Plot Summary
Raskolnikov wakes late in his cramped, squalid garret room, bilious and ill-tempered. The servant Nastasya brings him tea and cabbage soup, and the two share a brief, revealing exchange: she chides him for lying about doing nothing, he claims he is "thinking," and when she asks whether he wants a fortune, he answers with unsettling firmness, "Yes, I want a fortune." Nastasya then mentions that the landlady Praskovya Pavlovna intends to report him to the police for unpaid rent. More importantly, she reveals that a letter arrived for him the previous day. Raskolnikov seizes the letter with desperate excitement and sends Nastasya away so he can read it alone.
The letter, from his mother Pulcheria Alexandrovna, constitutes the bulk of the chapter. She explains that his sister Dunya has been working as a governess for the Svidrigailov family, where the master of the house developed an illicit passion for her. After Marfa Petrovna, Svidrigailov's wife, wrongly accused Dunya and publicly shamed her, the truth eventually emerged through a letter Dunya had written rejecting Svidrigailov's advances. Marfa Petrovna then reversed course, going from house to house restoring Dunya's reputation. Now Dunya has accepted a marriage proposal from Pyotr Petrovitch Luzhin, a forty-five-year-old lawyer and counsellor who is "well-to-do" but whose views on marriage reveal a desire for a wife who will feel indebted to him. Pulcheria expresses hope that Luzhin will employ Raskolnikov and that the whole family will soon reunite in St. Petersburg.
When Raskolnikov finishes reading, his face is "pale and distorted" with a "bitter, wrathful and malignant smile." He leaves his room in a state of agitation, muttering aloud to himself as he walks the streets, so disturbed that passersby take him for a drunk.
Character Development
This chapter deepens our understanding of Raskolnikov through contrast. His exchange with Nastasya shows his pride and grandiose self-image—he refuses to accept that he is idle and insists he is doing important "thinking." His intense reaction to his mother's letter reveals the emotional bonds that still tether him to ordinary human feeling, even as his darker intellectual ambitions pull him away.
Pulcheria Alexandrovna emerges as a loving but anxious mother who conceals painful truths to protect her son. Dunya is revealed as a woman of extraordinary strength and self-sacrifice who endured humiliation to support her brother financially. Svidrigailov, though absent, is introduced as a morally dissolute figure, and Luzhin is sketched as a calculating man whose generosity is laced with condescension.
Themes and Motifs
The central theme is sacrifice and exploitation—both Dunya and Pulcheria sacrifice their comfort and dignity so that Raskolnikov can succeed, mirroring the broader pattern of women's suffering that runs through the novel. The letter also introduces the marriage-as-transaction motif: Luzhin's preference for a bride "who had experienced poverty" so she will regard him as a "benefactor" foreshadows a deeply unequal relationship. Raskolnikov's furious reaction after reading hints at his recognition that Dunya's marriage parallels the exploitation he witnesses all around him in St. Petersburg. The theme of pride versus poverty appears in his refusal to accept his destitution and his cryptic desire for "a fortune."
Literary Devices
Dostoevsky employs the epistolary technique—embedding a lengthy letter within the narrative—to deliver extensive backstory while revealing Pulcheria's voice and character. The letter functions as dramatic irony: the mother's hopeful tone contrasts sharply with what the reader already knows about Raskolnikov's desperate mental state. Foreshadowing pervades the chapter: Raskolnikov's declaration that he wants "a fortune" and the introduction of Svidrigailov and Luzhin set up major plot developments. The imagery of confinement—his coffin-like room, the "cupboard" description—externalizes his psychological entrapment, while his agitated walk through the streets at the chapter's end mirrors the turmoil within.