Crime and Punishment

On a hot July evening in St. Petersburg, the impoverished former student Rodion Raskolnikov slips past his landlady, whom he owes money, and walks toward the flat of the pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna. Isolated, hungry and distressed, he has spent a month imagining a frightening undertaking that he alternately treats as a fantasy and as something he may actually attempt. He is especially worried that his distinctive, shabby hat could make him memorable. He counts the route and regards the visit as a rehearsal. While workers remove furniture from a neighboring fourth-floor flat, he notes that it will soon be empty. Alyona reluctantly lets him in and accepts his father's watch as a pledge. As she retrieves money, he observes the arrangement of her rooms, her keys and a conspicuously large key that he thinks may open a strongbox. He also asks whether her sister Lizaveta is at home. The transaction leaves him with one rouble and fifteen copecks, and he departs appalled by his own thoughts, insisting that the scheme is disgusting and impossible. Feeling faint and thirsty, he enters a tavern for the first time. A glass of beer briefly improves his mood, though he suspects the relief is abnormal. The chapter ends with his attention drawn to an agitated man who appears to be a retired clerk.

Still in the tavern, Raskolnikov listens to Semyon Marmeladov, an intoxicated former civil servant who wants an educated listener. Marmeladov describes his marriage to Katerina Ivanovna, a proud, ill and impoverished widow with three children, and his daughter Sonia from an earlier marriage. When the family had no food, Katerina spoke harshly to Sonia, who went out and returned with thirty roubles from selling sex. Katerina then wept over her sacrifice. Because Sonia holds a yellow passport, she has had to move out, though she continues to support the household. Marmeladov recounts being reinstated at work, the family's brief renewal of hope and his theft of the remaining wages for a prolonged drinking binge. That morning he even took Sonia's last thirty copecks to buy alcohol. Although ashamed and aware of his harm, he insists he seeks suffering rather than pleasure and imagines divine pity for the undeserving. Raskolnikov helps him home, where the emaciated Katerina and her frightened, hungry children are in desperate circumstances. She finds that Marmeladov has spent the money, pulls his hair, and angrily dismisses Raskolnikov as the other tenants watch. Raskolnikov leaves some of his own change unnoticed on the windowsill. He immediately questions that sacrifice, first mocking the family's dependence on Sonia, then abruptly wondering whether his harsh view of humanity is wrong and whether supposed moral barriers are merely prejudices.

The next morning, Nastasya brings Raskolnikov tea and food, warns that his landlady may complain to the police over unpaid rent, and gives him a letter from his mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna. His mother explains that his sister Dounia took an advance on her wages while working as a governess for the Svidrigaïlov family, in part to send money to Raskolnikov. Arkady Svidrigaïlov made unwelcome advances to her; his wife, Marfa Petrovna, initially blamed and publicly shamed Dounia, but later cleared her name after learning the truth and seeing a letter in which Dounia rejected secret meetings. The letter then announces Dounia's engagement to Pyotr Petrovitch Luzhin, a well-off lawyer who has spoken favorably of marrying a poor woman who will regard him as her benefactor. Raskolnikov's mother hopes the match will help him resume his studies and possibly work in Luzhin's legal office, though Luzhin has made no firm commitment. She and Dounia expect to travel to Petersburg soon. Raskolnikov kisses the letter before reading it and weeps as he reads, but his emotions turn to anger and bitterness. He leaves his room absorbed in the prospect that Dounia is sacrificing herself to improve his future.

Raskolnikov rejects the proposed marriage as soon as he considers it. He regards Luzhin's desire for a dependent wife as insulting and fears that Dounia is selling her freedom for his benefit, yet he also asks what right he has to forbid a marriage when he cannot support his mother or sister. His sense that he must act quickly brings back the unnamed undertaking he has been contemplating. On a boulevard he notices a disoriented, apparently intoxicated young girl whose clothing suggests to him that someone may have taken advantage of her. An older, well-dressed man follows her. In anger Raskolnikov mockingly calls the stranger 'Svidrigaïlov,' but the text does not identify him as that man. A police constable intervenes in their confrontation. Raskolnikov gives the constable twenty copecks to arrange a cab and help the girl; when she walks off and the stranger follows, he suddenly shouts that they should be left alone. The constable appears to disregard this reversal and continues after them. Troubled by his own contradictory response, Raskolnikov imagines the girl's precarious future and wonders what if Dounia became another victim of such circumstances. He then remembers he intended to visit Razumihin, the one former university friend with whom he maintained some connection, and questions why he thought of seeking him now.

Raskolnikov considers asking Razumihin to help him find tutoring work, but realizes he has already begun to imagine visiting his friend only after the unnamed 'It' has occurred. Alarmed that he may actually act, he wanders in a feverish state, drinks a little vodka and falls asleep outdoors. In a vivid dream he is a young boy with his father, watching drunken men led by Mikolka load an exhausted mare into a heavy cart and beat her to death when she cannot move it. The child tries to defend the animal, kisses its dead head and rushes at Mikolka before his father carries him away. Waking in horror, Raskolnikov explicitly imagines killing the pawnbroker with an axe, recoils from the bloodshed and declares that he could never do it. He briefly feels released from the obsession and prays for guidance. Taking an unusual route home through the Hay Market, however, he overhears a tradesman and his wife arranging for Lizaveta to visit them the following evening at seven. This means her stepsister Alyona Ivanovna will be alone at precisely that hour. Raskolnikov experiences the coincidence as a loss of freedom rather than a conscious choice: the opportunity seems to settle his course despite his earlier rejection of the plan.

