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Deep Analysis of Crime and Punishment: The Pain Threshold (Pt. I Ch. III-VI) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-04-09 17:40:10
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Part One of Crime and Punishment is just the beginning of Raskolnikov's sick reckoning.

But at what point does he seal his fate? 

Right before or after he brings the butt-end of the axe down upon Alyona? After cleaving Lizaveta? Or further back, whenever he starts stewing upon these ideas of transcending thresholds?

And what's your impression at the end of Part One?

What lies ahead?

Topic timestamps:

  • 0:00 Meeting Marmeladov  
  • 1:40 Dostoyevsky's dark realism  
  • 2:50 where's the money? 
  • 4:00 looking into the abyss  
  • 6:20 Viktor Frankl and suffering 
  • 8:30 Van Gogh's Starry Night 
  • 11:20 identifying with Raskolnikov  
  • 14:00 how Dostoyevsky creates suspense 
  • 18:20 Dunya's angelic pain threshold (and endurance) 
  • 21:00 love as an imperative  
  • 21:40 Dunya and Juliet ("the more I give to thee, the more I have") 
  • 29:00 how to hack your mood and emotions  
  • 32:00 is one life worth more than another? 
  • 37:00 utilitarianism  
  • 41:00 the murder scene  
  • 44:00 the act of hiding is the climax

Happy reading!


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Deep Analysis of Crime and Punishment: The Pain Threshold (Pt. I Ch. III-VI)

0:00 Meeting Marmeladov 1:40 Dostoyevsky's dark realism 2:50 where's the money? 4:00 looking into the abyss 6:20 Viktor Frankl and suffering 8:30 Van Gogh's Starry Night 11:20 identifying with Raskolnikov 14:00 how Dostoyevsky creates suspense 18:20 Dunya's angelic pain threshold (and endurance) 21:00 love as an imperative 21:40 Dunya and Juliet ("the more I give to thee, the more I have") 29:00 how to hack your mood and emotions 32:00 is one life worth more than another? 37:00 utilitarianism 41:00 the murder scene 44:00 the act of hiding is the climax

