Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Free Book Summary
Introduction to Crime and Punishment Crime and Punishment – this monumental psychological fiction and murder novel was written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the Russian language and was first published in 1866. The story takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the mid-nineteenth-century, and follows the moral dilemmas of an ex-student named Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, who killed and robbed a hated pawnbroker. "Hi Ruth, Thank-you for this book summary :)" Owing back rent on his cramped and squalid room, Raskolnikov quietly slipped past the landlady’s door and exited the building. “With sinking heart and nervous tremor,” he counted the steps to Alyona the pawnbroker’s apartment. Because of his destitute condition, Raskolnikov dreamed of committing the perfect crime: to rob and murder Alyona. Stepping inside the shop, he pawned his watch with her and carefully observed where she kept the keys and money. His plan would work, he knew it would. Upon leaving the shop, however, his mind took a turn: “How loathsome it all is!” he uttered. “…Can I, can I possibly…no, it’s rubbish. How can such an atrocious thing come into my head? Yes, filthy above all… loathsome.” But soon he was able to convince himself that Alyona was a blight on society, while he, an extraordinary man, deserved more. Besides, he told himself, he would use the money to help others, and so his “one tiny crime would be wiped out by thousands of good deeds.” Perhaps some of the money could be used to help his sister Dounia. His mother had sent him a letter telling him his sister was engaged to Luzhin, who had offered to marry Dounia without a dowry. Raskolnikov was suspicious of the arrangement from the beginning; surely Luzhin intended to gain control over her, basically buying his sister like a common prostitute. The situation reminded him of his friend Sonia, who, to support her family, worked as a prostitute, selling herself to a man she did not love. Determined to follow through with his plan, Raskolnikov hurried to Alyona’s flat. Once there, he watched nervously while the old woman fumbled with the package he had brought. Suddenly he struck her with the blunt end of an axe, over and over. After gathering up all the money, keys, and trinkets he could find, he emerged from the bedroom – to find Lizaveta, the woman’s sister, staring in horror at Alyona’s body. Rushing at her, Raskolnikov again raised his axe and opened her skull with its sharp edge. After wiping the blood from the axe and his hands, Raskolnikov returned to his room. There weakness and “fear gained more mastery over him” – and he slunk into a corner, ashamed of his fear. After all, his theory of the extraordinary man said violence was okay. When the police knocked at his door to collect on his back rent, Raskolnikov thought they had come to arrest him for the murder. For a moment, he considered confessing to the murders then and there. Instead, as he listened to the police discuss the gory details at the murder scene, he fainted – surely that would make him a prime suspect. Raskolnikov soon learned that two painters had been arrested for the killings. After hiding the stolen jewelry in the park, he remained in his room for four days, feverish and deeply depressed. During this time, he received several visits from his friend Razumihin, as well as from the police and his family. When his mother, Dounia, and Dounia’s fiancée Luzhin came to see him, he flew into a rage, bitterly judging Luzhin and refusing to approve the marriage of his sister to a “beggar” who sought “complete control over her.” Raskolnikov mostly wanted to be left alone, but he also felt a strong need to return to the scene of the crime. Giving in to this urge, he met the painters there and told them he would confess all. On the way to the police station, however, he saw Sonia’s drunken father get run down and killed by a cart. Immediately, he lost his nerve. This free book summary of Crime and Punishment is complimentary from the www.free-book-summary.com website. Want to say Thanks? Tell about the book summary to your friends, link to it from your blog, or include a link to it in a book report forum. Cheers! Several days after the murders chief inspector Porfiry began his investigation. He wanted to interview all of Alyona’s clients. At the same time, Raskolnikov, who was plagued by nightmares, once more walked to precinct headquarters to confess his guilt. Seeing the man’s strangely tortured behavior and hearing his theory that, for a man of “lofty” genius like himself the end justified the means, Porfiry eyed Raskolnikov with great interest. The theory both intrigued and baffled the inspector, especially since Raskolnikov had secured an alibi for his whereabouts on the day of the murder. The next day, Svidrigailov, who had employed Dounia as a governess in the past, arrived in St. Petersburg to see her. He said his deceased wife had left him a three-thousand-ruble inheritance, and he wanted Dounia to have it as a way to make amends for his sins against her. Since Dounia had rejected Luzhin and turned her affections to Raskolnikov’s friend Razumihin, Raskolnikov refused to allow Dounia to meet with Svidrigailov. Meanwhile, Raskolnikov visited Sonia’s house to scold her for being a prostitute. A devout girl, Sonia explained that