Raskolnikov later learns that Lizaveta's appointment with the tradespeople was an ordinary arrangement involving secondhand goods, but he experiences its timing as uncanny. The narrative then recalls an earlier coincidence: shortly after he first learned about Alyona Ivanovna, he overheard a student and an officer talking about the pawnbroker. The student denounced her greed and cruelty to Lizaveta and argued that taking her wealth and using it to help many poor people could be justified. When asked if he would kill her himself, however, the student refused. Raskolnikov was disturbed that a stranger had spoken aloud a calculation resembling his own. Returning to the evening after he overheard Lizaveta's plans, he sleeps heavily until the following day and barely responds to Nastasya. He eventually prepares a concealed loop in his coat for carrying an axe and a carefully wrapped sham pledge to distract Alyona. He reflects on why criminals make mistakes, assuming that his own reasoning and will can remain intact during his undertaking, although his preparation is incomplete and his behavior increasingly mechanical. Nastasya is unexpectedly in the kitchen, so he cannot take the landlady's axe as intended. He finds another axe in the porter's room and sets out. Already late, he reaches Alyona's building a little after seven, climbs to her door and rings repeatedly until he hears the latch open.

Alyona Ivanovna opens her door suspiciously. Raskolnikov forces his way in by taking hold of the door, then offers a tightly wrapped object as a supposed silver cigarette case. As she tries to unwrap it, he strikes her head with the blunt side of his concealed axe and kills her. He takes the keys from her body and searches the bedroom, finding a purse and several pledged valuables without stopping to examine or count them. Lizaveta unexpectedly enters, discovers her sister's body and stands transfixed; Raskolnikov kills her with the axe as well. Panicking after this unplanned second murder, he washes the blood from his hands and the axe, then discovers that the outer door has been left unfastened. He hooks it shut just before two visitors arrive. Koch, followed by a young student, rings and pulls at the door. The student recognizes that it is bolted from inside and goes to find the porter; Koch eventually leaves his post too. Raskolnikov slips out, but hears people coming upstairs and hides in the newly vacated apartment while they pass. He escapes by a circuitous route, avoids attracting attention in the courtyard at home and puts the axe back in the porter's room. He reaches his garret exhausted and barely conscious, with his stolen items still on him.

After the murders, Raskolnikov wakes in the night with a fever and abruptly remembers what he has done. He repeatedly inspects his clothing for blood, cuts away stained threads from his trousers and finds marks on a sock and pocket lining. He stuffs the stolen purse and other objects into a gap behind loose wallpaper but immediately recognizes how insecure the hiding place is. He also destroys the cloth loop he used to carry the axe. Exhausted, he drifts in and out of sleep until Nastasya and the porter bring a summons from the police. He fears discovery, then learns at the station that the summons concerns a promissory note for 115 roubles arising from his unpaid obligation to his landlady. Assistant superintendent Ilya Petrovitch berates him for arriving late; Raskolnikov angrily responds and is eventually told to sign a declaration that he cannot yet pay. He feels temporarily relieved that the police have not summoned him for murder. While still at the office, however, he overhears Nikodim Fomitch and the others discuss the killings, the hooked door and the conflicting accounts of the visitors who found it. He loses consciousness. On recovering, he is questioned about his illness and his movements the previous evening. Allowed to leave, he fears that his fainting and answers will make him a suspect and that the police will search his room.

Fearing an imminent search, Raskolnikov retrieves the stolen items from behind his wallpaper and wanders through Petersburg looking for somewhere to dispose of them. He rejects the canal and eventually turns into an empty courtyard, where he places the purse and seven other objects beneath a large stone without examining their contents. He experiences momentary joy at concealing them but quickly questions what purpose the theft served if he never even looked inside the purse. In a distressed, angry state he finds himself at Razumihin's apartment, although they have not met for months. Razumihin immediately notices his illness and offers paid work translating a German text. Raskolnikov takes the pages and advance payment, then returns both almost at once and leaves without explaining himself. On the Nikolaevsky Bridge a carriage driver lashes him for getting in the way, and passers-by mock him. A woman who takes him for a beggar offers twenty copecks; he later throws the coin into the Neva and feels still more estranged from everyone around him. Back in his room, feverish and exhausted, he seems to hear Ilya Petrovitch violently beating his landlady on the staircase. Nastasya insists no such confrontation took place and attributes the sounds to his illness. He drinks a little water and lapses into unconsciousness.

After several days of fever and intermittent delirium, Raskolnikov regains consciousness to find Nastasya, a messenger bringing thirty-five roubles sent by his mother through Vahrushin, and Razumihin, who has been looking after him. Raskolnikov initially refuses the remittance but is persuaded to sign for it. Razumihin feeds him soup and tea, explains how he found his lodging, and recounts his negotiations with the landlady and Tchebarov, the businessman who acquired her promissory note. He produces the cancelled note, easing the immediate debt threat. Razumihin also mentions that Zametov, the police head clerk, visited during Raskolnikov's delirium. Alarmed, Raskolnikov repeatedly asks what he said while ill, afraid he may have disclosed the murders. Alone after Razumihin leaves, he feverishly checks whether the concealed evidence has been discovered, tries to gather his belongings and briefly considers fleeing. Exhaustion overtakes him and he falls asleep again. Razumihin returns with clothing and boots purchased from the money supplied by Raskolnikov's mother, energetically describes his bargains and helps him change. Raskolnikov resents the interference, although he remains dependent on his friend's care. The chapter ends as a tall, stout visitor enters the room.

