Crime and punishment meaning of Raskolnikov's dream. Analysis of the episode “Raskolnikov’s Dream” based on the novel by F
Essay plan:
1. Sleep in nature. A dream about killing a horse is an excursion into the hero’s past.
The essence of Raskolnikov, his soul of a pure, compassionate person, a dream helps to understand the hero, to penetrate into the hidden corners of the human soul,
In the scene of the killing of a horse, Dostoevsky identifies Raskolnikov’s internal contradictions,
The hero's path from fall to purification is outlined,
The ambiguity and symbolism of the dream (images, artistic details, colors are determined, which will subsequently determine the events and fates of the heroes),
3. The dream is a kind of plan according to which Raskolnikov is invited to act - “God! - he exclaimed, - can I really take an ax, start hitting her on the head, crushing her skull ... "
4 . Raskolnikov's first dream is one of the key moments in the plot of the novel Crime and Punishment.
Working materials for the essay
(analysis - study of the text of the novel “Crime and Punishment”)
Dream content:
How old was the hero in the first dream? (“He is about seven years old and is walking on a holiday, in the evening, with his father outside the city.”
What attracts little Rodya? (“A special circumstance attracts his attention: this time it’s like there’s a party here... He and his father are walking along the road to the cemetery and pass by a tavern..."
What struck Rodya? (“a small, skinny, ugly peasant nag was harnessed to such a large cart... Everyone climbed into Mikolka’s cart with laughter and witticisms...” -
What happens in the cart and in the crowd? (“The laughter in the cart and in the crowd doubles, but Mikolka gets angry and, in a rage, whips the little filly with rapid blows, as if he really believes that she will gallop.. Suddenly laughter is heard in one gulp and covers everything, the little filly could not bear the rapid blows and, powerless, began kick".
How does little Rodya react to this? (“Daddy, why did they... kill that poor horse!” he sobs, but his breath is taken away, and the words burst out in screams from his constricted chest... He wraps his arms around his father, but his chest is constricting, constricting him." The soul of a seven-year-old boy rebels, he I feel sorry for the poor horse.
2.What does Raskolnikov’s first dream reveal? The secret meaning of sleep.
The hero rushes between mercy and violence, good and evil. The hero is split in two.
The dream dramatizes Raskolnikov's mental struggle and constitutes the most important event in the novel: threads stretch from it to other events.
Trying to get rid of his obsession, Raskolnikov strives to get as far from home as possible. Falls asleep in nature. It is obvious that the terrible theory about the division of people into “trembling creatures” and “those with rights” is hidden not in the St. Petersburg slums, but in the consciousness of the hero himself.
The dream plays a cruel joke on Raskolnikov, as if giving him the opportunity to make a “trial test”, after which the hero goes to the old pawnbroker for a second attempt.
“The last part of the dream undoubtedly reflected the features of the terrible plan he had come up with - let it be horses for now. (Daria Mendeleeva).
Raskolnikov's nightmare has ambiguity and symbolism, is an excursion into the past and at the same time predestination, a kind of plan according to which he had to act.
Essay plan
1. Introduction. Dreams of heroes in the writer’s system of artistic means.
2. Main part. Raskolnikov's dreams and reveries in the novel.
— The hero’s first dream and its meaning, symbolism. Polarity of images.
— The image of a horse and its meaning in the plot of the dream.
— The image of the father and its meaning.
— The plot-forming function of Raskolnikov’s first dream.
— Raskolnikov’s first dream and its meaning in the novel.
— The second vision of the hero and its significance in the novel.
— The third vision of the hero and its significance in the novel.
— Raskolnikov’s second dream and its meaning in the novel.
- Raskolnikov's third dream. The culmination is the development of the idea of a hero.
3. Conclusion. The functions of the hero's dreams and visions in the novel.
In his novels, he reveals the complex processes of the inner life of the characters, their feelings, emotions, secret desires and fears. In this aspect, the characters' dreams are especially important. However, Dostoevsky’s dreams often also have plot-forming significance.
Let's try to analyze Raskolnikov's dreams and dreams in the novel "Crime and Punishment." The hero sees his first dream on Petrovsky Island. In this dream, Rodion’s childhood comes to life again: together with his father on a holiday, he travels out of town. Here they see a terrible picture: a young man, Mikolka, coming out of a tavern, with all his might he whips his “skinny... savras nag”, which is not able to carry an oversized cart, and then finishes her off with an iron crowbar. Rodion's pure childish nature protests against violence: with a cry, he rushes to the slaughtered Savraska and kisses her dead, bloody face. And then he jumps up and throws himself at Mikolka with his fists. Raskolnikov experiences here a whole range of very different feelings: horror, fear, pity for the unfortunate horse, anger and hatred for Mikolka. This dream shocks Rodion so much that, upon waking up, he renounces “his damned dream.” This is the meaning of the dream directly in the external action of the novel. However, the meaning of this dream is much deeper and more significant. Firstly, this dream anticipates future events: red shirts of drunken men; Mikolka’s red, “like a carrot” face; woman "in red"; an ax that can be used to kill the unfortunate nag at once - all this predetermines future murders, hinting that blood will still be shed. Secondly, this dream reflects the painful duality of the hero’s consciousness. If we remember that a dream is an expression of a person’s subconscious desires and fears, it turns out that Raskolnikov, fearing his own desires, still wanted the unfortunate horse to be beaten to death. It turns out that in this dream the hero feels like both Mikolka and a child, whose pure, kind soul does not accept cruelty and violence. This duality and contradictory nature of Raskolnikov in the novel is subtly noticed by Razumikhin. In a conversation with Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Razumikhin notes that Rodion is “gloomy, gloomy, arrogant and proud,” “cold and insensitive to the point of inhumanity,” and at the same time “generous and kind.” “It’s as if two opposite characters are alternately replaced in him,” exclaims Razumikhin. Two opposing images from his dream – a tavern and a church – also testify to Raskolnikov’s painful duality. The tavern is what destroys people, it is the center of depravity, recklessness, evil, this is the place where a person often loses his human appearance. The tavern always made a “most unpleasant impression” on Rodion; there was always a crowd there, “they were screaming, laughing, cursing... ugly and hoarsely singing and fighting; There were always such drunken and scary faces wandering around the tavern.” The tavern is a symbol of depravity and evil. The church in this dream personifies the best that is in human nature. It is typical that little Rodion loved church and went to mass with his father and mother twice a year. He liked the ancient images and the old priest; he knew that memorial services for his deceased grandmother were served here. The tavern and the church here, thus, metaphorically represent the main guidelines of a person in life. It is characteristic that in this dream Raskolnikov does not reach the church, does not enter it, which is also very significant. He is delayed by the scene near the tavern.
