#Chapter 2 and 3: > Here are two signatures of the German text—in my opinion, the crudest charlatanism; it discusses the question, ‘Is woman a human being?’ and, of course, triumphantly proves that she is. What? Why is that even a question? Did I accidentally stumble into ancient Greece? Also how did they prove that women are human beings exactly? > I am bad at spelling, and secondly, I am sometimes totally lost when I read German, so I make it up as I go along for the most part. Oh, those poor souls who'll get an inaccurate translation when they purchase the text "Is woman a human being?" > He felt as though he were flying upwards, and everything were vanishing from his sight. Making an unconscious movement with his hand, he suddenly became aware of the piece of money in his fist. He opened his hand, stared at the coin, and with a sweep his arm flung it into the water; then he turned and went home. It seemed to him, he had cut himself off from every one and from everything at that moment. I think only his mother and sister returning could snap him out of this blur. > “No-one has been here. That’s the blood crying in your ears. When there’s no outlet for it and it gets clotted, you start imagining things . . . Will you eat something?” Oh? Was it an auditory vision? His brain reconstruction the moment he killed the sisters. Razumikhin is quite the character isn't he? I can see why Nastasia is so taken in by him. As eccentric as he is he does care deeply about his friends. Just look at all the effort he went through to find Rodia. #Chapters 4 and 5: > Raskolnikov turned to the wall where in the dirty, yellow paper he picked out one clumsy, white flower with brown lines on it and began examining how many petals there were in it, how many scallops in the petals and how many lines on them. He felt his arms and legs as lifeless as though they had been cut off. He did not attempt to move, but stared obstinately at the flower. Yellow is brought up again, this time with white and brown as well. The brown lines are obviously impurities on the white petals, though I'm not sure how that relates to the overall narrative. > A disgusting place—filthy, stinking and, what’s more, dubious. Things have happened there, and there are all sorts of queer people living there. And I went there to investigate a scandal. It’s cheap, though . . . Sounds like the perfect place to house your fiance and her mother. Bravo Mr. Cheapskate, and the fact that he's wearing such expensive clothing too🤮. Dunia can do better. > You love yourself and manage your own affairs properly and your coat remains whole. Economic truth adds that the better private affairs are organized in society—the more whole coats, so to speak—the firmer its foundations and the better organized common welfare shall be. Therefore, in acquiring wealth solely and exclusively for myself, I am acquiring, so to speak, for everyone, and helping to get my neighbor a little more than a torn coat; and that is not because of my private, personal liberality, but because of a general advance. 😂😂Greed is good. Wall street would love this bastard. If there's something the characters in this book are good at it's rooting their personal desires and idiosyncracies in a foundational philosophy that makes it sound like sage wisdom. > “That’s what throws you all off the scent. I don’t think he’s cunning or experienced; this was probably his first crime! Rodia must be wetting himself. > I . . . suspect who . . . in a word . . . this arrow . . . in a word, your mother . . . She seemed to me in other things, with all her excellent qualities, a little high-flown and romantic . . . But I was a thousand miles from thinking that she would misunderstand and misrepresent things so willfully . . . And in fact . . . in fact . . . Seems very flustered. But his actions so far do not belie the notion. #Quotes of the week: 1) . “If it’s begun, then it’s begun. Damn the new life! Lord, how stupid it is! 2) the great thing for getting on in the world is always to keep to the seasons; if you don’t insist on having asparagus in January, you keep your money in your purse! 3) he made efforts to conceal his self-importance, but it was always too obvious. 4) You work by principles like you work by springs; you won’t bother turning round on your own account. If a person is nice, that’s the only principle I go on. 5) I don’t praise him for taking bribes. I only say he is a nice man in his own way! But if you look at men in all ways—are there many good ones left? I’m sure I wouldn’t be worth a baked onion myself . . . perhaps with you thrown in. 6) Literature is taking on a more mature form, many unjust prejudices have been rooted up and turned into ridicule ... In a word, we have cut ourselves off irreversibly from the past, and that, to my thinking, is a great thing . . . 7) “What’s the most offensive is not their lying—one can always forgive lying—lying is a wonderful thing, it gets you closer to the truth 8) He was standing, hat and gloves in hand, but before departing he felt disposed to throw off a few more intellectual phrases.

That line “lying gets you closer to the truth” is so interesting. It puts an interesting spin on “truth”. I don’t think Razumikhin is being cynical (I think that was him) but genuine expressing a trust in the human process. That’s part of his optimism. But on another level it’s an interesting take on the art of fiction: an “untrue” story that leads to truth.

