GLOSSARY

ALIENATION - Living as an "outsider," or in a state of isolation.

CIVIL SERVICE (RUSSIAN) - An elaborate system of government jobs, divided into 14 ranks. Each rank had a distinctive uniform and social status.

CONSUMPTION - An old term for tuberculosis, a disease of the lungs that was a frequent and deadly killer until recent times.

DOUBLE, DOUBLING - A psychological term describing a character with two personalities, or two characters who represent different parts of the same person. In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov's different behavior patterns can be described as doubling.

HAYMARKET - A central crossroads, or square, of the slum district of St. Petersburg.

ICON - An image, picture, or representation of a saint or other Christian figure.

LAZARUS - A New Testament figure, the brother of Mary and Martha, who were friends of Jesus. When Lazarus died, his sisters mourned for him, but Christ raised him from the dead after four days. This miracle is usually interpreted as a foreshadowing of Christ's own resurrection. In the novel, it suggests hope for Raskolnikov.

MONOMANIA - Dr. Zosimov describes Raskolnikov's obsession with the murder as monomania. As a technical term for a pathological condition, it is no longer in use, but it is still used to mean a single-minded interest in one subject.

NEW JERUSALEM - A term used by devout Christians to describe the way the world will be at the second coming of Christ. When Raskolnikov says he believes in the New Jerusalem, it means that he believes in God and in religious hope.

NAPOLEON - Brilliant general who became Emperor of France and greatly affected European history. In 1812, he was defeated in his desperate attempt to conquer Russia, but he remained for Russians in general and Raskolnikov in particular a great hero.

OMNISCIENT NARRATOR - A storyteller who knows everything about the characters and shares that knowledge with the reader.

PAWNBROKER - Someone who lends money in exchange for personal property given as collateral.

PSYCHONYM - A name whose root indicates the personality or character of its bearer. For example, Razumikhin is a man of reason (razum = reason).

ROUBLE - The Russian monetary unit.

ST. PETERSBURG - Known today as Leningrad, it was the Russian capital until 1918, and a cultural and literary center, too.

SHAWL DANCE - A dance characteristic of the education provided in upper-class finishing schools.

SIBERIA - A vast area of Eastern Russia, used since the 17th century as a penal colony and place of exile for criminals.

SOCIALISM - A political philosophy popular in the 19th century as a way to eradicate some of the evils of society. The socialists' explanation of social injustice as a cause of crime was a theory Dostoevsky rejected.

USURY - Lending money at exorbitantly high interest rates.

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