IB Literature 12 Summer Assignment carolinelamagna@spsk12.net Read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky after reading the brief biography of Dostoevsky and the historical context for the novel attached. Complete the reading guide (also attached) for each part of the novel as you read. The answers for the reading guide will be due by the third day of class in the fall.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821 1881) Biography Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky published journalism and literature prolifically throughout his life, remaining most famous for the psychological depth and dramatic structure of his novels. His father, Mikhail Andreevich, was a military surgeon with noble status and a reputation for alcoholism and violence: he is believed to have been murdered by his own serfs on his small estate south of Moscow in 1839. Dostoevsky s gentle and religious mother, Maria Fedorovna Nechaeva, was descended from Moscow merchants. The young Dostoevsky and his older brother Mikhail attended the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School, but both showed an early preference for literature and journalism. After one mandatory year of service upon graduation, Dostoevsky resigned and devoted himself to the Petersburg cultural scene, initially as a translator. With the publication of his first novelpoor Folk (1846), he became something of a celebrity overnight. Influential leftist critics and writers like Vissarion Belinsky and Nikolai Nekrasov hailed the young writer as Russia s next Gogol. Dostoevsky followed up with the highly Gogolian but less sociological or realistic novella The Double (1846), a work that would inspire generations of writers and poets, as well as the Formalist school of Russian theory, but that was less wellreceived at the time. Further literary productivity of this period was interrupted by arrest and exile. Like many young men of his time, Dostoevsky was a member of a radically-leaning reading group that gathered to discuss social ills and forbidden literature, such as the utopian socialist works of Charles Fourier. On April 22 1849, the entire so-called Petrashevsky Circle was arrested and condemned to death. Dostoevsky was interrogated, condemned, and led before a firing squad, only to be theatrically pardoned at the last minute by Nicholas I. He was instead sent to Siberia and four years of prison labor, followed by an additional five years of military service in exile. He returned to St. Petersburg in 1859 eager to plunge into the public polemics of the reform era. He and his brother Mikhail founded two journals Time (1861-3) and Epoch (1864-5) which propounded the doctrine of pochvennichestvo, a doctrine that was strongly influenced by Dostoevsky s ten years of penal servitude and exile and that urged Western-educated Russians to return to their native soil (pochva) and the authentic Russian culture preserved by the masses. As a nobleman in prison, Dostoevsky was painfully exposed to the class hatred of his fellow inmates, an experience he recounted in his semi-autobiographical novel Notes from the House of the Dead (1860-62), which he published in Time. Yet he also discovered spiritual strength among the inmates, and the Russian peasant masses came to embody for Dostoevsky a repository of genuine Christian feeling and moral values that could enrich, if not transform, the entire nation. He believed that the emancipation of the serfs (1861) would heal the deep divide between Russia s educated minority and her peasant masses, thereby creating conditions for a strong Russian nation to emerge. His novels dissected the strands of utilitarian, radical, and utopian socialist thought infecting Russia, as well as anything else that seemed to imitate or derive from the West. Dostoevsky s four great masterpieces, murder novels all, were written from 1866 to 1880. Our text, Crime and Punishment, (1866) is the first of these, and deals with murder from personal ambition. The Idiot (1868) culminates in murder from sexual jealousy; Demons (1872, also translated as The Possessed) is based on an actual historical murder by a radical political cell and can be considered a stylized portrait of nineteenth-century Russian terrorism; and the epically proportioned Brothers Karamazov (1880) opens with and explores the shared guilt leading to a parricide. Most of Dostoevsky s works were published serially in thick journals, and under pressing deadlines. For seven years Dostoevsky was a compulsive gambler, and at one point almost lost the rights to all future work to his publisher. In order to work (and to earn money) faster, he began composing drafts orally with the help of a twenty-year-old stenographer, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina. Anna became his second wife in 1867, and brought relative peace to the remaining years of his life. They had four children together. (Dostoevsky s first wife, Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, suffered from tuberculosis and died in 1864.) Dostoevsky was a remarkably talented improviser and an inspired speaker: his famous 1880 Pushkin Speech provoked his audience to something resembling mass hysteria, momentarily reconciling the feuding intellectual factions of Slavophiles and Westernizers. When he died after an epileptic seizure in 1881, more than 40,000 mourners attended his funeral. Sources: Adapted from the Handbook of Russian Literature, edited by Victor Terras (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985); see also The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevsky, edited by W. J. Leatherbarrow (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); and Dostoevsky in Context, edited by Deborah A. Martinsen and Olga Maiorova (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Historical Context for Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky Historical and political context After the devastation of Kievan Rus by Turkic tribes and its fall to the Mongol yoke, the Russian region developed in isolation from Europe between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. In consequence, Russia did not partake in the Renaissance, nor of course in the Reformation or Counter-Reformation. In the eighteenth century Russia gradually began to join Europe, especially under the reign of Peter the Great, seen as Russia s great (or terrible) Westernizer. As a result, Russian culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries essentially grafted Western European culture onto an agrarian, Christian Orthodox state. The upper classes were dramatically divided from the peasantry: quite literally, the different social castes did not speak the same language. In the nineteenth century, with the rise of the so-called intelligentsia, educated classes began to view the great divide from the people (raskol or split: the word is also used in reference to religious sectarians, who came to be called Old Believers) as a great historical tragedy. Under Alexander II, Russia emancipated the serfs bloodlessly in 1861 and passed other progressive Great Reforms that sought to catch Russia up to Western Europe. (There are parallels and telling contrasts with American history of the same period: cf. the 13 th Amendment in 1865 and the Civil War.) The burning question of Dostoevsky s day arguably facing Russia even in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries remained: is Russia European or not? Should it be? The faction of the so-called Westernizers continued the older aristocratic trends of speaking French at home, dressing in the latest London fashions, or completing educations abroad. The rival Slavophiles meanwhile protested that Russia should instead look to the people, and find roots in local folk tradition. (There is some irony in the fact that this very idea is borrowed from German Romantic thought.) Philosophical context Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment and in his other great tragedies responds also to the European philosophical context of his time. The ideas of the German idealist philosophers were very much in the air: Russian intellectuals were profoundly shaken by the works of Kant, Hegel, Marx and others, and Raskolnikov s exceptional man is something of a brutalized reading of Hegel s world historical figure. Other competing and interpenetrating ideas came from the utilitarian thought of John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, and William Godwin (the husband of early feminist Mary Wallstonecraft), echoing in such phrases as the greatest good for the greatest number. To round out the picture, we see notions borrowed from French utopian socialism à la Charles Fourier, nihilism (most simply, morality does not inherently exist), and the cult of Napoleon. In his novels, Dostoevsky often represents Western European ideas as dangerous diseases infecting, or as spirits possessing his morally shaken characters. St. Petersburg The capital of the Russian Empire, founded by Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century, St. Petersburg was built by Italian and Western European architects on the Neva river and the Gulf of Finland, and intended to be Russia s window onto Europe. To the Russian eye, there was something terrifyingly artificial about this beautiful, watery, and haunted city. Besides the cramped poverty, disease, and crime resulting from rapid urbanization (which are arguably the same everywhere, and Dostoevsky borrows liberally in this vein from the London of Charles Dickens), Petersburg was literally built on swampland and by means of forced labor. Recurrent and devastating floods could easily seem like nature s own revenge on the lofty architecture and aesthetic layout of the city s canals and streets. Sources: Adapted from the Handbook of Russian Literature, edited by Victor Terras (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985); see also A History of Russian Literature, by Victor Terras (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991); and The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevsky, edited by W. J. Leatherbarrow (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Crime and Punishment Reading Guide Part I (answer on your own paper you do not need to answer these in complete sentences) 1. What is Raskolnikov s history with the pawnbroker? How many times has he been there and what has been exchanged? 