Crime and Punishment: Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Raskolnikov finds that he now wishes to be in the company of others. For the past month, he has spurned all company. He glances at the retired official, who appears ready to talk to him. The man has a face “swollen from drink” and is ill-shaved and dirty. He begins speaking to Raskolnikov, introducing himself as Marmeladov, a low-ranking civil servant. Raskolnikov begins explaining that he is a student, only to break off and experience “an irritable feeling of loathing.”

Marmeladov speaks eagerly. He says that poverty is not a vice, but total poverty, destitution, is indeed one. He also admits to having slept on the banks of the Neva the past five nights. The tavern’s owner and a worker laugh at Marmeladov, egging him on with questions about his life. Marmeladov begins a long, confused discussion of his problems: his wife, Katerina Ivanovna, was recently beaten by a man named Lebezyatnikov, whom Marmeladov had asked, in vain, for a loan. Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov that Katerina is of higher birth, the daughter of an officer, and describes himself as but a “brute.” Katerina is suffering from consumption (tuberculosis), but Marmeladov has spent all the family’s money on drink.

Marmeladov explains his problems more specifically, feeling that Raskolnikov is a “sorrowful” man and therefore might understand. Katerina was educated in a school for nobles and received a “certificate of merit” for her studies. This inherent nobility, according to Marmeladov, explains why she would not tolerate Lebezyatnikov’s “rudeness,” which Marmeladov does not describe further. Her recent comments to Lebezyatnikov caused him to beat her. Marmeladov goes on: he met Katerina when she was widowed with three children; her first husband, an officer, had gambling debts and died during a court proceeding. Marmeladov was also a widower with a fourteen-year-old daughter. He married Katerina and swore off drinking for one year.

But Marmeladov later lost his job and began drinking again. Over the next year and a half he found work intermittently and continued drinking, only to arrive in Petersburg, find a job, and lose it once more. He, Katerina, and the three young children live at Fyodorovna Lippewechsel’s house. Marmeladov then speaks of his daughter from his first marriage, Sonya, whom he tried to educate in her youth, before the family ran out of money.

Earlier Katerina complained that Sonya, old enough to work, was not contributing to the family’s welfare. Marmeladov tells of one night, when Sonya finally went out to work and returned after eight, presumably having prostituted herself for thirty roubles, which she gave to Katerina. Katerina accepted the money and kissed Sonya’s feet as Sonya wept in bed.

Sonya is forced to carry a “yellow pass,” indicating she is a prostitute. Marmeladov then reveals the source of the quarrel between Katerina and Lebezyatnikov. At first, Lebezyatnikov attempted to solicit Sonya, but he thought better of it and reported that it would not be honorable to live in the same apartment–house as a prostitute. Katerina took issue with this comment and spoke to Lebezyatnikov, who beat her. Sonya was therefore kicked out of the building; she now lives with a tailor Kapernaumov and his family, who are all “tongue-tied,” – sufferers of speech impediments.

Marmeladov went to his supervisor after Sonya’s dismissal and begged for one more chance at his job, which he was granted. Marmeladov’s new job changed the family dynamic entirely. Katerina, who formerly only loathed her husband, began cooking him more elaborate meals and mending his clothes. Sonya even visited him, but at night only, so as not to arouse suspicion. Katerina even became friendly again with the landlady, Amalia Fyodorovna, and told her, falsely, of Marmeladov’s important position at the office. Six days previous to his conversation with Raskolnikov, Marmeladov brought home his first salary, and his family situation seemed secure.

But Marmeladov’s alcoholism proved too much. He stole his salary from Katerina’s trunk and, for the past five days has been inebriated and sleeping outside. He even asked Sonya for a little extra money for a final bottle, which she gave him. Marmeladov drinks the last of that bottle before Raskolnikov and goes on a long rant, claiming that, though he does not deserve pity, he will nonetheless be forgiven by God, as will Sonya; he will be welcomed into heaven along with other sinners and fools.

After Marmeladov’s speech, Raskolnikov agrees to accompany him home. Marmeladov’s family lives in a subdivided corner of Amalia Lippewechsel’s fourth-floor apartment, and their living-space is cramped and filled with garbage and rags. Katerina, who is rather young but haggard and sickly in appearance, notices Raskolnikov and Marmeladov in the doorway and begins screaming at her husband, asking if he really took all the money, and dragging him by the hair into the main room. Marmeladov, being dragged, claims that his punishment “is a delight to him.”

Frau Lippewechsel arrives, announcing the family must leave the apartment immediately. Raskolnikov leaves unnoticed and places a handful of money from his own pocket on a windowsill. On his way out he regrets giving this money away but realizes he cannot take it back. He also comments to himself that man will become accustomed to even the lowliest of circumstances.