Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(London: Penguin, 1991)
Quite apart from the analysis of social wretchedness and psychological disease. Shocking even to readers of Victor Hugo’s recently published Les Miserables, on which Dostoyevsky had drawn for some of his structural and panoramic inspiration, there was the fact that the book appeared to constitute yet another attack on the Russian student body, smearing it with the tint of being allied to the young radicals and nihilists who had placed themselves in violent opposition to the established social and political order.
Page xi.
The novel’s universal, tragic dimension as a parable of how, after terrible personal sufferings largely caused by society, a gifted young man is ruined by ‘nihilistic’ ideas, and has to undergo a process of atonement and redemption.
Page xii.
It was in pursuit of this goal that Dostoyevsky had joined the Petrashevists in their social conspiracy; his fist, naïve attempt at a solution to the problem of social injustice led Dostoyevsky to the scaffold and to penal servitude. It was amidst the horrors of the ‘House of the Dead’ that he began to revise his notions concerning an uprising that was needed, not by the Russian people as a whole, but only by himself and his fellow conspirators.
Page xiv.
In the period that followed his incarceration Dostoyevsky began to discover a ‘true socialism’ - the sobornost’ (‘communion’) of the human spirit as it expressed itself in the shared identity of the Russian people and their self-effacing acceptance of God.
Page xv.
The twenty-three-year-old ex-student who emerges on to the \Petersburg street on an evening in early July is a spiritual relative of the Underground Man.
Page xvii.
In Dostoyevsky’s view there is something profoundly wrong with a social order that needs to imprison, impoverish and torture the best people in it.
Page xvii.
Raskolnikov is able to speak to the collective human reality in all of us.
Page xix.
What Dostoyevsky is pointing to is the possibility, less of social, material change form without than of a transformation of humanity from within.
Pages xix-xx.
The experience of pro and contra, the ancient mystery of good and evil dressed in the contemporary costume of the mid-nineteenth century yet none the less terrifying and elemental for that, is what Crime and Punishment is ‘about.’
Page xx.
Socialism, in Dostoyevsky’s views, suffers from an inherent paradoxical flaw - while professing ‘brotherhood’ it is in essence cynical, expressing ‘the despair of ever setting man on the right road.’
Pages xx-xxi.
In overcoming his pride and taking upon himself the punishment decreed by the state and society, Raskolnikov re-enters the bosom of his family, which becomes a symbol of nardnost’ (national folk identity), and love of neighbour in the Christian sense.
Page xxiii.
Sonya is Raskolnikov’ good double, just as Svidrigailov is his evil one.
Page xxiv.
The scene in Part Four, Chapter IV, where she reads aloud the story of the raising of Lazarus to Raskolnikov, is the central point of the novel - a moment of almost unbearable earthly anguish, distress and tension that nevertheless points heavenward, like some gothic arch.
Page xxv.
The portrayal of Raskolnikov’s character concerns the theme and the problem of personality. What is under threat from bourgeois utilitarianism and radical socialism alike is the image of the human self, and its potential for change and transformation.
Page xxvi-xxvii.
Raskolnikov, far from being a madman or psychopathic outcast, is an image of Everyman. His pilgrimage towards salvation is chronicled by Dostoyevsky in terms of the biblical myth of original sin - he has fallen from grace, and must regain it.
Page xxviii.
Raskolnikov feels little remorse for having killed the old woman , but suffers under a crushing, life-destroying weight of misery at what he has ‘done to himself’.
Page xxviii.
Crime and Punishment shows the influence of Hugo’s novel in respect of plot (a criminal trying to evade a police agent who is shadowing him), background (the sewers of Paris have their counterpart in the canals of St. Petersburg) and character (it is possible to draw parallels between Valjean and Raskolnikov).
Page xxxii.
For some time now he had been in a tense, irritable state of mind that verged upon hypochondria. So absorbed in himself had he grown, so isolated from everyone else, that he was actually afraid of meeting anyone at all.
Page 5.
Everything lies in a man’s hands, and if he lets it all slip past his nose it’s purely out of cowardice … that’s an axiom. It’s a curious reflection: what are people most afraid of? Of doing something new, saying a new word of their own that hasn’t been said before - that’s what scares them most.
Page 6.
