Character guide

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov

major

Also known as Raskolnikov, Rodya, Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov

Raskolnikov haunts the Hay Market in shabby clothes, too proud to work, too poor to eat, feverishly rehearsing a theory that divides humanity into ordinary and extraordinary. His contempt for the pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna collides with flashes of impulsive tenderness — he gives his last kopecks to strangers, then recoils from his own weakness. His inner war between grandiosity and guilt drives the novel's central descent, making every knock at his door feel like a verdict.

Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladova

major

Also known as Sonia, Sonia Marmeladov, Sofya Semyonovna

Sonia lives in a corner room with a yellowed paper and a candle, supporting the Marmeladov family through a trade she endures in silence and shame. When her father is trampled in the street and Katerina Ivanovna collapses into madness, Sonia runs out without a hat to do what must be done. Her readiness to forgive the unforgivable makes her the one person Raskolnikov cannot dismiss — and the novel's quiet counterweight to his self-made philosophy.

Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin

supporting

Also known as Razumihin

Razumihin is poor but buoyant, translating German articles for kopecks and throwing parties on credit, the kind of man who makes friends in a tavern and keeps them through typhus. He nurses Raskolnikov through delirium, falls hard for Dounia, and refuses to believe the worst even as the evidence piles up. His unglamorous decency — and his stubborn detective work on Raskolnikov's behalf — keeps the novel's bleakest stretches from tipping into pure despair.

Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova

major

Also known as Dounia, Avdotya Romanovna

Dounia arrives in Petersburg prepared to marry the pompous Luzhin not for love but for her brother's future, a sacrifice she makes with open eyes and clenched teeth. She is no passive martyr: she reads people quickly, resents being managed, and when Svidrigailov resurfaces with his unsettling attentions, she refuses to be anyone's prey. Her fierce loyalty to Raskolnikov and her refusal to be bought give the novel its sharpest portrait of dignity under pressure.

Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov

major

Also known as Svidrigaïlov, SvidrigaГҜlov, Mr. Svidrigaïlov

Svidrigailov drifts into Petersburg with money, leisure, and a story about his wife's death that no one quite believes, and immediately begins circling Dounia. He is courteous, generous, and utterly unnerving — he speaks of his own vices with the calm of a man who has stopped arguing with himself. As a mirror of what Raskolnikov might become without guilt, he gives the novel its coldest and most fascinating alternative ending.

Porfiry Petrovich

supporting

Also known as Porfiry, Porfiry Petrovitch

Porfiry Petrovich receives Raskolnikov in a cluttered office, jokes about government quarters, and lets his visitor talk himself into corners while never quite making an accusation. He has read Raskolnikov's article on extraordinary men and finds it more interesting than the crime itself, which is precisely what makes him dangerous. His cat-and-mouse interrogations — polite, relentless, weirdly affectionate — turn the middle of the novel into a duel of nerves where the detective seems to know everything and prove nothing.

Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin

supporting

Also known as Luzhin, Pyotr Petrovitch, Mr. Luzhin

Luzhin has clawed his way up from insignificance and now measures his worth by the money he has amassed, brooding in solitude over his own reflection. He offers marriage to Dounia as though it were a heroic rescue, genuinely indignant when others fail to admire his generosity. His theories of rational self-interest and his petty vindictiveness toward anyone who resists his control make him a quietly corrosive presence in the Raskolnikov family's calculations.

Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikova

supporting

Also known as Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Pulcheria Raskolnikov

Pulcheria Alexandrovna has pinched and saved for years, staking everything on Rodion's brilliance and on Dounia's advantageous marriage to Luzhin. She grows more timid the longer she keeps silent, loving her children so much that she cannot see clearly what Petersburg is doing to them. Her anxious, hopeful presence sharpens the novel's early tension between family sacrifice and Rodion's secret guilt.

Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova

supporting

Also known as Katerina Ivanovna, Ivanovna, Katerina

Katerina Ivanovna was raised among officers and fine manners, and she cannot forgive the world for reducing her to a squalid Petersburg room with three small children. Her fury at any slight, especially Luzhin's insinuations against Sonia, erupts into near-hysterical defiance that scandalizes everyone present. Her desperate pride and failing health make her one of the novel's most harrowing portraits of how poverty grinds dignity into rage.

Lizaveta Ivanovna

minor

Also known as Lizaveta, Poor Lizaveta

The pawnbroker's meek, simple-minded, and kind-hearted half-sister, who becomes an unintended victim of Raskolnikov's crime.

Zossimov

minor

A young, self-assured doctor who attends to Raskolnikov during his illness. He is a friend of Razumikhin.

Andrey Semyonovich Lebezyatnikov

minor

Also known as Lebeziatnikov, Mr. Lebeziatnikov, Andrey Semyonovitch

A naive and fervent follower of nihilist and utopian socialist ideas. He lives in the same building as Luzhin and Sonia.

Alexander Grigorievich Zamyotov

minor

Also known as Zametov, Mr. Zametov

A clerk at the police station who is suspicious of Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov engages him in a provocative conversation about the murder.

Nastasya

minor

Also known as Nastasya Nikiforovna

The kind-hearted and talkative servant of Raskolnikov's landlady, who helps care for him during his illness.

Amalia Ivanovna

minor

Also known as Amalia, Amalia Ludwigovna

The German landlady of the Marmeladovs, with whom Katerina Ivanovna frequently quarrels.

Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailova

minor

Also known as Marfa Petrovna, Petrovna

Svidrigailov's deceased wife, whose wealth he controlled. Her ghost is said to haunt him, and her treatment of Dounia is a subject of scandal.

Semyon Zaharovich Marmeladov

minor

Also known as Marmeladov, Semyon Zaharovitch

A drunken, self-pitying former civil servant whom Raskolnikov meets in a tavern. His monologue about his family's suffering introduces Sonia and Katerina Ivanovna.

Aliona Ivanovna

minor

Also known as Alyona Ivanovna, Alyona, Ivanovna

A harsh, elderly pawnbroker whom Raskolnikov murders. She is described as a miserly and exploitative figure.

Ilya Petrovich

minor

A loud, brusque, and sometimes violent police lieutenant at the local police station, involved in the investigation.

Nikodim Fomich

minor

The polite and good-natured police superintendent, often a calming counterpart to Ilya Petrovich.

Nikolay Dementyev

minor

Also known as Nikolay

A house painter who is initially suspected of the pawnbroker's murder after he falsely confesses.

Polenka Marmeladova

minor

Also known as Polenka

One of Katerina Ivanovna's young daughters from her first marriage, and Sonia's half-sister.

Koch

minor

A man who comes to the pawnbroker's apartment shortly after the murder and finds the door locked, raising the alarm.

Pestryakov

minor

A student who accompanies Koch to the pawnbroker's apartment after the murder.

Dushkin

minor

A tavern keeper to whom Nikolay the painter brings the pawnbroker's stolen goods, leading to his arrest.

Praskovya Pavlovna

minor

Raskolnikov's landlady, to whom he owes rent.

Kapernaumov

minor

Also known as Madame de Kapernaumov

The family with whom Sonia Marmeladova rents a room.

Madame Resslich

minor

Also known as Resslich

A pawnbroker and Svidrigailov's landlady, who helps him in his schemes.

Mr. Tchebarov

minor

Also known as Tchebarov

A shady businessman who tries to press a debt claim against Raskolnikov's mother.

Afanasy Ivanovich Vakhrushin

minor

Also known as Afanasy Ivanovitch Vahrushin, Vahrushin

A wealthy merchant, a distant relation of Raskolnikov's mother, who provides some financial assistance.

Mikolka

minor

A peasant from a village near Petersburg, mentioned in a dream and later in connection with the murder investigation.