The image of a skinny peasant Savras woman who cannot withstand an unbearable burden is also significant here. This unfortunate horse is a symbol of the unbearable suffering of all the “humiliated and insulted” in the novel, a symbol of Raskolnikov’s hopelessness and dead end, a symbol of the misfortunes of the Marmeladov family, a symbol of Sonya’s situation. This episode from the hero’s dream echoes the bitter exclamation of Katerina Ivanovna before her death: “They drove away the nag! I tore it!”
The image of Raskolnikov’s long-dead father is also significant in this dream. The father wants to take Rodion away from the tavern and does not tell him to look at the violence being committed. The father here seems to be trying to warn the hero against his fatal act. Recalling the grief that befell their family when Rodion’s brother died, Raskolnikov’s father leads him to the cemetery, to the grave of his deceased brother, towards the church. This is precisely, in our opinion, the function of Raskolnikov’s father in this dream.
In addition, let us note the plot-forming role of this dream. It appears as “a kind of core of the entire novel, its central event. Concentrating in itself the energy and power of all future events, the dream has a formative significance for other storylines, “predicts” them (the dream is dreamed in the present tense, talks about the past and predicts the future murder of the old woman). The most complete representation of the main roles and functions (“victim”, “tormentor” and “compassionate” in the terminology of Dostoevsky himself) sets the dream of killing a horse as a plot core subject to textual development,” note G, Amelin and I. A. Pilshchikov. Indeed, threads from this dream stretch throughout the novel. Researchers identify character “triples” in the work, corresponding to the roles of “tormentor,” “victim,” and “compassionate.” In the hero’s dream it is “Mikolka – the horse – Raskolnikov the child”, in real life it is “Raskolnikov – the old woman – Sonya”. However, in the third “troika” the hero himself acts as a victim. This “troika” is “Raskolnikov - Porfiry Petrovich - Mikolka Dementyev.” The same motives are heard in the development of all plot situations here. Researchers note that in all three plots the same textual formula begins to unfold - “to stun” and “with a butt on the head.” So, in Raskolnikov’s dream, Mikolka uses a crowbar to “bash her poor little horse with all her might.” In approximately the same way, the hero kills Alena Ivanovna. “The blow hit the very top of the head...”, “Then he hit with all his might, once and twice, all with the butt and all on the top of the head.” Porfiry also uses the same expressions in a conversation with Rodion. “Well, tell me, who, of all the defendants, even the most humble peasant, doesn’t know that, for example, they will first begin to lull him to sleep with extraneous questions (as you happily put it), and then suddenly they will hit him right in the head with a butt of a blow - s...”, notes the investigator. Elsewhere we read: “On the contrary, I should have<…>distract you in the opposite direction, and suddenly, like a blow to the head (in your own expression), and stun you: “What, they say, sir, did you deign to do in the apartment of the murdered woman at ten o’clock in the evening, and almost not at eleven?"
In addition to dreams, the novel describes three visions of Raskolnikov, three of his “dreams”. Before committing a crime, he sees himself “in some kind of oasis.” The caravan is resting, camels are lying peacefully, and there are magnificent palm trees all around. A stream gurgles nearby, and “wonderful, wonderful blue water, cold, runs over multi-colored stones and over such pure sand with golden sparkles...” And in these dreams the painful duality of the hero’s consciousness is again indicated. As B.S. notes Kondratiev, the camel here is a symbol of humility (Raskolnikov resigned himself, renouncing his “damned dream” after his first dream), but the palm tree is “the main symbol of triumph and victory,” Egypt is the place where Napoleon forgets the army. Having abandoned his plans in reality, the hero returns to them in a dream, feeling like a victorious Napoleon.
The second vision visits Raskolnikov after his crime. It’s as if in reality he hears how the quarter warden Ilya Petrovich terribly beats his (Raskolnikov’s) landlady. This vision reveals Raskolnikov’s hidden desire to harm the landlady, the hero’s feeling of hatred and aggression towards her. It was thanks to the landlady that he found himself in the police station, forced to explain himself to the assistant quarter warden, experiencing a mortal sense of fear and almost without self-control. But Raskolnikov’s vision also has a deeper, philosophical aspect. This is a reflection of the hero’s painful state after the murder of the old woman and Lizaveta, a reflection of his feeling of alienation from his past, from “previous thoughts,” “previous tasks,” “previous impressions.” The landlady here is obviously a symbol of Raskolnikov’s past life, a symbol of what he loved so much (the story of the hero’s relationship with the landlady’s daughter). The quarterly warden is a figure from his “new” life, the start of which was his crime. In this “new” life, he “seemed to cut himself off from everyone with scissors,” and at the same time from his past. Raskolnikov is unbearably burdened in his new position, which is imprinted in his subconscious as damage, harm caused to the hero’s past by his present.
Raskolnikov's third vision occurs after his meeting with a tradesman who accuses him of murder. The hero sees the faces of people from his childhood, the bell tower of the Second Church; “a billiard in a tavern and some officer at the billiard, the smell of cigars in some basement tobacco shop, a drinking room, a back staircase... from somewhere you can hear the ringing of Sunday bells...”. The officer in this vision is a reflection of the hero’s real life experiences. Before his crime, Raskolnikov hears a conversation between a student and an officer in a tavern. The very images of this vision echo the images from Rodion’s first dream. There he saw a tavern and a church, here - the bell tower of the Second Church, the ringing of bells and a tavern, the smell of cigars, a drinking establishment. The symbolic meaning of these images is preserved here.
