Raskolnikov prepares for the murders

Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov’s preparations for the murders are marked by a sharp divide between painstaking practical invention and profound doubt. He has designed ways to conceal the axe and mislead Alyona Ivanovna, yet repeatedly treats the plan as impossible and nearly loses his resolve when the simplest part of it fails. A chance discovery supplies the weapon; the scene ends with him at Alyona Ivanovna’s door, still listening and questioning whether to proceed.

Awakening and preparation

After eating only a few spoonfuls, Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov lies awake, caught in daydreams, including one of cool water in an Egyptian oasis. A clock interrupts the reverie. Realizing how late it is, he springs up with a feverish sense that he has wasted time and prepared nothing. His immediate task is to make a concealed loop for the axe, a device he had planned a fortnight earlier.

He tears a strip from an old shirt, about two inches wide and sixteen inches long, folds it, and sews its ends beneath the left armhole of his stout cotton summer coat. His hands shake, but the stitching leaves no sign outside the garment. The loop is designed to hold the axe beneath his arm, while his hand in the coat pocket can steady the handle and prevent it from swinging. The coat’s loose shape further disguises what he is carrying. This careful arrangement makes the intended weapon portable without openly displaying it.

The false pledge

From a gap beneath the sofa, Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov retrieves a pledge he prepared and hid earlier. It is a piece of wood roughly the size and thickness of a silver cigarette case, paired with a slightly smaller strip of iron. He had found both materials separately, fastened them together with thread, then wrapped the object in clean white paper and tied the parcel so that it would be difficult to open.

The construction is meant to occupy Alyona Ivanovna while she unties the parcel, buying him a moment. The iron gives the wooden object additional weight so that its material is not immediately obvious. Its value as a pledge is therefore a deception: its purpose is not to provide a genuine valuable item, but to help create a delay. The parcel, like the hidden axe loop, shows how far in advance Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov has considered the physical details of the visit.

A plan unsettled by doubt

Before leaving, Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov descends the thirteen steps cautiously, intending to take an axe from the kitchen. He has chosen an axe over a pocket pruning knife because he does not trust the knife or his own strength. Yet the more definite his decisions become, the more absurd and frightening they seem to him. He cannot fully believe he will carry them out, and the narration suggests that complete certainty might have made him abandon the design altogether.

He has imagined that Nastasya will be away, since she often leaves the kitchen door ajar when she goes to the neighbors or a shop. He also anticipates the possibility that she could return before he replaces the axe, notice its absence, or raise an alarm. These contingencies do not resolve his hesitation; instead, he searches among them for reasons to retreat even as he continues toward the kitchen. The practical obstacles occupy his thoughts, but his confidence in his own final decision is weaker still.

The axe obtained by chance

The expected opening disappears when Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov finds Nastasya at home, taking linen from a basket and hanging it on a line. She watches him as he passes. He leaves without the axe, and the discovery crushes him: he had assumed she would be absent and now considers the opportunity lost. His anger at the failed plan is accompanied by humiliation and indecision in the gateway.

Then he notices something shining beneath a bench in the porter’s room. The porter is away, apparently somewhere in the yard, and the room’s door is open. Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov goes in, calls for the porter in a faint voice, and finds an axe lying between two pieces of wood. He takes it, secures it in the loop beneath his coat, puts his hands into his pockets, and leaves unnoticed. The unexpected availability of the weapon reverses his immediate defeat and sharply raises his spirits. What had seemed a lost opportunity is restored not by the plan he had made, but by an accident he seizes.

The approach to Alyona Ivanovna’s apartment

Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov walks quietly, trying not to attract attention, then notices that he has no cap to replace his hat. A shop clock shows ten minutes past seven. He needs to hurry while taking a route that will bring him to the building from the other side. As he nears it, a large hay wagon enters the gate and screens him as he slips into the yard. Shouting and quarrelling can be heard beyond the wagon, but no one notices him.

He climbs a deserted staircase. Painters are working in an open flat on the first floor, while flats nearer Alyona Ivanovna’s appear empty. At the fourth floor, he reaches her door and listens; the stairwell is silent. He checks the concealed axe and pauses, aware of his agitation and wondering whether to wait until his heart stops pounding. The episode ends at this threshold. The preparations have brought him to the intended encounter, but the narration preserves his hesitation rather than presenting the act as inevitable.