The Theme in the Work
In this book reason is the instrument with which the crime is built, and also what the book shows failing. Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov arrives on the first page with the theory ready and the crime mulled over in his head, and even so he acts only when a chain of chance pushes his body. The novel asks what drives a man to act and answers that it is not reason alone: reason approves, nature refuses, and what ends up moving the scene is the body, chance and, in the end, life.
In Chapter V of Part One, after the dream of the mare, Raskolnikov names the act in images for the first time (the axe, the head, the blood) and trembles. He concludes that even if the calculations are right as arithmetic, he will not decide: reason approves and nature refuses.
неужели ж, неужели ж я в самом деле возьму топор, стану бить по голове, размозжу ей череп [...] Господи, неужели?, can it be, can it really be that I will take the axe, start striking her on the head, crush her skull [...] Lord, can it be?
In Chapter VI of Part One, in the tavern he recalls, an unknown student gives the sum Raskolnikov already had in his head, half irritated and half joking, and hands him the language and the number:
Убей ее и возьми ее деньги, с тем чтобы с их помощию посвятить потом себя на служение всему человечеству и общему делу: [...] Одна смерть и сто жизней взамен — да ведь тут арифметика!, kill her and take her money, so that with its help you may later devote yourself to the service of all humanity and the common cause: [...] One death and a hundred lives in exchange, why, that is arithmetic!
Still in Chapter VI of Part One, the narrator describes the state in which he prepares everything without deciding anything: the last day pulls him like the wheel of a machine that has caught a piece of his clothing.
Точно он попал клочком одежды в колесо машины, и его начало в нее втягивать., it was as if he had caught a piece of his clothing in the wheel of a machine, and it had begun to draw him in.
In Chapter VII of Part One, the blow comes almost without effort, almost mechanically, at the moment for which the false pledge was prepared:
Он вынул топор совсем, взмахнул его обеими руками, едва себя чувствуя, и почти без усилия, почти машинально, опустил на голову обухом, he pulled the axe all the way out, raised it with both hands, scarcely feeling himself, and, almost without effort, almost mechanically, brought it down on her head with the blunt side.
In Chapter II of Part Two, the question Raskolnikov puts to himself measures how much the plan was calculation: if everything was done consciously, why did he not even look inside the purse he took?
Если действительно все это дело сделано было сознательно, а не по-дурацки, если у тебя действительно была определенная и твердая цель, то каким же образом ты до сих пор даже и не заглянул в кошелек и не знаешь, что тебе досталось, из-за чего все муки принял и на такое подлое, гадкое, низкое дело сознательно шел?, if all this was really done consciously and not stupidly, if you really had a definite and firm aim, then how is it that until now you have not even looked into the purse and do not know what you got, for which you endured all those torments and went consciously to such a base, loathsome, low deed?
In Chapter IV of Part Two, Dmitry Prokofich Razumikhin, irritated with the police, formulates the method that Porfiry Petrovich will practice: the raw fact is not enough, one must know how to handle it, and psychological data show the true trail.
По одним психологическим только данным можно показать, как на истинный след попадать должно. «У нас есть, дескать, факты!» Да ведь факты не все; по крайней мере, половина дела в том, как с фактами обращаться умеешь!, psychological data alone are enough to show how one must reach the true trail. "We have facts, they say!" But facts are not everything; at least half the matter lies in knowing how to handle the facts!
In Chapter V of Part Two, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin expounds the doctrine of self-interest as if it were science, and Raskolnikov follows its consequence as far as it goes:
А доведите до последствий, что вы давеча проповедовали, и выйдет, что людей можно резать…, for take what you preached a moment ago to its ultimate consequences, and it will turn out that people can be put to the knife...
In Chapter V of Part Three, in Porfiry's house, he sets out the article: the right of the extraordinary man is not an official one, it is the right to allow his own conscience to step over certain obstacles, when the execution of the idea demands it.
