Raskolnikov's Dreams In Crime And Punishment

Saad Qureshi

Week 4

Unit Essay

The Four Dreams of Raskolnikov:

An Insight into Crime and Punishment

“He's a 20th century man really and his problem is, he is hyper- intelligent and he cannot figure out what the hell he should do with his life…And he tortures himself about his weakness at the same time. So he is a very neurotic character. But he is a sophisticated and intelligent neurotic” (Peterson 37:52-38:19) In Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, four dreams take place that concern the protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov. Each dream continues through the next, which illustrates the magnitude of the dreams in depicting and deconstructing the complex psychology behind Raskolnikov. Dostoyevsky utilizes the dreams to stimulate an intriguing

Part of the exploration of Raskolnikov’s rationale involves his dreams, in which the reader can observe the self-determined criminal’s thoughts and ideas. Raskolnikov follows in believing that “extraordinary men have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way…to overstep certain obstacles and only in case it is essential for the practical fulfillment of his idea” (Dostoyevsky 205-06). Raskolnikov tests the theory of being an extraordinary man through the murder of an old pawnbroker. The novel begins with Raskolnikov’s visit to Alyona Ivanova, the pawnbroker. The first few scenes in the book form the basis of Raskolnikov’s first

Right after, someone “wearing a long coat and waistcoat” (Dostoyevsky 215) accuses Raskolnikov with the words: “You are a murderer” (Dostoyevsky 216). An interesting and direct observation is that Raskolnikov reproduces the scene of the murder in his mind, attempting to discover where this man had been—to uncover evidence that explains this malevolent indictment. This daydream that Raskolnikov undergoes, he follows a stranger to the flat of the murder, and attributes the responsibility of the murder upon this figure. This uncertainty in the beginning of the dream suggests a hiatus in Raskolnikov’s motivation for the crime. However, midway through the daydream when Raskolnikov is in the stairwell, the details of the recount extrapolate on to another line of