Dating of the novel “Crime and Punishment”

The action of Dostoevsky's novel “Crime and Punishment” takes place over 14 days, but the author does not indicate dates. Dostoevsky only mentions that the novel takes place in July (“At the beginning of July, in an extremely hot time, in the evening…”). But the novel contains references to events taking place in real St. Petersburg, from which the exact dating of the events can be determined. So, we can count down from Raskolnikov’s meeting with the former official Marmeladov in a tavern, which took place on the first day of the story (part 1, chapter 2). Marmeladov informs his interlocutor that he recently persuaded his former boss to hire him again, but six days ago, having received his first salary, he took up a glass again. Officials traditionally received their pay on the first day of each month, therefore, the heroes’ conversation took place on July 7th.

By the way, the year of the narrative is precisely known - 1865, since in a letter to the publisher Katkov from this year, Dostoevsky writes: “The action is modern, in this year.”

Thus, it is highly likely that the action of the novel “Crime and Punishment” takes place from July 7 to July 20, 1865. This is confirmed by the abnormal heat that prevailed in St. Petersburg during this period, and reflected in the work.

List of novel events by day:

Day 1 (July 7)

Part 1, chapters 1 - 2

Raskolnikov goes to the old money-lender to discreetly find out where she keeps the money.
Raskolnikov meets Marmeladov in a tavern

Day 2 (July 8)

Part 1, chapters 1 - 6

Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother.
Raskolnikov has a dream about killing a horse
On the way, Raskolnikov accidentally hears that the old woman’s sister Lizaveta will not be home tomorrow evening.

Day 3 (July 9)

Part 1, chapters 6 - 7

Raskolnikov sleeps all day, he has a dream about Africa.
In the evening he kills the old woman and her sister Lizaveta.

Day 4 (July 10)

Part 2, chapter 1 - 2

In the morning, Raskolnikov receives a summons to come to the office today at 11 am (in the case of a debt to the landlady).
Raskolnikov hides the loot from the old woman, under a large stone in one of the St. Petersburg backyard wells.
Razumikhin offers Raskolnikov a part-time job, but he refuses and leaves.

Days 5, 6 and 7 (July 11 to 14)

Raskolnikov spends three days in delirium. The story continues on day 8, when the hero comes to his senses.

Day 8 (July 15)

Part 2, chapter 3 - part 3, chapter 2

Raskolnikov is in a sick condition. They bring him money sent from the province by his mother. Razumikhin takes part of the money and leaves to buy new clothes for a friend.
Doctor Zosimov, a friend of Razumikhin, comes to the closet to examine Raskolnikov.
Mr. Luzhin, the fiancé of his sister Dunya, comes to Raskolnikov.
In the tavern, Raskolnikov meets clerk Zametov. Raskolnikov hints to him that he is the old woman’s killer, but the clerk decides that the student has a mental disorder.
Leaving the tavern, Raskolnikov meets Razumikhin and asks him to leave him alone.
Raskolnikov returns to the crime scene. There he asks strange questions to the residents, which alarm one of the neighbors, a tradesman.
Walking down the street, Raskolnikov sees Marmeladov, who has fallen under a carriage. The young man helps carry the official home, where he soon dies in the arms of his daughter Sonya. This is how Raskolnikov sees Sonya for the first time. When leaving, he leaves Katerina Ivanovna, Marmeladov’s widow, the money sent by her mother.
Raskolnikov's mother and sister arrive in St. Petersburg. During a conversation with his family, Raskolnikov faints. The worried women leave the patient and go to their hotel room. Soon Zosimov and Razumikhin come to the women and talk about Rodion’s well-being.

Day 9 (July 16)

Part 3, chapter 2 - part 4, chapter 4

Dunya says that she received a note from Luzhin, in which he demands that she make a choice between him and her brother. Dunya asks Raskolnikov and Razumikhin to be at the planned meeting with Luzhin today at 8 pm.
Sonya comes to Raskolnikov’s closet. She thanks him for the money left yesterday for the funeral and asks him to attend the funeral and wake.
On the way home, Sonya meets with Svidrigailov, who rented an apartment across the wall from her.
Raskolnikov and Razumikhin come to Porfiry Petrovich.
Svidrigailov comes to Raskolnikov and asks him to arrange a meeting with Dunya, but he refuses.
At Dunya’s request, Raskolnikov and Razumikhin come to Rodion’s family’s hotel in the evening, where they meet Luzhin. The latter loses his temper and a quarrel breaks out. Dunya with dignity asks him to leave. This is where the relationship between Dunya and Luzhin ends.
After the meeting, Raskolnikov asks his mother and sister to leave him alone until he himself wants to see them. Women don't understand what's happening. Razumikhin consoles them.
Late in the evening (after eleven o'clock) Raskolnikov comes to Sonya's home in her room to talk one-on-one. He promises to tell her at the next meeting who killed the old woman and Lizaveta. Svidrigailov overhears this conversation. He understands that Raskolnikov is a murderer.

