Crime and Punishment Part 1, Chapters 5-7
Part 1, Chapters 5-7
Raskolnikov decides that he would rather not visit his friend on that particular day for he feels that visiting him will yield no quick result to his present predicament. He had been meaning to visit his friend and to seek his aid in securing some lessons for himself, or even borrow a little money to buy some decent boots but he put the visit off. Raskolnikov lets his feet carry him, and he finds his way into the richer parts of the town. There he sees women in fashionable clothes attending to running children in beautifully large verandahs and men riding handsome horses. He visits a tavern and has a glass of vodka along with something small to eat. The vodka affects him more deeply than he had anticipated, as he thinks about the thing he had been contemplating for nearly a month, and whose experiment he had just conducted.
Fatigue overcomes him and he lies down to sleep in a bush. His sleep is not restful, but is instead plagued by nightmares. In his nightmare, he was a small boy traveling with his father in the village. They passed a tavern full of laughter and shouting. A group of men came out and hopped onto a cart tied to an old and thin nag, the owner advocated the nag's ability to pull the whole cartload full of people. People around the tavern shouted at him that the nag was far too old and weak to pull such a heavy burden, but the man would not listen. He along with a couple of other boys took to whipping the poor animal. The nag tried with all its life but failed to make the cart budge, more people joined in on hitting the animal until the man finally took up a thick wooden stick and beat the creature. The animal tried to resist, it tried to kick back but it was far too tired and weak. Raskolnikov ran towards the animal and tried to seek help from the bystanders but none of them would help. The man finally killed the animal with many cruel strikes of an iron crowbar, Raskolnikov ran to the broken and dead animal, he was barely able to breathe with his sobbing. He kissed the mare's eyes and attacked the murderer with his tiny fists until his father carried him away.
Raskolnikov wakes from the nightmare and realizes that he could never commit murder. He feels freedom imbue him as he trashes his old plan, and begins to make his way home. Later, he questions himself as to why he had chosen to pass through the Haymarket when he could have taken a much shorter route home. As he passes through the Haymarket, he happens to notice the Pawnbroker's stepsister and only companion conversing with a couple of people. In passing them on his walk, he overhears their conversation and discovers that the Pawnbroker would be completely alone the following day at 7 PM.
Raskolnikov recalls his first interaction with the old pawnbroker, a fellow student from the university had told him of her in case he ever required her services. Raskolnikov had finally needed to pledge something to the old woman six weeks ago, and so had taken his father's ring and a keepsake from his sister. The old lady had been conniving, mistrustful, and stingy. He had left her home and found his way to a tavern where he had overheard another student speaking with an officer about the old lady.
He had learned how aggressively malicious she was in dealings with her customers, and how she beat and tortured her younger step-sister. The student had proposed killing her and using her untold wealth to help others and had advocated this action as justice. That conversation had lingered in his mind since that very day. As soon as he comes back home, Raskolnikov lies down on the couch and remains there till six o'clock in the evening the next day. The maid had visited him twice during the day but had left after he had failed to eat whatever she brought him. As soon as he hears the chime of the bell signaling evening, he is completely awake.
He begins making his preparations, first, he ties a noose inside a summer coat so that he can carry an ax in it without suspicion. Raskolnikov had spent much of the previous month thinking of the morality of killing the woman and had spent little time planning the details of the action. He sets out from his room, and nearly abandons his plan when he finds the maid in the kitchen, for that was where he had planned on finding the ax. Luck is on his side though, for just as he stands near the gate, battling indecision, he sees a gleam of silver and finds an ax in the now-empty porter's room.
He sets out with the ax and think sabout many unimportant and mundane things as he walks to the apartment where he would commit the murder. He had thought that this journey would be racked with fear but feels none. Fortune favors him again, as he nears the old woman's building, a carriage shields him from being seen as he enters the building. He sneakily makes his way to the fourth-floor apartment where his first ring goes unanswered, but as he listens intently at the door he discovers that the old woman is also cautiously listening at the door. Unbeknownst to himself, he makes his body language more casual, rings the bell again without hurry, and mutters casually to himself. This seems to convince the old woman that all is in order and she quickly swings the door open.