2. List several adjectives that you would use to describe Raskolnikov after reading. Chapter 2 1. Who are the members of the Marmeladov family? What is his history? What did you think of Sonya s sacrifice? How did you feel toward Katerina before the event? After the event? Did you notice any Biblical allusions in this scene? 2. What is your response to Marmeladov? Can you have any sympathy for him? Has Dostoevsky done a good job of describing an alcoholic? 1. Pay close attention to the description of Raskolnikov s room. How would you feel if you lived in such a place? How might the room (think size, etc.) function as a symbol in the novel? 2. What is Raskolnikov s relationship with his landlady? 3. Note the letter to Raskolnikov from his mother. Pay particular attention to the people. Where is Raskolnikov s father? Who is Raskolnikov s sister? Pay close attention to the affair with Svidrigaylov and the details with Dunya. Svidrigailov is a major character in the novel and will be a foil to Raskolnikov. Listen closely to these details. What kind of person is Marfa Petrovna his wife? Who is Luzhin and why do you think Raskolnikov hates him so much? Luzhin is also a major character so pay attention to the details concerning him. 1. What is the connection Raskolnikov makes between Sonya and Dunya? 2. Pay attention to this repeating pattern that develops and will be repeated: another young girl who is the victim of an aggressive male. What does Raskolnikov call the man pursuing this girl? Why, since that isn t his name? How does Raskolnikov serve as a rescuer in this scene? But note his change of heart when he leaves. What does this tell us about Raskolnikov? 3. Who is Razumikhin? [Razumikhin is another major character who is revealed bit by bit.] 1. Raskolnikov sleeps under a bush and has his first dream. (Dream #1) What happens: who are the characters? What role does Raskolnikov play in the dream? Is he an aggressor or a rescuer? What does the dream foreshadow, and how (based on his role in the dream) is this contradictory/ significant? 2. When he awakes, he feels led to walk toward the Hay Market. What is that? Describe it. What significant events end up happening in the Hay Market? Who is Lizaveta? What does he learn about her being home tomorrow? Chapter 6 1. Look at the beginning of this chapter it explains how Raskolnikov first heard about the pawnbroker and Lizaveta. He remembers sitting in a tavern and overhearing a conversation that was similar to a strange idea... pecking at his brain like a chicken in the egg, and very, very much absorbed him. What is this idea? 2. What does he observe happening in the building when he climbs to the 4th floor where the pawnbroker lives? Notice these details closely they will be crucial later in the detective part of the novel.
Chapter 7 1. Pay close attention to the double murder that occurs in this chapter. Note the events and the order they occur in. Observe how Raskolnikov is able to escape even when the two men come to the apartment door. Who is at the door? 2. Raskolnikov does what with the ax? Crime and Punishment Reading Guide Part II 1. Pay close attention to Raskolnikov s state of mind in the opening pages of this chapter. He is in and out of sleep. Note what he does when he is awake, especially to his clothing (where he discovers blood) and to the purse. Where does he hide these items? Why do you think he doesn t look in the purse? 2. Why is Raskolnikov summoned to the police department? Make sure that you understand Raskolnikov s history with his landlady. This history is important to understand the kind of man Raskolnikov is. Why was Raskolnikov going to marry this girl if he didn t love her? How is this ironic compared to how he reacts to Dunia s self-sacrifice? 3. Why does Raskolnikov not leave the police station after his explanation and after signing the pledge to repay his landlady? What does he overhear the two policemen discussing while sitting there? Who is Koch? What does Raskolnikov do at the end of this chapter? Chapter 2 1. Raskolnikov fears that his room will be searched. Where does he hide the eight articles? 2. After hiding the articles, Raskolnikov wanders around in a daze again and decides to visit Razumikhin. What does Razumikhin offer Raskolnikov in the form of work? How is his history similar to Raskolnikov s? 3. When Raskolnikov leaves Razumikhin s apartment what happens to him with a horse and carriage? Why does the woman on the street give him money? How much money does she give him? What does Raskolnikov do with the money? Why is this significant? 