The doctor Zossimov examines Raskolnikov and concludes that his physical condition is improving, although his irritability remains. Razumihin invites Zossimov to a housewarming gathering and mentions that his distant relative Porfiry Petrovitch, head of the investigation department, and the police clerk Zametov will attend. Their conversation returns to the murders. Nastasya tells Raskolnikov that the murdered Lizaveta used to mend his clothes. Razumihin then explains why he doubts the police case against the painter Nikolay, who came into possession of a box of earrings linked to the pawnbroker, pawned it at Dushkin's establishment and tried to hang himself when he heard of the murder investigation. Nikolay says he found the box behind the door while working in the empty flat; Razumihin points to witnesses who saw Nikolay and fellow painter Dmitri laughing and fighting around the time of the killings. Zossimov agrees that the evidence raises questions but remains skeptical of Razumihin's reconstruction. Raskolnikov abruptly cries out upon hearing that the box was found behind the door, startling the others. As the discussion continues, another visitor enters, though this chapter does not yet identify him.

The new visitor is Pyotr Petrovitch Luzhin, the man engaged to Raskolnikov's sister Dounia, not to Raskolnikov. Luzhin introduces himself stiffly and says he has arranged lodging for Dounia and her mother in Bakaleyev's house, a cheap establishment Razumihin describes as filthy and disreputable. Luzhin is staying with Lebeziatnikov. Seeking to impress the young men, he praises practical self-interest and claims that concern for one's own prosperity ultimately benefits society; Razumihin challenges his simplifications. As talk returns to Alyona Ivanovna's murder, Raskolnikov is alarmed to learn that investigator Porfiry is questioning people who pledged items to her. Luzhin speaks about rising criminality among educated and respectable people. Raskolnikov objects that Luzhin's economic reasoning could be extended to justify killing, then confronts him over his stated preference for a poor wife who would owe him everything. When Luzhin protests that Raskolnikov's mother misrepresented him, Raskolnikov threatens to throw him downstairs if he speaks of her that way again. Insulted, Luzhin leaves. Raskolnikov angrily demands solitude and drives off Razumihin and Zossimov too. Outside, they observe that he responds with unusual fear and interest whenever the double murder is discussed, although they do not establish why.

Raskolnikov escapes his sickroom after Razumihin and Zossimov leave, dresses and wanders the Hay Market despite his fever. He listens to street singing, questions passers-by and gives fifteen copecks to a woman calling herself Duclida. At the Palais de Cristal he asks for old newspapers and searches for reports of the murders. Police clerk Zametov finds him there. Raskolnikov alternates between mocking and alarming Zametov, openly admitting he has been reading about the double murder, criticizing incompetent criminals and describing how he would conceal stolen jewelry beneath a stone where nobody would think to look. Finally he asks whether Zametov believes he himself murdered Alyona and Lizaveta. Zametov is disturbed, but Raskolnikov's laughter makes the exchange seem like provocation rather than an actual confession. Leaving the restaurant, Raskolnikov encounters Razumihin, who has been searching for him and angrily demands he come back to his friends; Raskolnikov insists on being left alone. At a bridge he witnesses police rescue a woman who has jumped into the water. He considers turning himself in, then instead revisits the murder apartment, now undergoing repairs. There he repeatedly rings the same bell, asks why the blood has been washed away, and tells the startled workmen to take him to the police if they want to know who he is. The porters question his behavior but let him go. As he again weighs going to the station, a commotion nearby attracts his attention.

Drawn by a crowd in the street, Raskolnikov sees that a carriage has run over Marmeladov, the drunken clerk he met in the tavern. He identifies the injured man and persuades police and bystanders to carry him to his nearby lodging rather than to a hospital, promising to pay for medical care. Katerina Ivanovna, ill and surrounded by her hungry children, washes her husband's bloodied face while a doctor warns that he is dying. Polenka is sent to bring Sonia, and a priest administers the last rites. Marmeladov notices Sonia and dies after asking his daughter to forgive him. Katerina despairs of feeding the children and burying her husband. Raskolnikov offers her the money he has, saying he will return, and leaves with Marmeladov's blood on his clothing. Polenka catches him on the stairs at Sonia's request and asks his name and address. Raskolnikov asks the girl to pray sometimes for him, and she promises to do so. Revived by having helped the family, he visits Razumihin's gathering, where Razumihin reports that Zossimov is worried about his mental condition and that his conversation with Zametov has raised questions. Razumihin escorts him home. In his room, Raskolnikov unexpectedly finds his mother and Dounia, who have arrived in Petersburg and waited anxiously for him; he collapses at the reunion.

Recovering from his faint, Raskolnikov tells his mother Pulcheria Alexandrovna and his sister Dounia that they must leave him in Razumihin's care. When the subject of Luzhin arises, he reveals that he insulted Dounia's fiancé and declares he will not accept her marriage, which he sees as a sacrifice made for his benefit. He demands that Dounia reject Luzhin immediately; she challenges his right to dictate her future. Alarmed by his fever and harsh words, the women reluctantly follow Razumihin to their lodgings. Though intoxicated after his gathering, Razumihin promises to watch over Raskolnikov and to return with the doctor. His outspoken denunciation of Luzhin, energetic arguments about independent thought and obvious attraction to Dounia make the journey awkward, but his concern seems genuine. At the hotel, Dounia observes that Raskolnikov will probably repeat his objection when well. Razumihin reports back that Raskolnikov is sleeping and later brings Zossimov, who advises against further upsetting the patient. Outside, Zossimov remarks on Dounia's attractiveness; Razumihin reacts possessively and warns his friend off before reconsidering his own foolish behavior. He also asks Zossimov to keep the landlady company, concerned that his earlier attention to her may have encouraged expectations.