Raskolnikov sees his second dream after his crime. He dreams that he again goes to Alena Ivanovna’s apartment and tries to kill her, but the old woman, as if mocking her, bursts into quiet, inaudible laughter. He can hear laughter and whispers in the next room. Raskolnikov is suddenly surrounded by a lot of people - in the hallway, on the landing, on the stairs - silently and expectantly, they look at him. Overwhelmed by horror, he cannot move and soon awakens. This dream reflects the subconscious desires of the hero. Raskolnikov is burdened by his position, wanting to reveal his “secret” to someone, it’s hard for him to carry it inside himself. He literally suffocates in his individualism, trying to overcome the state of painful alienation from others and himself. That is why in Raskolnikov’s dream there are many people next to him. His soul yearns for people, he wants community, unity with them. In this dream, the motif of laughter, which accompanies the hero throughout the novel, reappears. After committing the crime, Raskolnikov feels that “he killed himself, and not the old woman.” This truth seems to be revealed to the people surrounding the hero in a dream. An interesting interpretation of the hero’s dream is offered by S.B. Kondratiev. The researcher notes that laughter in Raskolnikov’s dream is “an attribute of the invisible presence of Satan,” demons laugh and tease the hero.
Raskolnikov sees his third dream already in hard labor. In this dream, he seems to rethink the events that happened and his theory. Raskolnikov imagines that the whole world is condemned to be a victim of a “terrible... pestilence.” Some new microscopic creatures, trichinae, have appeared, infecting people and making them possessed. The infected do not hear or understand others, considering only their own opinion to be absolutely true and the only correct one. Having abandoned their occupations, crafts and agriculture, people kill each other in some senseless rage. Fires begin, famine begins, everything around dies. In the whole world, only a few people, “pure and chosen,” can be saved, but no one has ever seen them.” This dream represents the extreme embodiment of Raskolnikov’s individualistic theory, showing the threatening results of its harmful influence on the world and humanity. It is characteristic that individualism is now identified in Rodion’s mind with demon possession and madness. In fact, the hero’s idea of strong personalities, Napoleons, to whom “everything is permitted” now seems to him to be illness, madness, clouding of the mind. Moreover, the spread of this theory throughout the world is what causes Raskolnikov's greatest concerns. Now the hero realizes that his idea is contrary to human nature itself, reason, and the Divine world order. Having understood and accepted all this with his soul, Raskolnikov experiences moral enlightenment. It is not for nothing that it is after this dream that he begins to realize his love for Sonya, which reveals to him faith in life.
Thus, Raskolnikov’s dreams and visions in the novel convey his inner states, feelings, innermost desires and secret fears. Compositionally, dreams often precede future events, become the causes of events, and move the plot. Dreams contribute to the mixing of real and mystical narrative plans: new characters seem to grow from the hero’s dreams. In addition, the plots in these visions echo the ideological concept of the work, with the author’s assessment of Raskolnikov’s ideas.
1. Amelin G., Pilshchikov I.A. The New Testament in “Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky. Electronic version. www.holychurch.narod.ru
2. Right there.
3. Kondratyev B.S. Dreams in Dostoevsky's artistic system. Mythological aspect. Arzamas, 2001, p. 111, 191.
4. Kondratyev B.S. Decree. cit., p. 79–80.
The role of sleep in Dostoevsky's works is different from Pushkin's. We can see this clearly by looking at his novel Crime and Punishment.
The description of the dream that Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov had on the evening before the murder of the old pawnbroker is one of the key points in the plot of Crime and Punishment.
At first glance, this retreat into the unconscious temporarily takes the hero out of the framework of the surrounding reality, in which the terrible plan he has come up with begins to develop, and gives the poor student a small respite from the painful fever into which he drove himself with his extravagant idea. At first it seems that finding himself in the unusual setting of the Islands, surrounded by greenery, fresh flowers, instead of the usual city dust, lime and “crowded houses”, Rodion really miraculously gets rid of “this spell”, from witchcraft, from obsession and plunges into the world of his childhood. When the hero with spiritual warmth remembers the poor small city church, with a green dome, and “the ancient images in it,” and the “stationary priest with a trembling head,” and his own incredibly touching reverence for the “little grave of his little brother, who died for six months, whom he “I didn’t know at all and couldn’t remember,” it seems to us that from under the superficial, born of life’s circumstances, in the present Raskolnikov, a poor student and slum dweller, the soul of a child will be resurrected, unable not only to kill a person, but to calmly look at the killing of a horse. Thus, the whole point of the episode is to reveal the true state of mind of the hero, who, having awakened, even turns to God with a prayer: “Lord, show me my path, and I will renounce this damned dream of mine.” However, literally a day later, Raskolnikov will still carry out his terrible plan, and for some reason Dostoevsky does not allow the reader to forget about this first dream of his character almost until the very end of the novel: like circles spreading across the water from a thrown stone or echoes of a spoken word. out loud phrases throughout the text of “Crime and Punishment” the smallest images are scattered, again and again returning him to the content of the dream. Either, having hidden the jewelry stolen from the old woman under a stone, Raskolnikov returns home, trembling like a driven horse, and he imagines that the assistant apartment warden, Ilya Petrovich, is beating his landlady on the stairs, then shouting: “Get the nag away!” - Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova dies. All these fleeting indications sound like an annoying note, but do not reveal the deep symbolism of the mysterious dream.
Let us return to the circumstances in which this dream arises in Raskolnikov’s inflamed brain. Trying to get rid of the obsession, the hero tries to get away from home: “He suddenly felt terribly disgusted about going home (..,) and he went wherever his eyes looked.” Wandering in this way, Rodion Romanovich ends up in a remote part of St. Petersburg. “The greenery and freshness,” writes Dostoevsky, “at first pleased his tired eyes. There was no stuffiness, no stench, no drinking establishments here. But soon these new, pleasant sensations turned into painful and irritating ones.
Alas, the mortal resentment is too deeply embedded in the hero’s mind and cannot be dislodged by a simple change of situation.
Obviously, the terrible theory about the division of people into “trembling creatures” and “those with rights” is hidden not in the St. Petersburg slums, but in the consciousness of the hero himself, and therefore the expected enlightenment while walking along the green Islands does not actually happen. All the hero’s actions are distinguished by senseless automatism: “once he stopped and counted his money, but soon forgot why he took the money out of his pocket,” and the impressions of what he saw did not seem to reach his consciousness, did not leave a clear, integral image in him: “especially interested his flowers, he looked at them for a long time."