Day 10 (July 17)

Part 4, chapter 5 - part 5, chapter 5

At 11 a.m., Raskolnikov comes to Porfiry Petrovich’s office regarding the things pawned from the old woman. Porfiry hints to him that he knows about his crime.
Mikolka is brought into Porfiry’s office, calling himself the murderer of the pawnbroker.
A tradesman who called him a murderer comes to Raskolnikov and asks for forgiveness.
Luzhin gives Sonya 10 rubles in the form of help, but at the same time secretly puts 100 rubles in her pocket.
During the wake, Luzhin accuses Sonya of stealing 100 rubles. Lebezyatnikov stands up for the girl and talks about Luzhin’s meanness.
After the wake, Raskolnikov goes to Sonya and tells her the truth about his crime. Sonya advises him to confess to the police.
Lebezyatnikov comes to Sonya’s apartment and reports about Katerina Ivanovna’s insanity.
Sister Dunya comes to Raskolnikov. She knows that her brother is suspected of murder, but she herself does not believe in these rumors.

Days 11 and 12 (July 17-18)

Part 6, chapter 6 - part 6, chapter 5

Raskolnikov wakes up at lunchtime and realizes that he is late for Katerina Ivanovna's funeral.
Razumikhin comes to Raskolnikov and tells him that Mikolka has been “taken” and that the case has been solved. Razumikhin also says that Dunya received a strange letter from Svidrigailov today.
Investigator Porfiry Petrovich tells Raskolnikov that he is convinced of his guilt. He promises Raskolnikov to commute his sentence if he confesses within two days.
Raskolnikov goes to see Svidrigailov at the hotel, but meets him at the tavern. Svidrigailov hints to Raskolnikov that he knows about his crime.
Svidrigailov lures Dunya to his apartment, where he talks about the overheard conversation between Sonya and her brother. He offers her a deal: he will save her brother if Dunya agrees to be with him. Dunya is angry and tries to leave, but finds that the door is locked from the inside. Then she takes out a revolver and shoots at Svidrigailov, but misses. Having finally realized that the girl will never love him, Svidrigailov lets her go.
The long-awaited rain fell in St. Petersburg.
Svidrigailov gives Sonya 3,000 rubles so that she can start a new life and leave the “indecent profession.”
Svidrigailov gives his young bride 15,000 rubles. Then he goes to the hotel where he spends the night.

Day 14 (July 20)

Part 6, chapter 6 - 8

At night, Svidrigailov has nightmares, and at dawn he leaves the hotel on the street and commits suicide.
At 7 pm Raskolnikov goes to his sister and mother at the hotel, but finds only his mother. He tries to calm the mother, who feels her son’s suffering, but does not know the whole truth. Raskolnikov tells his mother about his love for her.
Dunya confesses to her brother that she knows from Sonya about his crime.
Having met Sonya for the last time, Raskolnikov goes to the office, where, on the second attempt, he confesses to the crime he committed.

Part one

Chapter 1

The main character of the novel, 23-year-old Rodion Raskolnikov, is in a difficult financial situation.
He hasn’t paid for his creepy rented room, which looks “more like a closet than an apartment,” for four months now, and he’s hiding from the landlady. Due to lack of money, he was forced to quit his studies at St. Petersburg University. “He was so poorly dressed that another, even an ordinary person, would have been ashamed to go out into the street in such rags during the day... The quarter was such that it was difficult to surprise anyone with a suit here.”
- about Raskolnikov
Raskolnikov goes to Alena Ivanovna, a famous old woman pawnbroker, to pawn his father’s silver watch with her. In fact, pawning the watch is only a pretext: visiting Raskolnikov is a test of circumstances. The student has been hatching a plan for a long time. He promises Alena Ivanovna to come after a while to pawn a silver cigarette case. As it turns out later, he planned murder:

"Oh my God! how disgusting it all is! And really, really I... no, this is nonsense, this is absurdity! - he added decisively. “And could such horror really come into my head?” However, what filth is my heart capable of! The main thing: dirty, dirty, disgusting, disgusting!.. And I, for a whole month... - Raskolnikov about his plan

Chapter 2

On Sennaya Square, Raskolnikov enters one of the many taverns.
There he notices an unusual person for the establishment, who looks like a retired official, only greatly impoverished. It turns out that this is titular councilor Semyon Marmeladov, who has drunk himself. “A man of about fifty, of average height and heavy build, with graying hair and a large bald spot, with a yellow, even greenish face swollen from constant drunkenness and with swollen eyelids, from behind which tiny, like slits, but animated reddish eyes shone.” — about Marmeladov

Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov the story of his life. He talks about poverty and misery, about society. Several years ago, out of pity, he married Katerina Ivanovna, an officer’s daughter, who, after the death of her husband, was left without a livelihood with three small children in her arms. At first they lived a normal life, but three years ago Marmeladov was laid off and he started drinking. As a result, he reached the last stage - he began to take the last things out of the house. His daughter from his first marriage, 18-year-old Sonya, was even forced to sell her body so that the family could have food. Marmeladov feels guilty, but at the same time admits that at the moment he drinks with the 30 kopecks he begged from his daughter, although he knows that this is her last money.

Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov in the series “Crime and Punishment” (2007)

Raskolnikov accompanies the drunken Marmeladov home, and is amazed at the total poverty of the Marmeladovs. Katerina Ivanovna begins to scold her husband for drinking away his last money again, she beats him, and Marmeladov declares that this is “a joy” for him, and Raskolnikov, not wanting to get involved in a quarrel, leaves, for reasons unknown to himself, leaving them some change on the windowsill .

Chapter 3

Raskolnikov receives a letter from his mother from which he learns that his sister Dunya was slandered by certain landowners Svidrigailov, for whom she served as a governess. Svidrigailov began to persistently pester the girl, which became known to his wife, Marfa Petrovna, who blamed Dunya for everything and began to spread rumors about her. Dunya returned to her mother's house. Soon Marfa Petrovna learned the whole truth from her husband and apologized to Dunya, but in order to eliminate her rival she brought her together with her St. Petersburg relative Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin. Dunya agrees to marry him, and together with her mother they are going to move to St. Petersburg.

Chapter 4

After reading the letter, Raskolnikov understands that marriage to Luzhin is an act of self-sacrifice by Dunya in order to save the family from poverty. He cannot accept this sacrifice, and at the same time he realizes that he cannot forbid his sister to marry the court councilor. Gradually, his thoughts again lead him to the plan that worries him (the murder of the pawnbroker).

Chapter 5

Raskolnikov walks on the islands.
Entering the tavern, he eats a pie and drinks vodka, but since he hasn’t drunk alcohol for a long time, he immediately gets drunk and doesn’t make it home. He falls asleep in the bushes. Raskolnikov has a terrible dream about a horse: as a child, he and his father witnessed a terrible scene. Now it returns in all the sadistic details: brutal drunken men in pleasure beat to death a skinny horse that cannot carry a heavy cart. In tears of powerlessness and horror, little Rodya rushes to the dead horse, kisses it, and throws himself at the man (this dream is very important for understanding how Raskolnikov’s theory affects his psyche). Upon awakening, he again returns his thoughts to the “plan”. He feels like he can't handle it. On Sennaya he meets Lizaveta, the pawnbroker's sister. He accidentally hears that the next day at seven o'clock Alena Ivanovna will be home alone. For Raskolnikov, what he heard is a sign. He decides to kill.

Chapter 6

The history of the origin of Raskolnikov’s “plan” becomes clear: some time ago he accidentally witnessed a conversation between an unfamiliar officer and a student.
They discussed the pawnbroker Alena Ivanovna and her half-sister, Lizaveta. “...you can always get money from her. She’s rich like a Jew, she can give out five thousand at once, and she doesn’t disdain a ruble mortgage... She’s just a terrible bitch... And he began to tell how angry and capricious she is... She gives four times less than the thing is worth, and takes five and even seven percent a month, etc. The student blabbed and said, in addition, that the old woman has a sister, Lizaveta, whom she, so small and disgusting, beats every minute and keeps in complete enslavement, like a small child...” - an unknown student about the pawnbroker and Lizaveta
Raskolnikov, who had become very superstitious at that time, also hears that this pawnbroker is not worthy of life, and if someone killed her, then her money could help many people in need.
This is how Rodion conceived an insidious “idea” that would radically change his whole life. Arriving home, Raskolnikov, being in a state close to delirium, begins to prepare for murder. The young man sewed a loop for the ax on the inside of the coat under the left armpit so that when the coat was put on, the ax would not be visible. Then he took out a “pledge” hidden in the gap between the sofa and the floor - a tablet the size of a cigarette case, wrapped in paper and tied with a ribbon, which he was going to give to the old woman to distract attention. Having finished the preparations, Rodion stole an ax from the janitor's room and went to the old woman.

Chapter 7

Raskolnikov comes to the old money-lender. He fears that his excitement will be strongly felt and the suspicious Alena Ivanovna will not let him in, but she accepts the “pledge” - a tablet and spends a long time trying to unpack it. Hearing her lamentations about the tight ribbon, Raskolnikov decides not to hesitate and hits her on the crown of the head with his butt. The pawnbroker silently sinks to the floor, and for some reason Rodion hits her again, although she already dies from the first one. Then the young man quickly takes the keys from her pocket, goes into the room and empties her chest. Unexpectedly, Lizaveta, the old woman’s sister, arrives: not foreseeing this, Raskolnikov kills her too. Having barely mastered himself, Rodion washes the blood from the axe, hands and boots and prepares to leave the apartment, but hears that visitors have come to Alena Ivanovna. After waiting until they leave, Rodion himself quickly leaves the pawnbroker’s apartment. Returning home, he returns the ax and, going into his room, without undressing, fell into oblivion on the bed.

Epilogue

The narrative of the novel ends with the confession episode. In the epilogue, the author briefly describes the events that took place over the next year and a half:

Raskolnikov's mother died of a nervous breakdown a few months after the trial. She did not know the truth about her son, but, apparently, she guessed something.
Dunya married Razumikhin 2 months after the trial.
Raskolnikov's trial took place 5 months after his confession. He was given 8 years of hard labor in Siberia. The punishment was commuted thanks to a confession (as Porfiry promised).
Sonya followed Raskolnikov to Siberia.