Delirious
Crime and Punishment Week 10: Part Two, Chapter 3.
Welcome to Week 10 of my slow read of Crime and Punishment. This week’s chapter is Part Two, Chapter 3.
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This week’s characters
Characters in this week’s chapter in the order that they are mentioned:
Raskolnikov • Nastasya • Praskovya Pavlovna • Razumikhin • Pulkheria Raskolnikova • Dunya • Svidrigailov • Marfa Petrovna
Part Two, Chapter 3 Synopsis
All quotations in this post are taken from Roger Cockrell’s translation of 2022, Alma Classics, © Roger Cockrell 2022
Raskolnikov is lying on his bed in a state of delirium. It’s described meticulously well. Nastasya is by his bed with a stranger while the landlady peeks through the door. Razumikhin arrives. The stranger is an errand boy who has come on behalf of Raskolnikov’s mother, Pulkheria Alexandrovna, and Afanasy Ivanovich Vakhrushin with money for Raskolnikov. Razumikhin explains that Raskolnikov has been out for four days and the doctor, Zosimov, has looked in on him, declaring that his illness ‘would soon pass.’ Razumikhin sounds very jovial. Raskolnikov doesn’t want to sign for the money and declares that he doesn’t need it. But he’s coerced into signing, and the errand boy leaves the money and goes. Raskolnikov agrees to some soup and tea and thinks to himself that he must be well and is over his illness.
Razumikhin gets on well with Raskolnikov’s landlady, referring to her as ‘Pashenka’, a term of endearment. He tells Raskolnikov that he’d come round to give him a piece of his mind at how Raskolnikov left his apartment the other night, but didn’t know where he lived. He tracked him down via the ‘address bureau’, which must be the police station, as he states that he’d had the pleasure of meeting Nikodim Fomich, Ilya Petrovich and Zamyotov, the three police officers we met in the previous chapter.
Razumikhin explains that he knows all about the IOU he signed and his promise of marriage to his landlady’s daughter. The landlady explained to him the reasons why she stopped sending up meals to Raskolnikov. She wants him out of the apartment because he can no longer pay his rent. Raskolnikov kept promising that his mother would pay because he didn’t want to lose the room.
There’s a story about how Raskolnikov’s summons to the police station came about, the conclusion of which is that Razumikhin now has the IOU and has torn it up. He explains that Raskolnikov was too open and vulnerable when discussing his family:
The answer was that there was indeed a way: he had a mother with a pension of a hundred and twenty-five roubles, with which she'd be able to save her Rodenka, even if it meant she would have to go without food herself, and a sister who would willingly sell herself into slavery for the same cause.
So Raskolnikov knows that Dunya would sacrifice herself for him, and that is precisely what she is doing.
Razumikhin explains that he brought Zamyotov to see Raskolnikov while he was delirious. It turns out that he and Zamyotov have now become firm friends. He won’t explain what Raskolnikov said in his delirious state when he brought Zamyotov round to Raskolnikov’s apartment. Raskolnikov has a vague recollection of it, but doesn’t remember what he said. Razumikhin gives him the gist of it, which was a string of incriminating ramblings about the murder, including the blood-soaked sock. Zamyotov searched his room, found the sock and gave it to him, after which he relaxed holding it tightly and went to sleep.
Razumikhin leaves, and Raskolnikov immediately wonders whether they know. He’s freaked out by the whole exchange. He’s sure that they know and that he needs to get away—to America. He drinks the rest of the bottle of beer and lies down to sleep.
Razumikhin comes back later, having spent ten roubles on clothes for Raskolnikov. He’s not too happy about it.
Analysis
So, what are we to make of this chapter? Raskolnikov’s state of mind is perilously shaky. He’s beginning to recover from his delirium but is becoming paranoid that they know and are just pretending with him. He’s unwilling to accept kindness from his friend or money from his mother, although he did accept it while arguably still unwell. And he’s thinking of absconding, although we don’t know how serious he is about that.
Razumikhin is getting familiar with Nastasya and with Raskolnikov’s landlady, and is hanging out with Zamyotov. His motives seem pure and he’s a good friend to Raskolnikov, despite how Raskolnikov treats him. Razumikhin understands that his friend is ill and makes allowances for that, although he initially came round because he was annoyed with Raskolnikov.
The whole chapter feels like a fever dream for Raskolnikov. He’s paranoid that they know and is drifting in and out of reality. This is not how a Napoleon would react. But there’s no going back.
Translation Points
This quotation seems to get to the heart of Raskolnikov’s anger at his mother’s money and Dunya’s impending marriage to Luzhin: slavery or bondage. Some translators choose the former, others the latter. I prefer to think of it as prostitution, in much the same way that Sonya is sacrificing herself for her family.
The answer was that there was indeed a way: he had a mother with a pension of a hundred and twenty-five roubles, with which she'd be able to save her Rodenka, even if it meant she would have to go without food herself, and a sister who would willingly sell herself into slavery for the same cause.
The other seven translations are in the comparison spreadsheet.
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That Razoemichin seems almost hyper! I'm not sure what to make of him. And a very practical thing: I was wondering about the boots that will 'certainly last another two months' even though they've only been worn six times. I suppose they are made out of very thin leather, or felt perhaps?
As for the translation: my Dutch version has: 'he has a sister, who would even sell her freedom for her brother'.