In any novel as great as Crime and Punishment, the details of the early or introductory chapters will become central to the interpretation of the entire novel. In this first chapter, Raskolnikov is seen isolated from everyone; later, he even feels uncomfortable around his mother and sister. And in the Epilogue when Raskolnikov is in prison in Siberia, he feels isolated and estranged from his fellow prisoners: ". . . he felt that terrible unbridgeable chasm which lay between him and the others. . .as if he and they belonged to different races." Both in this first chapter and the Epilogue, Raskolnikov avoided everyone. Throughout the novel he will begin a conversation with an individual and suddenly without any reason, he will leave and isolate himself further.
This first chapter also emphasizes his extreme poverty and his small, cramped apartment. Often during the novel, these physical matters will be used to explain his crimes and his sick frightened feelings that are attributed to the squalor of his room and his lack of food.
In contrast to his physical surroundings, his personal appearance is exceptional; even though he is clothed in rags, he is still exceptionally handsome, slim, "well-built with beautiful dark eyes and dark brown hair." Too often, even today, illustrators often depict Raskolnikov as physically depraved and/or deformed — a vicious Mr. Hyde or a horrible misfit. Unlike other great writers, such as Dickens, whose evil characters are described in frightful terms, Dostoevsky does just the opposite — he presents Raskolnikov as physically attractive so as to prevent any possible view that the ugliness of his crime is influenced by a physical deformity. In contrast, the physical beauty of the character contrasts significantly with the ugliness of the crime.