The morning after Razumihin's drunken outbursts, he is ashamed of his behavior toward Dounia and regrets having been careless with his criticism of her fiancé. Zossimov reports that Raskolnikov is still asleep and discourages upsetting him. Razumihin visits Dounia and Pulcheria Alexandrovna at Bakaleyev's lodgings and answers their anxious questions about Raskolnikov's condition and character. They mention that Raskolnikov once intended to marry his former landlady's sickly daughter, who died before the marriage. Pulcheria shows Razumihin a letter from Luzhin, who demands a meeting that evening without Raskolnikov and criticizes the money Raskolnikov gave Marmeladov's family. Dounia insists they should not conceal the letter from her brother. As they set out to visit him, Pulcheria reveals that Marfa Petrovna Svidrigaïlov has died suddenly, news Razumihin did not know. She fears her son's reaction to their arrival and asks how she should behave; Razumihin advises against excessive questions. Reaching Raskolnikov's landing, they see his wary landlady peering through her partly open door before abruptly shutting it.

Raskolnikov receives his mother and Dounia more calmly than before, although he remains pale, withdrawn and difficult to reach. Zossimov believes his health is improving and urges him toward study and a regular occupation. Raskolnikov thanks the people caring for him, then mentions the bloodstains from helping Marmeladov and acknowledges that he gave the impoverished widow nearly all the money his mother sent. Dounia objects when he mocks her moral principles, while Pulcheria struggles to talk naturally to him. She reports that Marfa Petrovna died suddenly after a possible dispute and beating by her husband, followed by a stroke in the bathhouse, but neither the report nor Dounia establishes that Svidrigaïlov killed her. Raskolnikov's strained attempt at warmth gives way to an account of his former fiancée, the frail daughter of his previous landlady, now dead. He again declares that Dounia must not marry Luzhin and threatens to cease calling her his sister if she does. Dounia maintains that she is choosing what she considers the less harmful option, not simply sacrificing herself for her brother. She produces Luzhin's letter, which Raskolnikov examines and criticizes for its language and accusations. Despite Luzhin's demand that Raskolnikov be absent, Dounia insists that he and Razumihin attend the evening meeting, and both agree.

Sonia comes to Raskolnikov's room at Katerina Ivanovna's request to invite him to Marmeladov's funeral service and memorial meal. Ashamed and intimidated by the presence of his mother and sister, she explains that his financial help enabled the family to arrange the burial. Raskolnikov introduces her respectfully as Marmeladov's daughter. Pulcheria is uneasy about Sonia, while Dounia bows to her courteously on departure and later challenges her mother's suspicions. Raskolnikov asks Razumihin to accompany him to investigator Porfiry Petrovitch because he pawned a ring from Dounia and his father's watch with the murdered pawnbroker. Sonia gives him her address, and Raskolnikov says he may visit. An unidentified well-dressed man follows Sonia home and discovers that he is lodging next door to her. On the way to Porfiry, Razumihin is pleased Raskolnikov wants to recover his pledges, but Raskolnikov worries about Porfiry's knowledge of his visit to the murder apartment the previous evening. To control the impression he makes on entering, Raskolnikov teasingly accuses Razumihin of being in love with Dounia and keeps them both laughing as they reach the investigator's door.

At Porfiry Petrovitch's apartment, Raskolnikov and Razumihin find police clerk Zametov present. Raskolnikov formally claims the ring and watch he pledged to Alyona Ivanovna; Porfiry replies that the items bear his name and that he alone among the identified customers has not yet come forward. Porfiry questions him about his illness, behavior and an article he wrote before the killings, published without his knowledge. In it Raskolnikov divided people into ordinary and extraordinary figures and argued that some innovators might permit themselves to overstep laws or remove obstacles in pursuit of what they regard as consequential ends. He distinguishes such claims from a blanket legal permission to murder and acknowledges that mistaken imitators should face punishment. Porfiry presses him about conscience, suffering, Napoleon, faith and whether Raskolnikov would commit a crime to advance a supposedly great purpose. As Raskolnikov prepares to leave, Porfiry asks whether he saw painters working in an apartment when he visited Alyona's building. Raskolnikov denies it; Razumihin points out that the painters were there on the murder day, not at the earlier visit Raskolnikov has claimed. Porfiry says he confused the dates. The conversation leaves Raskolnikov convinced he is being tested, although Porfiry does not explicitly accuse him.

After leaving Porfiry, Raskolnikov and Razumihin debate whether the investigator and Zametov suspect Raskolnikov. Razumihin thinks the officers' manner insulting but argues they possess no convincing evidence. Raskolnikov explains how Porfiry's question about the painters might have exposed him had he reflexively admitted seeing work that occurred only on the murder day. Near the hotel where Dounia and their mother are waiting, Raskolnikov abruptly sends Razumihin in alone and returns to his room to check whether he left any evidence hidden there. Outside his lodging, a short, stern-looking stranger whom the porter has just directed toward him refuses to answer his questions, then calls him a murderer. Shaken, Raskolnikov goes back to his garret and broods over the contrast between his imagined extraordinary conquerors and the sordid killings he committed. He also feels estranged from the mother and sister he once loved. In an exhausted dream he returns to the pawnbroker's apartment, strikes the old woman again, but she silently laughs while an unseen crowd watches. He wakes to find a real visitor waiting beside his sofa. The man introduces himself as Arkady Ivanovitch Svidrigaïlov, whose behavior toward Dounia had already figured in Pulcheria's letter.

Arkady Svidrigaïlov introduces himself in Raskolnikov's garret and claims he wants to speak about Dounia. He minimizes his pursuit of her when she worked for his family, describes his relationship with Marfa Petrovna and says her death has left him unsettled, although his account does not establish how she died. He also claims to have seen Marfa's ghost several times, prompting a strange conversation about illness, eternity and what may follow death. Raskolnikov does not accept these apparitions as confirmed supernatural events. Svidrigaïlov maintains that Dounia should not marry Luzhin and offers her ten thousand roubles, which he insists she can accept without obligation. Raskolnikov rejects the offer and refuses to mediate. Svidrigaïlov says he may approach Dounia himself. He then discloses that Marfa Petrovna left Dounia three thousand roubles in her will, which should be available soon. He mentions possible travel and another marriage without clarifying his plans. Raskolnikov remains suspicious of Svidrigaïlov's professed generosity and motives, especially his insistence on seeing Dounia. As he leaves, Svidrigaïlov encounters Razumihin at the door.

Raskolnikov and Razumihin hurry to meet Dounia, Pulcheria and Luzhin at the appointed hour. Raskolnikov warns Razumihin that Svidrigaïlov has arrived and may seek another meeting with Dounia. They enter at the same time as Luzhin, who resents Raskolnikov's presence despite having demanded that he be excluded. Luzhin reports allegations about Svidrigaïlov's past, including the death of a servant, Philip, and a young girl; the chapter presents disputed reports, not verified proof of Svidrigaïlov's responsibility. Raskolnikov confirms Svidrigaïlov's visit and announces Marfa Petrovna's three-thousand-rouble bequest. As Dounia presses Luzhin to resolve matters with her brother, Luzhin insists she must put her future husband ahead of her family and appears increasingly angry that she will not submit to his demand. Pulcheria confronts his false assertion in a letter that Raskolnikov gave money to Sonia rather than Marmeladov's widow. Luzhin disparages Sonia, and Raskolnikov defends her. Luzhin implies that the women have changed their tone because Dounia now has an inheritance. Dounia concludes that he expects obedience and dismisses him, explicitly ending their engagement. Luzhin leaves angry, complaining of the expenses and humiliation the arrangement has caused him.

After Dounia dismisses Luzhin, he broods over his humiliation and blames Raskolnikov and Razumihin. Dounia admits that the possibility of financial security tempted her into the engagement, but now recognizes that she misjudged Luzhin. The family is relieved, although Raskolnikov remains emotionally withdrawn. Dounia asks about Svidrigaïlov's visit. Raskolnikov reports the offer of ten thousand roubles and his request to see her, omitting Svidrigaïlov's claims about Marfa Petrovna's ghost. Dounia suspects the offer conceals a dangerous plan. Razumihin promises to watch Svidrigaïlov's movements. Turning toward practical prospects now that the engagement is over, Razumihin proposes that he and the family use some of Dounia's anticipated inheritance to undertake small-scale publishing and translation work, which could provide an income. Dounia is interested and Raskolnikov recognizes Razumihin's competence but cautions against dreaming too quickly of a full publishing firm. Suddenly Raskolnikov says he must leave his mother and sister, requests that they not seek him out and suggests that continued closeness may make him hate them. He asks Razumihin to remain with them. In the corridor he and Razumihin exchange a prolonged look that makes Razumihin pale; the narrator does not spell out a shared conclusion. Razumihin returns to reassure the women and commits to helping them.

Raskolnikov visits Sonia in the sparsely furnished room she rents from the Kapernaumovs. He questions her harshly about Katerina Ivanovna's poverty and illness, the precarious future of the children and the possibility that Polenka could be driven to Sonia's circumstances. Sonia fiercely defends Katerina and relies on her faith even as the practical prospects appear bleak. Raskolnikov kneels and kisses Sonia's foot, then says his gesture honors human suffering rather than her supposed disgrace. He examines Sonia's worn New Testament, given to her by Lizaveta, whom she knew personally and with whom she read scripture. At his insistence Sonia reads aloud the raising of Lazarus in the Gospel of John, trembling as she recites the story. Raskolnikov announces that he has separated himself from his mother and sister and tells Sonia they have both crossed an important moral boundary, though his comparison of their different actions is his interpretation, not a source-established equivalence. He claims they must endure suffering together, then says he knows who murdered Lizaveta and may return the next day to tell Sonia alone. Disturbed by his behavior and uncertain what he means, Sonia spends a sleepless, feverish night. Unknown to Sonia, Svidrigaïlov occupies a room adjoining hers and has secretly listened to their conversation; he arranges a more comfortable listening position for the future.

At eleven the next morning, Raskolnikov appears at the criminal investigation department, waiting anxiously before being admitted to Porfiry Petrovitch's office. He submits a written claim for his pawned watch and asks when formal questioning will begin. Porfiry instead conducts an unsettling, apparently casual conversation about investigation methods, suspects and how an investigator might allow a suspected criminal to remain free rather than arrest him prematurely. Raskolnikov increasingly interprets this as a calculated attempt to force him into betraying himself. Porfiry reveals that he knows Raskolnikov returned to the murder apartment at night, rang the bell and asked about bloodstains, but suggests that illness and delirium might explain such strange conduct. Raskolnikov resists the offered explanation and demands an unequivocal answer about whether he is suspected, or else a formal arrest and search. Porfiry evades that demand and mentions a locked room containing a 'surprise,' apparently a person he intends to confront Raskolnikov with. Raskolnikov angrily challenges him to bring out witnesses and evidence. A disturbance at the door suddenly interrupts them, ending the chapter before the visitor's identity or intentions become clear.

The unexpected interruption in Porfiry's office is the young house painter Nikolay, who forces his way into the room, kneels and claims that he alone murdered Alyona Ivanovna and Lizaveta with an axe. Porfiry is genuinely disconcerted and questions the rehearsed-sounding details, muttering that Nikolay is not telling his own story. He dismisses Raskolnikov but makes clear that they will meet again for further questions. At home, Raskolnikov tries to assess whether the confession has saved him; he is relieved but recognizes that Porfiry's suspicions may persist. As he prepares to go to the Marmeladov memorial meal, the stranger who previously called him a murderer comes to his room, bows and apologizes. The man says he was at the murder building when Raskolnikov asked about the washed blood. Offended by the visit, he reported Raskolnikov to Porfiry and was seated in the next room while Porfiry questioned him. Thus he was the intended 'surprise,' not an eyewitness who saw the killings. He also says Porfiry did not question him until after Raskolnikov left. Reassured that this witness knows only his suspicious behavior, Raskolnikov departs with greater confidence, though the investigation remains unresolved.

The morning after his engagement ends, Luzhin broods over losing Dounia and the status he expected from marrying a poor but respectable woman grateful for his wealth. He suffers business and financial irritations and regrets not having used gifts to secure her dependence. Staying with Lebeziatnikov, he listens impatiently to his host's fashionable social theories while counting banknotes. The memorial dinner for Marmeladov is taking place nearby, and Luzhin learns that Raskolnikov has arrived. He asks Lebeziatnikov to bring Sonia to his room and to stay as a witness while they speak. Luzhin apologizes for missing the dinner, suggests establishing a charitable collection for Katerina Ivanovna's children and criticizes Katerina's plans to spend money on a funeral meal. He explains that he cannot obtain the pension Katerina hopes for. He gives Sonia a ten-rouble note for the family and asks her not to identify him as the donor. Sonia thanks him and leaves. Lebeziatnikov praises what he takes to be a humane gesture, although he dislikes conventional charity, and returns to lecturing about marriage. Luzhin appears distracted. The source also notes the money he counted and left on the table, a detail relevant to events at the memorial dinner.

After Marmeladov's burial, Katerina Ivanovna hosts a memorial dinner largely paid for with the money Raskolnikov gave her. She spends heavily relative to her means, hoping to honor her late husband and defend the family's social standing, but most of the guests she considers respectable fail to attend. Instead, the room fills with poorer lodgers and some drunken guests. Katerina alternates between extravagant hospitality, harsh criticism and painful coughing fits. Raskolnikov attends and sits beside Sonia, who conveys Luzhin's apologies for not coming and his apparent offer to consider assistance. Katerina boasts about her father's rank, her education and plans to operate a school, while quarreling with her landlady, Amalia Ivanovna, over family origins and respectability. Their insults escalate. Amalia demands that the family leave the premises and makes a disparaging remark about Sonia's yellow passport, which provokes Katerina into lunging toward her. Just then Luzhin appears at the door. The conflict over the memorial dinner and Sonia's reputation remains unresolved at the end of the chapter.

Luzhin enters the Marmeladov memorial gathering and accuses Sonia of stealing a hundred-rouble note from his room. Sonia denies taking anything beyond the ten roubles he gave her, but when Katerina Ivanovna turns out Sonia's pockets to demonstrate her innocence, the hundred-rouble note falls out. Luzhin demands the police, and Amalia Ivanovna joins in the accusations. Katerina defends Sonia and returns the ten-rouble gift by throwing it into Luzhin's face. At this point Lebeziatnikov intervenes and states that he personally saw Luzhin slip the hundred-rouble note into Sonia's pocket while she was leaving the earlier meeting. He originally assumed the money was an anonymous act of generosity. Raskolnikov explains a possible motive: after the rupture with Dounia, Luzhin could disgrace Sonia and Raskolnikov, whom he had represented as improperly involved with her, and thereby regain influence over Dounia and her mother. The exposure ruins Luzhin's accusation, and he leaves under a storm of anger. Amalia Ivanovna nonetheless evicts Katerina and her children, throwing their possessions into the passage. Katerina runs out to seek justice, Sonia returns home, and Raskolnikov goes after her.

