Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, Part One, Chapter 7 commentary
100 Days of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment September 1 - December 10, 2024
100 Days of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment
September 1 - December 10, 2024
October 5
Crime and Punishment Part One, Chapter 7, 13 pages - end of Part One
Next passage:
October 6
Crime and Punishment Part Two, Chapter 1, 18 pages
Those of you who just joined us - welcome!!! All the quotes are from the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation!!! I will be using Pevear/Volokhonsky translations for the rest of our Dostoevsky marathon 2024-2027!!! Details in my post from October 5!!!
How did he pull this off? Beginner’s luck? Every step of the way mistake upon mistake, misstep upon misstep… And yet…
First mistake - yanking the door to make sure the powerbroker does not lock herself in:
“Fearing the old woman would be frightened that they were alone, and with no hope that his looks would reassure her, he took hold of the door and pulled it towards him so that the old woman should not somehow decide to lock herself in. Seeing this, she did not pull the door back towards her, but did not let go of the handle either, so that he almost pulled her out onto the stairway together with the door.”
This struggle for the door is ludicrous - and macabre… And he pulls it off, convinces her he is here on business…
His look is giving him away - and yet he gathers himself and responds…
"But why are you so pale? Look, your hands are trembling! Did you go for a swim, dearie, or what?"
"Fever," he answered abruptly. "You can't help getting pale... when you have nothing to eat," he added, barely able to articulate the words. His strength was abandoning him again. But the answer sounded plausible…”
The axe lands blunt end down… Please remember this for the rest of the novel - it is a crucial detail for Raskolnikov…
“He could not waste even one more moment. He took the axe all the way out, swung it with both hands, scarcely aware of him-self, and almost without effort, almost mechanically, brought the butt-end down on her head. His own strength seemed to have no part in it. But the moment he brought the axe down, strength was born in him.”
And yet he goes on and on striking the woman… Why? Please remember this gruesome detail too…
“She cried out, but very faintly, and her whole body suddenly sank to the floor, though she still managed to raise both hands to her head. In one hand she was still holding the "pledge." Then he struck her again and yet again with all his strength, both times with the butt-end, both times on the crown of the head.”
CRUCIAL DETAILS:
“two crosses on the string, one of cypress and the other of brass, besides a little enamel icon” - please remember these details for the rest of the novel as well…
“Impatiently, he raised the axe again to cut the string where it lay on the body, but he did not dare, and with difficulty, smearing both his hands and the axe, after two minutes of fussing over it, he cut the string without touching the body with the axe, and took it off; he was not mistaken—a purse. There were two crosses on the string, one of cypress and the other of brass, besides a little enamel icon; hanging right there with them was a small, greasy suede purse with a steel frame and ring.”
Macabre feverish mind of Raskolnikov is disintegrating…
“First of all he began wiping his blood-stained hands on the red silk. "It's red; blood won't be so noticeable on red," he began to reason, but suddenly came to his senses: "Lord! Am I losing my mind?" he thought fearfully.”
How does he profit by his murder? Do you recall the conversation he overheard in the tavern? The death of a useless old woman for the benefit of many deserving human beings? Where is that argument now? There is just blood… and an innocent bystander who just entered the space of horror…
“Indeed, various gold objects were stuffed in among the rags-all of them probably pledges, redeemed and unredeemed-bracelets, chains, earrings, pins, and so on. Some were in cases, others simply wrapped in newspaper, but neatly and carefully, in double sheets, and tied with cloth bands. Without the least delay, he began stuffing them into the pockets of his trousers and coat, not choosing or opening the packages and cases; but he did not have time to take much…”
Lizaveta… She returned…
“Suddenly there was the sound of footsteps in the room where the old woman lay. He stopped, still as death. But everything was quiet; he must have imagined it. Suddenly there came a slight but distinct cry, or more as if someone softly and abruptly moaned and then fell silent. Again there was a dead silence for a minute or two.
He sat crouched by the trunk and waited, barely breathing, then suddenly jumped up, seized the axe, and ran out of the bedroom.”
She never harmed a human being in her life… She is a meek suffering soul…
“Lizaveta was standing in the middle of the room, with a big bundle in her hands, frozen, staring at her murdered sister, white as a sheet, and as if unable to utter a cry.”
Please remember her meek outstretched hand for the rest of the novel - Raskolnikov will see this gesture again…
“And this wretched Lizaveta was so simple, so downtrodden, and so permanently frightened that she did not even raise a hand to protect her face, though it would have been the most necessary and natural gesture at that moment, because the axe was raised directly over her face. She brought her free left hand up very slightly, nowhere near her face, and slowly stretched it out towards him as if to keep him away.”
And this time - the sharp edge is down… A crucial detail…
And now the fear - and Raskolnikov’s humanity - this is not the reaction to a rationally planned utilitarian deed… This is not a man born out of an idea - it’s a man born out of his own humanity… Please keep this in mind - and pay attention to the vacillations of Raskolnikov’s reasoning…
“Fear was taking hold of him more and more, especially after this second, quite unexpected murder. He wanted to run away from there as quickly as possible.”
