Summary Pt. 2

At the start of this section Raskolnikov gets in his nervous and crazed mood again as he and Razumikhin enter Porfiry Petrovich’s house and start to talk to him about the murder. At the mention of the case of the old woman Raskolnikov gets very nervous and gets the attention of Porfiry, starting to suspect Raskolnikov of the murder. Raskolnikov, realizing Porfiry is trying to play mind games with him and trying to catch him into confessing the crime, ends up leaving with Razumikhin from Porfiry’s house. Back in his room, Raskolnikov tries to convince himself that Alyona’s life was not worth anything and is questioning at this point whether he is truly the untouchable “superhuman” he thought he could be after he committed the murder. Pondering these ideas he falls asleep and wakes up to find Svidrigailov, former employer of Dunya in his room. He confesses to Raskolnikov his feelings for Dunya and talks about how his wife had recently died. He then tells Raskolnikov that he has learned of Dunya’s arranged marriage to Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, one of his relatives, which he promises to break off for Raskolnikov. Svidrigailov claims to Raskolnikov that he can no longer bear to love or marry Dunya because he is an unsuitable husband and that he wants to give her ten thousand rubles that his former wife left to to Dunya in her will, even though he doubts she will accept it. After this conversation Svidrigailov leaves the apartment, leaving Raskolnikov to meet up with Razumikhin who has spoken to Petrovich and Zamyotov who both believe Raskolnikov is the murderer in the old woman case. The pair then meet up with Luzhin, Dunya and Pulcheria Alexandrovna at a restaurant nearby. Luzhin resolves that the two women be punished for having the two men in his presence and eventually this leads to another fight between Luzhin and Raskolnikov. Luzhin then blames his loss of Dunya on Raskolnikov and eventually is made to leave Dunya. After he leaves, Raskolnikov succeeds in convincing Dunya to meet with Svidrigailov to get this sum of money that is promised to her. Following his dismaying departure from the group, Raskolnikov visits Sonya in her room to talk about her family as well as the murdered Lizaveta, revealed to be her friend. She then reads him the story of Lazarus, which motivates them to tell her of his plan to separate from his family and asks her to join him as someone who has transgressed moral law. Without knowing Svidrigailov is eavesdropping in the nearby room, Raskolnikov tells her that she will find out who killed Lizaveta soon. The next morning he goes to the police station to talk with Petrovich who ends up trying to trap him again into confessing. The two argue on until the prisoner under suspicion of the murders, Nikolai, confesses to the crime in the office. After this strange occurrence Porfiry apologizes to him but is still suspicious of him. At this point Raskolnikov believes that he will get away with the murder and succeed like he thought he could at the beginning of the novel. From this scene the novel switches the scene of Luzhin in his room along with his roommate, Andrei Semyonovich Lebezyatnikov, with whom he discusses the waste of time and money he spent on the broken engagement of him and Dunya. Luzhin then invites Sonya into his room to express his condolences and to give her a ten-ruble note, while secretly slipping a one hundred-ruble note in her bag. After Sonya leaves, the next scene begins at Marmeladov’s memorial banquet, which turns out to be a disaster for Katerina Ivanovna, disappointed by the amount of lower-class guests actually there. During the banquet Ivanovna ends up getting in another fight with her landlady, drawing attention of everyone there. Just as the fighting surmounts, Luzhin arrives and Katerina Ivanovna runs over to him to find some sort of protection.

