Crime and Punishment - Part 3+4 - until April 24th

[Simon]

Discuss up part 3 to the end of part 4 here.
If you fall behind schedule, don't worry, the threads will always be open.

[Alana]

This whole section is chilling. It's an interesting foray into the insane, for one.... our "pro"tagonist certainly has some mental issues! He's such a contradiction in kindness vs. extreme violence. He almost makes me think he's bipolar: he seems to have the manic periods where he's awake and in intense thought for days.... then swings back into a calmer mood. But I don't know that he truly exhibits the depressive episodes, so I'm not sure he entirely fits the profile.

The scene at the police station where he's being accused and not accused at the same time was rather odd. The detective seemed a bit maniacal himself, or at least very jittery. He doesn't seem like any Hercule Poirot, that's for sure.

And what about this poor soul who's confessed to the crime? What do we make of that? Is it, as Raskolnikov says, that he's been badgered by the police so much that he really does think he committed the crime?

Russian names always confuse me so much in novels. Am I right that Pyotr Petrovich and Luzhin are the same person? I assume Luzhin is a nickname? But why go back and forth from the formal name to the nickname, while in the midst of an argument, from a narrator's standpoint?

[Catherine]

"Am I right that Pyotr Petrovich and Luzhin are the same person? "

Yes, they are one and the same but I am afraid that's about all I can attest to with certainty. I forget how the whole patronym thing works in Russian. Maybe someone else can explain it?