Real enlightenment does not occur even after the hero awakens - the author notes that Raskolnikov was “vague and dark in his soul.” The slight and very short-lived relief that came in his soul was associated with the adoption of a final decision regarding his theory. But what was this decision?
“Even if there are no doubts in all these calculations, even if this is all that is decided this month, as clear as day, as fair as arithmetic. Lord! After all, I still won’t make up my mind! I won’t be able to stand it!” So, it is obvious that we are not talking about repentance here, but only about whether the brave theorist will be able to carry out his plan with his own hands. The dream plays a cruel joke on Raskolnikov, as if giving him the opportunity to make a trial, after which the hero, in a state of the same automatism, actually goes to the old woman-pawnbroker - for a second attempt.
It is no coincidence that the author calls the vision of his hero “terrible,” “painful,” “monstrous picture.” Despite all the seeming ordinariness, this first dream in the novel is actually even more fantastic than the other one that visited Raskolnikov at the end of the third part, in which the devil again brings him to Alena Ivanovna’s apartment and from which Svidrigailov seems to enter the narrative.
The description of this dream is preceded by a rather unexpected author's reasoning that in a “painful state, dreams are often distinguished by their extreme similarity to reality. The picture that appears to the hero at first is carefully “disguised” as an ordinary, real one. The deceitfulness and phantasmogorism of the dream is expressed here only in the fact that it is truer than reality: “even in his memory it was much more erased than it was now imagined in a dream.”
Having set the reader and the hero on a wave of lyrical memories, the dream throws up more and more new details - about black dust on the road to the tavern, about a sugar bath on a white platter, about ancient images without salaries... . And only immediately after this, as if in continuation of the same thought, does the presentation of the dream itself begin: “And then he had a dream...”.
This second part of Raskolnikov’s vision has its own fantasy: here the most ordinary things suddenly begin to seem unusual to a little boy. In fact, what is it, for example, that there is a celebration going on in a city tavern - after all, the events described take place on a “holiday”, in the evening, and the “crowd of all sorts of rabble” is doing the same thing as always - bawling songs, frightening little Rodya. Why is the cart standing near the “tavern porch” called “strange”, if it is added that it is one of those large carts into which draft horses are harnessed, which the little boy loved to watch so much?
Indeed, perhaps the only strange thing is that it is harnessed to such a small, Savras, peasant nag, which usually cannot move even the cart of firewood or hay intended for it, and then the men beat it with whips, sometimes in the face and on the face. eyes, which is always so pitiful for a compassionate child to look at.
The last part of Raskolnikov's knowledge undoubtedly reflected the features of the terrible plan he came up with. After all, we are talking about the possibility of managing someone else’s life - even if for now the life of a horse - and about the criteria of expediency, the benefit expected from the existence of others. “And this little mare, brothers, only breaks my heart: so, it would seem, I killed her, she eats bread for nothing.” How close is the situation of the poor horse that the student dreamed of, and the very real old woman-pawnbroker, who, according to the opinions of others, is nothing more than “a stupid, senseless, insignificant, evil old woman, useless to anyone, but on the contrary, harmful to everyone, who herself does not knows what she lives for, and who will die by herself tomorrow,” whose life is worth incomparably less than a horse’s, equal in value to “the life of a louse or a cockroach.”
Raskolnikov's dream, as a kind of test, conveys small details of the future murder: a horse is killed (“with an ax, what!” - someone shouts), blood flows down its face. Mikolka, on whom, like later on Raskolnikov, “there is no cross,” is egged on by a whole crowd, just as the officer and the student, with their conversation in the tavern, confirm the assessment mentally given by Rodion Romanovich to the old money-lender, and convince him of the justice of their own plans.
Thus, Rodion Raskolnikov’s nightmare, having the ambiguity and symbolism inherent in dreams, is both an excursion into the hero’s past, a reflection of the struggle that was taking place in the hero’s soul at that moment, and at the same time - a predestination, a kind of plan according to which he is offered act. And only by violating the conditions of this obsessive prophecy, the hero will be able to free himself from the spell and shackles of his demonic theory, so that then, over time, he can come to the true concept and resurrection.
Thus, the close connection of the episodes of the text, where everything is picked up by something, everything is reflected in something, allows us to apply a multi-level interpretation to Crime and Punishment.
1. The first level is historical. The episode with the beating of a horse in Raskolnikov’s dream is traditionally considered an allusion to N. Nekrasov’s poem “About the Weather” (1859).
Under the cruel hand of man
Barely alive, ugly skinny,
The crippled horse is straining,
I'm dragging an unbearable burden.
So she staggered and began
"Well!" - the driver grabbed the log
(The whip seemed not enough for him) -
And he beat her, beat her, beat her!
Legs, somehow spread wide,
All, smoking, settling back,
The horse just sighs deeply
And I looked...(this is how people look)
Submitting to unjust attacks,
He again: on the back, on the sides,
And running forward, over the shoulder blades
And by the crying, meek eyes!
All in vain! The nag was standing.
Dostoevsky remembered these poems for the rest of his life; he was amazed by the fact depicted in Nekrasov’s poem to such an extent that he considered it necessary to duplicate what Nekrasov said in his novel.
Dostoevsky, of course, saw similar scenes in reality, if it was necessary to so clearly “refer” to a work of art, then, apparently, not because he was amazed by the facts reflected in it, but because he saw the work itself as some new fact existence that really amazed him. Nekrasov’s perception of a horse trying to move an overwhelming cart, as it were, personifies the suffering and misfortune of this world, its injustice and ruthlessness, moreover, the very existence of this horse, weak and downtrodden - all these are facts of Raskolnikov’s dream about the state of the world. But here’s what actually exists: “... one drunk, who, unknown why and where, was being transported along the street at that time in a huge cart drawn by a huge draft horse.” This cart, in the first pages of the novel Crime and Punishment, seems to have come out of Raskolnikov’s dream.
Thus, only the cart and its dimensions are adequately perceived, but not the load, and not the strength of the horse harnessed to this cart.
