View Full Version : Can anyone clarify something...
Psynema
08-24-2008, 12:40 AM
Just started reading today, first five chapters...novel is a bit confusing to follow, but does anyone know at what point Rodia decides to kill the pawn lady? Is he sizing her up at the very beginning?
I know at the end of chapter 5 when he learns she'll be home alone is when he decides the time/place...but for how long was this thought in his head? Didn't see any hints beforehand so it feels like out of the blue, like info was missed/with held.
I know after the beating the horse dream, I was confused, because Rodia says something along the lines of "will I really do that to her" but at the time, didn't know who her was, and odd that he'd get that notion out of beating a horse.
bazarov
08-24-2008, 05:30 AM
That idea was in his head before the story started.
Gladys
08-24-2008, 06:55 AM
I know at the end of chapter 5 when he learns she'll be home alone is when he decides the time/place...but for how long was this thought in his head? Didn't see any hints beforehand How about the following half-way through Chapter 1?
"So the sun will shine like this /then/ too!" flashed as it were by chance through Raskolnikov's mind, and with a rapid glance he scanned everything in the room, trying as far as possible to notice and remember its arrangement.
---------
"It's in the houses of spiteful old widows that one finds such cleanliness," Raskolnikov thought again, and he stole a curious glance at the cotton curtain over the door leading into another tiny room, in which stood the old woman's bed and chest of drawers and into which he had never looked before.
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The old woman fumbled in her pocket for her keys, and disappeared behind the curtain into the other room. The young man, left standing alone in the middle of the room, listened inquisitively, thinking. He could hear her unlocking the chest of drawers.
"It must be the top drawer," he reflected. "So she carries the keys in a pocket on the right. All in one bunch on a steel ring. . . . And there's one key there, three times as big as all the others, with deep notches; that can't be the key of the chest of drawers . . . then there must be some other chest or strong-box . . . that's worth knowing. Strong-boxes always have keys like that . . . but how degrading it all is."
----------
"Good-bye--are you always at home alone, your sister is not here with you?" He asked her as casually as possible as he went out into the passage.
"What business is she of yours, my good sir?"
----------
Raskolnikov went out in complete confusion. This confusion became more and more intense. As he went down the stairs, he even stopped short, two or three times, as though suddenly struck by some thought. When he was in the street he cried out, "Oh, God, how loathsome it all is! and can I, can I possibly. . . . No, it's nonsense, it's rubbish!" he added resolutely. "And how could such an atrocious thing come into my head? What filthy things my heart is capable of. Yes, filthy above all, disgusting, loathsome, loathsome!--and for a whole month I've been. . . ." But no words, no exclamations, could express his agitation. The feeling of intense repulsion, which had begun to oppress and torture his heart while he was on his way to the old woman, had by now reached such a pitch and had taken such a definite form that he did not know what to do with himself to escape from his wretchedness. He walked along the pavement like a drunken man, regardless of the passers-by, and jostling against them, and only came to his senses when he was in the next street.
Psynema
08-24-2008, 07:59 AM
How about the following half-way through Chapter 1?
"So the sun will shine like this /then/ too!" flashed as it were by chance through Raskolnikov's mind, and with a rapid glance he scanned everything in the room, trying as far as possible to notice and remember its arrangement.
---------
"It's in the houses of spiteful old widows that one finds such cleanliness," Raskolnikov thought again, and he stole a curious glance at the cotton curtain over the door leading into another tiny room, in which stood the old woman's bed and chest of drawers and into which he had never looked before.
----------
The old woman fumbled in her pocket for her keys, and disappeared behind the curtain into the other room. The young man, left standing alone in the middle of the room, listened inquisitively, thinking. He could hear her unlocking the chest of drawers.
"It must be the top drawer," he reflected. "So she carries the keys in a pocket on the right. All in one bunch on a steel ring. . . . And there's one key there, three times as big as all the others, with deep notches; that can't be the key of the chest of drawers . . . then there must be some other chest or strong-box . . . that's worth knowing. Strong-boxes always have keys like that . . . but how degrading it all is."
----------
"Good-bye--are you always at home alone, your sister is not here with you?" He asked her as casually as possible as he went out into the passage.
"What business is she of yours, my good sir?"
----------
Raskolnikov went out in complete confusion. This confusion became more and more intense. As he went down the stairs, he even stopped short, two or three times, as though suddenly struck by some thought. When he was in the street he cried out, "Oh, God, how loathsome it all is! and can I, can I possibly. . . . No, it's nonsense, it's rubbish!" he added resolutely. "And how could such an atrocious thing come into my head? What filthy things my heart is capable of. Yes, filthy above all, disgusting, loathsome, loathsome!--and for a whole month I've been. . . ." But no words, no exclamations, could express his agitation. The feeling of intense repulsion, which had begun to oppress and torture his heart while he was on his way to the old woman, had by now reached such a pitch and had taken such a definite form that he did not know what to do with himself to escape from his wretchedness. He walked along the pavement like a drunken man, regardless of the passers-by, and jostling against them, and only came to his senses when he was in the next street.
Yeah that's kind'a vague IMO...oh well, I get it now. Damn, now there's a german lady with the same surname as the murder victim at the station...LOL.
Gladys
08-24-2008, 07:05 PM
now there's a german lady with the same surname as the murder victim at the [police] station Funny that. I looked up 'Ivanovna' while writing my previous post. Part of the enjoyment of reading Russian novels?
In summary:
Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova – Semyon Marmeladov's consumptive and ill-tempered second wife
Alyona Ivanovna – Suspicious old pawnbroker
Lizaveta Ivanovna – Alyona's simple and innocent sister
Luise Ivanovna - a German lady at the police station
Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov – Wealthy former employer and pursuer of Dunya
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