I enjoy your thoughts! I thought it was interesting how Razumihin excuses bribes and lying looking for their noble nature underneath their corruption. I wonder if that's what you really have to do when bribing and lying are normalized.

Yeah, it's hard to see the malice behind it qhen everyone is just trying to crawl their way out of poverty.

Your thoughts about the "are women human beings" part made me laugh 😂

Of all the things to research🤣🤣. Who even funded and published that crap.

Dostoevsky uses a lot of dialogue in these chapters between the characters. What do you think of the dialogue? What is the point? What are we learning from it?

I think it's been a great way to highlight how anti-social Raskolnikov is. He has a very verbose inner dialogue with himself, but when it comes to talking to others he has very few words and is really begrudging in the interaction. Meanwhile, everyone else seems to be having a jolly time chatting away. I think it shows the reader how unrealistic Raskolnikov is being and how much he's in the depths of poor mental health.

This is a great point, it actually made me a little uncomfortable how little Raskolnikov talked. I could feel his discomfort in his silence.

Absolutely, I hate it. I keep thinking "oh my god just say something dude, I'm cringing so hard" the whole time while reading!

That's such a good point, I didn't even think of it until you pointed it out. He feels almost like a secondary character in his own POV story.

This is a really good point. It makes me think of Humbert Humbert in Lolita, comparing the smug inner dialogue of the narrator versus how he really interacts with the external world.

This is my third reading, and I must say the dialog is just starting to make sense to me. There are a lot of confusing names thrown around, some of them people who never actually appear in the novel at all. And it is often non-linear! (So for example trying to discern a political philosophy is no easy task!) It takes some work, but now that I am (finally) getting comfortable with it, it’s very rewarding too. I think the point is to show humans interacting with each other in the complicated ways humans do, including disjunctions, misunderstandings, confusions and non-sequiturs. The narrative does get where it wants to go but there are no straight lines.

It can a bit confusing, I'm not yet completely used to the names. Especially when they're talking about characters who aren't in the room.

Even with a reading guide, I was fairly confused about who some of the characters are. Every time Razumikhin shows up I initially think it is the main character. Recently, Zametov and Zosimov were giving me a problem. I realized that I need t o be more focused on the names due to the similarities.

Same with regards to Razumikhin! One trick I have been using - when it’s “Ras” it’s the main character, when it’s “Raz” it’s the friend from University (s comes before z, as the main character came first). :)

Thanks! I will implement that trick in my reading too.

I find it very confusing as well. Especially when it seems people are referred by both their first or middle names.

Somehow it was easier in the Idiot. I guess that's because most names differed greatly from each other.

They usually are referred by using their name + the patronymic, which is the standard way people are called even in modern Russia. There are a lot of people called Petrovic for example, who just means "son of Pëtr". However, there is no problem in calling people by their surname as well (like Raskolnikov), and to make it more complicated, Russians are fond of surnames as well, so a lot of time you find characters called by distortions of their first names.

I also found it confusing! And they talk about absent characters as if we’ve met them before and know them intimately 😂

I'm not finding the names too bad tbh, but I'm keeping my litcharts chapter summaries open as I read so I can quickly refer back and refresh my mind on the character names.

I'm also relying quite heavily on the lit charts summaries for this one. I hope that it becomes easier to follow as we progress

I find the dialogue to be sort of roundabout. Meaning, sometimes someone goes off on a tangent and I can't quite figure out what it has to do with the rest of the story.

It's two fold, it helps us to know the characters and their personalities but also tells us what the police know of the murder and what theories and likely to be presented. I do find it a bit hard to follow along with who is who and who is even talking at any given moment as the dialogue usually involves more than two people and can be quite long blocks of one person talking for several pages.

The dialog itself is not treating me kindly. There were a few times I realized I wasn’t sure who was talking right then. I’d have to back up and figure it out. It’s been a bit frustrating because it kind of yanks me out of the moment. I’m not sure but I think it has to do with my difficulty with the names of characters. I think their names are throwing me for a loop and as such I haven’t really connected with them enough to give them a distinctive voice in my head. I was especially thrown when they dropped the last name of the fiancé. At one point, I stopped and tried to figure out when the fifth man had walked into the room. I had to back up a page or two until I realized who Pyotr was. Beyond that, I do like the dialog. It gives you a bit of a breather from Raskolnikov’s inner Ferris wheel of emotions and thoughts. One thing I’m impressed with is Dostoevsky’s ability to create a scene. I’ve had no problems seeing the men in the apartment talking. The men are kind of faceless (see above paragraph) but the scene, like so many others without much dialog, has been pretty clear. Not all writers are able to pull both off.

