Part 5: Chapter 1 - 4

It became evident at the beginning of this section the true nature of Luzhin. I originally thought that Raskolnikov was just being paranoid in thinking that he just wanted to marry his sister for social standing, not out of true love. When the engagement is broken off, Luzhin immediately ages about all of the money he lost on the wedding and fixtures for their new house and life together. This shows that he did not truly care about Dunya, as Raskolnikov suspected. The entire affair of the funeral I thought to be very strange. It did not appear to have the atmosphere that one would expect at a funeral, one of sadness and grief. Instead, this funeral seemed to be focused around class distinction. Raskolnikov paid for most of the funeral, but it was Katerina who spent the entire time insulting the people who attending Marmeldadov’s memorial for their lowly social standing when compared to her. Furthermore, the incident with the money regarding Luzhin and Sonya confused me. Not only did this part seem completely irrelevant to the plot of the story as a whole, but I did not truthfully understand what was going on. From what I gathered from my analysis, Luzhin slipped a bill into Sonya’s pocket while she wasn’t looking to make her and Raskolnikov look like stupid thieves. This obviously is not true and then Lebezyatnikov clears the whole matter confirming that Luzhin was lying about the entire affair. This seemed to be the end of Luzhin’s admiration by the community as everyone has just seen him not only lie and try to humiliate two others, but embarrass himself in futile attempts to clear his name. This portion of my reading ended in rather a surprising note, Raskolnikov’s confession of the crime to an understanding Sonya. This incident seemed to be evidence of Raskolnikov’s mental health reaching a more stable point as discussed in my last few blog entries. He seems to trust Sonya enough to admit to something that he has been zealously trying to conceal, showing that he truly cares about her. His reasoning for the crime, never really explained in the early “crime” of the book, is said to be that he wished to prove that he was able to go against all moral codes that bind society like Napoleon. Sonya seems to believe that the entire affair is relating to Raskolnikov’s meek faith and connection to God. I end this reading anticipating that Raskolnikov will turn himself in as Sonya suggested, a very surprising plot twist.