Crime and Punishment Ch. 16: Luzhin's Letter

Summary

Razumihin wakes at eight haunted by the thrice accursed yesterday: drunk, base and mean, he abused Dunya's fiancé from stupid jealousy though he knows nothing of Luzhin or their bargain. He scrubs, dresses carefully, and swears to visit the ladies in silence without asking forgiveness. Zossimov drops in from the landlady's parlour, says Raskolnikov still sleeps, and they trade theories of monomania: the painter story, the police insult, Zametov's chatter, and the name Porfiry, whom Zametov already told too much.

At nine Razumihin reaches Bakaleyev's lodgings, awkward and black as night, then astonished when Pulcheria rushes at his hands and Dunya greets him with respect instead of contempt. Over a shabby breakfast he talks for three quarters of an hour on Rodya's last year, illness, and character: morose, proud, cold, yet noble in flashes. He tells them he loves no one and perhaps Rodya never will. Dunya says a woman's care might help. Pulcheria reveals Rodya's old plan to marry the landlady's sick daughter. Razumihin blames yesterday's insult to Luzhin as planned, not mere fever.

Then Luzhin's letter arrives. He will not meet them at the station; he orders Rodion Romanovitch may not be present at their eight o'clock interview or he will withdraw. Worse, he claims Raskolnikov, who seemed dying at his visit, gave twenty-five roubles on the pretext of the funeral to a drunken man's notorious daughter, gravely surprising him when the family strained to raise that sum. Pulcheria weeps; Dunya says Rodya must still come. Razumihin answers calmly: Act on Avdotya Romanovna's decision.

Past ten, mother and daughter follow him through the streets, afraid of the son they love. Pulcheria dreams of Marfa Petrovna and chatters at his elbow. Razumihin thinks of Dunya as a queen who mended stockings in prison, proud to escort her in poor gloves with holes. At Raskolnikov's stair the landlady's door cracks open, two eyes watch, and it slams shut so hard Pulcheria nearly cries out. Razumihin omits the police-station scene from his report but still insists the insult to Luzhin was planned. None of them yet know how Rodya will answer when he learns Luzhin has ordered him to stay away.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Reading Letters for Power, Not Politeness

Notice who a formal note excludes, what good deed it reframes, and what meeting it schedules on its terms. Luzhin's letter bars Rodion from the eight o'clock interview and turns the twenty-five roubles for Marmeladov's funeral into a scandal about a notorious daughter.

Before you accept a polite demand, write who it forbids, what it smears, and the one sentence you will not concede.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Dunya

Luzhin's note excludes, reframes a good deed, and sets the next meeting on his terms. Dunya is the one who must decide whether politeness is the same as consent, after she has already been the price once. Reading the letter as power, not manners, is how she stops being managed by a man who writes as if the family were his staff.

Continue this thoughtThe Arithmetic Was Already a Defence

Coming Up in Chapter 17

Zossimov cries that he is well, quite well, as mother and sister crowd the cabin. Raskolnikov sits in the opposite corner, washed and combed, looking like a wounded man performing a duty. His pale face lights for a moment when they enter, then the restlessness returns.

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Chapter 16

Luzhin's Letter

Razumihin waked up next morning at eight o’clock, troubled and serious. He found himself confronted with many new and unlooked-for perplexities. He had never expected that he would ever wake up feeling like that. He remembered every detail of the previous day and he knew that a perfectly novel experience had befallen him, that he had received an impression unlike anything he had known before. At the same time he recognised clearly that the dream which had fired his imagination was hopelessly unattainable—so unattainable that he felt positively ashamed of it, and he hastened to pass to the other more…

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Luzhin's Letter

Summary

Why This Matters