Discussion Questions

Raskolnikov gives the first visit the name of a rehearsal and, on leaving, tells himself that what he thought is absurd. What does the name of rehearsal allow him to keep intact?

Marmeladov asks to be crucified rather than pitied, and the tavern laughs; Raskolnikov, on leaving, gives the coins and regrets it. What does each of the two, the drunk and the listener, expect from someone who feels pity?

Raskolnikov intervenes for the girl on the boulevard, then tells the guard to let her go and regrets the twenty kopecks. What decides, at each moment, the side of the gesture?

The book makes Raskolnikov hear Lizaveta's hour right after he renounces the plan. If the information had reached him some other way, would the renunciation have lasted longer?

The student hands over the bill and draws back when the officer asks whether he would kill the old woman himself. What does the conversation give Raskolnikov, who hears the same idea already present in his own head?

In the dream, the boy Raskolnikov once was weeps over the dead mare, and on waking he swears he will not bear the crime. The day after the dream, he strikes the old woman almost without effort. What does the book show through the distance between what he feels and what he does?

Raskolnikov decides without hesitation that Dunya's marriage will not take place, but he never decides to kill with the same clarity. Where does the book place his responsibility for the crime: in what he decides, or in what he does without deciding?

The theory heard from a stranger in the tavern (one death for a hundred lives) and the private motive (rescuing Dunya from Luzhin) point in different directions, one cold and abstract, the other personal. Why does the book give Raskolnikov both at the same time?

Raskolnikov goes to the police station ready to confess everything if they ask him, discovers that the summons is for a debt, talks too much, and soon faints. What does he want from the police when he goes in, and what does he want when he leaves?

Raskolnikov seeks out Razumikhin to ask for help, accepts the work and the coins, and then gives them back. What did he need to say to Razumikhin, and what makes him fall silent?

Razumikhin looks after Raskolnikov, pays the debt to the landlady, and dresses him again without asking anything in return. Why does Raskolnikov meet every act of care with refusal, aversion, or silence?

Razumikhin says that facts are not enough and that one must know how to handle them, and admits that the old woman's case was in the painter's hand that same day. What should weigh more as evidence: the object found, or the state of mind of the one who found it?

Luzhin expounds the doctrine of the whole caftan in a room full of strangers, and Raskolnikov answers that it follows that one has the right to murder. Where does he draw this consequence so quickly, and why does he react to Luzhin with a violence he has not shown to anyone else in the room?

At the Crystal Palace, Raskolnikov describes to Zamyotov how he would hide the loot of a robbery and, right after, asks whether it was not he who did the killing. Why does he describe the hiding place before the question, and what does he expect Zamyotov to do with it?

Marmeladov tries to speak to Katerina Ivanovna, who orders him to be quiet, knowing what he means to say, and he begs Sonia's forgiveness. What does each of the two women do with the plea for forgiveness?

Raskolnikov throws into the water the twenty kopecks he received as alms, and days later hands twenty rubles to Katerina Ivanovna. What does the book show in the difference between the two gestures?

Raskolnikov demands that Dunya break with Luzhin and, in the same breath, calls the marriage vile and himself a scoundrel. What does the demand gain from this self-accusation?

Razumikhin defends erring in one's own way and, the same night, swears to Pulcheria Alexandrovna that her son is in danger. What does he know, and what does he only fear, about Raskolnikov's condition?

Razumikhin describes a Raskolnikov who alternates between coldness and affection, and Pulcheria Alexandrovna fears a son capable of riding roughshod over everything. What does each of the two know about the same man that the other does not?

Dunya decides, without giving reasons, that her brother will be at the eight o'clock meeting despite Luzhin's letter. What does her decision take away from the fiancé's power?

Dunya says she marries for herself and not out of sacrifice, and her brother replies that this is a lie. What does each of them gain by being right about her motives?

Dunya says she has not yet killed anyone and Raskolnikov turns pale. What other explanations does the chapter give for his pallor, and which does it leave open?

Raskolnikov introduces Sonia to his mother and sister firmly, after having said that he saw her for the first time the day before. What does he answer, with this gesture, to Luzhin's letter, and what does he risk?

Raskolnikov chooses to go to Porfiry before he is summoned, and takes Razumikhin with him. What does he gain from his friend's company, and what does he risk?

Raskolnikov sets out the theory in full before Porfiry, but when the question turns to himself, he only answers that he would not say. What changes for him between one question and the next?

Razumikhin voices the gravest objection of the scene, blood permitted in the name of conscience, without knowing about the crime. What does this show about the difference between discussing an idea and living with it?

Raskolnikov tells himself that he killed a principle and not a person. What does this sentence try to save from the theory, and what does it leave out?

Raskolnikov explains to Razumikhin how a guilty man would do better, and does so with relish. What does the explanation reveal about him that the argument itself does not?

A stranger calls him a murderer in the street, and hours later he dreams that the old woman laughs at the blows. What relation does the chapter create between being accused from outside and being contradicted from within?