4. Raskolnikov returns to his apartment and has Dream #2 ( and at once sank into oblivion. ) What is the content of this dream? How is this dream similar and different from his Dream #1? Discuss Nastasia s comment: It s the blood. What possible meanings exist in this line? 1. How much time has elapsed since the close of Chapter 2? Who told Razumihin about Raskolnikov and his address? Who is the doctor that Razumikhin has called to care for Raskolnikov? How much money has Raskolnikov received from his mother? Pay close attention to Raskolnikov s state of mind here what does he fear that the men know? What does Razumikhin do with some of the money? 2. Since the murder, describe Raskolnikov s physical state. What does this tell us about the power of the mind? 1. Briefly describe Zosimov. 2. Who is holding an open house this evening? Why? Who will be at the open house? Pay close attention to Porfiry Petrovich. Who is he? 3. The men begin discussing the latest developments in the murder of the pawnbroker. Who is Dushkin? Who is Mikolay and why is he being considered a prime suspect? Who is Dmitri (usually called Mitrey)? What evidence does Mikolay possess that points a finger at him? 4. Who is the stranger at the door? 1. How does Raskolnikov treat Luzhin (remember he is called Peter Petrovich, too)? Where is Luzhin staying, and where are Dunya and Mrs. Raskolnikov staying? What does Razumikhin say about the lodging of Dunya and Mrs.
Raskolnikov? What are you to think about Luzhin finding rooms for them in such a place considering that he has adequate money? 2. Look closely at the discussion of nihilism in this chapter. The Oxford Dictionary defines nihilism as Total rejection of prevailing religious beliefs, moral principles, laws, etc., often from a sense of despair and the belief that life is devoid of meaning. Also more generally [ ]: negativity, destructiveness, hostility to accepted beliefs or established institutions. It defines Russian nihilism as Usu. in form Nihilist. A supporter of a revolutionary movement in 19th-cent. and early 20th-cent. Russia, which rejected all systems of government, sought the complete overthrow of the established order, and was willing to use terrorism to achieve this end. Also (in extended use): a terrorist, a revolutionary. How could Raskolnikov be considered a nihilist? 3. We learn that the murderer of the pawnbroker and Lizaveta has overlooked how much money in the apartment? 4. We learn that Lizaveta has done what for Raskolnikov in the past? 5. Notice how Raskolnikov and Luzhin argue and Raskolnikov throws everyone out. What do you think the others are thinking about his bizarre behavior? Do you think they could possibly connect this behavior to the murder? Is there anything that would link the two? Chapter 6 1. As soon as everyone leaves, where does Raskolnikov go? Who is Duklida? What does Raskolnikov give to her? Why? 2. Why does Raskolnikov go to the Crystal Palace? Who is there that we have met before? What does Raskolnikov accuse Zametov of doing and thinking? 3. Where does Raskolnikov go after he leaves the Crystal Palace? Whom does he talk with there? Chapter 7 1. Who has been run over by a carriage? What does Raskolnikov do to help this person? How would you describe Katerina Marmeladov? Do you feel any sympathy for her at all? How does Marmeladov die? 2. How much money does Raskolnikov leave for Katerina? Who runs after Raskolnikov and kisses him? What does he ask this little girl to do for him? Notice the pride and confidence that Raskolnikov feels here all part of the them that is slowly emerging the power of love. 3. After stopping in at Razumikhin s party, Razumikhin walks Raskolnikov home. Who is waiting for him in his apartment? What does Raskolnikov do immediately as he sees them? Crime and Punishment Reading Guide Part III 1. Raskolnikov has a reunion with his mother and his sister whom he hasn t seen for three years. Is Mrs. Raskolnikov consistent with what you expected after reading the letter in Part I from her to Raskolnikov? 2. Raskolnikov wastes no time in instructing Dunya what she must do concerning her up-coming marriage to Luzhin. Razumikhin walks Dunya and her mother home why? Where are they living? What does he say about Luzhin? What is Razumikhin s condition? Does that explain his infatuation with Dunya? 3. Why does Razumikhin threaten Zosimov when Razumikhin returns to Raskolnikov s apartment? Chapter 2 1. Razumikhin goes to Dunya s and her mother s lodging to report on Raskolnikov s condition. Note the description of Raskolnikov and how this description fits Raskolnikov s name. Who is Praskovya Pavlovna s daughter? 2. Raskolnikov s mother receives a letter from Luzhin. What is his request? 3. Note how Mrs. Raskolnikov turns to Razumikhin for guidance. What was Mrs. Raskolnikov s dream? 1. Zosimov, Raskolnikov, Mrs. Raskolnikov, Dunya, and Razumikhin have this discussion about a number of things. Pay close attention to what we learn about Marfa Svidrigailov s death and Svidrigailov. The conversation then turns to Luzhin and his wedding presents to Dunya. What is unusual about that? What does Dunya ask Raskolnikov to do concerning her next meeting with Luzhin and dinner that evening?