Raskolnikov follows Sonia home after defending her against Luzhin. Sonia is preoccupied with Katerina Ivanovna, who has run out after being evicted, but Raskolnikov asks her to remain and listen. He tests her with an imagined choice between allowing Luzhin to harm people and killing him, a choice Sonia rejects as beyond her authority. After a long struggle to speak, he leads her to infer that he himself murdered Alyona Ivanovna and Lizaveta. Sonia is devastated, yet embraces him and promises not to abandon him, even if he goes to Siberia. When she asks why he killed, he offers several competing explanations: poverty, a wish to help his mother, imitation of Napoleon, desire for power and, most insistently, a need to discover whether he dared to cross a forbidden boundary. He admits the stolen purse and valuables remain hidden and that he never used their contents. His justifications repeatedly falter as he recognizes the suffering he caused. Sonia urges him to bow before the people, publicly acknowledge the murder and accept punishment. Raskolnikov refuses for now, asserting that he will resist the police and that their proof is insufficient. Sonia offers him a cypress cross while keeping one formerly belonging to Lizaveta; he reaches for it but then defers accepting it until he is ready. Lebeziatnikov knocks, bringing news that interrupts them.

Lebeziatnikov arrives with news that Katerina Ivanovna has lost control of herself and is taking her children through the streets to perform for money after the eviction. Sonia rushes out, followed briefly by Raskolnikov and Lebeziatnikov, but Raskolnikov separates from them and returns to his own room. Alone, he considers the burden of his disclosure to Sonia. Dounia visits and explains that Razumihin has told her Raskolnikov is being unjustly persecuted by authorities; she does not yet know he has confessed murder to Sonia. Raskolnikov calls Razumihin honorable and able to love, implicitly entrusting his sister to him. Later Lebeziatnikov finds Raskolnikov again, and they hurry to the canal, where Katerina makes the frightened children sing and dance while she coughs and struggles to breathe. They flee in terror, and Katerina collapses while pursuing them. Blood in the street comes from her lungs, not a wound from the fall. She is taken to Sonia's room, where she gives Sonia responsibility for the children and dies from her illness. Svidrigaïlov then offers to pay for the funeral, place the orphans in care and provide funds for their futures. He repeats words Raskolnikov previously used privately with Sonia, revealing that he overheard their conversation through the wall. Raskolnikov understands that Svidrigaïlov knows considerably more than he has admitted.

Over the next two or three days Raskolnikov wanders in an exhausted mental fog, preoccupied with Svidrigaïlov's unexplained knowledge of his crimes. He occasionally encounters Svidrigaïlov at Sonia's lodging while preparations are underway for Katerina Ivanovna's burial. During a requiem, Sonia quietly takes Raskolnikov's hands and remains compassionate despite knowing his confession, which moves him and increases his distress. He sleeps through the funeral. Razumihin then visits, frustrated that Raskolnikov neglects his anxious mother and sister. Raskolnikov says Dounia has visited him, praises Razumihin's honesty and love and asks him to continue looking after the women. Razumihin incorrectly speculates that his friend may be involved in secret political work; he also reports receiving an explanation from Porfiry about Nikolay's confession. Raskolnikov realizes that Porfiry may be shaping Razumihin's view of the case, and the news briefly restores his resolve to contend with the investigator. Razumihin also mentions that Dounia has received a disturbing letter, though Raskolnikov does not yet know its contents. As Raskolnikov prepares to go out, Porfiry himself arrives at his door for a private conversation.

Porfiry Petrovitch visits Raskolnikov privately and says that his earlier interrogations went too far. He explains how Raskolnikov's article about extraordinary people, his behavior, the inquiry about the bloodstained apartment and his responses to questioning aroused suspicion. He acknowledges that the painter Nikolay has confessed, but rejects the confession as false, interpreting it instead as an attempt to accept religious suffering. When Raskolnikov asks who committed the murders, Porfiry directly identifies him. Raskolnikov denies the charge. Porfiry says he is personally convinced, although much of his case rests on psychological inference and he declines to disclose a small additional fact he claims to possess. He has not come to arrest Raskolnikov immediately. Rather, he encourages him to surrender voluntarily, arguing that confession might mitigate his sentence and that life remains worth living beyond punishment. Porfiry expects to arrest him within a day or two if he does not come forward. Raskolnikov questions Porfiry's apparent benevolence and refuses to admit guilt, expressly stating before the investigator leaves that nothing said in their meeting constitutes a confession.

Raskolnikov leaves his conversation with Porfiry and urgently seeks Svidrigaïlov. He wonders whether Svidrigaïlov has already told Porfiry what he overheard and fears that knowledge of the murders could be used to coerce Dounia. He considers killing Svidrigaïlov if the man threatens her. By chance, or because he has unconsciously remembered directions, he spots Svidrigaïlov in a shabby tavern near the Hay Market. Svidrigaïlov initially avoids being noticed but invites Raskolnikov inside. After dismissing the singer Katia, he converses with Raskolnikov about his dissolute history, former livelihood as a cardsharp, relationships with women and chronic boredom. Raskolnikov questions why Svidrigaïlov has attached himself to him and demands to know his intentions toward Dounia. Svidrigaïlov teases him about his ideals, his illness and his uncertain situation, while offering few concrete answers. When Raskolnikov starts to leave, Svidrigaïlov offers to tell a story about how Dounia sought to redeem him during her time as governess. Raskolnikov stays to listen, worried that Svidrigaïlov has not abandoned his designs on her.

