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Reading schedule · Grades 9–12

Crime and Punishment in 6 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A six-week plan for reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, one section a week. Each week gives the reading, a short summary of what happens, three discussion questions and the escape room that goes with it. For grades 9–12, in class or at home.

Pacing

Rhetoric-stage students (grades 9–12) can read a section a week independently, with time to annotate and to write. The questions suit seminar discussion or short written responses, and the escape room makes a quick check on the reading before the conversation or the essay. Some sections are much longer than others, so look ahead and give the heaviest weeks extra time.

Each week ends with an escape room on that week's reading: seven self-checking locks that run in any browser, with no logins, and progress is saved, so a room can be finished another day. Every room has free taster locks to try, and members can open them all.

Print this schedule Escape rooms on Crime and Punishment

Week 1: Part 1

Read: Part 1

In St Petersburg the poor former student Raskolnikov makes a trial visit to an old pawnbroker, meets the drunken clerk Marmeladov in a tavern and reads his mother's letter about his sister Dunya's engagement to Luzhin. After a dream of a beaten mare and news overheard in the Haymarket, he carries out the crime.

Discussion questions

1. What reasons does Raskolnikov give himself for the crime?
2. What does Marmeladov's story add to the novel?
3. Why does his mother's letter disturb him so much?

Escape room: The Garret (lockedlessons.com/rooms/crime-and-punishment-part-1/)

Week 2: Part 2

Read: Part 2

Raskolnikov is summoned to the police station, hides the stolen things and falls ill, cared for by his friend Razumikhin. A painter is arrested for the crime, Luzhin visits, Raskolnikov comes close to confessing to Zametov, goes back to the flat, and gives his money to Marmeladov's family after Marmeladov is fatally injured in the street.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Raskolnikov keep drawing attention to himself?
2. What kind of friend is Razumikhin?
3. Why does he give his money to the Marmeladovs?

Escape room: The Summons (lockedlessons.com/rooms/crime-and-punishment-part-2/)

Week 3: Part 3

Read: Part 3

Raskolnikov's mother and Dunya arrive, Razumikhin falls in love with Dunya, and Luzhin's letter shows his true character; Sonya Marmeladov brings an invitation. At his first meeting with Porfiry Petrovich they discuss Raskolnikov's article, a stranger in the street unsettles him, and after a nightmare he wakes to find a visitor.

Discussion questions

1. What is the idea in Raskolnikov's article, and what is wrong with it?
2. How does Porfiry play cat and mouse?
3. Why does Raskolnikov push away the people who love him?

Escape room: Cat and Mouse (lockedlessons.com/rooms/crime-and-punishment-part-3/)

Week 4: Part 4

Read: Part 4

Svidrigailov, Dunya's former employer, visits Raskolnikov with an offer for her, and that evening Dunya sends Luzhin away. Raskolnikov leaves his family, spends the night in Sonya's room as she reads him the story of Lazarus, meets Porfiry a second time, and is saved from arrest when the painter Nikolai suddenly confesses.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Raskolnikov ask Sonya to read the story of Lazarus?
2. How do Sonya and Raskolnikov differ in the way they face suffering?
3. Why might Nikolai confess to a crime he did not commit?

Escape room: By Candlelight (lockedlessons.com/rooms/crime-and-punishment-part-4/)

Week 5: Part 5

Read: Part 5

At Katerina Ivanovna's funeral dinner Luzhin plays a trick on Sonya to accuse her of theft, and it is exposed. Raskolnikov confesses to Sonya, Katerina Ivanovna takes her children into the street on her last day, and Svidrigailov makes his offer.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Luzhin try to ruin Sonya?
2. How does Sonya respond to Raskolnikov's confession?
3. What hold does Svidrigailov now have over Raskolnikov?

Escape room: The Funeral Feast (lockedlessons.com/rooms/crime-and-punishment-part-5/)

Week 6: Part 6 and the Epilogue

Read: Part 6 and the Epilogue

Porfiry visits for the last time and urges Raskolnikov to confess. Svidrigailov meets Dunya and comes to his end, Raskolnikov says his farewells, goes to the Haymarket and confesses, and in the Epilogue, after his trial and sentence, Sonya follows him to Siberia, where his heart begins to change by the river.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Porfiry leave Raskolnikov free to choose to confess?
2. How is Svidrigailov's end a warning to Raskolnikov?
3. Is the ending of the novel hopeful?

Escape room: The Crossroads (lockedlessons.com/rooms/crime-and-punishment-part-6-and-the-epilogue/)

Nothing in this schedule is quoted from any translation, so it can sit beside whichever one your class reads.