The murderer and the prostitute
Crime and Punishment Week 24: Part Four, Chapter 4
Welcome to Week 24 of my slow-read of Crime and Punishment. This week’s chapter is Part Four, Chapter 4.
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This week’s characters
(I don’t include Raskolnikov in this listing as he’s in most of the chapters)
This is one of the key chapters in the novel. It’s full of biblical imagery and quotations, including excerpts from the fourth gospel concerning the raising of Lazarus.
Synopsis
Raskolnikov heads to Sonya’s apartment at the Kapernaumov’s, where she’s renting a rather strangely-shaped room. He says that it will be the last time that he calls on her and that he has something to tell her. Sonya responds to his questions by claiming that she loves Katerina Ivanovna and that she’s a good woman who endures for the sake of her children. She tells Rodion of the collars and cuffs that she’d got from Lizaveta, and how Katerina Ivanovna had begged her to make a present of them to her. She refused, asking Katerina Ivanovna what use they would be to her. She scolds herself for her cruelty towards Katerina Ivanovna.
Rodion explains to her that Katerina Ivanovna is very ill and is not, he feels, long for this world. He asks Sonya what would happen to the children, something she’s clearly thought about before, especially if Sonya were to become ill. Sonya claims that ‘God won’t allow that to happen.’ And the same when Rodion puts it to her that little Polechka will end up selling herself on the streets as Sonya does. Rodions suggests that there might not be a God after all and then bends down to kiss Sonya’s foot.
I was bowing down not to you, but to the suffering of all mankind.
He asks her whether she realises that all of her sacrifices have been for nothing and wonders why she hasn’t just thrown herself in the river. She doesn’t seem surprised by the question, leading the narrator to suggest that she’s thought about that very thing.
What was it, then, that kept her going? … He could see that her heart remained totally untouched by the depravity.
Rodion asks Sonya to read to him the passage from scripture about the raising of Lazarus and this she does.
He thinks of Sonya as a Holy Fool, someone who falls back on religion in an irrational way. She believes in God and he doesn’t, so why is he asking her to read from scripture?
Rodion: “But what has God ever done for you?”
Sonya: “He does everything for me!”
Towards the end of the chapter, Rodion tells Sonya that, on his return, he will tell her who killed Lizaveta.
It’s a powerful chapter with the murderer and the prostitute coming together. feebly illuminated by candlelight.
"The candle stub in its bent candleholder had long since started to gutter, and was now, in this wretched room, feebly illuminating the murderer and the prostitute, who had so strangely come together for a reading of the holy scripture. Five or more minutes passed.
In fact, if you head on over to Dana’s post on this chapter, you’ll see her amazing artwork depicting this scene.
Dana also talks about the significance in this chapter of the number four. This is the fourth chapter of Part Four of the novel and I had picked up on some of the uses of the numeral four throughout, all the more so as Dostoyevsky (or his publisher) has chosen to italicise it when used. Sonya at one point lays ‘particular stress on the word “four”’ upon reading the portion of scripture pertaining to the four days between Lazarus’ death and his resurrection., We also have the four gospels of scripture—with a fascinating observation by Dana that the first three gospels collectively are known as the Synoptic gospels, while the fourth, the gospel of St John, the only one that has the story of Lazarus, stands apart. I hadn’t heard of the term Synoptic gospels before and it’s really quite fascinating. She goes on to point out that Sonya is the fourth child Katerina Ivanonva’s charges, the first three being her maternal children while Sonya is her adopted daughter.
If there’s one thing that Dostoyevsky knew, it was his bible. It was the only literature he had during his four-years of penal servitude. (Yes—four years!)
It’s interesting to note that Rodion told Sonya that he would, on his return, tell her who killed Lizaveta—not the pawnbroker, his intended victim, but Lizaveta, his accidental victim. This could be simply because it’s been established that Sonya was acquainted with Lizaveta and, indeed, read from the very bible that Lizaveta had given her. How does she take this news? She’s chilled with horror, but we’re old that she doesn’t once think that it’s Rodion who’s about to confess. Or at least that’s how I’m reading this line:
Yet, at the same time, the idea never crossed her mind. Never, never once!
All quotations in this post are taken from Roger Cockrell’s translation of 2022, Alma Classics, © Roger Cockrell 2022
Translation Points
The flickering candle scene was the one that stood out to me the most in this chapter, so let’s go with that for the translation comparison this week.
Russian - Огарок уже давно погасал в кривом подсвечнике, тускло освещая в этой нищенской комнате убийцу и блудницу, странно сошедшихся за чтением вечной книги.
Garnett - The candle-end was flickering out in the battered candlestick, dimly lighting up in the poverty-stricken room the murderer and the harlot who had so strangely been reading together the eternal book.
Coulson - The candle-end had long since burned low in the twisted candlestick, dimly lighting the poverty-stricken room and the murderer and the harlot who had come together so strangely to read the eternal book.
McDuff - The stub of candle had long been guttering in its crooked candlestick within that wretched room, shedding its dim light on the murderer and the prostitute who had so strangely encountered each other in the reading of the eternal book.
P&V - The candle-end had long been burning out in the bent candlestick, casting a dim light in this destitute room upon the murderer and the harlot strangely come together over the reading of the eternal book.
Ready - The candle-end had been guttering for some time in the crooked holder, shedding a dull light, in this beggarly room, on the murderer and the harlot, who'd come together so strangely to read the eternal book.
Pasternak Slater - The candle stub in the crooked candlestick had been guttering for some time, casting a dim light through the poverty-stricken room, on the murderer and the harlot, who had so strangely come together to read the eternal book.
Katz - The candle stub had long since burned down in the twisted candleholder, dimly illuminating in this impoverished room the murderer and the prostitute, strangely united for the reading of the eternal book.
Cockrell - The candle stub in its bent candleholder had long since started to gutter, and was now, in this wretched room, feebly illuminating the murderer and the prostitute, who had so strangely come together for a reading of the holy scripture.
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