Crime and Punishment

A great and enchanting read by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The main character of the story,
Raskolnikov, goes around the city of St. Petersburg, lamenting and loathing his fellow
citizens, believing that he has a rather superior purpose in life and goes on to declare himself
as a Napolean of sorts and starts to see himself as a saviour of the society.

Although being an ex-university student, he stays in a cramped and stuffy room, hardly eating
anything and being disgusted by making uneccesary conversations or small talk, having
financial problems only adds upto his worries. At first, when he seems to come across an old
moneylender woman, his troubles seems to fade away. He thought about pawning his father’s
watch for a small amount of money, in order to portray his condition a bit better to his
mother, Pulkheria Alexandrovna, and his sister, Advotya Romanovna, who will be paying
him a visit in St. Petersburg shortly. As he went to pawn the watch, a greater ‘reasoning’ of
sorts came over him and out of the blue, he devised a plan to kill the old woman pawnbroker,
Alyona Ivanovna with an axe.

From here on, things started taking a turn, which he could never fathom in his wildest
dreams. After smashing Alyona Ivanovna’s head with an axe, he went into a panick mode
and stared at her body for quite some time. Not long after her murder had taken place,
Alyona’s half sister, Lizaveta came into the same room in which Raskolnikov had just killed
her. Being too careless and not as half cautious as he was while planning the murder, he left
the main door of the apartment open and in an hurry to put his plan to action, and almost in
an ecstasy or anxiety, he didn’t close it behind him. When Lizaveta entered the room, he was
horrorstuck with fear upon looking at Alyona’s dead body, which was now pooled by her
own blood which was dripping down from her head and gave a screeching cry. To avoid
alarming the neighbours and letting Lizaveta go, Raskolnikov, in an instant, and one can say
in almost out of a reflex, swung the axe right at Lizaveta’s face, also killing her.

After the deed was done, which did not go as he expected, he rummaged the apartment
building, after of course, locking the door from the inside, so as to avoid the risk of getting
caught. Raskolnikov, quite suprisingly took out the cross from Alyona’s neck, along with a
small purse which he knew, contained many roubles, began to look around for other
valuables like rubies, gems and whatnot and began stuffing them inside the purse. However,
this treasure hunt was cut short when he heard the door knob rattle and he heard someone just
outside, trying to open Alyona Ivanovna’s door and trying to get in.