He was remarkably handsome, with beautiful dark eyes and dark, chestnut-coloured hair; he was taller than average, slim and well-built.
Pages 6-7.
No one shared his happiness.
Page 14.
When a man is poor he may still preserve the nobility of his inborn feelings, but when he’s destitute he never ever can. If a man’s destitute he isn’t even driven out with a stick, he’s swept out of human society with a broom, to make it as insulting as possible.
Page 17.
Everyone must have at least somewhere to go. For there comes a time in every man’s life when he simply must have somewhere he can go!
Page 19.
Man can get used to anything, the villain!
Page 34.
In order to get to know anyone at all, it is necessary to approach them cautiously and by stages, so as not to jump to erroneous conclusions which may be very hard to correct and make amends for afterwards.
Page 44.
He walked, however, in his customary manner, without noticing where he was going, whispering to himself and even talking aloud to himself, something that was a great source of wonder to passers-by.
Page 49.
It was a point worthy of note that during his time at the university, Raskolnikov had had practically no friends, had avoided all the other students, never gone to see any of them and received their visits with reluctance.
Page 63.
He studied intensely, not sparing himself, and for this he was respected; nobody liked him, however. He was very poor and at the same time somehow haughtily arrogant and uncommunicative.
Page 63.
All this had been fermenting within him for more than a month now, and he moved wherever his eyes led him.
Page 65.
When one is in a morbid state of health, one’s dreams are often characterized by an unusual vividness and brilliance, and also by an extremely lifelike quality.
Page 66.
“It’s possible to correct and channel nature.”
Page 81.
That the deed had to be done with an axe was something he had decided long ago. He also had a folding garden knife; but he had no confidence in the knife, and still less in his own strength - that was why he had finally decided that he must use an axe.
Page 85.
The principal cause was to be found less in the criminal’s lack of ability to conceal the material evidence of his crime than it was in the criminal himself; it was the criminal himself who, in almost every case, became subject at the moment of his crime to a kind of failure of will and reason, which were replaced by a childish and phenomenal frivolity, and this right at the very moment when the things that were needed most of all were reason and caution.
Page 87.
He took the axe right out, swung it up in both hands, barely conscious of what he was doing, and almost without effort, almost mechanically, brought the butt of it down on the old woman’s head. At that moment he had had practically no strength left. But as soon as he brought the axe down, new strength was born within him.
Page 94.
If now the room were suddenly to have filled up not with policemen but with his dearest and most cherished friends, he would not have had s single kind word to say t them, so desolate had his heart become. His soul had suddenly and consciously been affected by a gloomy sense of alienation, compounded with one of an agonizing, infinite solitariness.
Page 126.
He was becoming thoroughly absent-minded and forgetful, and he knew it. He really must pull himself together!
Page 131.
He found all the people he met repulsive - their faces, their manner of walking, their movements were repulsive to him.
Page 135.
He unclenched his fist, stared fixedly at the little coin and, with a swing of his arm, hurled it into the water; then he turned on his heel and went home. At that moment he felt as though, with a pair of scissors, he had cut himself off from everyone and everything.
Page 140.
Fear enveloped his soul like ice, torturing him and turning him stiff and numb.
Page 141.
Money is sweeter than sugar to us right now.
Page 146.
Men of business aren’t shy.
Page 151.
What a man wears on his head, brother, is the most important item of his costume - it’s a kind of introduction, in a way.
Page 157.
If you push a man away you’ll never set him on the right path, and the same is even truer of a boy.
Page 162.
One can always forgive a man for telling lies; lying’s a harmless activity, because it leads to the truth. No - what’s offensive is that they’re lying and making a fetish of their own inventions!
Page 163.
I like meeting young people: it is from them that one learns what is new.
Page 178.
People have grown accustomed to having everything ready-made for them, they’re used to depending on the guidance of others, having everything chewed up for them first.
Page 183.
Thought tormented him. All he could do was feel.
Page 187.
Raskolnikov suddenly had a terrible urge to stick out his tongue.
Page 197.
What is this desire of yours to do good deeds for people who … spit on them?
Page 201.
I do believe you’d let a man beat you up just for the satisfaction of doing him a favour.
Page 202.
Sonya was small of stature, about eighteen years old, a thin but rather good-looking blonde, with wonderful blue eyes.