1. Why does Raskolnikov say he wants to see Porfiry Petrovitch? Who is this Porfiry Petrovitch and how does Razumikhin know him? 2. Note carefully the gentleman that follows Sonia after Raskolnikov and Razumikhin leave her he is about fifty, rather tall and thickly set who is this man? 3. Raskolnikov and Razumikhin have this discussion as they walk to Porfiry Petrovitch s apartment not to the police Station. Why? 1. Notice how Raskolnikov finds this scene so incredibly humorous. Also note the description of Porfiry Petrovitch this is our first time to meet him although we have heard of him many times before. Note this almost cat and mouse game between Porfiry Petrovitch and Raskolnikov. Does Porfiry Petrovitch suspect Raskolnikov of the crime or are we being influenced by Raskolnikov s state of mind? 2. Note the discussion of the socialist doctrine. Razumikhin argues with Porfiry Petrovitch. Then Porfiry Petrovitch mentions an article that Raskolnikov had written and published earlier on crime and the extraordinary man theory. Read this section closely. Pay close attention to their conversation when the discussion turns to religion. The Lazarus story is a major symbol in this novel you will see at least two more references to it. Also note what they say about punishment what is punishment? Chapter 6 1. They (Raskolnikov and Razumikhin) leave Porfiry Petrovitch s and walk to where Dunya and Pulkheria Alexandrovna are staying. Notice what Raskolnikov says to Razumikhin in his defense of why he behaved as he did at Porfiry Petrovitch s. Very odd behavior Raskolnikov directs Razumikhin to go in and he says he will later and then he rushes home. Why? 2. Another very weird thing when Raskolnikov goes home, his porter tells him of and points out this man who has been inquiring about Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov runs after him and confronts him. What does the man call Raskolnikov? Who is this man? Can you figure it out? 3. He returns to his apartment in a state of anxiety and has Dream #3. Note how this dream is similar yet different to all of the others. Read the last paragraph closely. When he awakens from this frightening dream, note the stranger who enters the room and introduces himself. Who is he? Crime and Punishment Reading Guide Part IV 1. This chapter is devoted totally to Svidrigailov s visit to Raskolnikov. As you read assess Svidrigailov s character what do you like about him, what troubles you about him? Note how closely he resembles Raskolnikov in action. Dostoevsky does this intentionally. Something in common -- birds of a feather, or are they? 2. Pay close attention to some details: how Svidrigailov came to be married to Marfa. How long have they been married? How does Svidrigailov explain her death? 3. Note the three visits by Marfa paralleling the three dreams of Raskolnikov. What happened in each of the three visits by Marfa s ghost? Who is Philka (you have already read that Svidrigailov might have had something to do with his death)? Notice how Philka s ghost visits Svidrigailov also. 4. What is Svidrigailov s purpose in this visit? Do you trust his motives? What causes you to think him sincere or not? 5. Is Svidrigailov correct in suggesting that if Dunya marries Luzhin she is taking money for a similar reason to his offer of 10,000 roubles? How much did Marfa leave Dunya in her will? 6. What do you think about Svidrigailov s journey he refers to? Where is he going? He says he is going to be married soon, to whom?