The analogue of the horse from Raskolnikov’s dream is Katerina Ivanovna in the novel, falling under the weight of her unreal troubles and worries, which are very great and unbearable (especially since God does not take his hand away, and when the end comes, there is always an assistant: Sonya, Raskolnikov, Svidrigailov), and under the burden of troubles and worries she romantically imagined for herself, namely, only from these troubles, insults and sorrows, existing only in her inflamed brain, she, in the end, dies like a “cornered horse.” Katerina Ivanovna exclaims to herself: “The nag has gone!” And, indeed, she rushes about, fights off the horror of life with all her strength, like the nag from Raskolnikov’s dream, but these blows, hitting the living people around her, are often as crushing as the blows of the horses’ hooves that crushed Marmeladov’s chest.
2. The second level is moral. It is revealed when comparing the names of Mikolka from the dream and Nikolai (Mikolai) - the dyer. Raskolnikov rushes at the murderer, Mikolka, screaming. The dyer Nikolka will take upon himself the sin and guilt of the murderer Raskolnikov, protecting him with his unexpected “testimony” at the most terrible moment for him from the torture of Porfiry Petrovich and from a forced confession. At this level, Dostoevsky’s cherished thought is revealed that everyone is to blame for everyone else, that there is only one true attitude towards the sin of one’s neighbor - this is to take his sin upon oneself, to take his crime and guilt upon oneself - at least for a while to bear his burden in order he did not fall into despair from an unbearable burden, but saw a helping hand and the road to resurrection.
3. The third level is allegorical. Here the thought of the second level unfolds and is complemented: not only is everyone to blame for everyone else, but everyone is to blame before everyone else. The torturer and the victim can change places at any time.
In Raskolnikov’s dream, young, well-fed, drunk, cheerful people kill a little horse - in reality, the exhausted and exhausted Marmeladov dies under the hooves of young, strong, well-fed, well-groomed horses. Moreover, his death is no less terrible than the death of a little horse: “His whole chest was distorted, crushed, torn; several ribs on the right side were broken: “On the left side, on the very heart, there was an ominous, large, yellowish-black spot, cruel hoof strike. (...) crushed, pinched in the wheel and dragged, turning, about thirty steps along the pavement.”
4. But the most important level for understanding the meaning of the novel is the fourth level - symbolic; it is at this level that Raskolnikov’s dreams are interconnected into a system. Waking up after a dream about killing a horse, Raskolnikov speaks as if all the blows that fell on the unfortunate horse hurt him.
Perhaps the resolution of this contradiction is in the following words of Raskolnikov: “Why am I!” he continued, bowing again and as if in deep amazement, “after all, I knew that I couldn’t stand this, so why am I still tormented? After all, just yesterday, yesterday, when I went to do this... test, because yesterday I completely understood that I could not stand it... Why am I now? Why am I still doubting...”
"I studied myself." He really is both a “horse” and a murderer - Mikolka, who demands that the horse harnessed to a cart that is too heavy for him to “gallop.”
The symbol of a rider on a horse is the most famous Christian symbol of the spirit ruling the flesh. It is his spirit, willful and daring, that is trying to force his nature, his flesh, to do what it cannot, what disgusts it, what it rebels against.
So he will say: “After all, just the thought in reality made me sick and threw me into horror...”.
This is exactly what Porfiry Petrovich will later tell Raskolnikov: “He, let’s say, will lie, that is, a person, a special case, and he will lie perfectly, in the most cunning manner: here, it seems, there would be a triumph, and enjoy the fruits of his wit, and he's a bang! Yes, in the most interesting, in the most scandalous place, he will faint. Let's say, illness, stuffiness sometimes happens in the rooms, but still - sir! Still, he gave me the idea! He lied incomparably, but in reality he couldn’t calculate it.”
It is interesting that this idea is about nature, the flesh resisting the demonic spirit, from Dostoevsky - and from Pushkin.
In the poem “What a night, bitter frost...” (1827), the hero is a rider on a horse, a guardsman, a “daring knight”.
He's in a hurry, he's flying to a date.
Desire boils in my chest.
He says: "My horse is dashing,
My faithful horse! Fly like an arrow!
Hurry, hurry... But the horse is zealous
Suddenly he waved his braided mane
I became an IM. In the darkness between the pillars
On an oak crossbar
The corpse was rocking. Rider is harsh
I was ready to rush under it,
But the greyhound horse struggles under the whip,
Snores and snorts and thrashes
Here, as if in a picture, the inner struggle of a person is unfolded, and it is surprising that it is the spirit that prompts a person to sin, to break God’s law, and the flesh is horrified by the sins of the spirit. However, the elders said that the sins of the flesh are safer because they humble a person, show him his weakness, but spiritual sins are truly terrible and disgusting - precisely because they often allow one to be proud of oneself, and, therefore, to get stuck and stuck in this quagmire.
1. Novel "Crime and Punishment"- first published in the magazine "Russian Bulletin" (1866. N 1, 2, 4, 6–8, 11, 12) with the signature: F. Dostoevsky.The following year, a separate edition of the novel was published, in which the division into parts and chapters was changed (in the magazine version the novel was divided into three parts, not six), individual episodes were slightly shortened, and a number of stylistic corrections were made.
The idea for the novel was nurtured by Dostoevsky for many years. The fact that one of his central ideas had already taken shape by 1863 is evidenced by an entry dated September 17, 1863 in the diary of A.P. Suslova, who was at that time with Dostoevsky in Italy: “When we had dinner (in Turin, in the hotel, at the table d'hote'om.), he (Dostoevsky), looking at the girl who was taking lessons, said: “Well, imagine, such a girl with an old man, and suddenly some kind of Napoleon says: “Exterminate the whole city". It has always been like this in the world.”1 But Dostoevsky turned to creative work on the novel, thinking about its characters, individual scenes and situations only in 1865–1866. “Notes from Underground” (1864; see vol. 4 of this edition) The tragedy of the thinking hero-individualist, his proud rapture of his “idea” and defeat in the face of “living life”, the embodiment of which in “Notes” is the direct predecessor of Sonya Marmeladova, a girl from a brothel , - these main general contours of the “Notes” directly prepare “Crime and Punishment.” (Suslova A.P. Years of intimacy with Dostoevsky. M., 1928. P. 60.) ()
Episodes from the novel "Crime and Punishment"
3. Part 3, ch. VI.
Both walked out carefully and closed the door. Another half hour passed. Raskolnikov opened his eyes and threw himself up on his back again, clasping his hands behind his head... [...]
