- garretnounChapter 1 →
A small, cramped room built into the space just under the roof of a building, typically the cheapest and least desirable lodging available.
“His garret was under the roof of a high, five-storied house and was more like a cupboard than a room.”
- playthingnounChapter 1 →
Here, an idea or plan that one entertains as a harmless mental exercise rather than a genuine intention, something not meant to be taken seriously.
“Yes, maybe it is a plaything.”
- pawnbrokernounChapter 1 →
A person who lends money in exchange for personal belongings left as security; if the borrower cannot repay, the pawnbroker keeps and sells the item.
“It was I who killed the old pawnbroker woman and her sister Lizaveta with an axe and robbed them.”
- pawnsverbChapter 1 →
Leaves a personal possession with a pawnbroker as security for a cash loan, with the right to reclaim it on repayment.
- fantasynounChapter 1 →
An imagined scenario that has no grounding in reality or serious intent; a daydream used to pass the time rather than a real plan.
“It is not serious at all. It's simply a fantasy to amuse myself; a plaything!”
- feverishadjectiveChapter 2 →
In a state of intense, restless agitation or excitement that resembles the delirium of a high fever, making calm thought or action impossible.
“He was not completely unconscious, however, all the time he was ill; he was in a feverish state, sometimes delirious, sometimes half conscious.”
- deliriousadjectiveChapter 2 →
In a confused, disordered mental state — here caused by fever and psychological distress — in which a person loses touch with reality and may hallucinate or ramble.
“He was in a feverish state, sometimes delirious, sometimes half conscious.”
- trembling like a leafphraseChapter 2 →
Shaking uncontrollably from fear or nervous tension, the way a leaf quivers in the wind; used to describe extreme physical agitation caused by emotion.
“I am trembling like a leaf, but that is nothing. That is simply nerves.”
- convulsiveadjectiveChapter 3 →
Marked by sudden, uncontrolled muscular spasms or jerking movements; here used figuratively to describe an emotional state so intense the body cannot stay still.
“There was something convulsive and feverish in his whole being, and he could not control himself.”
- acquaintancenounChapter 3 →
The state of knowing someone, or the early stage of a relationship before deep friendship has formed; a person one has met but does not yet know intimately.
“Razumikhin had become suddenly dear to them, especially to Dounia, from the very first hour of their acquaintance.”
- raisingnounChapter 4 →
The act of bringing a dead person back to life; used here specifically in reference to the Biblical miracle in which Lazarus is restored to life by Jesus.
“She is a lunatic, he thought, reading to a murderer about the raising of Lazarus.”
- lunaticnounChapter 4 →
A person regarded as wildly irrational or mentally unhinged; used here contemptuously to suggest that Sonya's faith makes no rational sense to Raskolnikov.
“She is a lunatic, he thought, reading to a murderer about the raising of Lazarus.”
- accursedadjectiveChapter 4 →
Condemned, damned, or under a curse; here used to mean that both speaker and listener are morally ruined or spiritually doomed beyond ordinary redemption.
“We are both accursed, so let us go together!”
- lousenounChapter 5 →
A contemptible, worthless person of no moral account; Raskolnikov uses it as the lowest possible measure of a human being, someone fit only to be crushed.
“I am a louse, I know it myself. But perhaps I do not want to be a louse.”
- reproachverbChapter 5 →
To express blame, disappointment, or criticism toward someone for something they have done wrong; to rebuke or find fault with.
“She did not reproach him with a single word, not a single look.”
- crossroadsnounChapter 6 →
A public place where two roads meet; in Russian Orthodox tradition, bowing and confessing at a crossroads was a ritual act of public humiliation and penitence before God and the community.
“Go to the crossroads, bow down to the people, kiss the earth, because you have sinned against it too, and say aloud to the whole world, 'I am a murderer.'”
- penal servitudenounChapter 7 →
A criminal sentence requiring the convicted person to perform hard physical labor, typically in a remote prison camp; in nineteenth-century Russia this usually meant exile to Siberia.
- strivingnounChapter 7 →
Sustained, effortful struggle toward a goal; here it means the painful inner moral and spiritual work required to earn a genuinely new life.
- philosophynounChapter 7 →
Here, an elaborate intellectual system of ideas used to justify one's actions; contrasted with simply living instinctively and directly without needing theories to explain existence.
“They wanted to live, and they were alive; they had no philosophy.”
- flingverbChapter 7 →
To throw or hurl suddenly and with force; here used to describe an involuntary, overwhelming impulse that drives Raskolnikov to his knees as if an outside power moved him.
“All at once something seemed to seize him and fling him at her feet... he wept and threw his arms around her knees.”
Crime and PunishmentNovel by Fyodor Dostoevsky