Chapter 2 1. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I do. I don t like Luzhin, and I love how Raskolnikov, Mrs. Raskolnikov, and Dunya all gang up on him and put him in his place. Notice how Luzhin reveals the history of Svidrigailov and Marfa to Dunya, Raskolnikov, and Mrs. Raskolnikov, yet we have just heard this information in the chapter before from Svidrigailov and with a different twist. Luzhin tells two stories that he says he heard from Marfa about Svidrigailov: (1) one is about Resslich s niece who committed suicide, and (2) Svidrigailov s role in his servant Philip s (Philka) death. Look closely at both of these stories. Can we believe them? Luzhin says they are true, and the evidence that they are true is in what Marfa Svidrigailov left him in her will nothing but what did we learn about that in the chapter before? 2. I especially enjoy how Luzhin insists that he not be compared to or placed on the same level as Raskolnikov. Then note what Raskolnikov says about the goodness in Sonya s little finger compared to Luzhin. And then Pulkheria gets involved in the Luzhin bashing it s kind of fun. The final straw is when Luzhin says he has brought these two women to Petersburg at great cost but what about that? Note closely the final paragraph of the chapter as Luzhin leaves we see in his eyes vindictive hatred how might he get revenge? Watch him closely; we haven t seen the last of Luzhin! 1. First section of the chapter is devoted to Luzhin. Is Dostoevsky urging us to have sympathy for him? His ideas about marriage seem rather distorted to me; but you decide what you think about Luzhin. He certainly is positive he actually thinks that he can mend everything tomorrow. Back to Dunya and Pulkheria s apartment they apologize for their various roles in this near disaster. Raskolnikov tells Dunya what Svidrigailov s proposal is concerning her. How would you describe her response to it? 2. Naturally Razumihin is delighted. What is his plan for making money? Do you think it will work? 3. Time for a weird reaction from Mr. Split Personality Raskolnikov. He leaves and tells his mom and sister not to worry about him; in fact, he says to forget him. He rushes out and Razumihin chases after him. Look closely at this scene between Raskolnikov and Razumihin. What does Dostoevsky want us to believe here about what Razumihin now knows? 1. Raskolnikov leaves his family and goes directly to Sonya s apartment. Notice the description of the poverty and cramped quarters. (Pretend you are a Marxist critic getting evidence for your case.) Pay close attention to how Lizaveta and Sonya knew each other. Coincidence maybe, but it is eerie what about the New Testament? What story does he ask Sonya to read and what is the significance of this story? Note also how Sonya never thinks of herself first always others. (Look closely at how she feels about Katerina and what Raskolnikov says will happen to Polenka.) 2. What does Raskolnikov say he will tell Sonya tomorrow if he comes to her? Who has been hearing all of this sitting on the other side of the door? 1. This is a very strange chapter. You remember yesterday at Porfiry Petrovich s apartment, he said that Raskolnikov should come down to the police station and make a statement concerning his pledges. After Raskolnikov leaves Sonya in Chapter Four, he goes there. All of the chapter is a cat playing with the mouse scene. Reading this makes me very irritable, and I usually come away not knowing what it is exactly that Porfiry Petrovich wants. Does he want to trap Raskolnikov into a confession or is he sincere in his statement that he likes Raskolnikov and he wants to help him? What do you think? Chapter 6 1. Can you explain Nikolay s behavior? Porfiry Petrovich will explain it to Raskolnikov later, but you should try to understand his motivation as best you can. Try to explain it. 2. After Raskolnikov left Porfiry Petrovich s office at the police station, he walks straight home. He is trying to figure out what Porfiry Petrovich s surprise behind the locked door could be when the man from the street the