Я просто-запросто намекнул, что «необыкновенный» человек имеет право… то есть не официальное право, а сам имеет право разрешить своей совести перешагнуть… через иные препятствия, и единственно в том только случае, если исполнение его идеи (иногда спасительной, может быть, для всего человечества) того потребует., I simply hinted that an "extraordinary" man has the right... that is, not an official right, but he himself has the right to permit his conscience to step over... certain obstacles, and only in the event that the execution of his idea (sometimes saving, perhaps, for all of humanity) requires it.
Still in Chapter V of Part Three, Razumikhin, not knowing of the crime, answers with the living soul that does not submit to mechanics, and the opposition turns against his friend, because Raskolnikov's theory also calculates:
Живая душа жизни потребует, живая душа не послушается механики, живая душа подозрительна, живая душа ретроградна!, a living soul will demand life, a living soul will not submit to mechanics, a living soul is suspicious, a living soul is reactionary!
In Chapter VI of Part Three, hours later, alone and feverish, Raskolnikov takes his own doctrine apart in two sentences: he killed a principle, did not step over, and only managed to kill.
я не человека убил, я принцип убил! Принцип-то я и убил, а переступить-то не переступил, на этой стороне остался... Только и сумел, что убить., it was not a person I killed, it was a principle! The principle, that is what I killed, but I did not step over, I stayed on this side... All I managed to do was kill.
In Chapter I of Part Four, Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov turns the positions around to defend himself: reason serves passion, and whoever acts out of passion is its servant. Raskolnikov answers that this is simply repugnant.
Разум-то ведь страсти служит; я, пожалуй, себя еще больше губил, помилуйте!.., reason, after all, serves passion; perhaps I was ruining myself even more, come now!..
In Chapter V of Part Four, Porfiry describes his own method as a general theory of the trade, the moth circling the candle, and in Chapter II of Part Six he acknowledges its flaw, psychology cutting both ways:
ведь в том-то и штука, что вся эта проклятая психология о двух концах!, for that is the whole point: all this cursed psychology cuts both ways!
In Chapter IV of Part Five, while confessing to Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova, Raskolnikov reduces the theory to a question about himself, and Sonia supplies for him the verb that the sentence avoids:
мне надо было узнать тогда, и поскорей узнать, вошь ли я, как все, или человек? Смогу ли я переступить или не смогу! Осмелюсь ли нагнуться и взять или нет? Тварь ли я дрожащая или право имею…, I needed to know then, and to know quickly: am I a louse, like everyone else, or a man? Will I be able to step over or won't I! Do I dare to stoop down and pick it up or not? Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right…
In Chapter I of the Epilogue, the court adopts the fashionable theory of a passing mental disturbance, which lets it understand the crime without touching the idea that moved it. In Chapter II of the Epilogue, the dream of the plague (The Dream of the Plague) gives back the logic of the crime on the scale of peoples:
всякий думал, что в нем в одном и заключается истина, each one thought the truth was contained in him, and in him alone.
Still in Chapter II of the Epilogue, reason is not refuted, it is left behind: dialectics gives way to life.
Вместо диалектики наступила жизнь, и в сознании должно было выработаться что-то совершенно другое, in place of dialectics came life, and in his consciousness something entirely different was to take shape.
Reason appears in four positions that the book never lets merge: the one that calculates (the arithmetic of Chapter VI of Part One), the one that places itself at the service of desire (Svidrigailov, in Chapter I of Part Four), the one that becomes police method (Razumikhin in Chapter IV of Part Two, Porfiry in Chapter V of Part Four) and the one the court uses to explain the crime without facing the idea (Chapter I of the Epilogue). None of them decides. What decides is what the narrator calls the wheel of a machine in Chapter VI of Part One, and what undoes the system, in Chapter II of the Epilogue, is not a counterargument but the exchange of dialectics for life.
Who Embodies It
Luzhin and Lebezyatnikov are utilitarian reason in drawing-room form. In Chapter I of Part Five, provoked deliberately by Luzhin, Lebezyatnikov argues that everything that serves humanity is noble, and the text leaves open whether his conviction is sincere, which would make him a witness beyond suspicion, or the posture of someone who wants to be taken seriously.
Все, что полезно человечеству, то и благородно! Я понимаю только одно слово: полезное!, everything that serves humanity is noble! I understand only one word: useful!
