Crime and Punishment & Other Great Novels of Dostoevsky
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Contents
Crime and Punishment — Part VI — Chapter VI
Overview
Svidrigaïlov wanders through seedy amusements, then visits Sonia, secretly assigning her bonds and advising discretion, hinting he may go to America. He gifts 15,000 roubles to his fiancée’s family, spends a feverish night in a shabby hotel beset by nightmares, writes a brief note, and at dawn shoots himself before a watchman.
His death ends his threat to Dounia and stabilizes aid for Sonia and the orphans, redirecting the story’s tension toward Raskolnikov’s impending decision.
Summary
As a storm gathers, Svidrigaïlov drifts through low taverns and a shabby pleasure garden, paying for others and keeping sober. Drenched, he returns home, gathers his money, and heads to Sonia. There he quietly informs her he may go to America, entrusts her with receipts for the children’s support, and presses three bonds (3,000 roubles) on her for herself, insisting on secrecy and advising she keep them with Razumihin.
Near midnight, he visits his fiancée’s family, abruptly announces a trip, and presents the girl with 15,000 roubles, charming the parents despite the odd hour and his soaked state. Leaving them excited and grateful, he crosses back toward the mainland in the wind and searches out a dilapidated wooden hotel.
In a cramped, foul room he grows feverish, broods over Dounia and his own nature, and fails to sleep. He experiences disturbing visions: a drowned fourteen-year-old in a flower-strewn cottage and, later, a nightmare of a small girl whose face twists into depravity. Between these, he listens to drunken quarrels next door, shivers at the wind and trees, and contemplates water and suicide.
Toward dawn he briefly resolves to go to the park to die, then finds himself writing a few lines in a notebook, pockets his revolver, and goes out into a thick morning mist. He trudges through empty streets, cold and shivering, then stops before a large building with a tower where a drowsy watchman in a soldier’s coat (nicknamed Achilles) stands guard.
After a terse exchange in which Svidrigaïlov says he is going “to America,” he cocks his revolver. Ignoring the watchman’s protest that it is “not the place,” Svidrigaïlov places the pistol to his temple and fires, ending his life.
Who Appears
- Arkady Ivanovitch SvidrigaïlovRestless and sober, distributes money to Sonia and his fiancée, suffers feverish nightmares, writes a note, and commits suicide at dawn.
- Sofya (Sonia) Semyonovna MarmeladovReceives Svidrigaïlov’s secret bonds and instructions to keep them hidden and to entrust them to Razumihin.
- Svidrigaïlov’s fiancéeYoung girl who accepts a sudden 15,000-rouble gift before Svidrigaïlov’s unexplained departure.
- Fiancée’s motherSensible, controlling parent who gratefully accepts and plans to secure the gifted money.
- Achilles (watchman)Drowsy gate guard who witnesses Svidrigaïlov’s final moments and protests the suicide location.
- Ragged hotel attendantLeads Svidrigaïlov to a tiny room, serves him, and remains offstage as Svidrigaïlov deteriorates.