Comments

Daniel green

I realise I’m like 2 years late to all this but who cares. This is some rubbish I wrote about chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 4 - Raskolnikov reflects on the letter. He thinks that Pyotr Petrovich is a disgrace. Just in the surface, the fact he will not pay for the travel of his family is pathetic. He sees right through Pyotr, unlike his poor mother and sister. But the real ‘fruit’ of the problem, as it were, is that his sister, Dunya, is marrying him, doing all this, for Raskolnikov. She is sacrificing himself for him. He talks about this is a very mocking tone to her ‘it’s hard to ascend Golgotha.’ He almost imagine her saying, talking about how hard this religious momentous sacrifice is for her. Yet he doesn’t want her to. He thinks it ridiculous that she is doing such a thing. It repulses him. He compares it to Sonechka, Marmeladov’s wife who sacrifices herself for her children and Marmeladov himself. About how these people do not understand that they should not be cowards and should live for themselves. Follow their own desires for once. I feel like here some of his own thoughts appear about how he wants to follow his own desires of murder and violence. He starts to believe in following your desires. Listening to the freudian Id. To his mothers desire for this relationship, he finds her disgraceful that she should be happy to sacrifice her daughter for the sake of his son. So happy for it all. I personally do not understand where quite all of this has come from in Raskolnikov and think it quite out of place, but I do not know his mother and sister so maybe I am wrong in believing that they are just simply trying to help him, but not just help him, they are happy with the marriage and see it as a side positive almost that they can help him. They just got carried away thinking about the idea of him being a partner With Pyotr. The writing in this part seems to me to be almost scriptureesque. How he talks in such an ‘all knowing’ sarcastic tone. The use of religious imagery and references also helps to paint this picture too I guess. But, anyway, the writing is really effective at providing the emphasis on what Raskolnikov seems to want to convey. How shocked he is at the letter, and how ridiculous his family are being. The use of questions is effective too. Raskolnikov thinks by asking himself a question then answering it, showing us how his mind works in thought. Then he encounters the drunk young girl. He doesn’t know what to do, I think in his mind tossing over helping her, or raping her. Then he sees a man who he can tell is thinking of doing the latter. A liar can spot a liar: he can spot his intentions without needing to see much. This angers him, acts as a mirror so he gets angry at the man for he doesn’t like what he shows in himself. Then the policeman arrives and he gets the policeman to step in and help out. Again appearances here play an important part. The man looking to take advantage of the girl is described as fat but well dressed. The police office in contrast is destined be good looking and respectable. Anyway, he denounces the dandy to the policeman, then leaves, but finally says to let the dandy have her. Who cares. It’s not his job to step in the way of moral dilemas. So be it. He gets angry at himself. There is also then talk about prostitution again. About the view that a percentage of women will undoubtedly resort to that life and die away young and suffer. That’s just a fact of life. Raskolnikov struggles with this as he thinks it inhumane. Imagine if your sister was part of that statistic. Would it then just be a fact of life to you? It ends with Raskolnikov trying to return to his senses, after much deep thought he has forgotten where he is going and why, and he walks on to his fellow student friends house. Chapter 5- this was a great chapter. Starts off with Raskolnikov wondering why he is walking to his old friends, even if it is for some money, what good is money to him now, now that his soul is corrupt. He decides he will visit him after ‘that’. After he has murdered katerina Ivanovna. Then he realises that in his mind he has already accepted he is going to murder her, deep down he knows it. But still on the surface he is shocked by these allegations, and how strong and sure they are now getting. He starts to get what seems like a fever, he is losing his senses, physically but also mentally, as he approaches the nicer posher area of Petersburg. The island is fresh and green and nice, but he soon gets frustrated with it, he doesn’t belong there. He belongs in his dirty corner. His thoughts belong in that dirty corner, where he cannot yet bear to return to. Then he falls into the dream, seemingly a fever dream with its vividness, topic matter and rememberability. I’m not too sure about what the full meaning of the dream is. He is a young child in the dream, insinuating innocence, and he is afraid of taverns and drunkeness, which he has now fallen into. I think in the dream he sees pure evil, a crowd drunkenly beating a horse to death, whipping it’s eyes and mouth. The horrible thoughts which he owns solidify his thoughts that he must do what is on his mind. The method also comes to him in the dream when one bystander says to use an axe and bring it over the horses head to finish her off quickly, like how he wants to finish off his thoughts. He wakes up and realises this all. Then Raskolnikov starts to realise that he will not endure murdering the woman (potential foreshadowing). He looks to god for help. I then believe god tests him, he gives Raskolnikov the clear opportunity to murder Ivanovna in the haymarkets (the dirties place of all). He gives the decision to Raskolnikov, it is up to him. However Raskolnikov believes it is not up to him but fate. He walks away from it ‘like a man condemned to death’ with no freedom of choice. I believe Dostoyevsky poses the questions of: how much control do you have over your own fate? And what is the role of god in helping you out when you ask for his help? I think Raskolnikov’s mind has been so dirtied he can only think of killing her, and it obsesses him so much he feel like he has to do it to free his mind and soul.

