Part 1: Chapter 6 Summary

In this chapter, through conversations and reminiscences, much background information is given. Raskolnikov remembers when a fellow student first gave him the pawnbroker's address. Upon meeting the old woman, who his disliked instantly, a strange idea had begun to hatch in his brain. That had been six weeks earlier. Since then, he has heard many stories about the pawnbroker. The abusive old woman makes her half-sister Lisaveta work like a slave, yet plans to leave all her money to a monastery when she dies, instead of her sister. Generally, she is regarded as a worthless, vile person.

One day before the planned murder, Raskolnikov is sitting in a bar and overhears some students speculating about murdering the old woman. One of them tries to justify such an act, saying that the old crone is useless, abusive, and harmful to everyone she...