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1-Page Summary of Crime and Punishment

Overview

One day, Raskolnikov arrives at the pawnbroker’s place. He had previously been a student and is now living in poverty. He goes to see Alyona Ivanovna, who he has borrowed money from before. She gives him less than what he expected for his watch, but she takes it anyway. As she gets her money, he watches her closely and listens carefully to everything that they say to each other because this will help him with his plan later on.

Raskolnikov is heartbroken and distraught. He goes to a tavern where he gets drunk, but feels better after doing so. There, he meets Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, a retired official who drinks too much alcohol due to his problems at home. Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov about his family’s troubles, including the fact that one of his daughters has been forced into prostitution in order to earn money for her family because of her father’s alcoholism.

Marmeladov asks Raskolnikov to take him home. Rodion does so, and witnesses how Katerina Ivanovna falls on her husband and drags him about by his hair. She kicks Raskolnikov out, assuming him to be a drinking partner of her husband’s. As he leaves, he places a handful of change on their windowsill unnoticed. Outside, he regrets this action, but knows that it is too late for him to go back in the house to retrieve the money from the windowsill because Katerina Ivanovna would not let him in again.

The next day, he awakens feeling unrested. Nastasya, the landlady’s servant, comes in with some tea for him and tells him that he has received a letter. Agitated, he sends her to get it and asks her to leave the room so he can read it.

The letter is from his mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna. She’s writing to her son Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, and she mostly talks about his sister Avdotya Romanovna (or Dunya). Dunya had been working as a governess in the house of the Svidrigailov family but then the wife kicked her out because she thought that Dunya was having an affair with her husband. However, it turned out that Marfa Petrovna had completely reversed herself and gone on to restore Dunya’s honor by going around town telling people what happened. Then this Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin came along; he fell for Dunya and they got engaged. Now Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya are coming to Petersburg soon, and they’re really looking forward to seeing Rodion again.

Rodya goes out to think about his sister’s engagement. He knows that Luzhin is not a good person, and he does not want Dunya to marry him, but he cannot stop the engagement himself because it isn’t his place.

Raskolnikov is on his way to see Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin, his only friend from university. He decides he will see him the day after “that,” i.e., the unknown deed. He wanders around and falls asleep by the side of the road. In a dream, he sees peasants beating an old nag viciously until it collapses and dies.

He awakens in a sweat, realizing that it was only a dream. He realizes he could never do something like that and feels better about himself. He heads home but takes a detour to the Haymarket. There, he hears Lizaveta Ivanovna talking with some tradespeople about how she will be out on business the following evening. Raskolnikov suddenly thinks of an opportunity to kill Alyona Ivanovna since she would definitely be alone at that time.

He goes home and falls into a long, strange sleep. He wakes up in the evening and fears he may have missed his chance to commit murder. He immediately bustles about, making preparations for the robbery; he plans to retain complete control over his reason and will so that he can commit the perfect crime.