Daniel green

And then here is 6 and 7. Definitely writing more than I thought I would be. I feel like there is just so much to say about this book, it’s really dense and thought provoking. Chapter 6: This chapter really builds the tension to the murder. To start with there is the talk about Lizaveta and Alonya Ivanovna. He hears how Lizaveta is an honest good hard working person who is tormented by her seemingly evil older half sister. After over hearing a conversation on it Raskolnikov butts in and suggest how murdering her would be a good thing, for the greater good. ‘Would thousands of good deeds make up for one tiny little crime’ he argues to himself really. He also describes it as ‘simple arithmetic’ almost taking the emotion out of the ordeal. The counter argued by the stranger in the tavern is him asking Raskolnikov whether he would actually kill the old woman himself? And if he can’t then he shouldn’t speak on the ordeal if he is not willing to take the guilt. We see the early seeds for the crimes really start to be planted here. Also, like as is throughout the novel so far, appearances play an important part. Lizaveta is described like Raskolnikov and also slightly katerina Ivanovna, where they are young and good looking but in such poverty that it is hard to see the beauty. She is attractive to men, which it seems most of the good and respectable characters are, by Dostoyevsky’s doing, conscious or not. On the contrary, Alonya Ivanovna is describes as old and ugly, features associated with the other amoral dis likeable characters from the novels point of view. The chapter also contains a lot about fate. There is much that happens to Raskolnikov by ‘chance’ and also very frequent use of that word. It seems to crime is almost set up for him, by someone else. All the circumstances aligning perfectly at seemingly every step. I look at this as one of two ways: either, as the previous idea, god testing Raskolnikov, setting up the situation for him to do the crime and leave it up to him, therefore insinuating it is his choice, or you can view it that it is not his choice whether he does the crime or not, he has been set up to do it and must follow fate. I like the first one personally. There are again talks about dreaming in this chapter, which are always important to analyse I feel. First, when he arrives back to his house from being out, he falls into a deep sleep and does not dream. I think this is because he has cleared his mind in a sense, he has decided that he will commit the crime and needs no further conversation over it. Then when he naps again he has a pleasant dream of a tropic warm savanah. In the dream everyone is sitting around happily eating like a utopia. This is in stark contrast to his fever dream the day before. Also I think this dream, along with a daydream he later has of setting up fountains to freshen up the air in public spaces, reflects his mind and his thoughts about murdering Alonya. They are similar as he feels like he is doing it for the greater good of society, and I think the dream exaggerates what life will be in his head after he murders her. Finally, to do with the crime himself, Raskolinikov chooses to obsess over details to avoid thinking about the crime. There is a nice line about the guilt he feels deep down ‘he could not go through the streets carting an axe in his hands’. Obviously that has a literal meaning as he doesn’t want to be caught, but I think it is also a metaphor for him not being able to carry the burden of guilt in his own hands. There are many further hints to him not being able to endure himself if he commits the crime, as there are throughout, though the decrease the further you get in because they are hidden more, but I think it is very obvious he will struggle to live with himself after the crime: what right do he have to murder her, step in and decide what is right and wrong. Chapter 7- What! Great ending to part 1. The main thing I want to talk about this chapter is about his control of his thoughts and actions. When I read it first, I was confused as it seemed like half the time he was very lucky and made many almost accidental correct decisions, and the other half he was unclear and making many errors. I thought before the murder, that god was giving him these opportunities to murder her to test his soul almost, however now in this chapter I think the devil was watching over him, and helping him out, as his occasional instincts which seems to not even come from him, and his luck, helped him to escape without being caught. It was as if something or someone was helping him, which we can only assume to be the devil. There is also very frequent mention to the devil, through light sayings, but none the less many mentions to it in this chapter and a lot less mentions of the lord. One way you could look at that is that, now he has committed the crime, the devil has taken control of him and is talking to him, as he has lost god. Alternatively it could have been the devil the whole time tempting him to this murder and it was his job to not give into the temptations. The other half of him made constant errors and his mind, his conscious mind at least, was a mess, like previously mentioned with criminals after committing a crime, which he thought would not happen to him. Initially this murkiness of his mind did not hit as he was clever and careful not to get blood on him when taking the keys out of the pocket, but then this sense left him quicker and quicker, the longer the ordeal went on, especially after murdering Lizaveta. He also had constant urges to leave and run away. His mind did not want to be there and deal with what had happened but he is seemingly unable to leave and misses a few opportunities in my opinion. I think this chapter was maybe one of the best written, with many interesting lines such as ‘blood poured out as from an overturned glass’ which I think gives great visual imagery and describing Lizaveta as being ‘white as a sheet’ and cowering like a child, I think shows off her innocence nicely. The third person narrative I think helped to give this chapter more tension and suspense too at points as you had some objective observations of what was going on with all of the characters. One other thing that I have noticed throughout the entirety of part 1 is a constant mention about steps. In chapter one it is about stepping over, stepping over into the world of crime I suppose. But throughout the other chapters steps are constantly mentioned, the specific amount of them needed to get somewhere, and I think these steps to me show the steps Raskolnikov takes to this destination at the end. The whole time he has been taking slow steps towards his fate. Maybe I’m reading to much into that but steps were definitely mentioned an interesting amount of times. Finally, at the end as Raskolnikov has returned home and lies down, he cannot focus on any one thought and does not know what to make of it yet. In the chapter he did not once think about the murders after them, he has had no time to process anything yet, so I look forward to the next chapters and how he processes them, especially in regards to Lizaveta’s death, which did actually shock me when it happened I can’t lie.