Crime and Punishment: Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Zossimov is a young man of 27, well-dressed, with an imperious air. Zossimov examines Raskolnikov and determines that he is getting better, although he should continue to rest and avoid unnecessary agitation. Razumikhin reminds Zossimov of his housewarming party that night and expresses a desire that Raskolnikov be permitted to attend. Porfiry, a police inspector and investigator and distant relative of Razumikhin’s, has been invited, along with Zamyotov the clerk.

Zossimov begins to criticize Zamyotov for “having an open palm” (being open to bribes), and Razumikhin interrupts to say he is defending the house-painters in the case of the old woman and Lizaveta. Raskolnikov is again disturbed at mention of the murder and turns on his sofa to face the wall. Razumikhin believes the house-painters are innocent, and that they have been unfairly accused by Koch and Pestryakov, the young officer.

Zossimov asks why the painters are under suspicion. Razumikhin informs him that Mikolai, one of the painters, pawned off two gold earrings he claimed to have found “on the sidewalk” on the day of the murders. The man to whom he pawned them, Dushkin, heard of the murders and questioned him—Mikolai rain away, was later arrested, and even attempted to hang himself in police custody.

Finally, after the investigators asked why Mikolai was afraid of the police if he was innocent of the murders, he said he’d initially lied: he found the earrings in the apartment they were painting, after having ducked outside during an argument with Mitka (Mitrei), the other painter. Raskolnikov sits up and asks where the earrings were found, realizing they must have fallen from his pockets when he hid from Koch and Pestryakov. Mikolai is still in custody for the murders, although Razumikhin believes in his innocence, since he knows further “psychological” evidence in their favor.

Razumikhin claims that numerous witnesses attest to seeing the painters fighting in the building’s courtyard (this is the same squabble drawing the painters out of the apartment, allowing Raskolnikov to enter and hide). Razumikhin argues that their playful fighting is not in keeping with the horrible nature of the murder, which would have occurred just previously. He believes this evidence outweighs the disputable physical evidence the earrings appear to provide. Razumikhin deduces that the real murderer dropped the earrings while avoiding detection. Zossimov finds this explanation clever, “like a stage-play.”