Raskolnikov tells Svidrigailov that he always thought something like this happened to him, and soon he is startled at having said it. What leads him to speak, and why is he frightened by his own sentence?

Dunya demands that Luzhin reconcile with Raskolnikov in front of everyone, and puts the choice in terms of one or the other. What does she want to find out with this demand, and what does Luzhin understand she wants?

Raskolnikov breaks with his family at the very moment Razumikhin offers him the chance for them all to be together, and asks his friend to stay in his place. What does the estrangement protect, and whom?

Raskolnikov asks Sonia to read precisely the resurrection of Lazarus, and not another passage, and he never explains the choice. Why this text, and what does he expect to hear?

Svidrigailov, with the ghosts and eternity like a room full of spiders, and Raskolnikov, with the hypothesis that perhaps God does not exist, raise the same doubt about what is left of life beyond itself. Does the book treat this as the same question in two mouths, or as two disbeliefs of different natures?

Porfiry says that whoever lies well is betrayed by nature, which makes him turn pale or faint at the most interesting moment. In the scene, what does Raskolnikov do that corresponds to this, and what does he do that Porfiry cannot use?

Porfiry describes his own method as waiting for the culprit's nature to betray him, and he has just heard from the painter Nikolai the confession of the crime, spoken in words he says are not his own. What does the scene show about the reach and the limit of this method?

Luzhin asks that Lebezyatnikov stay in the room, wants to know whether Raskolnikov is at the funeral, and gives ten rubles in secret, asking that his name not appear. What does each of these precautions prepare?

Katerina spends the burial money on a reception for people who despise her and, when they fail to come, turns against Amalia. To whom is she speaking, at each moment of the dinner?

Luzhin is unmasked before everyone and leaves the house half an hour later, with no punishment in sight, while Sonia, innocent, has a fit of weeping and runs away. What does the book ask of the reader by making Sonia's victory end this way?

In a few minutes Raskolnikov tells Sonia that he killed to steal, to help his mother, to become Napoleon, to kill a louse, and for himself, and he disavows each reason soon after. Does that show a man who lies, or one who does not yet know why he killed?

Sonia tells Raskolnikov to kiss the earth at a crossroads and say aloud that he killed; the same day, Katerina takes the children into the street to show the world that they are orphans of a nobleman. What do the two public gestures have in common, and what separates them?

Svidrigailov uses the words that Raskolnikov said to Sonia to justify the money he gives to the dead Katerina's children. What does the sentence mean in Raskolnikov's mouth, and what does it mean in his?

After days unable to be alone or in company, Raskolnikov reacts to Razumikhin's visit by telling himself that the struggle is back and that this is a way out. What does he call a way out, and why does an adversary serve him better than the fog?

Porfiry says he does not arrest Raskolnikov because he has only psychology, and yet he offers him voluntary surrender with a reduced sentence. What does he gain from the surrender that arrest would not give him?

Raskolnikov decides to kill Svidrigailov if he uses the secret against Dunya and, even so, seeks him out without knowing what he expects from him. What does the text suggest he is looking for in this man?

Svidrigailov describes Dunya as someone who wants to suffer for another, and says that it was pity for him that drew her close. Is the description borne out by what Dunya says and does from Chapter V on?

Dunya fires twice and, at the moment she could fire again, throws the revolver away. What does she understand in that moment that makes her stop firing?

Svidrigailov returns the key and sends Dunya away after she says never, and at dawn he kills himself. What connection does the novel make between the two gestures, the key and the shot?

Dunya's sentence presupposes a crime to wash away, and his reaction denies the crime. Why does the denial not make him draw back from giving himself up?

Raskolnikov kisses the ground in the square, remembering Sonia's instruction, and the crowd laughs and hears nothing. What meaning does this gesture have if no one receives it as a confession?

Pulcheria builds her own version of her son's departure and almost never asks where he is, and Dunya and Razumikhin avoid the subject in her presence. What does each of the three protect by not saying it?

In court Raskolnikov says he gave himself up out of frank remorse, and in prison the narrator affirms that he did not repent of the crime. What does each statement count as remorse?

In the dream of the plague, each infected person believes he alone holds the truth, and after the illness, Raskolnikov throws himself at Sonia's feet. What relationship does the book establish between the two?

The last sentence says that Raskolnikov's renewal could be the theme of a new tale and that the present tale is concluded. What does the novel gain and what does it lose by not narrating that renewal?

Raskolnikov says he killed to prove he was not a louse, not to help his mother: do the two reasons exclude each other, or does the book need both?

Porfiry has no proof at all and still wins: what does the book say about the relationship between truth and proof?

Svidrigailov and Sonia are the two ways out that Part Six places before Raskolnikov. What does each of them know about him that he does not know himself?

The epilogue announces a renewal that would already be another story. Does the novel prepare it, or does it arrive from outside?