            Luzhin brushes Katerina aside as she seeks his protection from the landlady and suddenly accuses Sonya of stealing a one-hundred-ruble note. Sonya denies the theft and Katerina becomes incensed at the insult to her stepdaughter and starts raving against Luzhin and the landlady. Though they find the note in Sonya’s pocket, to Luzhin’s horror, Lebezyatnikov appears and declares that he saw Luzhin place the note in Sonya’s pocket earlier. Raskolnikov understands now Luzhin’s motives that he was probably trying to embarrass him about his association with Sonya. Luzhin, faced with the complete ruin of his plan, tries to extricate himself by maintaining his innocence and insulting Lebezyatnikov and Raskolnikov. After he leaves, the fight between Katerina Ivanovna and the landlady ensues and the Marmeladovs are evicted. Later on Raskolnikov visits Sonya in her room and after he tells her that her family is getting evicted he confesses to the murder. Sonya responds with pity and promises to support Raskolnikov and not abandon him. She is shocked when he tells her that his poverty was not the motive, but rather that he wanted to be a supernatural being, such as “Napoleon”. Instead of lamenting his faults, Sonya simply gives him advice and is seen almost as a symbol of Raskolnikov’s inner conscious or even guardian angel. She tells him that he has been punished for turning away from God and that he must confess publicly for God to give him peace. At first he resists, but he soon consents to Sonya’s advice. Just then Lebezyatnikov enters to tell the two of Katerina Ivanovna’s madness that she has developed, all of the sudden making her impoverished children sing in the streets to raise money. The stress that she had on her shoulders and the grief that struck her for her husband and for her family and its situation eventually kills Katerina, who dies in the streets just like Marmeladov. A haze settles over Raskolnikov in the next couple of days following Katerina Ivanovna’s death and his confession to Sonya. He wanders the streets, hanging around bars and outside the building in which Sonya lives in. As the gloominess sets in, Razumikhin appears at Raskolnikov’s to tell him that Pulcheria Alexandrovna is heartbroken and feels abandoned. Razumikhin finally seems to have lost patience with Raskolnikov’s selfishness, now that he has seen the pain that it causes his family. After Razumikhin leaves, Porfiry Petrovich appears to talk to Raskolnikov to get him to confess once again. Here Petrovich claims that Raskolnikov is the true murderer, which he denies even though he is tempted to confess. Sympathetic to Raskolnikov, Porfiry urges him to turn himself in and confess because it would look better in the eyes of the judge if he confessed before the evidence was produced. Before leaving, he asks Raskolnikov to leave a note disclosing the location of the stolen loot should he decide to commit suicide. Next Dunya meets with Svidrigailov who tells her that he overheard Raskolnikov confessing to the murders of Alyona Ivanovna and Lizaveta, shocking Dunya. Svidrigailov then offers to help Raskolnikov avoid punishment if she will marry him. In horror, she runs to the door, only to discover Svidrigailov has locked it. He threatens to rape her, warning that he can report her brother if she reports him. She pulls out a revolver, threatens him with it and accuses of poisoning his late wife. He dares her to fire, and she does, twice, but it just manages to graze his temple. Svidrigailov appears to embrace her, but realizes that she will love him and lets her go. Realizing this sad fact, Svidrigailov puts her revolver in his pocket and walks out. In the evening he goes to visit Sonya, who he assures to her that her siblings will be provided for and offers her a three-thousand-ruble bond, telling her that she could use it to accompany Raskolnikov to Siberia. The strange dreams not only affect Raskolnikov but also Svidrigailov, especially the ones he has when he sleeps at a local hotel later that night. Strange enough, he dreams of putting a five year old girl that he finds in the hotel to bed and also dreams that rain is flooding St. Petersburg. He wakes just before dawn in a daze and, as if affected by the dreams he had that night, puts the revolver to his head and kills himself. The same day Raskolnikov tells Sonya that he has come to pick up his cross and starts to walk toward the police station, dreading public humiliation of a confession. At the Haymarket, he kisses the ground, but jeers from on-lookers causes him to lose his nerve and not confess publicly. All of a sudden he notices Sonya following him at a distance and feels renewed conviction and more confident in his confession. When he goes inside the police station he talks with Ilya Petrovich, who mentions Svidrigailov’s suicide, and Raskolnikov is so stunned that he leaves without confessing. When he gets outside, he sees Sonya waiting for him, and he turns back into the police station and offers his confession. The final verdict that the judge rules for Raskolnikov is for ten years in Siberia prison, a bad punishment but not as bad because Raskolnikov offered his confession. In Siberia, Raskolnikov experiences hardship and understands fully the errors of his ways. Sonya, still accompanying and carrying for him, stays with him in the prison and gains the trust of everyone there. At the end of the novel Raskolnikov finally experiences the joys of love and feels the happiness of loving Sonya, who continues to wait for his sentence to be over after ten long years of patience.