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Satire
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Part 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis:
With the exception of the epilogue, the novel is set in the city of St. Petersburg in the 1860s, then the capital city of the Russian Empire. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator describes this urban setting as Raskolnikov walks through the city after leaving his small apartment:
It was terribly hot out, and moreover it was close, crowded; lime, scaffolding, bricks, dust everywhere, and that special summer stench known so well to every Petersburger who cannot afford to rent a summer house—all at once these things unpleasantly shook the young man’s already overwrought nerves. The intolerable stench from the pothouses, especially numerous in that part of the city, and the drunkards he kept running into even though it was a weekday, completed the loathsome and melancholy coloring of the picture.
Befitting the novel’s status as a work of literary Realism, Dostoevesky is unflinching in his depiction of the gritty realities of life for most denizens of the capital city. While wealthier residents are able to “rent a summer house” outside the city, those who cannot afford to do so must suffer through “that special summer stench” that permeates the crowded city during the warm summer months. Dostoevsky’s description of the city emphasizes its crowded, claustrophobic nature. Within St. Petersburg, major settings include Raskolnikov’s apartment, which he likens to a “cupboard,” the bustling Haymarket area, and the rented home of the Marmeladov family. The epilogue, in contrast, is set in the remote region of Siberia.
Related Themes:
