Crime and Punishment Characters

Raskolnikov really loves people. Raskolnikov really hates people. Raskolnikov has a love/hate relationship with people. Dude's confused. That's the obvious statement of the last two centuries, thou...

No, Sonia's last name has nothing to do with the delicious citrus jam that you spread on English muffins. She's not lucky enough to have a name that means "marmalade."Girl has—to put it mildly—...

Svidrigaïlov is, arguably, the biggest bad guy in the book. How bad? Well, he makes Raskolnikov look like a saint. That's bad. When literature's most famous axe murderer looks pure and shiny compa...

Dounia is strong and steady, young and beautiful, intelligent and educated. But, because this is a novel by Fyodor "Everyone in the World Is Horribly Flawed" Dostoevsky, she ain't perfect. Dounia i...

Razumihin is charming, sweet, loving, and forgiving. Responsible for much of the comic relief in the novel (yes, there's comic relief in C & P) he's a real people person...and just the guy you...

Porfiry is the attorney investigating the murders of Alyona and Lizaveta...but he's also a bit of a mystery. We don't really know him outside of his professional capacity. He's related to Razumihin...

Luzhin is a 10 out of 10 on the villain scale. We're even going to go ahead and say that he's worse than Svidrigaïlov—at least Svidrigaïlov has some hint of goodness through small acts of love...

Alyona is the pawnbroker Raskolnikov murders...and probably a major reason that you don't hear the name "Alyona" thrown around a lot. "Oh, nice to meet you, Alyona. Were you named after anyone spec...

Lizaveta is the woman Raskolnikov didn't intend to kill...which is only slightly better, ultimately, than being the woman he did intend to kill. Well, actually, there's no appreciable difference: t...

Marmeladov is the kind of character that appears most often in after-school specials. He's a cautionary tale—take one sip of beer before your 21st birthday, and you'll end up just like Marmeladov...

Katerina lives in the past. But, hey, we would, too, if we were married to Marmeladov.As far as we can tell, she was born in a fairly prosperous and "respectable" family, with a degree of privilege...

Pulcheria is Raskolnikov and Dounia's mom. She loves her baby (oh dang: do you think she calls him her Little Raskol?) and would do anything for him. Even, according to him, push her daughter into...

Is Marfa a victim? Or a victimizer? Or both? Dang you, Dostoevsky, for making things so complex.To be fair, it's hard to say because we never meet her. We know that she paid Svidrigaïlov's debt to...

Nikolay is one of the men who is painting in the building when Raskolnikov kills the two women. He is also the proud owner of the last name Dementyev, which sounds a bit like the name of a Russian...

Zametov is actually the first policeman to whom Raskolnikov confesses. Of course, Raskolnikov says he's just kidding, but this bizarre confession definitely puts Porfiry on Raskolnikov's trail. Zam...

Ilya has the second-to-last word in the novel, pre-epilogue. "Drink some water," he says. We know this isn't the most exciting line (although hydration is always a good idea, y'all), but they occur...

When we first hear about Andrey Semyonovitch, we think he's a bad guy. Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov that he beat Katerina because she wouldn't have sex with him in order to pay him back for the mon...

She is a cook and servant in Raskolnikov's building. She's very kind to Raskolnikov and makes sure he eats a little something now and again. (Mmm. Now we're hungry for borscht.)

He's the superintendent of the district, and other than having some great lines—including "poverty is not a vice, my friend"—he doesn't play a big role in the story.

She is Raskolnikov's landlady and mother of his ex-fiancée. Razumihin has a brief affair with her.

Described as ugly, odd, and sickly, Natalya was engaged to Raskolnikov...but then died.Hmm. Death or being engaged to Raskolnikov? It's a tough call, but we think we'd take death.

Zossimov is a doctor who takes care of Raskolnikov when he's sick. (Thanks, doc!) He seems to view Raskolnikov as a psychological experiment, but nothing comes of this. Zossimov basically drops out...

These are Katerina's children from a previous marriage. At the end of the novel, these orphans are presumed to be in a safe place...but we wonder if Sonia will try to find them when her life become...

He is the servant Svidrigaïlov drove to suicide. Nice guy, that Svidrigaïlov.