Farewell to Mother — Crime and Punishment

Part VI Chapter VII follows the same evening after Svidrigailov's suicide, not the Siberia sentence or epilogue resurrection. Raskolnikov walks in torn, rain-soaked clothes to his mother in Bakaleyev's house; his decision was taken though Dunya is out. Pulcheria Alexandrovna weeps with joy, praises his magazine article that Razumihin brought, and will not cross-question his plans the way she once did. He flings the article down with disgust when alone with it, but listens to her faith that he will lead Russian thought. He asks whether she will always love him, says he has come to tell her he loves her though she will be unhappy, kneels with her in tears, begs her to kneel down and pray to God for him, lets her bless him with the cross, and tears himself away when she clings to him, refusing to say where he goes beyond very far and promising only that he will come again.

At his lodgings Dunya waits; from her eyes he sees at once that she knew. She has been with Sonia all day after Svidrigaïlov's words that Sonia knew. He admits he walked by the Neva and thought of ending it there but could not; she thanks God he still has some faith in life. He did not tell their mother in words, yet she half understands from Dunya talking in her sleep. He says he is going at once to give himself up, then erupts: killing the pawnbroker was striking a vile noxious insect, atonement for forty sins, not a crime the way they all cry on all sides, while pride and Porfiry's hints drive this superfluous disgrace. Dunia cries that he has shed blood; he rants about champagne blood and benefactors crowned in the Capitol until her anguish checks him and he sees he has made both women miserable.

He asks forgiveness, tells her to stay with their mother and not leave her in anxiety, sends Razumihin to her, kisses the portrait of his landlady's dead daughter and gives it to Dunya, and leaves with hatred for the crowds yet still goes, wondering why he consents to twenty years of bondage. This chapter is farewell and the choice to surrender, not prison years or love resurrected in Siberia. Part VI Chapter VIII takes him to Sonia's cross and the police. Svidrigailov has shot himself; the family is broken but the public confession still lies ahead.