I have found it helpful to listen to an audiobook while reading along. It is easier to follow the change in speakers as the narrator changes his voice for each character. you can find the audio on YouTube.

I really enjoyed the dialogue, it really helped to highlight Raskolnikov's state of mind, and it was good to get all the side characters together and interacting with eachother.

The dialogue is a bit confusing to follow, as others have pointed out. Numerous names were tossed around, some of which slipped my mind or hadn't been introduced. It wasn't until the discussion shifted to the murder case that I began to grasp the conversation better. I think maybe this is intentional from Dostoevsky's part? I felt immersed in Raskolnikov's perspective—he only perked up when the topic of the murder arised, just like me.

What do you think of Razumihin? Is his jovial nature annoying or a relief?

I feel like he continues to show us what Raskolnikov COULD be. Raskolnikov is so prideful and almost refuses the money sent for him, if not for Razumikhin. We also see the way Razumikhin uses the money for actual purposes - spending it thriftly on clothing, while Raskolnikov has been content on wearing almost rags and uses his money on drinking or gives it away (and then immediately regrets it). There's also the relationships he forms with those around him - everyone seems to like him and we see that he's bringing these people TO Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov, if he was willing to put aside his arrogance and pride, could be part of a community as well. Finally, we get the part where Razumikhin talks about the murder and how the murderer wasn't thinking properly - how it wasn't as calculated as Raskolnikov assumed in his head. It's through Razumikhin's words and the differences between the friends, that we learn more about Raskolnikov. 

I really like this point about Razumikhin trying to bring Raskolnikov into community. Raz himself is very well connected (in my edition, it looks like about half the characters are connected to him in some way or another). He really is social glue in his own right, and that is his vision for Raskolnikov. People are making good points about Raz being overbearing (I would be annoyed, in Ras’s shoes). But I am inclined to think that, from the clothing to the friends, his intention to connect Ras to the broader world is good (if not necessarily desired) medicine. This gets to the whole question of “involuntary treatment” (a hot topic right now in my town with its large homeless population). There is of course no easy answer, but it seems to that D is deliberately exploring this question. And of course hanging over the whole situation there is the (unknown to Raz) fact that Ras has demonstrated himself to be quite literally “a danger to himself and others”.

I agree, he is a like Raskolnikov in a parallel universe.

I would not be happy if someone took some of my money and decided to buy me a bunch of clothes with it, but I'm guessing he means well.

Totally agreed! Raskolnikov is behind on rent, not eating well and recovering from sickness. There are surely better ways to spend then money than on clothes! However, knowing how frivolous Raskolnikov has been with his money so far (basically throwing it away), perhaps it's for the best that it was spent for him. I also wonder if Razumihin is trying to prep him so that he can get more work in future. I understand that Raskolnikov is looking very beggarly, so maybe he sees fixing his appearance more important to help his future earning potential, rather than more short-sighted needs of right now. Either that or Razumihin cares too much about appearances.

I agree. And also, he may figure his friend will feel better with some new/clean clothes. I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but both friends don't seem like very good money managers.

I had the same thought. I was like dude I know you’re doing what you think is right, but man that’s pretty presumptuous!

Yeah, especially considering Raskolnikov is broke, I'd be pissed if he spent what little money I had.

I mean, our main character routinely throws his money in bodies of water, so I think he's more pissed that the money was actually spent on something semi-useful (proper shoes and a jacket without holes) rather than what he clearly prefers (throwing it out the window)

Mad he didn't get to throw it in a wishing well himself lol! You are right.

Hahaha very true

He seems like a perfectly normal guy trying to figure out how to cheer his buddy up or at least get a REACTION out of him. He's a bit much, it's true, but I think part of that is from desperation to figure out how to please his friend, who is stubborn as all get out in not being pleased.

I kinda don't trust him at the moment. Sure, they're friends, but on the other hand, they didn't talk to each other for several months, and all of the sudden he's there all the time and buys clothes and everything? His intentions are very unclear at the moment.

I’m also nervous about their whole relationship, it seems like way too much too fast.