Page 221.
What point is there in talking about forgiveness? I’ve done enough forgiving already!
Page 222.
He made his descent slowly, not hurrying, in a state of total fever, and, without being aware of it, charged with a certain new and boundless sensation of full and powerful life that had suddenly swept in upon him. This sensation might be compared to that experienced by a man who has been sentenced to death and is suddenly and unexpectedly told he has been reprieved.
Page 224.
Strength, strength is what I need: one can’t get anything without strength; and strength has to be acquired by means of strength.
Page 227.
I’m his friend, so that means I’m your friend, too.
Page 241.
Talking nonsense is the sole privilege mankind possess over the other organisms. It’s by talking nonsense that one gets to the truth! I talk nonsense, therefore I’m human. Not one single truth has ever ben arrived at without people first having talked a dozen reams of nonsense.
Page 242.
To talk nonsense in one’s own way is almost better than to talk a truth that’s someone else’s; in the first instance you behave like a human being, while in the second you are merely being a parrot!
Page 242.
We’ve got accustomed to making do with other people’s intelligence - we’re soaked in it!
Page 242.
Even though we talk a lot of nonsense … we’ll finally talk our way to the truth, because we tread the path of decency.
Page 243.
“Of course, I’m an ass,” he said, looking as gloomy as a thundercloud. “But I mean … so are you.”
“No I’m not, brother, I’m not one at all. I don’t spend my time dreaming about stupid things.”
Page 248.
Everyone ought to be a decent human being, and a clean one, too.
Page 253.
I would like to impress on you how essential it is that the original, as it were, root causes which gave rise to your morbid condition be eliminated … If not, it will come back, only worse.
Page 266.
We all of us, very often, conduct ourselves like mad folk, with the slight distinction that the “mentally ill” are a little crazier than we are, and so there it is necessary to draw a line.
Page 270.
In order to help anyone, one must first have a right to do so.
Page 270.
Why do you demand of me a heroism you yourself probably don’t possess? That’s despotism! It’s coercion!
Page 277.
This was a thin, very thin and pale little face, rather irregular and sharp, with a sharp, small nose and chin. … She still looked more or less like a little girl, far younger than she was, almost a complete child, and occasionally, in some of her movements, this made itself almost absurdly evident.
Page 283.
The people who have nothing to lock up are the happy ones, aren’t they?
Page 288.
You’re in the law faculty and are unable to finish your course because of your financial circumstances.
Page 292.
Crime is a protest against the craziness of the social system.
Page 304.
It’s impossible to leap over nature solely by means of logic!
Page 305.
The whole of life’s mystery can be accommodated within two printer’s sheets!
Page 305.
The human race is divided into the “ordinary” and the “extraordinary”. The ordinary must live in obedience and do not have the right to break the law, because, well, because they’re ordinary, you see. The extraordinary, on the other hand, have the right to commit all sorts of crimes and break the law in all sorts of ways precisely because they’re extraordinary.
Page 308.
It is in fact worth noting that the majority of those benefactors and guiding spirits of mankind were particularly fearsome blood-letters.
Page 309.
On the whole there are extremely few people with new ideas, or who are even the merest bit capable of saying something new - so few that it’s almost strange.
Page 312.
To condone the shedding of blood on grounds of conscience is … is in my opinion more terrible than if it were to be permitted officially, by law.
Page 313.
Pain and suffering are inevitable for persons of broad awareness and depth of heart.
Page 315.
“Why say a thing that harmed you?”
“Because only muzhiks and the most inexperienced novices deny everything outright when they’re being questioned. If a man has even the slightest bit of intelligence and worldly wisdom, he’ll try as far aw possible to admit to all the external and undeniable circumstances; only he’ll try to find other reasons for them, will introduce some special and unexpected feature of his own, one which gives them a totally different significance and puts them in a new light.
Pages 320-321.
The cleverer a person is, the less he suspects he’ll be caught out over some ordinary thing. … The way to catch a clever person is to use the most ordinary thing, you can think of.
Page 321.
Who is he? Who is this man who’s come up from under the ground? Where was he, and what did he see? He saw it all, there’s no doubt of it.
Page 325.
Life has been given me once and it won’t come along again: I don’t want to wait for “universal happiness”.