one who yelled Murderer! yesterday enters. What does he ask of Raskolnikov and why? What does Raskolnikov learn about the surprise behind the door? Crime and Punishment Reading Guide Part V 1. This chapter takes place in Andrey Lebezyatnikov s apartment. Remember that he lives across the hall from Katerina Marmeladov where the preparations for the funeral luncheon are taking place. Also remember that Luzhin (Peter Petrovich) is sharing the apartment with him while his apartment is being prepared for his bride. This is the morning after he and Dunya called the wedding off or should I say Dunya called it off. Pay close attention to his character. I think Dostoevsky wants us to dislike him more and more with each passing chapter. What is he doing while he and Lebezyatnikov discuss nihilism? As you read this chapter, first notice the motives behind Luzhin s wanting to be friends with Lebezyatnikov, and then how he feels about him. 2. Lebezyatnikov is Dostoevsky s creation of a nihilist who doesn t understand the impracticality of the philosophy. One critic: Lebezyatnikov emerges as a doctrinaire, naive, foolish man who believes that theories can be easily translated into pragmatic solutions for the complex problems that beset the Russia of his day. Only an artless, unsophisticated man could propose such simplistic answers for the tangled troubles of his world. As you read, note the many revolutionary or rebellious ideas that he has. List at least three of these ideas of his that are Dostoevsky s way of ridiculing the nihilist. Remember Dostoevsky was arrested for nihilism in the early 1850s, faced a firing squad, and spent time in a Siberian prison. 3. Pay close attention to what Luzhin says to Sonya when he sends Lebezyatnikov for her. But more importantly pay close attention to what he does. Why do you think Andrey says I heard and saw everything. What did he see? Chapter 2 (no questions yay!) 1. This chapter details the funeral luncheon for Marmeladov. Note the careful description of the details Dostoevsky gives to highlight the ridiculousness of it. Here is a woman a widow with consumption with three small children to care for who spends nearly all of the 20 roubles that Raskolnikov gives her for this luncheon. Note the many references to her pride. Also pay close attention to the rising animosity between Katerina and her landlady. Pay attention to Raskolnikov and Sonya and their behavior also. Just as tensions rise to an almost fight, notice that Luzhin enters the room. He has been discussed several times during the dinner because of his suggestion about the pension, but we know from what he told Sonya earlier that he has no intention of helping Katerina. 1. Luzhin enters and accuses Sonya of what? Pay close attention to the events that unfold: How does Luzhin set Sonya up; how does Andrey save Sonya except for one detail; and what role does Raskolnikov play in solving this mystery? 2. When Luzhin leaves, Andrey asks him to vacate his apartment immediately. Who throws a glass at Luzhin? And whom does it accidentally hit? How does she react? Where is Katerina at the end of this chapter and what is she doing? Where is Raskolnikov headed? 1. This is a very intense chapter. Raskolnikov leaves Katerina s apartment with her landlady evicting her and Katerina leaving in search of justice. Raskolnikov goes directly to Sonya s apartment where he finds her waiting for him. Pay close attention to what exchange happens between them. Do you think Sonya knows full well what he is going to tell her? 2. This is a good place to try to come to terms with Raskolnikov s motivation for murdering the pawnbroker. What does he tell Sonya was the reason for his murdering the pawnbroker? 3. What do you think of Sonya during this emotional scene? Is she consistent with what you have noted about her character throughout the book? Is she being a good Christian by loving him as she does? He says he clearly feels her love. Does Raskolnikov love her? What advice does Sonya give Raskolnikov what does she suggest that he do?