Svidrigaïlov tells Raskolnikov that Marfa Petrovna once paid his debts and married him under an informal agreement permitting his involvement with maidservants but forbidding a lasting mistress or serious attachment. He claims that Dounia initially pitied him and tried to reform him, and acknowledges exploiting her concern through calculated declarations of suffering and affection. He declines to clarify accusations concerning the deaths of a child and a servant, treating them as malicious rumors. Raskolnikov believes Svidrigaïlov still intends to pursue Dounia and presses him on that subject. Svidrigaïlov asserts that he now plans to marry a girl of sixteen, describes the arrangement with her family and boasts of gifts he has brought her. Raskolnikov is repelled by the disparity in their ages and Svidrigaïlov's predatory stories. Svidrigaïlov treats the objections mockingly, but admits his drinking has loosened his tongue. After paying the bill, he leaves the tavern. Raskolnikov follows, still convinced that the man's interest in Dounia has not ended; Svidrigaïlov tries to dismiss him and turns toward the Hay Market. The chapter does not resolve what he intends to do next.

Raskolnikov continues following Svidrigaïlov through Petersburg, convinced the man has not abandoned Dounia. Svidrigaïlov lets him inspect the building where Sonia lives, then takes a carriage toward the islands. Raskolnikov, disgusted, turns away. On a bridge he passes Dounia without noticing her. She has received Svidrigaïlov's letter alleging that her brother is a murderer, and meets Svidrigaïlov after he returns unseen by Raskolnikov. Svidrigaïlov persuades her to accompany him to his rooms, promising evidence and the chance to consult Sonia. Sonia is absent. He shows Dounia how he listened through the door adjoining Sonia's room and recounts Raskolnikov's confession. Dounia initially refuses to believe him. When she tries to leave, she discovers that Svidrigaïlov has locked the outer door. He offers to help Raskolnikov escape abroad, but makes that help dependent on Dounia giving herself to him. He also suggests she could not prove an assault. Dounia draws a revolver taken from Marfa Petrovna and accuses Svidrigaïlov of poisoning his wife, an accusation the source does not establish as fact. She shoots, grazing his temple, then attempts another shot that misfires. When she throws down the revolver, Svidrigaïlov approaches and asks whether she could ever love him. Her answer is an unequivocal no. He places the key on the table and orders her to leave. Dounia escapes. Alone, Svidrigaïlov pockets the revolver and leaves.

After releasing Dounia, Svidrigaïlov spends the evening visiting taverns and a pleasure garden, treating singers and clerks to drinks while remaining comparatively sober himself. He returns home during a heavy storm, takes his money and visits Sonia. He tells her that Katerina Ivanovna's children have been provided for and leaves her three government bonds worth three thousand roubles to use for herself, including the likely expenses of following Raskolnikov to Siberia. He explicitly tells Sonia that Raskolnikov faces either suicide or Siberia and asks her to keep the money and his visit secret. Next he visits the family of the sixteen-year-old girl to whom he is engaged and gives her fifteen thousand roubles, claiming he must leave Petersburg. At midnight he takes a cheap hotel room, where sleeplessness, feverish thoughts and disturbing dreams overtake him. He imagines a drowned fourteen-year-old girl and later dreams of sheltering an abused five-year-old whose face takes on a grotesquely adult expression. These images occur in a sequence of disturbed sleep and dreaming, not as verified supernatural events. At dawn he writes a note, takes the revolver Dounia discarded and walks through mist toward the Little Neva. He tells a watchman nicknamed Achilles that he is going to America, then shoots himself in the temple. His reported departure for America functions as an evasive farewell, not an actual journey.

On the evening after Svidrigaïlov's death, Raskolnikov visits his mother at Bakaleyev's lodgings before surrendering to the authorities. Pulcheria Alexandrovna, increasingly anxious and unwell, welcomes him warmly and proudly shows him a published copy of his article. He asks whether she will always love him no matter what she may hear and assures her that he has never stopped loving her. She senses impending calamity but does not receive an explicit confession. He asks her to pray for him and leaves. At his own room he finds Dounia, who has spent the day with Sonia and knows the truth. He admits that he spent the night wandering by the Neva and considered drowning himself, then says he has resolved to go to the police. Nonetheless he still defends his murder of Alyona as an attack on a supposedly worthless person, condemns conventional moral judgment and suggests that his real failure was not succeeding as an extraordinary man. Dounia reminds him that he shed blood, leaving him briefly checked by the pain he caused his family. Before departing, he gives her a small portrait of his deceased fiancée and asks her not to follow him. Their farewell is affectionate but strained. Raskolnikov sets out, still unconvinced that the killings were morally wrong and troubled by the prospect of public humiliation.

Raskolnikov arrives at Sonia's room after Dounia has left to look for him. Sonia has spent the day fearing he may kill himself, and she sees that his apparent composure masks confusion and agitation. He asks for the cross she offered earlier. Sonia places a wooden cypress cross around his neck, keeps Lizaveta's copper cross and urges him to pray. He crosses himself but soon becomes impatient when he sees that Sonia intends to accompany him to the police. He leaves without even saying goodbye, briefly questioning whether he should abandon his decision to surrender. Passing through the Hay Market, he recalls Sonia's injunction to bow at a crossroads, kiss the earth and confess before everyone. He kneels and kisses the ground twice, but the surrounding crowd mocks him and he does not utter the intended public statement that he is a murderer. At the police office, he encounters the familiar assistant superintendent Ilya Petrovitch, who talks at length and casually mentions that Svidrigaïlov has shot himself. Shaken by the news, Raskolnikov leaves the office without confessing. As he goes down the stairs, he sees Sonia waiting outside, visibly distressed but committed to him. He turns around, re-enters the office and explicitly confesses to killing Alyona Ivanovna and Lizaveta with an axe and robbing them. The officer and onlookers are stunned; he repeats the statement.