Page 326.
Reason is, after all, the servant of passion.
Page 336.
There are certain occasions when women take an inordinate degree of enjoyment in being trampled on, all their surface indignation to the contrary. … human beings in general are fond, even inordinately fond, of being trampled on, have you noticed that? But of women it’s especially true. One might even say that they can’t get along without it.
Page 337.
As a general rule in Russian society the best manners are found among those who’ve been horsewhipped.
Page 340.
We always think of eternity as an idea that can’t be comprehended, as something enormous, gigantic! But why does it have to be so very large? I mean, instead of thinking of it that way, try supposing that all there will be is one little room, something akin to a country bath-house, with soot on the walls and spiders in every corner, and there’s your eternity for you.
Page 345.
“Think about it calmly and with composure.”
Page 348.
From that evening on Razumikhin became to them a son and a brother.
Page 374.
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.
Page 391.
“You’re necessary to me, and that’s why I’ve come to you.”
Page 391.
“You … are a man still young, a man, as it were, in the prime of his youth, and accordingly you place a supreme value on the human intellect, as all young people do.”
Page 406.
“It is clear to me now that you definitely suspect me of having murdered that old woman and her sister Lizaveta. For my part, I will tell you that I grew heartily sick of all this a long time ago. If you believe that you have the right to prosecute me, then please do so; if you are going to arrest me, arrest me. But I won’t allow you to laugh in my face and torment me like this.”
Page 408.
“You don’t seem to notice that in your agitation you tell me and others everything.”
Page 413.
“You’ve lost your ability to see tings from a common-sense point of view, and in fact you can’t see anything at all.”
Page 414.
“Everyone has a duty to spread education and propaganda, and the more bluntly the better.”
Page 439.
Everything depends on a man’s surroundings and environment. Everything proceeds from the environment, and a man is nothing on his own.
Page 441.
“All that is useful to mankind is noble! That is the only word I understand: useful.”
Page 444.
Sonya, being of a timid disposition, had been ware long before now that her good name could be more easily destroyed than most people’s, and that anyone who cared to could wound her practically without fear of retribution.
Page 482.
His approaching rendezvous with her was preying on his mind and causing him terrible anxiety: he would have to tell her who had killed Lizaveta, and he kept sensing in advance the fearsome torment that would cause him, a torment he was almost physically attempting to ward off.
Page 484.
He felt that not only must he tell her - it was impossible for him to put off that moment, even temporarily.
Page 485.
He had never, never planned to declare it like this, and did not understand what was happening to him.
Page 488.
He had never, never planned to reveal it to her like this, but that was how it had happened.
Page 491.
“What is it, what have you gone and done to yourself?” she said despairingly. …
“There’s no one, no one in the whole world more unhappy than you are now.”
Page 491.
A sensation he had not experienced for a long time came flooding into his soul like a wave and instantly softened it. He did not resist the sensation: two tears rolled from his eyes and hung on his lashes.
Page 491.
“We’ll go and do penal servitude together!”
Page 492.
For a moment the thought flashed through Sonya’s head: ‘What if he’s mad?’ but she abandoned it instantly: no, this was something else.
Page 493.
“I wanted to become a Napoleon, and that’s why I killed.”
Page 495.
“I decided that once I’d got my hands on the old woman’s money I’d use it to meet my requirements during my first years at the university, without being a burden on my mother, and for my first steps after university - and do it all on a grand scale, in true radical style, in order to build a completely new career for myself and set out on a new and independent path.
Page 496.
“All I killed was a louse - a loathsome, useless, harmful louse!”
Page 497.
“Low ceilings and cramped rooms cramp the soul and the mind, too!”
Page 498.
“Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing: to be able to dare!”
Page 499.
“You’ve strayed away form God, and God has laid His hand upon you and given you up to the Devil!”
Page 499.
“The Devil led me to do what I did and only afterwards explained that I had no right to do it, because I’m just a louse like everyone else!”
Page 500.
“You must accept suffering and redeem yourself by it.”
Page 501.
“Why should I go to them? … They themselves slaughter people in their millions, and they consider it a virtue.”
Page 502.
“We shall go and suffer together, and we shall bear our crosses together!”
Page 504.
Never, never before had he felt so horribly alone!
