Raskolnikov's Dream

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The dream played a symbolic foreshadow of the murder that Raskolnikov commits in chapter VII. Fyodor Dostoevsky portrays Raskolnikov as a man of dilemmas. On one hand, the dream meant to foreshadow the murder of Alyona Ivanovna as the small horse killed for not being strong enough; on the other hand, Raskolnikov woke up with horror of his plan to murder Alyona and decides to not go through with it. The dream exposes Raskolnikov’s compassionate side. For example, the boy in the dream cries out against the drunkards to stop them. He asks his father, “… why did they…kill… the poor horse!” (Dostoevsky 48), signifying that Raskolnikov himself does not know exactly why he is going to murder Alyona. Because he is unable to witness the murder of a