While looking into the question of whether there is a difference in how the narrator refers to characters and how other characters refer to each other we could see that the narrator’s way of referring to characters does not significantly differs from the way characters refer to each other. This may be because of the way characters’ voice is often embedded in narrator’s speech. Although this analysis did not bring significant “discoveries” about Dostoevsky’s novel, nevertheless it points to another interesting research question that can be approached computationally; namely “What patterns can be found in the use of free indirect speech in Dostoevsky’s novel?”
In the table that shows how characters are called based on gender distinction we can see that female characters are almost never called by their last names. Also some characters are called only by their first name and patronymic, whereas others are called only by their last name. It is hard to draw a definite conclusion based on the data of two parts of the novel, but some patterns are coming to the surface. For further analysis it might be interesting to look at a novel contemporary to Crime and Punishment and see how female characters are referred to there. The research question might be “Is the fact that female characters are not called by their last names peculiar to Dostoevsky or is it a social convention of that time?”