He forgot; It seemed strange to him that he did not remember how he could have ended up on the street. It was already late evening. The dusk deepened, the full moon grew brighter and brighter; but somehow the air was especially stuffy. People walked in crowds along the streets; artisans and busy people went home, others walked; it smelled of lime, dust, and stagnant water. Raskolnikov walked sad and worried: he remembered very well that he left the house with some intention, that he had to do something and hurry, but he forgot what exactly. Suddenly he stopped and saw that on the other side of the street, on the sidewalk, a man was standing and waving at him. He walked towards him across the street, but suddenly this man turned and walked as if nothing had happened, with his head down, without turning around and without giving any sign that he was calling him. “Come on, did he call?” - thought Raskolnikov, but began to catch up. Not ten steps away, he suddenly recognized him and was frightened; it was a tradesman from a long time ago, in the same robe and hunched over in the same way. Raskolnikov walked from a distance; his heart was beating; We turned into the alley - he still didn’t turn around. “Does he know that I’m following him?” - thought Raskolnikov. A tradesman entered the gates of a large house. Raskolnikov quickly walked up to the gate and began to look: would he look back and call him? In fact, having gone through the entire gateway and already going out into the yard, he suddenly turned around and again seemed to wave to him. Raskolnikov immediately passed through the gateway, but the tradesman was no longer in the yard. Therefore, he entered here now on the first staircase. Raskolnikov rushed after him. In fact, two stairs up, someone else's measured, unhurried steps could be heard. Strange, the stairs seemed familiar! There's a window on the first floor; the moonlight passed sadly and mysteriously through the glass; here is the second floor. Bah! This is the same apartment in which the workers smeared... How did he not find out immediately? The steps of the man in front died down: “it means he stopped or hid somewhere.” Here is the third floor; should we go further? And how quiet it was there, it was even scary... But he went. The noise of his own steps frightened and worried him. God, how dark! The tradesman must be hiding in a corner somewhere. A! the apartment is wide open to the stairs; he thought and entered. The hallway was very dark and empty, not a soul, as if everything had been taken out; Quietly, on tiptoe, he walked into the living room: the whole room was brightly bathed in moonlight; everything is the same here: chairs, a mirror, a yellow sofa and framed pictures. A huge, round, copper-red moon looked straight into the windows. “It’s been so quiet for a month,” thought Raskolnikov, “he’s probably asking a riddle now.” He stood and waited, waited for a long time, and the quieter the month was, the stronger his heart beat, and it even became painful. And all silence. Suddenly, an instant dry crack was heard, as if a splinter had been broken, and everything froze again. The awakened fly suddenly hit the glass and buzzed pitifully. At that very moment, in the corner, between the small wardrobe and the window, he saw a cloak as if hanging on the wall. “Why is there a cloak here? - he thought, “after all, he wasn’t there before...” He approached slowly and guessed that someone seemed to be hiding behind the cloak. He carefully pulled back his cloak with his hand and saw that there was a chair standing there, and an old woman was sitting on a chair in the corner, all hunched over and her head bowed, so that he could not see her face, but it was her. He stood over her: “Afraid!” - he thought, quietly released the ax from the loop and hit the old woman on the crown, once and twice. But it’s strange: she didn’t even move from the blows, like she was made of wood. He got scared, leaned closer and began to look at her; but she also bent her head even lower. He then bent down completely to the floor and looked into her face from below, looked and froze: the old woman was sitting and laughing - she burst into quiet, inaudible laughter, trying with all her might so that he would not hear her. Suddenly it seemed to him that the door from the bedroom opened slightly and that there, too, seemed to be laughing and whispering. Fury overcame him: with all his might he began to hit the old woman on the head, but with each blow of the ax, laughter and whispers from the bedroom were heard more and more loudly, and the old woman was shaking all over with laughter. He rushed to run, but the entire hallway was already full of people, the doors on the stairs were wide open, and on the landing, on the stairs and down there - all the people, head to head, everyone was watching - but everyone was hiding and waiting, silent... His heart he felt embarrassed, his legs didn’t move, they were frozen... He wanted to scream and woke up.
He took a deep breath, but strangely, the dream seemed to still continue: his door was open wide, and a complete stranger to him stood on the threshold and looked at him intently.
Raskolnikov had not yet had time to fully open his eyes and immediately closed them again. He lay on his back and did not move. “Is this dream continuing or not,” he thought, and slightly, inconspicuously, again raised his eyelashes to look: the stranger stood in the same place and continued to peer at him.
(Raskolnikov’s third dream includes the mechanism of repentance. Raskolnikov Between the third and fourth dreams (the dream in the epilogue of the novel) Raskolnikov looks in the mirror of his “doubles”: Luzhin and Svidrigailov.) (
A dream about a horse killed by men.
On the eve of the crime, Raskolnikov has a dream: he is seven years old, he is walking with his father on a holiday. They walk to the cemetery past a tavern, near which stands a skinny horse harnessed to a large cart. A drunk man comes out of the tavern.
Mikolka (same name as the dyer who took the blame for Raskolnikov). He seats the noisy, partying crowd into the cart. The horse cannot move the cart. Mikolka mercilessly beats her with a whip, then with a shaft, two men whip the horse from the sides. The boy tries to intercede, cries, screams.
Mikolka finishes off the animal with an iron crowbar. Rodion runs up “to Savraska, grabs her dead, bloody muzzle and kisses her,” then throws himself at Mikolka with his fists. Raskolnikov “woke up covered in sweat, with his hair wet from sweat, gasping for breath, and stood up in horror.” Meaning: the writer reveals Raskolnikov’s true soul, shows that the violence he conceived is contrary to the hero’s nature.
This dream reflects Rodion’s internal state on the eve of the crime.
Symbolism of a dream about a slaughtered horse.
