Raskolnikov's Dream In Crime And Punishment

Dreams are often so vivid, emotional, and bizarre that it is easy to confuse them with reality. Rife with hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, dreams are easily accepted and quickly forgotten. Psychologist Sigmund Freud theorized that dreams are fueled by humans’ desire for wish fulfillment. He claimed that by rerouting and discharging inappropriate impulses through their manifest content, or their overarching narrative, dreams revealed the hidden meaning of one’s unconscious thoughts, drives, and desires (Myers 241). While many neuroscientists and cognitive scientists have disputed and dismissed Freud’s theory as a “scientific nightmare” (Myers 241), Raskolnikov’s and Svidrigailov’s dreams in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment
Stemming from his monomania, this dream reveals Raskolnikov’s view of himself as a Napoleonic figure, or as he calls it, the “extraordinary man.” In the dream, Raskolnikov is back at the pawnbroker’s apartment where the pawnbroker is alive and well. He goes through the motions of murdering the woman once again, but when he steps back after hitting her over the head, he sees her sitting on the floor laughing. Deeply unsettled, he frantically tries to strike the woman on the head over and over again but each blow only produces more laughter. Unlike the dream about the horse, this dream does not emphasize who or what Raskolnikov is. Rather, this dream forces him to confront the faults of his belief by completely doing away with his hopes of surpassing mortal mediocrity. All of the assumptions he had regarding his ability to transcend humanity and avoid responsibility are thrown to the wayside by the events in the dream. The old woman derogates and derides Raskolnikov to the point where he cannot successfully assert his will, which is the hallmark of the extraordinary man. Rather than exuding total power and control, Raskolnikov demonstrates a weakness that is intrinsically human. The dream’s deconstruction of Raskolnikov’s self-perception is what enables him to eventually confess to his crime and open up to love at the prison. By essentially destroying his inflated ego, the
In the novel, the dreams that the characters experience have a significant bearing on how they perceive themselves and the world around them. Their dreams reveal parts of themselves that are too difficult to acknowledge or come to terms with in any other way. Raskolnikov’s dreams shed light on his psychological instability and prompt him to reconcile the different parts of himself to be redeemed. Svidrigailov’s dreams, on the other hand, shed light on his constitutional evil and necessitate his suicide. [Tie together