Page 506.
Out inn the street, in the sunshine, a consumptive person always looks more ill and deformed than when seen indoors.
Page 510.
If it had been possible for him to go away somewhere just then and be completely alone, even though it were to be for the rest of his life, he would have counted himself a lucky man.
Page 526.
The more secluded the location, the more powerfully he had seemed to sense someone’s close and disturbing presence … it was as though his conscience had begun to bother him.
Page 526.
Wherever I go, whatever happens to me, you must remain their Providence. I’m going to hand them over to you, as it were, Razumikhin.
Page 529.
You know, Rodion Romanych, sir, you have a very irritable nature; I would even venture to say that it’s excessively so, when viewed against the other basic features of your character and heart.
Page 537.
If a man is guilty, then one should at least expect to get something tangible out of him.
Page 537.
The thought that Porfiry believed him to be innocent had suddenly begun to frighten hin.
Page 538.
If one is to confess, then it must be to everything.
Page 538.
You’re a very impatient ad over-sensitive fellow, Rodion Romanych.
Page 539.
Proud, frustrated, enthusiasm is a dangerous thing in youth!
Page 539.
The trouble with all that accursed psychology stuff is that it cuts two ways!
Page 540.
Your crime will look like some kind of a brainstorm, because, in all conscience, a brainstorm is what it was.
Page 547.
Suffering’s not such a very terrible thing. Go and suffer for a bit.
Page 548.
Surrender yourself directly to life, with circumspection; don’t worry - it will carry you straight to the shore and put you on your feet.
Page 548.
It’s also a good thing that it was only an old woman you murdered. If you’d thought up another theory you might have committed some deed a hundred million times more horrible! It may be that you still ought to thank God; why, for all you know he may be preserving you for something. Be of great heart, and fear less.
Page 549.
What good would running away do you? Being on the run is an unpleasant, arduous business, and what you need above all else is to lie and to be in a clearly defined situation with its own clearly defined air, and I mean, what kind of air would you find on the run? You’d run away and come back again of your own accord.
Page 550.
Suffering, Rodion Romanych, is a great thing.
Page 550.
“Oh, what’s the matter with all these people? … They won’t admit the existence of miracles, even though they secretly believe in them!”
Page 556.
A man’s footsteps lead him to all sorts of places.
Page 556.
There aren’t many places where there are as many gloomy, harsh and strange influences on the soul of man as there are in St. Petersburg.
Page 557.
In lechery there is at least something permanent, something that is truly founded upon nature and is not subject to the imagination, something that is present like a constantly live coal in the blood, forever setting one on fire a coal it will take a long tine, possibly into one’s old age, to put out.
Page 561.
An intelligent woman and a possessive woman are two different things.
Page 564.
If one is to form a dispassionate judgement about certain people, one must first of all jettison certain prejudices one may have, and also one’s customary manner of dealing with the persons and objects that surrounds us.
Page 564.
When a girl’s heart starts to feel sorry, that is, of course, the most dangerous thing that can happen to her. She immediately wants to “rescue” him, bring him to reason, reanimate him, exhort him to more noble aims, and breathe into him new life and new activity - well, you know the sort of dreams they have along that line.
Page 566.
There is nothing in the world more difficult than plain speaking, and nothing easier than flattery.
Page 568.
Never undertake anything when you’re in a state of rage.
Page 569.
One word is as good as another, isn’t it, as long as it gets the sense across?
Page 569.
Never be too sure about the things that go on between a husband and a wife or a lover and his mistress. There will always be one little corner that will remain obscure to the rest of the world and which will only ge known to the two of them.
Page 570.
Everyone must look out for himself, and the best time is had by those who’re best able to deceive themselves.
Page 574.
It’s no good if you don’t know your own job.
Page 579.
What really fascinated him was that a great many men of genius have turned a blind eye to isolated acts of wrongdoing in order to stride onwards and across, without reflecting.
Page 586.
Russians are on the whole a roomy-natured lot, as roomy as the land they inhabit, and they have an extremely marked penchant for the fantastic and the chaotic; but it’s not much good having all that room if one is not particularly gifted.
Page 586.
Live and live long.
Page 597.
His face was almost disfigured with weariness, the effects of the weather, physical exhaustion and his almost round-the-clock struggle with himself.