A few steps from the tavern there is a church, and this short distance shows that at any moment in life a person can stop sinning and begin a righteous life. The dream has a compositional double in the novel - this is the death of Katerina Ivanovna (“They drove away the nag!..” - she says, dying).
Full text of the episode "Dream No. 1"
He went home; but having already reached Petrovsky Island, he stopped in complete exhaustion, left the road, entered the bushes, fell on the grass and fell asleep at that very moment. In a painful state, dreams are often distinguished by their extraordinary convexity, brightness and extreme similarity to reality. Sometimes a monstrous picture emerges, but the setting and the whole process of the entire presentation are so plausible and with such subtle, unexpected, but artistically corresponding to the entire completeness of the picture, details that the same dreamer could not invent them in reality, even if he were such an artist, like Pushkin or Turgenev. Such dreams, painful dreams, are always remembered for a long time and make a strong impression on the upset and already excited human body. Raskolnikov had a terrible dream. He dreamed of his childhood, back in their town. He is about seven years old and is walking on a holiday, in the evening, with his father outside the city. The time is gray, the day is suffocating, the area is exactly the same as it remained in his memory: even in his memory it has been much more erased than it was now imagined in a dream. The town stands open, clear in the open, not a willow tree around; somewhere very far away, at the very edge of the sky, a forest grows black. A few steps from the last city garden there is a tavern, a large tavern, which always made an unpleasant impression on him and even fear when he passed by it while walking with his father. There was always such a crowd there, they shouted, laughed, cursed, sang so ugly and hoarsely and fought so often; There were always such drunken and scary faces wandering around the tavern... When he met them, he pressed himself closely to his father and trembled all over. Near the tavern there is a road, a country road, always dusty, and the dust on it is always so black. She walks, twisting, then, about three hundred paces, she bends around the city cemetery to the right. Among the cemetery is a stone church with a green dome, where he went to mass with his father and mother twice a year, when funeral services were served for his grandmother, who had died a long time ago and whom he had never seen. At the same time, they always took kutya with them on a white dish, in a napkin, and the kutya was sugar made from rice and raisins, pressed into the rice with a cross. He loved this church and the ancient images in it, mostly without frames, and the old priest with a trembling head. Near his grandmother’s grave, on which there was a slab, there was also a small grave of his younger brother, who had died for six months and whom he also did not know at all and could not remember; but he was told that he had a little brother, and every time he visited the cemetery, he religiously and respectfully crossed himself over the grave, bowed to it and kissed it. And then he dreams: he and his father are walking along the road to the cemetery and passing a tavern; he holds his father's hand and looks back at the tavern with fear. A special circumstance attracts his attention: this time there seems to be a party here, a crowd of dressed-up bourgeois women, women, their husbands and all sorts of rabble. Everyone is drunk, everyone is singing songs, and near the tavern porch there is a cart, but a strange cart. This is one of those large carts into which large draft horses are harnessed and goods and wine barrels are transported in them. He always loved to look at these huge draft horses, long-maned, with thick legs, walking calmly, at a measured pace, and carrying some whole mountain behind them, without getting too tired at all, as if they were even easier with carts than without carts. But now, strangely, harnessed to such a large cart was a small, skinny, shabby peasant nag, one of those who - he often saw this - sometimes work hard with some tall cart of firewood or hay, especially if the cart gets stuck in the mud or in a rut, and at the same time it’s so painful, the men always beat them so painfully with whips, sometimes even in the very face and in the eyes, and he’s so sorry, so sorry to look at it that he almost cries, but mother always used to , takes him away from the window. But suddenly it becomes very noisy: big, drunken men in red and blue shirts, with saddle-backed army coats, come out of the tavern, shouting, singing, with balalaikas. “Sit down, everyone sit down! - shouts one, still young, with such a thick neck and a fleshy, red face like a carrot, “I’ll take everyone, sit down!” But immediately there is laughter and exclamations: “Lucky nag!” - Are you, Mikolka, out of your mind or something: you locked such a little mare in such a cart! “But Savraska will certainly be twenty years old, brothers!” - Sit down, I’ll take everyone! - Mikolka shouts again, jumping first into the cart, taking the reins and standing on the front at his full height. “The bay one left with Matvey,” he shouts from the cart, “and this little filly, brothers, only breaks my heart: it would seem that he killed her, she eats bread for nothing.” I say sit down! Let me gallop! Let's gallop! - And he takes the whip in his hands, preparing to whip the Savraska with pleasure. - Yes, sit down, what! - the crowd laughs. - Listen, he’s going to gallop! “She hasn’t jumped for ten years, I guess.” - Jumping! - Don’t be sorry, brothers, take all kinds of whips, prepare them! - And then! Whack her! Everyone climbs into Mikolka’s cart with laughter and witticisms. Six people got in, and there are still more to be seated. They take with them one woman, fat and ruddy. She's wearing red coats, a beaded tunic, cats on her feet, cracking nuts and chuckling. All around in the crowd they are also laughing, and indeed, how can one not laugh: such a frothing mare and such a burden will be carried at a gallop! The two guys in the cart immediately take a whip each to help Mikolka. The sound is heard: “Well!”, the nag pulls with all her might, but not only can she gallop, but she can even barely manage a step; she just minces with her legs, grunts and crouches from the blows of three whips raining down on her like peas. The laughter in the cart and in the crowd doubles, but Mikolka gets angry and, in a rage, strikes the filly with rapid blows, as if he really believed that she would gallop. - Let me in too, brothers! - shouts one overjoyed guy from the crowd. - Sit down! Everyone sit down! - Mikolka shouts, - everyone will be lucky. I'll spot it! - And he whips, whips, and no longer knows what to hit with out of frenzy. “Daddy, daddy,” he shouts to his father, “daddy, what are they doing?” Daddy, the poor horse is being beaten! - Let's go, let's go! - says the father, - drunk, playing pranks, fools: let's go, don't look! - and wants to take him away, but he breaks out of his hands and, not remembering himself, runs to the horse. But the poor horse feels bad. She gasps, stops, jerks again, almost falls. - Slap