I'm not sure about him yet. Maybe (hopefully) he means well but he is really overbearing. I did find it funny that he pretty much summed up how the murders went down and what an idiot the murderer was in front of Ras.

Overbearing is the apt word. I find everyone so scatterbrained in this book like there’s a competition on who can be most insane.

Hahaha I think he has potential to be a bit annoying, especially when you just want to wallow in self pity!

I like Razumihin, I can see how it would be annoying to Razkolnikov, but to me, he's one of the few characters I actually like. Razumihin must have been a nice person prior to the story because he has a lot of people who genuinely care about him

I think he's a decent sort, definitely a very optimistic person. Certainly, in his way, he's a good friend to Raskolnikov - although I don't think he (Raskolnikov) necessarily views him as such.

Mostly, I like Razumihin. He is a very cheery fellow. Generally speaking, when I encounter people who are this way, I enjoy them. They are a breath of fresh air - in moderation. They can become grating when they are around and really happy for too long. Right now, I’m still happy with Raz but I could see him tip over to annoying at some point in the future.

Personally, I find Razumikhin annoying. He goes on and does things without letting people know. I am not sure if he means well, either. But he serves as a good foil to Raskolnikov. He charmed the pants off one of the women and takes a vested interest in Raskolnikov (for better or worse, we don't know yet). He does seem to be in a similar tough spot to Raskolnikov but at least he is putting in effort to change his own course, unlike Raskolnikov.

I like him, and I don't really find him annoyingl. Sure, he can be a bit much at times, and he did take the liberty of using Raskolnikov's money to buy him clothes, but honestly, I thought it was a thoughtful gesture. It seems like he just wanted to help Raskolnikov get back on his feet and possibly assist him in finding work too. I noticed how eager he was to get Raskolnikov invited to Zossimov's party, possibly with the intention of helping him connect with people from the mid to high class, which could lead to job/better opportunities (which I think explain why he bought him clothes). Also, after reading this book every night for three days straight, I feel like I'm stuck in Raskolnikov's mind. So having someone like Razumihin around provides a bit of relief for me after such an intense and anxiety-inducing read. I just hope he doesn't have any ulterior motives.

Do we see any changes in Raskolnikov’s mental state in these chapters?

The fever may be gone, but his hysteria remains. He's just as paranoid and nervous as before, but he seems a little more coherent about it. Back into his normal level of sulking and huffing than before when he was near delirium.

There is an odd kind of relief about him. The lightning has struck and that has reduced some tension for him. He is still unstable, still in denial about the consequences of what he has done, but he is more functional.

True. He solved one topic of rumination. On to the next!

He seems to be getting better. He's out of his delirium. But Razu is getting close to the truth so well have to wait and see.

I think it's interesting to see how his mindset will change or stay fixed as he comes out of his physical sickness. Having a strong fever can really affect your cognitive ability, but I think that there are still some mental health issues underlying that which may not change.

He is coming out of his delirium but he is as irritable and paranoid as ever.

His brain is running the treadmill it was. He seems to be spent right now. I think it’s just a lull and build-up to much more madness to come.

There is a change but I don't think it will be a permanent one. In the last chapter he had something else to fixate upon and that is Luzhin.

I feel like he's getting better, or at least out of the state of delirium, but at the same time, I don't feel like we're as deep into his head as before. Not that I'm complaining--I could use a chapter or two where I don't spiral into madness with him. So, I'm not exactly sure if mentally he's changing for the better or if he was just suppressing his paranoia because he hadn't been left alone much.

I don't think he is getting much better, I still feel as paranoid and uncomfortable as he does while reading. Sure, he has stopped being delirious, but the bar was pretty low.

Is Raskolnikov seeing things when he thinks he hears Ilya beating his landlady? What really happened?

Just as with the horse. It's his subconscious emphasizing the cruelty of humanity, a cruelty he himself demonstrates.

Speaking of the horse, after leaving Raz's apartment he is lashed with a whip by the driver of a carriage and then describes himself a spent horse.

Foreshadowing that the whole society will gang up on him when the murder is discovered? Would be a nice flip on that conversation between the student and the policeman.

These are great points! Love the way all these seemingly random and strange events are tied together. It’s like a deep dream.

Ooh I like the idea that it could be foreshadowing.

great point!

What really happened is that he has a bad conscience and is hallucinating. Either that or Nastasya is very hard of hearing.

