What we learn in the 2nd chapter of Crime and Punishment

The 2nd chapter of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment is pretty amazing as well, although quite different in tone and narrative strategy from the first (in which Raskolnikov scopes out the apartment of the elderly pawnbroker whom he's planning to murder). In chapter 2, R has settled in for a few drinks at an extremely dingy pub and is captured, like the Wedding Guest (see, Coleridge) and forced to listen to the life story of a man named Marmelodov, whose life has gone to ruin because of his alcohol addiction (a serious Russian problem to this day and evident to anyone who'd ever visited to erstwhile Soviet Union). M recalls how after much struggle he got a civil-service job and it looked as if at last he might lift his largely family - wife and her children plus his daughter by his first (late) wife - from their poverty and despair but he "drank" all of his earnings and has been away from home for 5 days, living on a hay-barge in the harbor. Taking pity on the man, R. brings him home and even leaves behind a small amount of money to help the family, which he cannot afford. Those like me who've read the novel before will know that the key element in this tale is the daughter Sonya, a teenager who is supporting the family as best she can as a prostitute. She will play a key role in the salvation of R., and FD sets that up through R's small but significant steps to aid this troubled family: He's not entirely an evil character, as he's capable of feelings of sorrow and pity and small acts of charity.