As soon as she opens the door slightly, he grabs it and pulls on it in his nervousness. The old lady hangs onto it, and is pulled with the door. Raskolnikov brushes past her with haste and enters the apartment. She is concerned by his shaking hands and pale face but is able to look past it due to his casual yet impatient tone. Raskolnikov explains away his appearance and trembling hands by claiming a fever and hunger. He hands her the 'pledge' he had prepared, and as she turns away to attempt to untie the cloth that covered it, he grabs hold of the ax. When she turns back to him, he pulls it out and hits her square in the head with the blunt edge. He then hits her again, until her skull gives way and begins to spurt blood. He finds her keys with difficulty, cuts the purse around her neck, and goes into the room with the chests. He has a difficult time opening them as he keeps making errors. His hands are shaking violently, but just as he manages to open the large chest and begins to pocket the little gold pledges within, he hears footsteps in the main room. He runs in and discovers the old lady's terror-stricken step-sister staring at the dead body. He kills her without a second thought and spends the next several minutes washing off the blood from his hands and the ax head. He suddenly realizes that he left the door of the apartment open all this while, and begins to listen at the door.
He hears yelling in the stairs and waits for all to go quiet, but then hears a heavy footstep climbing the staircase. Somehow, he is certain that the owner of the sound is making his way to that very apartment, and so he rushes back inside and closes the apartment door with the chain. The man comes to the door, rings the bell multiple times, and even pulls on the door. Raskolnikov is beside himself with anxiety, but just as he is coming to believe the visitor would give up and leave, the visitor is joined by another man. Together, they come to realize that something is amiss for the door is closed from within and yet no one responds to their knocking. One of the men at the door is a student of law, and he bids the other man stay as he goes to fetch a porter. The other man grows uneasy and leaves. As soon as Raskolnikov hears the footsteps recede, he walks out, and silently creeps down the stairs. He hides in an empty apartment on the second floor and hears the men climb up towards the fourth floor. When their footsteps grow distant, he hurries away non-conspicuously. Soon, he hides himself in a crowd of people outside, and turns homewards. He replaces the ax in the porter's room which is still empty and returns to his room in a delirious state.
Analysis
Dostoevsky is at his best in creating suspense in this second half of the first part of the novel, for although the reader is aware of the crime that Raskolnikov intends to commit, the reasons for his crime are not exactly explained. This is an aspect of the novel that remains shrouded in mystery until the very end, Raskolnikov offers many explanations to Sonya, but his reasons seem muddled and confusing even then. There are also a great number of instances both before and after the murder, which seem to occur simply by luck, like the discovery of the ax in the porter's room, or the open and vacant apartment on the second floor where he is able to hide from the men. These events are interpreted by Raskolnikov as a means for him to fulfill his fate, which is consistent with his prideful outlook. Instead of recognizing them as coincidences, he believes they are a means for him to fulfill his fate, which makes him shirk the responsibility for committing the murder.
The nightmare of the nag is written with excruciatingly disturbing prose, the description of a helpless animal being whipped across the eyes and the mouth as a crowd of people jeer in humor paints a disturbing picture. This nightmare foreshadows the brutal death of the old woman, committed at the hands of Raskolnikov who in the nightmare attempts to save the animal. The dream also reveals in greater detail the compassionate and caring side of the protagonist's character, which is why, even after the murder is committed, the reader is unable to view him as a villain. One of the arguments that Raskolnikov uses to justify his plan for the murder of the woman is the utilitarian argument. He believes that the old woman's death is justified because she brings no happiness to any great number of people, and Raskolnikov could use the old woman's money to raise himself in society and thereby assist a great number of people. This argument holds absolutely no merit when applied to his second victim, Lizaveta, whom he kills only for self-preservation. Yet he never dwells on her death in particular, which may be the author's way of presenting the utilitarian viewpoint as being hollow and without substance.