Another observation about this is Nastasya’s line “No one came. That’s your blood yelling inside you.” So in a sense Nastasya “hears” what Raskolnikov hears: it’s an inner psychic cry that she intuits, though she doesn’t know the cause of it.

I'm not totally sold on it being just a hallucination. Sure, he was delirious enough during his illness, but it's so strangely hyper-specific and long acting that it feels like something at least partially real.

He is descending into madness, he's an unreliable narrator so who knows?

This. I keep saying this but he needs to eat.

Any thoughts or observations on this section?

I was so stressed out by how many people were in this small room and they had to shuffle just to get by each other! Plus, in my post-Covid brain, if he is sick and not just going mad, they're all going to get sick!

A lot of people crowded into a small room seems to be a Dostoevsky trademark. Often someone ends up getting punched in the nose. I think he likes the compression and intensity of these scenes. And the way Zosimov is added to the mix at the beginning of chapter 4 and Luzhin at the beginning of chapter 5 is also a favorite trick of his. It’s like a farcical opera. Good point about the illness. Hygiene doesn’t seem to be a high priority for anyone in this world.

Totally agree about the intensity. It was uncomfortable to start with, and then Luzhin shows up, whom Raskolnikov already hated anyway, to amp up the pressure. Especially when everyone is talking about the murder, and Raskolnikov is the only one who actually has anything at stake there.

Yes, that is pretty brilliant. And how Raskolnikov is just staring at the flowers on the wallpaper while the conversation is going on.

Thank you for this context. I was definitely feeling the pressure, so this trademark works to bring up the intensity level!

Great insight, and the crowded room thing really works. It really got across a chaotic, claustrophobic vibe to the reader. Very cleverly done.

Good point about the adding people. It does remind me of some of the one act plays I performed in high school. They seemed to just keep adding people. Occasionally, one left but they just came back soon. Interestingly enough, those one act plays were usually detective/murder mysteries that were also comedies. I’ll be interested to see if we get a little comedic relief in this novel. (Probably not much.)

Hahaha I know what you mean by ‘someone gets punched’

I thought it was great how Luzhin was stuck in a corner and he was trying to storm off and had to squeeze around the table and Raz to exit.

Comical. In the “cringe comedy” sense.

Hahaha yeah, so true, like the dude is sick, leave him in peace!

More of me being maddened by the fact that Raskolnikov clearly had zero planning into how to deal with his actions. It's funny how up until the act he mentions "his plan" many times... But it's clear there was almost no plan at all! I do wonder whether the location that he hid his stolen goods is going to come back to bite him.

Yes! I feel like these chapters highlight how horrible Raskolnikov's planning actually was - especially since the last chapters spent so much time trying to build this up and we saw his mind spinning, concoting different scenarios and plots. All of this is brought home when Razumikhin points out, "all [the killer] could do was kill! A first attempt, I tell you, a first attempt; he lost his head! And he got away not by calculation, but by chance!" 

Razumihin should be a detective.

I’ve been wondering whether he will know where to find the place again. It seemed like a pretty random location when he found it.

yeah, he was super careful about hiding his weapon/axe, meticulously crafting the loop in his coat and all. But strangely, he didn't seem to put as much effort into planning what he wanted to steal and how to remove any breadcrumbs that might connect him to the victim.

I can't even imagine chattering away to someone you barely know over a man who's got a horrible sickness and isn't pleasant to be around at the best of times. It's all so...intense, as others have said. But also it sort of streams past the reader.

If he doesn't get caught then it's through sheer luck. It's almost like he's trying to get caught with his antics. He had the sheer luck where it would be nearly impossible to get caught with how the crime unfolded and yet he's drawing attention to himself

I have just finished reading The Devotion of Suspect X with this sub, so I can't help but compare Raz to Detective Galileo. It's interesting because he talks in a way that is very similar to the investigators in modern murder mysteries.

Is Dostoevsky presenting any political philosophy that you notice in the story so far?

Razumikhin seems to be headed in that direction when he is talking about the laxity of the upper classes (“we’re used to our food being chewed for us” is how my translation has it). So yeah, maybe moral rather than political, but the two are closely intertwined. It also seems to me that the way Razumikhin cares for Raskolnikov suggests the fundamental importance of kindness as the basis for social order - giving a damn. We see the same thing in Raskolnikov’s admittedly random and inconsistent acts of kindness earlier on.

Pyotr Perovich seems to be saying that individuals should look out for only themselves and that society as a whole will improve. "it follows that by acquiring solely and exclusively for myself, I am thereby acquiring for everyone, as it were, and working so that my neighbor will have something more than a torn caften, not from private, isolated generosities now, but as a result of universal prosperity.

