Crime and Punishment

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

PART 1

Reading Check

1. Who is Raskolnikov trying to avoid at the beginning of the novel?

2. What does Marmeladov buy with the money he takes from his daughter?  

3. Who is Aliona’s half-sister?  

4. What does Raskolnikov use to kill Aliona and Lizaveta?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Who is Aliona Ivanovna? Why does Raskolnikov decide to murder her?

2. Who is Dunia? Why was she forced to leave her job as a governess?

Paired Resource

Historical Context for the Novel

• This page, hosted by Columbia College, gives valuable background knowledge to facilitate an understanding of Dostoevsky’s work. 
• This page connects to the theme of Alienation.
• How was Russia caught between being both “European” and “Slavic”? How does the idea of nihilism appear in Crime and Punishment?

PART 2

Reading Check

1. What work does Razumikhin offer Raskolnikov?

2. Who comes to check in on Raskolnikov during his sickness?

3. Who is the man Raskolnikov sees run over by a carriage?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Raskolnikov so panicked when he wakes up?

2. Why does Raskolnikov think the landlord may bear a grudge against him?

3. What does Raskolnikov think of Luzhin? How does Raskolnikov upset Luzhin?

Paired Resource

“Russian Society”

• This readable article analyzes Russian society at the end of the 19th century.
• This connects to the theme of Alienation.
• How did the hierarchical structure of Russian society at the end of the 19th century shape contemporary moral codes?

PART 3

Reading Check

1. With whom does Razumikhin fall in love?

2. Whose funeral does Sonia ask Raskolnikov to attend?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Doctor Zosimov so concerned about Raskolnikov’s state of mind?

2. Who is Porfiry? Why does his behavior bother Raskolnikov?

PART 4

Reading Check

1. Who does Svidrigailov ask Raskolnikov to arrange a meeting with? 

2. Who gave Sonia her Bible?

3. Who eavesdrops on Raskolnikov’s conversation with Sonia?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Raskolnikov so anxious when he goes to the police station to claim his pawned items?

2. What news interrupts Porfiry’s interrogation of Raskolnikov? What is Porfiry’s response?

Paired Resource

“‘If There is a God, Then Anything is Permitted’: On Dostoevsky, Freedom, and Religious Violence

• Philosopher Slavoj Žižek analyzes how morality exists outside of religion and how most people find murder abhorrent.
• This connects to the theme Criminality and The Need to Suffer.
• Does Raskolnikov fit Žižek’s idea about how most people behave? What is Raskolnikov’s “sacred Cause” that leads him to kill the pawnbroker?

PART 5

Reading Check

1. Who is with Luzhin when he speaks to Dunia?

2. To whom does Raskolnikov confess his crime?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Katerina Ivanovna fight with her landlord?

2. According to Raskolnikov, why is Luzhin falsely accusing Sonia?

3. What does Sonia tell Raskolnikov he must do after he confesses his crime to her?

4. What does Katerina do after being thrown out of her apartment?

Paired Resource

What were conditions like for those in Siberian exile in the last years of Tsarism?

• This 4-minute video posted by Oxford Academic explains the living conditions of exiles and prisoners in Siberia during the late Russian Empire.
• This video connects to the themes of Criminality and Alienation and Shame.
• Why were Russian prisoners sent to Siberia? What kinds of lives did they lead there?

PART 6

Reading Check

1. Who does Raskolnikov plead with to help his family if anything were to happen to him? 

2. Who does Porfiry reveal he suspects of the murders?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What offer does Svidrigailov make to Dunia? How does Dunia respond?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

• Dostoevsky’s final novel, noted for its psychological realism, tells the story of the four sons of Fyodor Karamazov in the aftermath of his murder.
• Shared themes include Alienation and Shame, Criminality, and The Need to Suffer.  
• Shared topics include psychological fiction, murder, and relationships.      
• The Brothers Karamazov on SuperSummary

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

• In this novella, the title character faces death and contends with his mortality for the first time in his life. 
• Shared themes include Alienation and Shame, The Need to Suffer, and Misplaced Priorities.
• Shared topics include psychological fiction, Russian society, and relationships.
• The Death of Ivan Ilyich on SuperSummary