Dostoyevsky

The fourth chapter of F Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866) begins w Raskolnikov's analysis of the letter from his mother, and as most readers would anticipate his reaction is one of loathing toward his sister's fiancé , Luzhin, whom his mother damned w faint praise - and D pledges that the marriage is never to be. Of course he feels deep guilt in that the engagement seems to be in large part so that his mother will have the funds to continue to support him as a perpetual student. All of this seems to bring pressure on R to murder the pawnbroker although he does not yet make that specific connection- it's just that he's increasingly under pressure and stress. Strangely he has a weirdly generous side to his personality - as he recounts an episode in which he comes to the defense of a young woman completely inebriated and being stalked by an older man. This is the second young woman whom R has stepped forward to help (and to whom he has given money he can't afford to spend) - he has a strange rescue fantasy that leads him toward self-destruction. At the end of the chapter he sets out to visit his best - only? - friend, whom he has not seen for months and in whom , we suspect, he will confide about his struggles and perhaps about his planned killing.

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