And yet - rational reaction again - wash all blood - to the best of his ability:
“His blood-smeared hands were sticky. He plunged the axe blade straight into the water, grabbed a little piece of soap that was lying in a cracked saucer on the windowsill, and began washing his hands right in the bucket. When he had washed them clean, he also took the axe, washed the iron, and spent a long time, about three minutes, washing the wood where blood had gotten on it, even using soap to try and wash the blood away. Then he wiped it all off with a piece of laundry that was drying there on a line stretched across the kitchen, and then examined the axe long and attentively at the window. There were no traces, only the wood was still damp. He carefully slipped the axe into the loop under his coat.”
Axe back in the loop - once again - rational, planned, neatly executed…
Stains? Clothes? What now?
“Then, as well as the light in the dim kitchen allowed, he examined his coat, trousers, boots. Superficially, at first glance, there seemed to be nothing, apart from some spots on his boots.
He wet the rag and wiped them off. He knew, however, that he was not examining himself well, that there might indeed be something eye-catching which he had failed to notice. He stood pensively in the middle of the room.”
And, once again, he is losing his reason… His humanity is once again overwhelming him…
“A dark, tormenting thought was rising in him-the thought that he had fallen into madness and was unable at that moment either to reason or to protect himself, and that he was perhaps not doing at all what he should have been doing ...”
Get away - BUT HOW?!?!?! Voices!!! People are coming!!!
"My God! I must run, run away!" he muttered, and rushed into the entryway. But there such horror awaited him as he had surely never experienced before.”
AND we are back to the clinking of the bell - please remember this sound!!! AND we are back to the tugging of the door!!! How will he escape?!?!?!
“Horrified, Raskolnikov watched the hook jumping about in the eye, and waited in dull fear for it to pop right out any moment. Indeed, it seemed possible: the door was being pulled so hard. It occurred to him to hold the hook in place, but then he might suspect.”
The door is NOT locked - just latched… SOMEONE MUST BE INSIDE!!!
“Lizaveta Ivanovna, you indescribable beauty! Open up!”
But why is she not opening up?!?!?!
"That means it's not locked, it's just latched, I mean hooked!
Hear the hook rattling?"
"So?"
"But don't you understand? That means one of them is home.
If they'd all gone out, they would have locked it from outside with a key, and not hooked it from inside.”
HOW WILL THE MURDERER GET AWAY - there is a guard by the door!!!
“Koch stayed. He gave one more little tug at the bell, and it clinked once; then quietly, as if examining and reflecting, he began to move the door handle, pulling it and letting it go, to make sure once more that it was only hooked. Then he bent down, puffing, and tried to look through the keyhole; but there was a key in it, on the inside, and therefore nothing could be seen.
Raskolnikov stood there clutching the axe.”
A THIRD MURDER?!?!?!
AND AGAIN - Raskolnikov is in luck!!!
"Ah, the devil! ..." he suddenly cried, and impatiently, abandoning his post, he, too, set off down the stairs, hurrying and stomping his feet as he went. His steps died away.”
But how to walk down the stairs unnoticed?!?!?!
“Raskolnikov unfastened the hook, opened the door a little— not a sound. And suddenly, now without thinking at all, he went out, closed the door behind him as tightly as he could, and started down the stairs.”
AND JUST THEN - the painters escape from the apartment they are painting - running and joking about!!!
“With a shout, someone burst from one of the apartments below, and did not so much run as tumble down the stairs, shouting at the top of his lungs:
"Mitka! Mitka! Mitka! Mitka! Damn your eyes!"
Raskolnikov exclaims:
“And suddenly, salvation!”
The empty apartment!!!
“A few steps away from him, on the right, was an empty and wide open apartment, that same second-floor apartment where the painters had been working…”
Once again - WHAT LUCK!!!
“He slipped through the open door in an instant and cowered behind the wall, and not a moment too soon: they were already on that very landing. Then they passed by and headed upstairs to the fourth floor, talking loudly. He waited, tiptoed out, and ran downstairs.”
AND no one on the stairs - or at the front door - because everyone went to check out the pawnbroker’s apartment…
“Here at last was the side street; he turned down it more dead than alive; now he was halfway to safety, and he knew it-not so suspicious; besides, there were many people shuttling along there, and he effaced himself among them like a grain of sand.”
Raskolnikov dissolved in the stream of humanity of the impersonal metropolis…
And even the axe is returned without an incident…
“But once again the caretaker was not there, and he had time to put the axe in its former place under the bench; he even covered it with a log, as before. He met no one, not a single soul, from then on all the way to his room; the landlady's door was shut.”
AND now - it’s just him and his conscience - for the rest of his life… Can he handle this standoff psychologically?!?!?!
“Bits and scraps of thoughts swarmed in his head; but he could not grasp any one of them, could not rest on any one, hard as he tried...”
No answers, no answers at all… Only questions… WHY?!?!?! Why this senseless act of destruction?!?!?! The rest of the novel is an extended and stunningly complex answer…
The most crucial detail of the entire chapter:
“He stood, looked, and could not believe his eyes: the door, the outside door, from the entryway to the stairs, the same door at which he had rung, and through which he had entered earlier, stood unlatched, even a good hand's-breadth ajar…”
The murders were committed with the front door ajar… And we were the passive bystanders who got to witness these acts of inhuman destruction… We were watching, we were paying attention, we are complicit…
Raskolnikov at the Murder Scene…
Crime and Punishment illustration (1970) by Dementiy Alexeevich Shmarinov (1907-1999).
