Luzhin Regroups — Crime and Punishment

Part V opens on a new arc the morning after Pyotr Petrovitch Luzhin's fateful interview with Dounia and her mother. The black snake of wounded vanity gnaws him; he checks the mirror, comforts himself that he will find another bride, then spits at reality. Mistakes multiply: he told Lebeziatnikov too much, hits a hitch in his senate case, loses money on the broken engagement flat and furniture to a German landlord and upholsterers, regrets false economy instead of showering Dunya with presents that would bind her conscience. Am I to get married simply for the sake of the furniture? he mutters, wishing he could slay Raskolnikov by wishing it, then broods that a trousseau would have made Dunya too ashamed to break the match.

Passing the lodgings, he learns of Katerina Ivanovna's grand memorial dinner, hears Raskolnikov will attend, and trades barbs with Lebeziatnikov, the well-meaning progressive lodger Luzhin both despises and fears for exposing him to Petersburg radicals. Luzhin once courted progressives to avoid being shown up; now he mocks memorial dinners, Sonia's trade, and Lebeziatnikov's Fourier babble about communities, cesspools, and everything which is of use as honourable. He baits him about thrashing Katerina and developing Sonia, sneers at free marriage letters, and laughs at debates over whether a commune member may enter another's room. When Luzhin counts bonds, cruelty and boredom mix until he asks Lebeziatnikov to bring Sonia in, keeps him at the window so Raskolnikov cannot twist a private talk, and begins his performance.

To Sonia he plays the benefactor: excuses for missing the dinner, denies promising a pension though Katerina believed it, then offers subscription or lottery help while insisting money is unsafe to put into Katerina Ivanovna's own hands because today's rum and coffee prove she will waste any aid. She stares at his notes on the table, his ring and eyeglass, too ashamed to look at money yet trapped in politeness. Sonia weeps; he hands her a carefully unfolded ten-rouble note for the family, anxious his name stay secret. She flees back to Katerina confused. Lebeziatnikov, who heard and saw everything, praises the humane charity; Luzhin dismisses him and broods, excited, rubbing his hands, already planning something darker while the progressive lectures on free marriage and children as a social question.

The chapter is Luzhin regrouping after Dunya's rejection, not Svidrigailov's past, not Raskolnikov's confession to Sonia, not the memorial-dinner frame-up yet. Raskolnikov is only a feared guest at the feast; Svidrigailov does not appear. It sets the ten-rouble gift, the window witness, and Luzhin's excited silence before the lodgers gather again under Katerina's roof.