she had only stooped to the profession to support her family after her father had wasted all their money on liquor. Raskolnikov, suddenly frightened by his own atheistic views—and much impressed with Sonia’s simple faith—now begged the sympathetic girl to read the Biblical account of the raising of Lazarus. After she did so, he dropped to the ground, kissed her foot, and cried, “I did not bow to you, I bowed to all the suffering of humanity.” Then with eyes “glittering as though he were mad,” he said,” I’ve come to you, we are both accursed, let us go our way together.” Feeling a deep love for Sonia, and now believing their friendship cemented forever, he promised to tell her who had killed the pawnbroker and her sister and confessed. Svidrigailov, however, who rented the adjoining room, heard everything—and he looked forward with interest to learning more. Now Raskolnikov, whose conscience increasingly tormented him, again met with Porfiry. The policeman hinted that he already knew Raskolnikov was the culprit, and he was about to “surprise” the student when they were interrupted by a painter who confessed to the murder. Over the next few days, Raskolnikov began to see Sonia as his savior, who would resurrect his dead soul by acting as his confessor. He went to Sonia’s flat and—with Svidrigailov’s ear again pressed to her door—admitted to the killings. When Sonia asked him why he had done it, his theory of the extraordinary man failed him. Instantly, he understood that in killing the two women he had destroyed himself; he keenly felt his guilt, for he had not murdered for money or to prove that he was superior to other men. Now it seemed as if everyone knew the truth about the murders—Sonia, Porfiry…and Svidrigailov. Porfiry again brought Raskolnikov to the station. The painter, he informed Raskolnikov, had made a false confession as a way to suffer, and thus atone, for his own sins. Admitting that he admired the young intellectual, Porfiry accused Raskolnikov of being the murderer, and promised him a lesser sentence if he would plead insanity. Being a patient man, he would wait for Raskolnikov’s complete confession. This free book summary of Crime and Punishment is complimentary from the www.free-book-summary.com website. Want to say Thanks? Tell about the book summary to your friends, link to it from your blog, or include a link to it in a book report forum. Cheers! On his way home, Raskolnikov met Svidrigailov, who again told Raskolnikov that he wanted his sister. Raskolnikov warned him he would kill him if he did not leave Dounia alone. Aware now that Svidrigailov had overheard his admission of guilt, Raskolnikov reminded him he was capable of carrying out his threat. In the meantime, Svidrigailov managed to lure Dounia to his room. There, he informed her that her brother was a murderer and offered to protect him in exchange for her love. Dounia, however, did not believe him. Infuriated by her refusal to see the truth and craving to have her, Svidrigailov tried to rape her. “It is very hard to prove assault,” he laughed. Breaking away from him, Dounia drew a revolver from her pocket and fired, grazing her attacker’s head. Now convinced that Dounia would never return his love, Svidrigailov decided to give Sonia the 3000 rubles instead. Then he went home, put the barrel of a revolver against his right temple, and pulled the trigger. Dounia confronted Raskolnikov about the murders. She had come to believe, she said, he was “a contemptible person, and ready to face suffering” for his crime. Raskolnikov, however, denied his guilt. Instead, he retorted angrily, “Crime? What crime? I killed a vile noxious insect, a pawnbroker.” Eventually, after pledging her undying devotion to him, Sonia managed to convince him to turn himself in and begin to do penance for his sins. On his way to the police station, Raskolnikov, now at peace, dropped to his knees at a crossroads and kissed the earth “with bliss and rapture” – finally, he was carrying his own cross back to God. When passersby mocked him, he almost lost his resolve. But, seeing Sonia in the distance, her protective gaze giving him strength, he walked into the station and announced, “It was I killed the old pawnbroker woman and her sister.” Judged temporarily insane, Raskolnikov was sentenced to serve eight years in a Siberian labor camp, a light penalty for such a terrible crime. Two months after the trial, Dounia and Razumihin were married. Sonia followed Raskolnikov to Siberia to support him and aid in his recovery, staying in a nearby village. In Raskolnikov’s suffering, Sonia witnessed “his gradual regeneration, his initiation into a new unknown life.” Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) deals in Crime and Punishment with two major themes: suffering for our sins, the kind of suffering that leads to confession and redemption, and the ideal of the “extraordinary man.” The novel’s main character, Raskolnikov, is a sensitive student who, driven by poverty and intellectual pride, believes he is above both moral and social laws. Torn between his “extraordinary man” theory and the laws and ethics that govern common men, Raskolnikov shifts in personality between his intellect, compassion, and guilt. By suffering, he is ultimately punished – and thus redeemed. The Complete Book Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment (1866).
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