Crime and Punishment Chapter 1 Summary

Summary

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov wakes from a feverish sleep late in the morning, suddenly recollecting the previous night's events with a rush of terror. He inspects his clothes and pockets, finds congealed blood and the stolen purse among other items, and hurriedly stuffs them into a hole behind the paper in his room, then alternately panics and collapses back into delirium. Repeated fits of shivering and a compulsive desire to dispose of the stained rags and sock plague him; he attempts to hide and then to discard the traces but is physically weak and feverish.

A loud knocking brings Nastasya Petrovna and the porter, who deliver a sealed notice summoning him to the police office. Raskolnikov, distraught, opens the notice and learns he must appear that day, prompting frantic dressing and conflicted decisions about the stained sock. At the police-station he endures the stifling heat and a bustling, officious bureaucracy. He is confronted by clerks including Ilya Petrovitch and the superintendent Nikodim Fomitch, and reads a writ for recovery of a debt (an I O U) brought by his landlady’s circle; the legal matter provides a temporary, almost absurd, relief from his inner horror. During the hearing he grows agitated, speaks impulsively about his poverty and past relations with his landlady’s household, and then faints. When he recovers, Nikodim Fomitch questions him briefly about his movements; though the officers debate possible aspects of a recent violent incident discussed in the office, they finally release him. Raskolnikov rushes home convinced the police will search his room immediately and is once more seized by terror.

Key events

1. Raskolnikov wakes from a fever and suddenly remembers the previous night.
2. He finds bloodstains on his clothes and in his pockets and hides stolen items in a hole in the wall.
3. Nastasya Petrovna and the porter deliver a sealed summons to the police-station.
4. At the police office Raskolnikov is told the summons concerns an I O U and debt recovery.
5. A loud quarrel in the office entertains and agitates him; he speaks about his poverty and past promise.
6. He faints during the proceeding; on recovery he is briefly questioned and released.
7. Raskolnikov hurries home, convinced the police will conduct a search of his lodging.

Analysis

This chapter plunges readers directly into Raskolnikov’s fractured mental state and establishes the novel’s psychological intensity. The scene alternates between internal panic and external, banal bureaucracy, contrasting private guilt with public administrative procedure. The repeated shivering, fever, and compulsive checking dramatize his paranoia and physical vulnerability; small details (the bloody sock, torn lining, rags) function as tangible symbols of the crime’s persistent traces that refuse to be mentally suppressed. The police-station episode reframes immediate danger as a conventional legal problem (an I O U), giving Raskolnikov a fleeting, almost absurd relief — an important structural move that delays moral reckoning while heightening inward tension.

Narratively, the chapter uses close third-person focalization that stays tightly with Raskolnikov’s perceptions, so the reader experiences his confusion and intermittent lucidity. The hectic office scene exposes social types (the pompous assistant, the affectations of Luise Ivanovna) against which Raskolnikov feels alienated, reinforcing his sense of isolation. Foreshadowing appears in the officers’ discussion of a recent violent incident and in his conviction that a search will follow: both suggest the external consequences of inner acts are imminent. The mixture of grotesque comedy (the scandalous lady) and mounting dread also establishes Dostoevsky’s technique of moral irony, where social triviality collides with existential crisis.

Important quotes

“All at once, in one flash, he recollected everything.”

NarratorMarks the instant when Raskolnikov’s scattered memories of the previous night return, triggering panic and feverish action.

“They’re in! All out of sight, and the purse too!”

Rodion Romanovich RaskolnikovHis brief elation after stuffing the stolen items into the hole, immediately followed by horror at the improvised concealment.

“A search—there will be a search at once,”

Rodion Romanovich RaskolnikovHis closing thought as he hurries home, convinced that the police suspect him and will search his room.

Characters in Chapter 1

• Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov
• Nastasya Petrovna
• porter
• Ilya Petrovitch
• head clerk
• Nikodim Fomitch
• Luise Ivanovna
• widow Zarnitsyn
• Mr. Tchebarov
• Pestryakov
• Koch
• Karl
• Henriette
• Alexandr Grigorievitch