Plot Summary
On a sweltering July evening in St. Petersburg, a destitute young man named Raskolnikov slips out of his cramped garret to avoid his landlady, to whom he is hopelessly in debt. He walks through the oppressive heat and squalid streets toward the apartment of an elderly pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, counting exactly seven hundred and thirty steps from his door. Though he tells himself this visit is merely a "rehearsal," his agitation reveals it as something far more serious. At Alyona Ivanovna's flat, Raskolnikov pawns his father's silver watch for a meager rouble and fifteen copecks, all while carefully observing the layout of the rooms, noting where the old woman keeps her keys and what kind of locks secure her belongings. He asks casually whether her sister Lizaveta is home. Leaving in a state of intense self-disgust, Raskolnikov denounces his own thoughts as "loathsome" and "filthy," yet stumbles into a basement tavern where a glass of beer temporarily calms his nerves—though he senses even this relief is not normal.
Character Development
Raskolnikov is introduced as a young man of contradictions: exceptionally handsome and refined, yet dressed in rags; intellectually proud, yet paralyzed by indecision. His isolation is both involuntary and self-imposed—he dreads meeting anyone, not from cowardice but from an "overstrained irritable condition" bordering on hypochondria. His internal monologues reveal a mind that oscillates between grandiose ambition ("all is in a man's hands") and crippling self-doubt ("I chatter because I do nothing"). Alyona Ivanovna emerges as a sharp, suspicious woman described in repulsive physical terms—withered, grizzled, with a neck "like a hen's leg"—who drives a hard bargain. Her half-sister Lizaveta, though absent, is characterized through her meticulous housekeeping.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter establishes several central themes that will drive the novel. Alienation and isolation dominate Raskolnikov's psychology as he withdraws from all human contact. Poverty and its degradation pervade every detail—from his cupboard-like garret to the stinking streets near the Hay Market. The tension between theory and action is introduced through Raskolnikov's wavering between his carefully planned "project" and his visceral revulsion at carrying it out. The motif of heat and suffocation mirrors his trapped mental state, while the recurring color yellow—in the wallpaper, furniture, picture frames, and Alyona's fur cape—creates an atmosphere of sickness and decay.
Literary Devices
Dostoevsky employs third-person limited narration that stays so close to Raskolnikov's consciousness that readers experience his feverish, fragmentary thought processes directly. Foreshadowing saturates the chapter: the mysterious references to "a thing like that" and "the project," the careful observation of keys and locks, and the question about Lizaveta all point toward the planned crime without naming it. The pathetic fallacy of the oppressive summer heat externalizes Raskolnikov's inner torment. Irony appears in his final tavern scene, where he dismisses his anguish as mere "physical derangement" while the narrator notes his cheerfulness is "also not normal." The precise detail of 730 steps underscores Raskolnikov's obsessive, calculating nature even as he claims to be merely fantasizing.