Page 610.
She had known for a long time that something terrible was happening to her son, and that now some fearsome moment had ripened for him.
Page 614.
“If I really still believed I was strong, then I oughtn’t to be afraid of shame either.”
Page 617.
“I’m going to turn myself in now. But I don’t know why I’m going to do it.”
Page 617.
“By going to take your suffering you’re wiping out half of your crime.”
Page 617.
“Crime? What crime?” he exclaimed in a sudden fit of fury. “My killing a loathsome, harmful louse, a filthy old moneylender woman who brought no good to anyone, to murder whom would pardon forty sins, who sucked the lifeblood of the poor, and you call that a crime?”
Page 617.
I wanted to do good to people and I’d have done hundreds, thousands of good deeds instead of this one stupid action, which wasn’t even stupid, really, but just clumsy, as the whole idea wasn’t nearly as stupid as it appears now, in the light of failure. … (In the light of failure everything appears stupid!)
Page 618.
Why is it considered more respectable to hurl bombs at people in a regular siege?
Page 618.
Whatever else he had done, he had made these two poor women unhappy. There was no denying that he was thee cause of their woes.
Page 618.
“I shall try to be brave, and honest, all the rest of my life, even though I am a murderer.”
Page 619.
“For now goodbye, until we meet again!”
Page 619.
“As I stood above the Neva this morning at dawn I knew I was a villain.”
Page 620.
“Why do they love me so much if I don’t deserve it?”
Page 620.
“The interesting thing to know is whether in the course of the next fifteen to twenty years my soul will acquire such humility that I shall whimper n reverence before other people, ready to call myself a brigand at the first opportunity!”
Page 620.
Twenty years of incessant hardship ought to be enough to finish me off, oughtn’t they? Constant dripping wears away the stone.
Page 620.
It as to her, Sonya, he had gone first with his confession; it was in her that he had sought a human being, when he had needed one; as for Sonya she would follow him wherever fate might send him.
Page 621.
“This state of mind’s enough to make a swine of one!”
Page 622.
Without saying anything, Sonya produced two crucifixes from a drawer, a cypress one and a copper one, crossed herself, crossed him, and hung the cypress crucifix around his neck.
Page 623.
“For some reason my mind’s grown distracted.”
Page 623.
Sonya caught up her shawl and slipped it over her head.
Page 623.
He also suddenly found shocking the realization that Sonya intended to go with him.
Page 623.
He found it unpleasant, very unpleasant to rub shoulders with people, but he had purposely gone to the place where he would see the greatest number of them.
Page 625.
Once a person is enlightened, that’s enough.
Page 630.
The sentence, however turned out to be more lenient than night have been supposed, given the c rime that had been committed, and this may have been for the reason that not only did the criminal make no attempt to justify himself - he seemed even to display a wish to incriminate himself further.
Page 639.
The criminal was sentenced to penal servitude of the second category for a period of only eight years in all, in recognition of his having turned himself in and in view of certain circumstances that had reduced his guilt.
Page 640.
Two months later Dunya and Razumikhin were married.
Page 643.
It was a long time before Raskolnikov found out that his mother had died, even though he established a correspondence with St. Petersburg right at the very beginning of his life in Siberia.
Page 644.
Sonya constantly reported that he was in a state of unbroken gloom.
Page 645.
The life he was leading was so crude and impoverished not because of any preconceived plan or intention, but simply because of his lack of engagement and his apparent indifference to his fate.
Page 646.
He had been positively glad of the work: having physically exhausted himself by it, he was at least able to obtain for himself a few hours of peaceful sleep.
Page 647.
It was not his shaven head or his fetters he was ashamed of; his pride had been violently wounded; it was wounded pride that had made him fall ill.
Page 647.
Existence on its own had never been enough for him; he had always wanted more than that.
Page 648.
He was a person to whom more was allowed than others.
Page 648.
He felt no remorse for his crime.
Page 648.
What had revived them was love, the heart of the one containing an infinite source of life for the heart of the other.
Page 655.
But at this point a new story begins, the story of a man’s gradual renewal, his gradual rebirth, his gradual transition from one world to another, of his growing acquaintance with a new, hitherto completely unknown reality.
Page 656.