08/09/2019 Crime and Punishment - Wikipedia

Part 6
Razumikhin tells Raskolnikov that Dunya has become troubled and distant after receiving a letter from someone. He
also mentions, to Raskolnikov's astonishment, that Porfiry no longer suspects him of the murders. As Raskolnikov is
about to set off in search of Svidrigailov, Porfiry himself appears and politely requests a brief chat. He sincerely
apologises for his previous behavior and seeks to explain the reasons behind it. Strangely, Raskolnikov begins to feel
alarmed at the thought that Porfiry might think he is innocent. But Porfiry's changed attitude is motivated by genuine
respect for Raskolnikov, not by any thought of his innocence, and he concludes by expressing his absolute certainty
that Raskolnikov is indeed the murderer. He claims that he will be arresting him soon, but urges him to confess to
make it easier on himself. Raskolnikov chooses to continue the struggle.

Raskolnikov finds Svidrigailov at an inn and warns him against approaching Dunya. Svidrigailov, who has in fact
arranged to meet Dunya, threatens him with the police, but Raskolnikov is unconcerned and follows him home. When
Raskonikov finally departs, Dunya, who has been watching them, approaches Svidrigailov and demands to know what
he meant in his letter about her brother's 'secret'. She reluctantly accompanies him to his rooms, where he reveals
what he overheard and attempts to use it to make her yield to his desire. Dunya, however, has a gun and she fires at
him, narrowly missing: Svidrigailov gently encourages her to reload and try again. Eventually she throws the gun
aside, but Svidrigailov, crushed by her hatred for him, tells her to leave. Later that evening he goes to Sonya to discuss
the arrangements for Katerina Ivanovna's children. He gives her 3000 rubles, telling her she will need it if she wishes
to follow Raskolnikov to Siberia. He spends the night in a miserable hotel and the following morning commits suicide
in a public place.

Raskolnikov says a painful goodbye to his mother, without telling her the truth. Dunya is waiting for him at his room,
and he tells her that he will be going to the police to confess to the murders. He stops at Sonya's place on the way and
she gives him a crucifix. At the bureau he learns of Svidrigailov's suicide, and almost changes his mind, even leaving
the building. But he sees Sonya, who has followed him, looking at him in despair, and he returns to make a full and
frank confession that he is the murderer.

Epilogue
Due to the fullness of his confession at a time when another man had already confessed Raskolnikov is sentenced to
only eight years of penal servitude. Dunya and Razumikhin marry and plan to move to Siberia, but Raskolnikov's
mother falls ill and dies. Sonya follows Raskolnikov to Siberia, but he is initially hostile towards her as he is still
struggling to acknowledge any moral culpability for his crime, feeling himself to be guilty only of weakness. It is only
after some time in prison that his redemption and moral regeneration begin under Sonya's loving influence.

Characters
In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky fuses the personality of his main character, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov,
with his new anti-radical ideological themes. The main plot involves a murder as the result of "ideological
intoxication," and depicts all the disastrous moral and psychical consequences that result from the murder.
Raskolnikov's psychology is placed at the center, and carefully interwoven with the ideas behind his transgression;
every other feature of the novel illuminates the agonizing dilemma in which Raskolnikov is caught.[19] From another
point of view, the novel's plot is another variation of a conventional nineteenth-century theme: an innocent young
provincial comes to seek his fortune in the capital, where he succumbs to corruption, and loses all traces of his former
freshness and purity. However, as Gary Rosenshield points out, "Raskolnikov succumbs not to the temptations of high
society as Honoré de Balzac's Rastignac or Stendhal's Julien Sorel, but to those of rationalistic Petersburg".[20]

Major characters

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