Raskolnikov

The main protagonist, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, Rodya

Description: An exceptionally good-looking man – slim, well-built, of above average height, with beautiful dark eyes and dark-brown hair. 

Pronunciation

Part One / Chapter 1

He emerges from his room on an ‘exceptionally hot day at the beginning of July’. He avoids his landlady on the way out and heads to Alyona Ivanovna’s apartment for a trial run for the murder he’s planning to commit. He’s crushed by poverty, absorbed with himself.

It wasn’t so much that he was a cowardly, downtrodden figure — quite the opposite in fact. It was just that, for some time now, he had been in an irritable and overwrought state, close to hypochondria.

Part One / Chapter 2

Sits in a tavern and listens to Marmeladov’s 12-page rant. Returns with Marmeladov to his flat and is admonished by Katerina Ivanovna for encouraging Marmeladov. He leaves some change behind on the windowsill after seeing the Marmeladovs’ dire circumstances.

Part One / Chapter 2

He’s feeling a bit better after having had some food and a beer. He listens to Marmeladov’s story for about 12 pages. He helps Marmeladov home to his flat in Anna Lippewechsel’s block and is subjected to scorn from Katerina Ivanovna for encouraging Marmeladov’s drinking. He leaves, but before going down the stairs, he leaves some money on the window sill. He soon regrets having done so, but doesn’t go back to reclaim it.

Part One / Chapter 3

He receives a letter from his mother with family news.

Part Two / Chapter 1

The aftermath of the murder. He’s in a feverish, panicked state. He gets a summons from the police station and goes straight away, vacillating between confessing and bravado. He stands up to Ilya Petrovich, the assistant police superintendent. He’s been summoned to answer a complaint from his landlady for an unpaid debt.

He confesses that he had an arrangement to marry his landlady’s daughter, who then died and so the agreement was no longer valid. He claims to be “worn down by poverty.”

He signs a statement to the effect that he will repay the debt and not leave the area.

He experiences ‘the most agonizing sensation he had experienced through his entire life’, and thinks of confessing. As he’s on the brink of confessing, he overhears the police officers discussing two suspects they’re holding on suspicion of murder. He faints.