“Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most.”
- Source
- Crime and Punishment
- Date
- 1866
- Local voice
- Fictional character · Raskolnikov
- English wording
- Constance Garnett — Translator · from Russian
Meaning of “Taking a new step, uttering a new word…”
The thought notices how novelty can feel more threatening than familiar difficulty, but in the novel it belongs to Raskolnikov while he is approaching a contemplated crime, so it is not presented as generic motivational advice.
Where does it come from?
Crime and Punishment, Part I, Chapter I, printed page 2 / Wikisource scan leaf 34, Constance Garnett translation in the scan-backed 1917 Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction / P. F. Collier & Son edition, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #2554. Raskolnikov thinks “Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what they fear most” while walking toward the pawnbroker during his contemplated “rehearsal”; the line remains morally compromised fictional interior monologue rather than generic motivational advice.
Why the local voice matters
Raskolnikov thinks this while approaching the pawnbroker during his morally compromised rehearsal.