In Chapter V of Part Five, Lebezyatnikov expounds the thesis that madness is cured by convincing the person through logic, and Raskolnikov answers that life would be far too easy that way.
Zossimov brings the doctor's reason: in Chapter II of Part Three, he describes the mechanism by which an unjust suspicion pushes a sick and proud man to an extreme act, without knowing that in Raskolnikov's case the suspicion has foundation.
Я один случай знаю, как один ипохондрик, сорокалетний, не в состоянии будучи переносить ежедневных насмешек за столом восьмилетнего мальчишки, зарезал его!, I know a case: a hypochondriac, a man of forty, who, unable to bear the daily jeers at the table from an eight-year-old boy, stabbed him to death!
Where It Appears
- Part One, Chapter V: After the dream of the mare, Raskolnikov imagines the axe on the old woman's head, trembles and concludes that reason approves the plan, but nature refuses it.
- Part One, Chapter VI: Raskolnikov recalls the sum of one death for a hundred lives, heard from a student, and prepares everything without deciding anything, as if a machine wheel were pulling him.
- Part One, Chapter VII: Raskolnikov strikes the old woman almost without effort, almost mechanically, as she turns toward the window, and Lizaveta, who arrives afterward, is killed as well.
- Part Two, Chapter II: As he hides the loot under a stone, Raskolnikov asks himself how, if he acted consciously, he did not even look at what was in the purse he took.
- Part Two, Chapter IV: Razumikhin, irritated with the police, says the facts are not enough and that one must know how to handle them, though he admits the weight of the case found in the painter's hand.
- Part Two, Chapter V: Luzhin expounds the doctrine of self-interest, and Raskolnikov answers that, followed to its ultimate consequences, it allows people to be put to the knife.
- Part Three, Chapter II: Zossimov fears that an unjust suspicion will push the sick Raskolnikov to an extreme act, without knowing that in his case the suspicion has foundation.
- Part Three, Chapter V: In Porfiry's house, Raskolnikov sets out the theory of ordinary and extraordinary men, and Razumikhin opposes to it the living soul that does not submit to mechanics.
- Part Three, Chapter VI: Alone and feverish, Raskolnikov says he killed a principle and not a person, that he did not step over and only managed to kill, and declares himself a louse.
- Part Four, Chapter I: Svidrigailov claims that reason serves passion, and Raskolnikov answers that the argument is simply repugnant.
- Part Four, Chapter V: Porfiry describes the method of his trade: leaving the suspect at large, under watch, until he circles the judge like a moth around a candle.
- Part Five, Chapter I: Lebezyatnikov holds that everything that serves humanity is noble and that he understands only the word useful, while Luzhin provokes him deliberately.
- Part Five, Chapter IV: To Sonia, Raskolnikov reduces the theory to a question about himself: whether he is a louse like everyone else or a man who dares to step over and pick up.
- Part Five, Chapter V: Lebezyatnikov holds that madness is cured by convincing the person through logic, and Raskolnikov answers that life would be far too easy that way.
- Part Six, Chapter II: Porfiry admits to Raskolnikov that all his psychology cuts both ways and therefore offers him voluntary surrender.
- Epilogue, Chapter I: The court accepts the theory of a passing mental disturbance to explain Raskolnikov's crime, while he barely defends himself and does not mention the idea of extraordinary men.
- Epilogue, Chapter II: In prison, the dream of the plague shows each infected person certain of holding the truth alone, and Raskolnikov's dialectics give way to life.
Where the Readings Diverge
How much of the crime is reason is a disputed question.
Joseph Frank sees in the oscillation between motives not a symptom of imbalance but the subject of the book, each layer of motive being a phase in the self-discovery of a man who does not know why he killed.
If Raskolnikov is mad, the Epilogue is a cure and the theory never needed an answer; if he is lucid and discovers himself in stages, the Epilogue is the one point where the book ought to answer and does not. Whoever reads the crime as a cold act must explain Chapter V of Part One, in which he recoils before the axe, and Chapter VII of Part One, in which Lizaveta Ivanovna, who was not part of the plan, dies from the second blow.