2.3 Where are you rushing off to? Meeting a girlfriend? We’ve got all the time in the world.

This chapter is significantly different in pace and narration from the previous ones. The entire chapter takes place in Raskolnikov's room, but his voice is muted.

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Today we are discussing the third chapter of the second part. This chapter is significantly different in pace and narration from the previous ones.

The entire chapter takes place in Raskolnikov's room, but his voice is muted. We do not read his internal monologues and reflections — everything is conveyed as a retelling from the author's third-person point of view. Four days have passed during which Raskolnikov lay in a delirium. These four days are not presented through his own thoughts, dreams, or hallucinations. Here, Razumikhin becomes the main character.

Razumikhin managed a lot while Rodion was unconscious: to find where Rodion lives, even though he did not know his address, to resolve the issue with the borrowed letter, to befriend Rodion's landlady, whom he affectionately calls Pashen'ka. In the course of the chapter, he also buys clothes for Rodion. Moreover, he has already managed to move to a new place and is arranging his housewarming party.

It is also mentioned that he visited Louisa twice, in the brothel. Remember, the one told her pitiful story at the police station.

What do you think of Razumikhin's activities? Does he look like a true friend or a strange person acting without being asked? What do you think Rodion thinks about this?

“And who would you be, sir?’ asked Razumikhin, turning suddenly to him. ‘Let me explain that I’m Vrazumikhin, see; not Razumikhin, as everybody calls me, but Vrazumikhin, gentleman and student, and this is my friend. So who are you, sir?”*

As a joke, Razumikhin calls himself Vrazumikhin, adding one letter at the beginning. The surname Razumikhin comes from the word разум / razum ("reason") while Vrazumikhin is someone who enlightens, gives meaning, or explains things to someone.

In the chapter, there are several details that I would like to elaborate on in the article. For me, this chapter feels more like a transitional one. Nevertheless, this transition is important. It is necessary! As you remember, at the end of the previous chapter, Rodion was on the bridge and metaphorically cut himself off from the rest of the world. And now he has fallen into oblivion. On the threshold of this oblivion (at the end of the previous chapter), he had a dream or an auditory hallucination where a policeman was beating his landlady.

Note. I didn't write this last time, but there is an opinion that the word "landlady" (which in Russian is not related to renting, but more to ownership, the word can literally be translated as “mistress” or “owner”) actually represents the "soul". At the very beginning of the novel, it is even mentioned that Raskolnikov is afraid of encountering her. In this theory, he seems to be afraid of confronting his own soul since he is about to betray it with a crime.

And this dream of beating the landlady might mean that his soul was being abused. And for 4 days he fell into a delirium; his soul "left" him.

A Ship's cabin

Raskolnikov severed the vital thread that connected him with people and the world, and he spiritually withered. But the world and the people do not want to sever ties with him. They are kinder, wiser, and deeper than he is. The outcomes of life are not determined by the evil or good decisions of an individual nor by a senseless human collective, but by the all-encompassing and universal will imbued with the power of love. It revitalizes a person tainted by mortal sin, brings them back into existence, and patiently waits for the moment when they will finally repent. Only on the fourth day did Raskolnikov come to his senses, like Lazarus coming back from the dead.

“What a ship’s cabin!’ he exclaimed as he came in. ‘I’ve been bumping my head everywhere. Call this a lodging! So have you come round, old man? I just heard from Pashenka.”

Three times Raskolnikov's place is called a "ship's cabin" in the novel. This is another sign of "Balzac's presence" in Crime and Punishment: in the novel Lost Illusions the room of Lucien de Rubempre's sister, Eve, is characterized as follows: "Because of the tightness of this ship's cabin, the glass door was kept constantly open for airflow," in the original: "cabine de marin" (french) - sailor's cabin.

In the novel, Dostoevsky complicates this image with metaphorical images of a shipwreck, the necessity to find salvation, and one's way to shore. It is precisely there that Raskolnikov heads - but it is still unclear which shore he will reach and whether he will be saved there. Or perhaps it will turn out to be a deserted island.

Changing clothes

“And despite Raskolnikov’s insistence, he managed to change his clothes. Then Raskolnikov slumped back on his pillow and said nothing for a minute or two.”

In folklore traditions, a change of clothing is an archaic symbol of "changes in the very essence of people."

And with this, Razumikhin also jokingly exclaims:

“Because we’ve got to turn you into a proper person. Let’s begin from the top.”

However, Dostoevsky uses this traditional symbolic motif in an extremely original way. In this scene, Raskolnikov "puts on new old clothes," which is repeatedly emphasized in the text (pants "quite decent, although worn, the same with the vest <...> And what is worn, is honestly better: softer, gentler"; boots "clearly worn, but will suffice for two months" and so on). Thus, the transformed motif of changing clothes merely ironically accentuates that the "change in essence" of the character did not occur: the super task that Raskolnikov set for himself in the crime was not achieved. It is precisely as a reaction to the revealed symbolic meaning of the event that Raskolnikov's active resistance to Razumikhin's initiative and the disgust with which he perceives the entire procedure of changing clothes becomes clearer.

Source

Here, one can draw a parallel with the biblical lines from the prophet Zechariah (Zech. 3:3-4):

Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clad in filthy garments. Then the angel said to those standing before him, “Remove his filthy garments.” And to him he said, “Look, I have taken your guilt from you, and I am clothing you in stately robes.”

Changing clothes in the Bible represents the removal of sins. Raskolnikov has not yet removed any sins from himself.

In conclusion, I want to draw attention to one phrase. It seems to me the most important in this chapter.

“What of it? Good for you! Where are you rushing off to? Meeting a girlfriend? We’ve got all the time in the world.”

Razumikhin says that now he has all the time in the world. What do you think Razumikhin means?

For me, this means that at this very moment, Raskolnikov's journey to accepting and understanding his crime begins. He has come out of the lowest point — the murder. And now he stands at a crossroads. And before him is eternity. How he will deal with it, we can only guess for now. After all, he can atone for his sin or he can go into denial. It is precisely now that all the time in the world becomes a punishment.

Share your impressions of the chapter. What are your thoughts on the change in narration and Razumikhin taking the lead?

In the next chapter, we will continue to be in the same place and space — more and more visitors will be in the cramped room. The chapter is 10 pages long.