Crime and Punishment — Part I — Chapter VI

The chapter opens by clarifying that Lizaveta visited a huckster to value women’s goods—her usual, honest work. Raskolnikov’s superstition resurfaces as he recalls how, after first pawning with Alyona Ivanovna, he overheard a student and a young officer discuss her cruelty and justify killing her for the greater good. This coincidence and argument deeply imprint on him as a guiding hint.

Back in his garret, Raskolnikov sleeps heavily until late the next day. Groggy and feverish, he eats a little and drifts through vivid daydreams before abruptly realizing the hour and that Lizaveta will be out. Panic snaps him into frantic preparation: he sews a hidden noose inside his coat to suspend an axe and retrieves a carefully wrapped fake pledge designed to delay Alyona while he acts.

Attempting to take the kitchen axe, he’s thwarted by Nastasya’s unexpected presence. Humiliated and enraged, he hesitates in the gateway until chance intervenes: he spots an axe under the porter’s bench, secures it in his coat noose unnoticed, and regains grim determination.

He walks toward Alyona’s building, his mind veering to trivial urban schemes, a sign of his strained nerves. Nearing the house, a hay waggon conveniently screens his entry. He slips to the staircase, notes nearby flats are empty or occupied by indifferent painters, and climbs to the fourth floor.

Outside Alyona’s door, Raskolnikov listens, fights his racing heart, and rings. After cautious silence and the rustle of someone listening within, he rings soberly again. At last, the latch lifts. The moment ends with the door about to open, fixing his descent from abstract reasoning into imminent deed.