Crime and Punishment Chapter 4 Summary

Summary

Raskolnikov reads his mother’s letter and reacts with immediate, bitter certainty: he will never accept Avdotya Romanovna’s (Dounia’s) marriage to Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin. The letter crystallises long‑standing anxieties about his family’s poverty and dependence, and he mentally catalogues the humiliations and practical injustices the match would bring. He alternates between fierce denunciation of Luzhin’s stinginess and mockery of his family’s hopeful blindness, and he rails at the idea that his sister might sacrifice moral dignity to secure material benefit for their household. Tormented, he insists that something must be done at once rather than continue in passive worry.

Unable to settle, Raskolnikov walks the K—— Boulevard seeking a seat and is drawn to a shocking sight: a very young, apparently respectable girl utterly drunk, her dress torn and put on awry. He notices a dandy watching her with predatory intent and tries to intervene, provoking a confrontation; a policeman separates them. Raskolnikov gives the constable money and argues the girl has been deceived and must be protected, but when the girl, half awake, staggers away with the dandy following on another avenue, the policeman turns to let them go. Raskolnikov experiences a sudden revulsion and then resignation, berating himself for having spent the twenty copecks and for his impulse to help. He sits and reflects on what drove him out—his mother’s letter and his unresolved duty to his family—and decides he was originally bound for Razumihin’s lodgings, recalling that Razumihin is one of the few friends with whom he is open.

Key events

1. Raskolnikov reads his mother's letter and condemns Luzhin's proposed marriage to Dounia.
2. He bitterly analyses his family's motives, poverty, and the likely consequences of the match.
3. A sudden compulsion drives him to walk the boulevard to sit and think.
4. He finds a young, drunk girl with a torn dress and sees a dandy watching her.
5. Raskolnikov confronts the dandy, is stopped by a policeman, and gives twenty copecks.
6. The girl leaves with the dandy; the policeman follows them and dismisses Raskolnikov.
7. Raskolnikov sits down, chastises himself, and remembers he was going to visit Razumikhin.

Analysis

This chapter intensifies Raskolnikov’s inner crisis and connects his private moral anguish to a public moral scene. The mother’s letter functions as a catalyst: long‑held anxieties about poverty, family duty, and moral compromise crystallise into an urgent need for action. Dostoevsky uses interior monologue to map Raskolnikov’s oscillations between righteous indignation, contempt, self‑reproach and fatalism—establishing his psychological complexity and radical sensitivity to humiliation and sacrifice. The episode with the drunken girl externalises his moral turmoil: she functions as a living symbol of social vulnerability and the consequences of deceit and vice—possible futures he fears for women like Dounia or Sonia. The dandy (implied to be Svidrigaïlov) registers as a recurring threatening presence; his watching foreshadows ongoing confrontations around exploitation and power. The policeman’s practical but limited compassion and Raskolnikov’s abrupt reversal—first attempting rescue, then resigning to inaction and berating himself—highlight the theme of paralysis versus action. Structurally, the scene breaks the introspective monologue with vivid street drama, anchoring philosophical anxieties in a concrete moral test and preparing for Raskolnikov’s next outward steps (visiting Razumikhin). The narrative technique moves between free indirect discourse and direct dialogue, keeping readers close to Raskolnikov’s shifting consciousness while presenting social detail that frames his ethical dilemmas.

Important quotes

““Never such a marriage while I am alive and Mr. Luzhin be damned!””

NarratorRaskolnikov’s immediate, vehement reaction on reading his mother’s letter about Dounia’s proposed marriage to Luzhin; it reveals his protective rage and resolve.

““But what are you going to do to prevent it? You’ll forbid it? And what right have you?””

NarratorRaskolnikov’s self‑challenge when his vow to stop the marriage collides with the practical limits of his power and dependence on his family.

““Poor girl!””

NarratorRaskolnikov’s sudden compassion upon realising the young drunk woman’s likely ruin—this moment externalises his concern for vulnerable women and social degradation.

Characters in Chapter 4

• Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin
• Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova
• Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikova
• Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov
• Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin
• Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova
• Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov
• Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov