1. Crime and Punishment
Parts I & II

2. Crime and Punishment

3. Prestuplenie i nakazanie: Title
Prestupit’ – ‘to trespass’, ‘to overstep’
Is it a good title?
Does it apply only to the main character Raskolnikov?
Should it be in the plural?
Cf Woody Allen: Crimes and Misdemeanours
Is there a true punishment?

4. Dostoevsky’s St Petersburg
Catherine the Great Canal, the Nikolsky Market and the Haymarket
Many events from Dostoevsky’s works take place here

5. St Petersburg Slums
Typical inner yard of the city’s centre where Raskolnikov lived

6. Dostoevsky’s Petersburg (cont.)

7. The House where Raskolnikov supposedly rented his room

8. Dostoevsky’s Petersburg (cont.)
“With a sinking heart and a nervous tremor, he went up to a huge house which on one side looked on to the canal, and on the other into the street.”
Crime and Punishment
Chapter One
Pawnbroker’s House

9. The Poetics of the novel
Omniscient narrator – does not impose his perspective
Polyphony – each character has his own perspective, none is privileged
Variety of types of narrative:
“chronotope” – description of location and time of day; character portrait
Dramatic collision of characters
(interior) monologue, dialogue, letter, dream, scandal

10. Raznochintsy people of various ranks
became the main social stratum for the formation of the Russian intelligentsia
Bureaucrats and seminarists

11. February 1st: Questions
Parts I and II
What main themes do you discern?
What characters do we meet?
Which is your favourite character?
Pick out a recurrent motif in these two Parts
Which scene or passage do you find the most striking?

12. Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov
His name:
1. raskolot ‘to cleave’, ‘to chop’, ‘to split’
2. Raskól - ‘schism’ (religious)
The raskolniks were a sect of “Old Believers”

13. Alyona Ivanovna
Widow, pawnbroker, plans to leave her wealth to monastery
Sister Lizaveta (pious, always pregnant!)

14. Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov
Marmelad: Jellied candy
Daughter Sonya (from Sophya – “wisdom”)

15. Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova
Three children: Polya, Lyonya, Kolya
Archetypical widow dying of tuberculosis

16. Dmitry Prokofievich Razumikhin
Razumikhin – razum – ‘reason’

17. Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin
Possible significance of first name and patronymic?
Luzhin – ‘puddle’

18. Events: Day One
One/1 Raskolnikov visits Alyona Ivanovna for a “rehearsal”
One /2 Goes to drinking den, meets Marmeladov, goes with him to his family’s room

19. Events: Day Two
One/3 Raskolnikov wakes up, Nastasya brings letter from R’s mother
One /4 Ponders letter, goes out, sees young drunk girl, sets off to see friend Razumikhin
One/5 Falls asleep, has dream, returning home, overhears conversation with Lizaveta on Haymarket

20. Events: Day Three
One/6 Flashback to discussion between two officers about Lizaveta and her sister; Nastasya tries to feed him; he goes to pawnbroker’s
One /7 The murder

21. Day Four
Two/1 Raskolnikov wakes up, hides blood-stained clothing, loot in hole. Summoned to police, scene in police office
Two/2 Hides loot under block, goes to visit Razumikhin; returns home, falls into delirious sleep.

22. Three (?) Days Later…
Two/3 Wakes up, Razumikhin arrives Raskolnikov receives 35 roubles sent by mother, Razumikhin gets him new clothes
Two/4 Zosimov (doctor) arrives, discussion of details of murder.
Two/5 Luzhin visits, ejected by Raskolnikov

23. Three (?) Days Later (cont.)
Two/6 Raskolnikov goes out, talks to prostitute in Haymarket, goes into “Crystal Palace,” taunts Zamyotov. Goes home, bumps into Razumikhin, then walks off, sees a woman throw herself in canal; then goes to scene of murder, pulls the bell.

24. Three (?) Days Later (cont.)
Two/6 Raskolnikov witnesses Marmeladov’s accident, his death in his room, first sees Sonya, gives 20 roubles to Katerina Ivanovna, goes to Razumikhin’s housewarming party, returns home with Razumikhin, his mother and sister are there.