Raskolnikov lives in a run down apartment which was "more like a cupboard than a room" for it was very small. The place was in decay with the paper in the walls peeling off and the old rickety furniture. The low ceiling makes the place a lot more suffocating. Raskolnikov's room seems to be in keeping with his state of mind: a disorder of ideas and tormented thoughts which we learns as he talks to himself. He is unhealthy and unhappy, "hopelessly in debt to his landlady", afraid and dressed in rags.