Character guide
Who's who in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: meet the 15 main characters, see how they connect, and open a detailed profile for each.
15 illustrated profiles
Also known as Raskolnikov, Rodya, Rodka, Rodion Romanovitch
A destitute former law student in Petersburg who murders an old pawnbroker to test his theory that extraordinary men may transgress moral law, then is consumed by guilt and dread.
Bonds:DmitriClose friendsAvdotyaSiblingsPulcheriaMother-sonZossimovDoctor and patient
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Also known as Sonia, Sonetchka, Sofya Semyonovna
Marmeladov's meek, devout daughter, driven onto the streets with a yellow ticket to support her destitute family, who becomes Raskolnikov's redeemer and follows him to Siberia.
Bonds:KaterinaStepfamilyAvdotyaFirst meetingAndreyBook lenderDmitriNew acquaintances
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Also known as Dounia, Dounetchka, Avdotya Romanovna
Raskolnikov's proud, strong-willed sister, who nearly sacrifices herself in marriage to the calculating Luzhin to help her brother and resists Svidrigailov's obsession.
Bonds:DmitriNew acquaintancesRodionSiblingsPulcheriaMother-daughterPyotrEngaged couple
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Also known as Pulcheria Alexandrovna
Raskolnikov's devoted, anxious mother, whose long letter and arrival in Petersburg deepen his torment, and who slowly succumbs to grief over her son.
Bonds:AvdotyaMother-daughterDmitriGrateful acquaintancesRodionMother-sonPyotrProspective in-laws
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Also known as Razumihin, Dmitri Prokofitch, Vrazumihin
Raskolnikov's loyal, warm-hearted university comrade, poor but resourceful, who nurses him through his illness, defends the family, and falls in love with Dounia.
Bonds:AvdotyaNew acquaintancesRodionClose friendsPulcheriaGrateful acquaintancesZossimovFriends
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Also known as Marmeladov, Semyon Zaharovitch
A ruined, drink-sodden titular counsellor and Sonia's father, who pours out his self-lacerating confession to Raskolnikov in a tavern and later dies run over by a carriage.
Bonds:KaterinaMarried coupleSofyaFather and daughter
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Also known as Katerina Ivanovna
Marmeladov's consumptive, proud second wife and Sonia's stepmother, an officer's educated daughter reduced to squalor, who unravels into feverish madness after her husband's death.
Bonds:SofyaStepfamilyAndreyHousematesRodionFamily friendsSemyonMarried couple
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Also known as Alyona Ivanovna
The mean, wealthy old pawnbroker whom Raskolnikov murders with an axe, the object of his theory that killing a worthless louse could serve a greater good.
Bonds:LizavetaSisters
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Also known as Lizaveta
Alyona's downtrodden, gentle half-sister, a peddler enslaved by the pawnbroker, who walks in on the murder scene and is killed by Raskolnikov as well.
Bonds:AlyonaSistersKaterinaSeller and customer
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Also known as Svidrigaïlov, Arkady Ivanovitch
The depraved, enigmatic landowner in whose house Dounia was a governess, who pursues her obsessively, is haunted by his dead wife, and ends in suicide.
Bonds:RodionNew acquaintancesPyotrIn-law connectionDmitriBrief encounterSofyaFinancial benefactor
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Also known as Porfiry Petrovitch, Porfiry
The shrewd examining magistrate and head of the Investigation Department who, without hard proof, psychologically corners Raskolnikov and coaxes him toward confession.
Bonds:DmitriDistant relatives
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Also known as Luzhin, Pyotr Petrovitch
A self-made, vain court councillor engaged to Dounia, who means to keep her grateful and dependent, and who spitefully frames Sonia after being rejected.
Bonds:AvdotyaEngaged coupleDmitriHeated adversariesPulcheriaProspective in-lawsAndreyHousemates
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Also known as Zossimov
The complacent young doctor and friend of Razumihin who attends the feverish Raskolnikov and takes a clinical interest in his mental state.
Bonds:DmitriFriendsRodionDoctor and patient
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Also known as Lebeziatnikov, Andrey Semyonovitch
Luzhin's young progressive roommate, a muddled proponent of radical utilitarian ideas, whose honesty exposes Luzhin's plot to frame Sonia.
Bonds:KaterinaHousematesSofyaBook lenderPyotrHousemates
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Also known as Nastasya
The cook and only servant at Raskolnikov's lodging house, good-natured and gossipy, who brings him food and tends him during his delirium.
Bonds:DmitriNew acquaintancesRodionHousehold acquaintancesAvdotyaInformant and listenerPulcheriaInformant and listener
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Storieta keeps this cast at your side while you read Crime and Punishment, portraits, names, and an ask-anything assistant that only knows what you've read so far. No spoilers, ever.
Explore the book page for Crime and Punishment and read the opening free, with no account needed.
Crime and Punishment is a psychological novel set amid the heat, poverty, bustle, and squalor of nineteenth-century Petersburg. Its central figure, Raskolnikov, is an impoverished former student living in a cramped garret, isolated from others and prey to exhaustion, anxiety, and feverish self-questioning. As he moves through crowded streets toward a troubling personal errand, ordinary details, a debt to his landlady, a conspicuous hat, a flight of stairs, take on extraordinary weight. The book combines the pressure of a detective and mystery story with an intense examination of crime, conscience, fear, and the mind’s attempts to justify its actions.
Dostoyevsky writes with close psychological focus, shifting between vivid urban observation, inward monologue, nervous hesitation, and sharply drawn encounters. The prose has the urgency and density of a nineteenth-century Russian novel, while its attention to poverty, social isolation, moral responsibility, and spiritual unease gives the narrative a grave, volatile atmosphere. It will appeal to readers who enjoy character-driven mysteries, psychological fiction, richly evoked city settings, and stories more interested in the workings of a troubled mind than in crime as a puzzle alone.
Every cast illustrated from the original text.
