Crime and Punishment & Other Great Novels of Dostoevsky
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Contents
Chapter 2 Lizaveta
Overview
The chapter recounts Lizaveta’s background and the scandal of her pregnancy, widely rumored to be by Fyodor Pavlovich. After escaping confinement, she gives birth in Fyodor’s garden and dies; Grigory and Marfa save and raise the infant.
The child, named Pavel Smerdyakov, becomes Fyodor’s second servant, cementing a fraught household dynamic.
Summary
Lizaveta, a small, simple-minded woman regarded as holy, lived barefoot in a smock, refusing gifts and surviving on black bread and water. The town protected her despite her abusive, drunken father Ilya. Even officials failed to change her wandering life.
One moonlit night, drunken revelers mocked Lizaveta; Fyodor Pavlovich lewdly boasted about her, shortly after news of his first wife’s death. Months later, Lizaveta was found pregnant, and rumor fixed on Fyodor Pavlovich as the father, though he denied it.
Grigory defended his master publicly, blaming an escaped convict, Karp. Meanwhile, a merchants’ widow, Kondratyev, sheltered Lizaveta for her confinement, but Lizaveta escaped on the last day and, somehow scaling the fence, reached Fyodor Pavlovich’s garden.
Grigory summoned a midwife; Lizaveta died at dawn, but the baby survived. Grigory placed the child with his wife Marfa, calling the orphan a God-sent charge after their own loss.
The boy was christened Pavel, commonly called Pavel Fyodorovich; Fyodor allowed it, while denying paternity. He later gave the child the surname Smerdyakov, after Lizaveta’s nickname. Raised by Grigory and Marfa, Smerdyakov became Fyodor’s second servant, serving as cook.
Who Appears
- LizavetaSimple-minded wanderer; becomes pregnant, escapes custody, gives birth in Fyodor’s garden, and dies.
- Fyodor Pavlovich KaramazovSubject of rumor as Lizaveta’s seducer; denies paternity but names the child Smerdyakov.
- GrigoryFaithful servant; defends Fyodor, summons midwife, saves the baby, urges Marfa to nurse him.
- MarfaGrigory’s wife; accepts and raises Lizaveta’s newborn as her own.
- Smerdyakov (Pavel Fyodorovich)Lizaveta’s son; christened Pavel, later called Smerdyakov; raised by Grigory and Marfa; becomes cook.
- Widow KondratyevMerchants’ widow who shelters Lizaveta before confinement; Lizaveta escapes her house.
- KarpEscaped convict whom Grigory cites as a plausible culprit to deflect blame.
- IlyaLizaveta’s abusive, drunken father; dies before her pregnancy becomes public.