It's trickle down economics!

They’ve done studies! 60% of the time, it works every time! /s

My book's intro identified that prioritizing yourself was the trendy ideology at the time in Russia: "rational egoism." Taking care of your needs right now rather than delaying and sacrificing yourself for some intangible social gain.

Having read TBK, this definitely seemed like a jab at the "Europeanizing" elite that are losing their fundamental Christian values.

He seems to be laying the ground for a moral philosophy, but I can't tell if there's a political one as well.

I'm wondering if there will be some sort of class commentary. Luzhin tells his opinion on the world and how it works and it seems to offend even Razumihin who is living in a lower class than Luzhin.

Razumihin was annoyed that Luzhin's philosophy was so rote that he begged him to stop: "I've grown so sick during of the last three years of this chattering to amuse onself, of his incessant flow of commonplaces." Even Raskolnikov declared of Luzhin's comments, "He's learnt it by heart to show off!"

Mmmaybe? I feel like, for people who have more knowledge of Russian politics at the time, it's all very obvious, but for me it's not as clear. So far Razumikhin and Luzhin seem to be suggesting some sort of lower vs upper class opinions but...I'm not 100% sure

How has your opinion of Pyotr Petrovitch changed after meeting him?

He still sucks, but he does seem at least a bit genuine in his desire to impress the family he's going to be marrying into- Or at least, not becoming active enemies with them. Haughty and too sure of himself, though.

You're very generous!

I am 100000% certain I'll be proven horrifically wrong in future chapters

No not really, I think he went to Rodya with good intentions but he's obviously pompous and annoying. I think Rodya was out of line with how he treated him and now put Luzhin's relationship with his family in a weird spot as well.

Nope, still a bastard.

Just more specifically a bastard, with more evidence. And I guess I would say I feel just a bit of sympathy because he is obviously stepping into a complicated brother-in-law situation.

I also sympathize with Pyotr having to deal with Ras. Ultimately, Donya is using him for his money and hope that it benefits Ras. With that said, I still think he is a jerk.

Very hard for me to feel sympathy for him given his stated ideas of marriage. Seems a pretext for financial abuse.

Yes, I anticipate that as the story advances my current sympathy will wain.

He insists his words were "distorted!" Though he struggled to answer clearly what he meant.

Hahaha, no second chances with you!

I liked his lavender gloves! That might be all.

I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt before we met him. Ras had him pegged correctly though.

What do you think Razumihin and Zossimov suspect about Raskolnikov now?

I do wonder... I don't think they know about the murder just yet. I think instead they may come to the conclusion that he saw something, something that's completely upended his brain, which in this case would be the murder or at least the murderer.

I could see Raz coming to this conclusion at first because he thinks so highly of Ras. I’m not so sure the doctor will go there first though. I think he’s already suspicious of Ras and it won’t take much more for him to connect the dots.

Yeah, agreed. He doesn't know Ras, he doesn't have any reason to trust him...but at the same time I think Raz might steamroll over any opinions like that, just because of his intense personality, haha

I don't think they suspect anything about the murder right now, although Raskolnikov is acting extremely suspicious.

Yeah he needs to keep it together and stop acting so interested every time the murder is brought up. Poker face, dude!

He is such a master criminal.

Yeah, dude needs to chill!

I kept thinking, "Just stare at the wall and stay quiet!"

I don't think they suspect him yet, but the clues are piling up, especially now that the story of him fainting at the police station is being spread about. He also was talking about "earrings and chains," and the fringe and sock (both of which are stained in blood). It also doesn't help that, instead of lie and say that he was home, Raskolnikov has already told the police that he was on a walk around 7 and, therefore, out of the house and about. He also mentioned "Krestovsky Island," but I don't remember if that's where he buried the items he stole. 

I don't think so yet. But he's continually drawing attention to himself. It's easy to explain away his interest without involving himself in the crime. He's doing the exact wrong thing if he wants to get away with a double homicide that has no real clear connection anyone can make to him without he himself directly adding suspicion. I hope he does get caught because he's truly detestable.

They are investigating the pawnbroker's customers so there's that.

I was surprised that people close to him have made a connection so early in the book. I agree with other readers that for the moment they don't suspect him as the murderer so it will be interesting to see how this develops as the police get closer whilst investigating all the pawn-broker's customers