Part One
1
On a hot day of early July, a young man left his room to go to K-bridge.
He fortunately could avoid to meet the homemaker, the landlord. He did not want to be reminded to pay his rent. His psychology was hypochondria (he was annoyed with unstableness of mind and body and feared sickness though being not sick).
He was worried that he would carry his plan as he was timid to do such an act.
He was extremely handsome having beautiful dark eyes and chestnut hair. He had not eaten for two days.
He visited one of many rooms on the fourth floor where an old woman lived. He already had visited the room a month ago. The old woman, Alyona Ivanovna was a pawnbroker.
He, Raskolnikov, lent money on behalf of his father’s silver watch.
He entered a tavern having antipathy, where a man drank liquor who looked like a retired government official.
2
Former 9th rank government officer Marmeladov called Raskolnikov and they began talking. Marmeladov talked his life being extremely poor. He was married with Katerina Ivanovna who had three children and he himself had a daughter. Marmeladov lost his job because of the regulation of government officials and came to the capital. The daughter Sonya earned money as a prostitute. She having a yellow card of prostitution lodged with Kapernaumov, the tailor.
Marmeladov got a job due to an influential connection five weeks ago but he drank every day to spend money and lost his job. He finally drank himself to sleep. Raskolnikov took Marmeladov to his house. His wife, Katerina, got angry fiercely. Some people made fun of the quarrel between Marmeladov and his wife.
3
Nastasya, the landlady’s cook, a servant, woke Raskolnikov up. A letter from his mother reached him, telling his sister Donya was in her difficulty in Svidorigailov’s home and she finally returned her home losing her job as a tutor. But the truth was cleared afterward and her innocence was proved. The 7th rank officer Luzhin proposed her and she received it. Luzhin told that he wanted only wife’s obligation to her husband denying husband’s one to her. Luzhin did business of law and was ready to employ Raskolnikov.
His mother told that she and his sister were going to visit Petersburg and they would meet Raskolnikov soon after. Raskolnikov’s face turned pale and distorted reading the letter and he got out from his small room wishing a wide space.
4
Raskolnikov decided in his mind to oppose the marriage between Luzhin and his sister Donya. He understood by reading the letter that she decided her marriage even though it was her sacrifice and his mother agreed it in her mind for Raskolnikov’s sake too. Donya’s circumstances might not avoid to become a wife who was indebted to her husband because of her poverty. Donya would never sell her mind for her own sake but she could control her emotion for persons whom she loved. Raskolnikov thought Donya intended to live a comfortable life but Sonya was faced with hunger.
Raskolnikov was clearly conscious that he would never need Donya’s sacrifice. However he could not answer to himself what he could do then to torture and ridicule himself. This problem annoyed him and tore his mind. A certain notion flashed in and passed through his brain. Then it was not only an illusion but a new and dreadful thought appeared.
Raskolnikov noticed a girl sitting on a bench looking as 15 or 16 years old. A man looked at her from a little far away. Raskolnikov walked near the man and said “Hey Svidorigailov, what is the matter ?” A policeman ceased their trouble. Raskolnikov asked the policeman to take her to her home giving him 20 copecks. But suddenly he changed his mind to tell the policeman “Leave her alone”.
5
Raskolnikov was going to visit Razumihin’s after he did “that”. But he thought whether he could do “that” or not. After he ate in a tavern, sleep fell upon him down on the grass and he dreamed. In an old day his father brought him to the country and he saw a driver beat a horse to pull a heavy coach with many people in. At last the driver and other men beat it terribly to kill the horse. He woke up and thought the murder he would intend “Shall I wield an ax and smash her head ?”. He talked to himself he could not endure it at all. He prayed to God to throw away his delusion.
On his way home Raskolnikov met Lizaveta Ivanovna accidentally, the sister of the old pawnbroker. From the conversation between her and a seller, he knew unexpectedly the time when Alyona Ivanovna would be alone in her home.
6
Raskolnikov remembered the place where Alyona Ivanovna lived as he had heard it from his friend where he would pawn something. On his way back after he pawned there a ring given by his sister, he heard a talk between a student and a military officer in a tavern. The student said he was not ashamed even though he killed Alyona Ivanovna and robbed her money. The student told the money from the pawnbroker of no use would be useful for businesses of thousands of people and a few thousands of lives would be saved from their depravity and evil deeds by ending only one life. The student denied to do it by himself but the officer said there was never justice or anything else if the student did not do it by his own.
The talk was just the same as what Raskolnikov was thinking about. The coincidence was a kind of fate or a divine revelation.
He stitched a loop inside his overcoat to prepare to hold an ax. He did not believe he could realize his plan. His last action was felt as if he was pushed by a supernatural force. He thought there would happen a loss of will and reason if a crime was exposed. And also he thought his intention was not a crime. He found an ax in a garden keeper’s hut and brought it hanging it inside the loop of his overcoat. He met nobody on his way to the pawnbroker’s house.
7
Raskolnikov showed Alyona Ivanovna a silver cigarette case for pawn. While she examined it, he attacked her on her head by the ax. He took a key and a wallet hanged on her neck away from her. He robbed a few things from her suitcase. Unfortunately Lizaveta, Alyona’s sister, came back there. Raskolnikov brought the ax on her head too. He washed the ax. Someone ascended the stairs to rang a bell and was going to open the door. Two men were out of the door but the door was shut because the key inside was locked and they went back to call a garden keeper.
While they were not there, Raskolnikov escaped from Alyona’s room. Someone came up from below but he could enter an empty room where a paint artisan had worked. He got out from the house after letting someone go through and arrived at his lodging. He could return the ax inside the garden keeper’s hut without being seen by anybody.