Why Raskolnikov Kills the Pawnbroker: Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Its Theory and Its Ending

In Crime and Punishment, Rodion Raskolnikov kills the old pawnbroker for two tangled reasons. On the surface he tells himself that her money could free him from poverty and let him do great things. Underneath lies a theory: that certain "extraordinary" people have the right to step over moral and legal boundaries if those boundaries block a higher goal, and he wants to prove he is one of them. Once he has done it, the theory collapses; he is overwhelmed by confusion, fear and disgust, and the rest of Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1866 novel follows his struggle with guilt until he confesses.

Dostoevsky before the novel

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881) is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in Russian and world literature; his other major novels include The Idiot, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov. As a young writer he was arrested in 1849 for belonging to the Petrashevsky Circle, a group that discussed banned books. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was changed at the last moment, and he spent four years in a Siberian labour camp followed by six years of military service in exile. Crime and Punishment was the second of his full-length novels after he returned from those ten years in Siberia.

Written under pressure

The book was born out of debt. Dostoevsky owed large sums and was helping the family of his brother Mikhail, who had died in 1864. He asked the publisher Mikhail Katkov for an advance and offered him a story, not yet a novel, about a young man who yields to "strange, 'unfinished' ideas" in the air. He first tried writing it as a first-person diary or confession, then in November 1865 decided to start again in the third person.

At the same time he had to finish The Gambler for another publisher on harsh terms. A stenographer, Anna Snitkina, who later became his wife, helped him meet the deadline. Crime and Punishment ran in the journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly parts from January to December 1866.

The story in brief

Raskolnikov is a former law student living in a tiny rented room in Saint Petersburg. In a tavern he meets Marmeladov, a drunkard whose teenage daughter Sonya has become a prostitute to support the family. A letter from his mother tells him his sister Dunya plans to marry a wealthy, self-satisfied man named Luzhin to help them. Furious at her sacrifice, Raskolnikov goes ahead with his plan. He kills the pawnbroker with an axe, and also her half-sister Lizaveta, who walks in at the wrong moment. He takes only a few items and a purse and escapes unseen.

What follows is less a detective story than a portrait of a mind under strain. Raskolnikov falls into a fever, faints when police mention the murder, and almost seems to want to be caught. The investigator Porfiry Petrovich has read an article Raskolnikov once wrote, "On Crime", arguing that rare great men may "step across" boundaries, and he plays a patient psychological game with him. Meanwhile Dunya's former employer, the sinister Svidrigailov, arrives in Petersburg, and Raskolnikov grows close to Sonya.

How it ends

Porfiry finally tells Raskolnikov that he knows he is the murderer and urges him to confess. After Svidrigailov's suicide, and after saying a painful goodbye to his mother, Raskolnikov goes to the police station. He almost walks out again, but seeing Sonya waiting outside, he goes back in and confesses fully.

In the epilogue he is sentenced to eight years of penal servitude in Siberia. Sonya follows him there. At first he still thinks his only failing was weakness, but slowly, through her love, his moral rebirth begins. Some critics find the epilogue unnecessary; others argue that the novel's Christian story of resurrection is only complete with it.

Characters worth knowing

• Rodion Raskolnikov – the proud, poor ex-student whose theory leads him to murder.
• Sonya Marmeladova – gentle and devout, forced into prostitution, and the person to whom he finally opens up.
• Porfiry Petrovich – the clever investigator who wins by psychology rather than proof.
• Dunya – Raskolnikov's strong-willed sister.
• Razumikhin – his loyal friend from university, who later marries Dunya.
• Svidrigailov – Dunya's cynical former employer, whose fate shadows Raskolnikov's own.

Ideas behind the crime

Dostoevsky wanted to attack ideas he saw as dangerous in Russian radical thought of the 1860s: a mix of utilitarianism and rationalism that judged actions only by their results. Raskolnikov's question, why not kill one "useless" old moneylender to relieve much human misery, is that logic carried to its end. He is fascinated by Napoleon, a great man who seems to have the right to kill for a higher cause.

The Russian title adds a layer English loses. The word prestupleniye, "crime", literally means "a stepping across", so the idea of crossing a line is built into the title itself. Petersburg matters too: the crowded streets, stuffy rooms and dirty taverns mirror Raskolnikov's feverish state of mind.

Legacy

The novel was the literary sensation of 1866 in Russia, appearing in the same journal that was then serialising Tolstoy's War and Peace. In the 20th century it mattered to psychoanalysis and existentialism; Freud admired Dostoevsky, and Sartre and Camus acknowledged his influence. There have been more than 30 film adaptations.

Learn with Crime and Punishment: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
to cross the line	to do something morally unacceptable	He knew he had crossed the line.
a guilty conscience	a feeling that you did something wrong	His guilty conscience kept him awake.
to turn yourself in	to go to the police and confess	In the end he turned himself in.
to be on edge	to be nervous and tense	He was on edge whenever police spoke.
a fresh start	a new beginning after a mistake	Siberia became his fresh start.

Try this: Write three English sentences about a hard decision someone made, using "a guilty conscience" and "a fresh start".