of drawers lies the New Testament that Lizaveta Ivanovna brought, and he asks her to read the resurrection of Lazarus. Sonia reads, trembling, and closes the book. Raskolnikov then says that he has left his mother and sister, that only she remains to him, and that they must go together, cursed, by a single road toward a single goal, which is freedom and power. He promises that the next day he will say who killed Lizaveta, and he leaves without offering his hand. Sonia spends the night in fever. In the empty room next door, Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov heard the whole conversation through the door and brings a chair to listen seated on the following days.
Analysis
Chapter V: The Moth and the Candle
Chapter summary
The next day, at eleven sharp, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov arrives at the police office to see Porfiry Petrovich. He waits ten minutes, notices that no one is watching him, and concludes that the man from yesterday, who appeared as if from the ground, either said nothing or knows nothing. When he is called, he realizes he is trembling, is annoyed at trembling before the hated Porfiry, and enters resolved to stay quiet, cold, and alert. Porfiry receives him with both hands outstretched and fills the conversation with trivialities, from the house under repair to hemorrhoids. Raskolnikov cannot resist and mocks the method of the examining magistrate, who begins with distant subjects to bewilder the person being questioned. Porfiry laughs until he turns red, and Raskolnikov, full of hatred, realizes he may have fallen into a trap; he demands a formal interrogation or his freedom.
Porfiry changes his tone: a suspect is not arrested early, because arrest would give him moral support; the evidence cuts both ways, and the kind he wants looks like two and two make four. A guilty man left free circles the magistrate like a moth around a candle, until it flies into his mouth. Raskolnikov straightens up and says that he sees the magistrate suspects him of the old woman's murder and of that of Lizaveta Ivanovna, that he demands a trial or an arrest and will not tolerate mockery; he bangs on the table and shouts that he will not permit it. Porfiry opens the window, offers water, and says that Dmitry Prokofich Razumikhin came to see him; he attributes the visit to the empty apartment to his sick state and says that whoever had something on his conscience would claim delirium. Raskolnikov demands to know whether he is free of suspicion, yes or no, and Porfiry does not answer; he holds him at the door and speaks of a little surprise behind the partition. Raskolnikov tries to open the door, shouts that he has only conjectures, and demands witnesses. In the corridor, a noise is heard.
Analysis
Chapter VI: Nikolai's Confession
Chapter summary
A prisoner bursts into the office, falls to his knees and shouts that he is the murderer. It is the painter Nikolai, who says he killed Alyona Ivanovna and her sister, Lizaveta Ivanovna, with an axe. Porfiry Petrovich questions him and concludes, angrily, that the words are not his own; he orders Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov to leave. On the stairs, Raskolnikov mocks the trade of the man who tormented the young fellow until he confessed. At home, he sees that the lie will come out and decides to go to Marmeladov's funeral repast, but the door opens by itself and the man from yesterday comes in, bows, and asks forgiveness. He is a furrier who works in the old woman's building: offended at Raskolnikov being taken for a drunk, he went to Porfiry, who hid him behind the partition. Raskolnikov repeats that everything cuts both ways, and goes down the stairs furious with himself.
Analysis
Reading of the Part
Analysis