Crime and Punishment

Katerina Ivanovna is happy to see Luzhin. However, her happiness quickly evaporates when he claims that he never knew her father. He stands apart from the other guests at the wake and treats the event with disdain—he only attended the wake to see Sonia. Lebeziatnikov slips into the room and watches Luzhin. Luzhin tells Sonia that following their meeting earlier, 100 rubles went missing from his apartment. He accuses Sonia of stealing and demands she return the money. Katerina overhears the accusation and, when Sonia denies stealing anything, Katerina defends her stepdaughter. Luzhin is willing to forget the matter if the money is returned, otherwise he threatens to call the police. Katerina angrily calls for help, demanding that someone search Sonia’s pockets to prove her innocence. As Katerina begins frantically searching through Sonia’s pockets, however, a 100-ruble note falls to the ground. Sonia continues to deny stealing the money while Katerina’s landlord orders the family to leave the premises.

Amid the chaos, Lebeziatnikov steps forward. He loudly accuses Luzhin of being an evil, disreputable man, claiming that he witnessed Luzhin slip the money into Sonia’s pocket earlier. Luzhin denies Lebeziatnikov’s accusation. Raskolnikov stands up and addresses the room. He explains to everyone that Dunia rejected Luzhin and that Luzhin tried to use Sonia to discredit Raskolnikov to his family. Luzhin tries to leave, but one of the guests throws a glass at him. The glass misses Luzhin, but hits the landlord, who insists that Katerina and her family leave. Sonia bursts into hysterical tears and runs away, followed by a concerned Raskolnikov.

As Raskolnikov follows Sonia, he wonders whether he should tell her the truth about the death of her friend Lizaveta. Sonia begs him to speak to her more kindly than he did the previous day. Raskolnikov ignores this plea and repeats his previous cold assessment of her family’s disastrous situation. As Sonia protests, Raskolnikov poses a hypothetical question: Whom would Sonia pick to die, Katerina or Luzhin? Sonia insists that she cannot know the will of God and that she cannot cast judgment on who deserves to live. She realizes that the difficult questions posed by Raskolnikov are a reflection of his internal suffering.

Raskolnikov returns to Lizaveta’s murder. Before he confesses, he asks Sonia to guess who might have killed her friend. Then he tells her to look at him closely. The realization dawns on Sonia. She backs away from Raskolnikov and then throws herself to the floor, weeping. Raskolnikov is overcome by a sense of tenderness. He tells Sonia not to give up on him and she promises that she will never forsake him. When she assures him that she would even follow him to prison, the reality of his future punishment becomes clear to Raskolnikov. He loses the momentary feeling of tenderness and hardens again.

Sonia asks Raskolnikov to explain why he murdered her friend. He tries to explain himself, referencing his own poverty as well as his ideology about the nature of crime. The more he explains himself, however, the more empty and meaningless his explanations become. He reaches the point where he can no longer explain himself to Sonia, so he asks her what he should do. She tells him to go to the nearest crossroads and beg for forgiveness. Then, she tells him to confess his crimes, achieving atonement by accepting his punishment. Sonia promises to visit Raskolnikov in prison. She tries to give him a wooden cross that once belonged to Lizaveta but Raskolnikov refuses, agreeing to wear it only when he accepts his suffering. Lebeziatnikov bursts into the room and interrupts the conversation.

Lebeziatnikov tells Sonia and Raskolnikov that Katerina has been thrown out of her apartment. Driven insane by the circumstances, Katerina is now wandering the streets with her young children in ridiculous, elaborate outfits. She is making them sing for strangers’ money. Sonia immediately moves to help but her eagerness disgusts Raskolnikov, who wonders why he even spoke to her about his crimes.

Raskolnikov returns to his own apartment, where Dunia is waiting to speak to him. Razumikhin explained to her Raskolnikov’s paranoid and strange behavior. Dunia offers her assistance and loyalty, saying she will always be faithful to her brother. Though Raskolnikov wants to tell her everything, he cannot bring himself to do so.

Raskolnikov walks through the city again. His aimless wandering brings him to a street where Katerina is standing at the center of a large crowd. People laugh at her while she forces her children to beg. Katerina shouts at the crowd and attempts to run away, but she trips and falls, grievously injuring herself. People carry Katerina to Sonia’s nearby apartment and send for a doctor. Katerina is dying from her wound, but refuses all medical help and refuses to see a priest. As she dies, Svidrigailov appears and offers to pay for all of the funeral arrangements. He tells Raskolnikov that he will spend the money he previously earmarked for Dunia half on Katerina’s funeral and half on Katerina’s family and Sonia. When Svidrigailov uses the same words Raskolnikov used to Sonia, Raskolnikov realizes that Svidrigailov has been eavesdropping on their conversations.