4. The chapter also talks a great deal about suffering. What are your thoughts on suffering? The chapter ends with Mr. Lebezyatnikov bringing news of Katerina after the funeral luncheon. 1. Lebezyatnikov tells Sonya that Katerina has gone out of her mind. He then begins discussing some of his nihilism philosophy, and Raskolnikov leaves and walks home. He reflects on what he has just told Sonya when Dunya interrupts his thoughts. She tells him that Razumikhin has told her how the police harass him about these pledges, etc., and that she understands his dilemma. They part and both of them fear that it will be their last good-bye. Is this foreshadowing of anything? 2. Raskolnikov leaves his apartment and wanders the streets aimlessly when Lebezyatnikov finds him and tells him about Katerina and the children. They hear her banging on the frying pan and her shouting directions to the children. A huge crowd has gathered. This is a pathetic scene. Katerina passes out and there is blood everywhere. She is transported to Sonya s room where she dies. Notice that Svidrigaylov is there. What does he propose to do with the 10,000 roubles that he wanted to give to Dunya? How do you feel about that? Isn t that noble of him? Or does he have some ulterior motive? 3. Look carefully at what he says to Raskolnikov when he tells him this news. Whose words is he quoting almost identically? What does that lead you to believe about him and what he knows? Crime and Punishment Reading Guide Part VI Compare the funeral arrangements for Katerina Marmeladov to those for her husband in the early chapters. What is your estimation of Svidrigaylov? What gives him purpose? Razumikhin visits Raskolnikov here and is angry with Raskolnikov. Why? Do you think Razumihin is justified? What does Razumikhin tell Raskolnikov about a letter that Dunya has received? Why has Razumihin talked with Porfiry Petrovich and what has he told him? Chapter 2 Porfiry Petrovich visits Raskolnikov in this chapter. He explains everything to Raskolnikov. What has Porfiry Petrovich thought and what has he done to trick Raskolnikov? When Raskolnikov asks him who he thinks is responsible for the murder, what does Porfiry say? What does Porfiry say he wants Raskolnikov to do? What is your opinion of Porfiry Petrovich at this time? [In the last chapter and in this chapter also, several allusions are made to Schiller. Schiller was a German romantic poet usually associated with being an idealist.] 1. Raskolnikov feels compelled to seek out Svidrigaylov, but he isn t sure why. As he walks (an alternate way), he sees him sitting in a tavern. Pay close attention to this strange conversation. Raskolnikov tells him he will do what if Svidrigaylov persists in trying to see Dunya? 2. Svidrigaylov then says he will relate the narrative of his relationship to Dunya and how Dunya initiated his love for her. That happens in the next chapter, but as you read this consider your feelings about Svidrigaylov can you trust him as a narrator of events? If your answer is no; why not? 1. Note the events of this narrative that Svidrigaylov tells. Svidrigailov then tells Raskolnikov about his fifteen-yearold betrothed. What is your reaction to that? 2. Svidrigailov tricks Raskolnikov and meets Dunya on the bridge he instructed her to meet him on in the letter. How would you describe her? Where do they go? What does he tell her about Raskolnikov? What convinces her to believe what he says is true? What is Svidrigaylov s intention?
3. Pay attention to who has a gun here and where the gun came from. What causes Svidrigaylov to stop doing what he intended? How did you react to what happened when Dunya tells him how she feels about him? Is Svidrigaylov s behavior believable? How do you feel about him now? What do you think will happen now to Svidrigaylov? Chapter 6 1. This chapter is totally devoted to Svidrigaylov. After walking in the storm (rain? symbolism?), he returns to his room soaking wet and goes to Sonya s room. What does he give Sonya and what does he say Raskolnikov s two choices are? 2. He then visits his betrothed and what does he give to her? 3. He then crosses a bridge [we haven t said much about it, but crossing bridges is very important in this novel maybe you could write a research paper on it in college], and goes to a hotel. Please read carefully here about Svidrigailov s three dreams [they begin when he starts dozing off and end when he wakes up in the same bed, wrapped in the blanket and says he s had nightmares all night]. What are the images in these dreams? 4. He leaves the hotel and calls the porter Achilles. Why? Then what happens? Chapter 7 1. Raskolnikov has made a decision. He first visits his mother. Is the way he acts consistent with what you expect (although you don t know what he is going to do)? 2. When Raskolnikov returns home, Dunya is there. They cry and say good-bye. Touching little scene, but what is troubling is what Raskolnikov says he hasn t done. How do you respond to that? Is that consistent to his character? Notice how he feels about mankind as he looks out the window. How does that make you feel about him? Chapter 8 1. What do you think of the ending? Try to summarize the events that happen here. Is it complete? What do you want to happen? Think about what you want to happen or wanted to happen. Now read the Epilogue. What do you think about the ending now?