Crime and Punishment: Summary: Part1, Chapter 1-Part1, Chapter 2

Part1, Chapter 1: We first meet Raskolnikov as he is on his way to visit the old pawnbroker. The Petersburg surroundings are described as hot, stuffy and crowded, adding to the overall sense of stagnation, sickness and claustrophobia. Raskolnikov himself is suffering from acute depression and loathes the company of other people. He is wearing rags and is brooding obsessively on some unnamed subject (his intended crime) as he plods onward to her apartment. The encounter with the old woman is fraught with anxiety and loathing and it becomes evident that he is casing the place.
Part1, Chapter 2: Raskolnikov proceeds to a dingy bar, where he meets Semion Marmeladov, who strikes up a conversation with him. Amid periodic scoffs and laughter from fellow patrons, Marmeladov recounts his troubled life, including his dismissal from his job and all the ensuing humiliations and abuse his family has experienced as a result of his alcoholism and their poverty. He describes in particular his proud wife Katherine, who works from dusk till dawn to care for her children and his daughter Sonia, who has taken up prostitution to assist the family. Raskolnikov accompanies him home where he sees the painful and poverty-stricken circumstances his family lives in. Katherine attacks the humiliated Marmeladov, who had recently stolen the last money the family had. Raskolnikov secretly leaves them some of his money from the pawnbroker.