him to death! - Mikolka shouts, - for that matter. I'll spot it! - Why don’t you have a cross on, or something, you devil! - shouts one old man from the crowd. “Have you ever seen such a horse carry such luggage,” adds another. - You'll starve! - shouts the third. - Don't touch it! My goodness! I do what I want. Sit down again! Everyone sit down! I want her to start galloping without fail!.. Suddenly, laughter bursts out in one gulp and covers everything: the little filly could not bear the rapid blows and began to kick in helplessness. Even the old man couldn’t resist and grinned. And indeed: it’s such a kicking little filly, and it kicks too! Two guys from the crowd take out another whip and run to the horse to whip it from the sides. Everyone runs from their own side. - In her face, in her eyes, in her eyes! - Mikolka shouts. - A song, brothers! - someone shouts from the cart, and everyone in the cart joins in. A riotous song is heard, a tambourine clangs, and whistles are heard in the choruses. The woman cracks nuts and chuckles. ...He runs next to the horse, he runs ahead, he sees how it is being whipped in the eyes, right in the eyes! He is crying. His heart rises, tears flow. One of the attackers hits him in the face; he doesn’t feel, he wrings his hands, screams, rushes to the gray-haired old man with a gray beard, who shakes his head and condemns all this. One woman takes him by the hand and wants to lead him away; but he breaks free and runs to the horse again. She is already making her last efforts, but she begins to kick again. - And to those devils! - Mikolka screams in rage. He throws the whip, bends down and pulls out a long and thick shaft from the bottom of the cart, takes it by the end in both hands and swings it with effort over the Savraska. - It will explode! - they shout all around. - He will kill! - My goodness! - Mikolka shouts and lowers the shaft with all his might. A heavy blow is heard. - Whack her, whip her! What have they become? - voices shout from the crowd. And Mikolka swings another time, and another blow lands with all its might on the back of the unfortunate nag. She sinks all over, but jumps up and pulls, pulls with all her last strength in different directions to take her out; but from all sides they take it with six whips, and the shaft again rises and falls for the third time, then for the fourth, measuredly, with a sweep. Mikolka is furious that she cannot kill with one blow. - Tenacious! - they shout all around. - Now it will certainly fall, brothers, this is the end of it! - one amateur shouts from the crowd. - Ax her, what! Finish her at once,” shouts the third. - Eh, eat those mosquitoes! Make way! - Mikolka screams furiously, throws the shaft, bends down into the cart again and pulls out the iron crowbar. - Be careful! - he shouts and with all his strength he stuns his poor horse. The blow collapsed; the filly staggered, sagged, and wanted to pull, but the crowbar again fell with all its might on her back, and she fell to the ground, as if all four legs had been cut off at once. - Finish it off! - Mikolka shouts and jumps up, as if not remembering himself, from the cart. Several guys, also red and drunk, grab whatever they can - whips, sticks, shafts - and run to the dying filly. Mikolka stands on the side and starts hitting him on the back with a crowbar in vain. The nag stretches out his muzzle, sighs heavily and dies. - Finished! - they shout in the crowd. - Why didn’t you gallop! - My goodness! - Mikolka shouts, with a crowbar in her hands and with bloodshot eyes. He stands there as if regretting that there is no one else to beat. - Well, really, you know, you don’t have a cross on you! - Many voices are already shouting from the crowd. But the poor boy no longer remembers himself. With a scream, he makes his way through the crowd to Savraska, grabs her dead, bloody muzzle and kisses her, rushes with his little fists at Mikolka. At that moment his father, who had been chasing him for a long time, finally grabs him and carries him out of the crowd. - Let's go to! let's go to! - he tells him, - let's go home! - Daddy! Why did they... kill the poor horse! - he sobs, but his breath is taken away, and the words burst out in screams from his constricted chest. “They’re drunk and acting out, it’s none of our business, let’s go!” - says the father. He wraps his arms around his father, but his chest is tight, tight. He wants to catch his breath, scream, and wakes up. He woke up covered in sweat, his hair wet with sweat, gasping for breath, and sat up in horror.
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A dream about an oasis in Egypt.
On the eve of the crime, Rodion dreams of an ideal world that will be created by him, the brilliant savior of humanity. He sees Egypt, an oasis, blue water, colorful stones, golden sand and dreams of creating a small oasis of happiness on earth among the endless desert of grief. Meaning: the dream in the name of which the crime is conceived is opposed to the gray reality of life.
Symbolism of a dream about Egypt.
The Egyptian campaign is the beginning of Napoleon's career.
Full text of the episode "Dream No. 2"
After dinner, he stretched out again on the sofa, but could no longer fall asleep, but lay motionless, face down, with his face buried in the pillow. He dreamed everything, and all of them were strange dreams: most often he imagined that he was somewhere in Africa, in Egypt, in some kind of oasis. The caravan is resting, the camels are lying quietly; There are palm trees growing all around; everyone is having lunch. He keeps drinking water, straight from the stream, which is right there, by his side, flowing and babbling. And it’s so cool, and such wonderful, wonderful blue water, cold, runs over multi-colored stones and over such clean sand with golden sparkles... Suddenly he clearly heard that the clock was striking. He shuddered, woke up, raised his head, looked out the window, realized the time and suddenly jumped up, completely coming to his senses, as if someone had torn him off the sofa. He tiptoed to the door, opened it quietly and began to listen down the stairs. His heart was beating terribly. But everything was quiet on the stairs, as if everyone were sleeping... It seemed wild and wonderful to him that he could have slept in such oblivion since the day before and had not done anything yet, had not prepared anything... And meanwhile, perhaps six o’clock was striking... And an extraordinary a feverish and kind of confused bustle suddenly seized him, instead of sleep and stupor. However, there were few preparations. He made every effort to figure everything out and not forget anything; and his heart kept beating and pounding so hard that it became difficult for him to breathe. Firstly, it was necessary to make a loop and sew it to the coat - a matter of minutes. He reached under the pillow and found in the linen stuffed under it one of his old, unwashed shirts, completely falling apart. From her rags he tore out a braid an inch wide and eight inches long. He folded this braid in half, took off his wide, strong summer coat made of some thick paper material (his only outer dress) and began sewing both ends of the braid under his left armpit from the inside. His hands shook while sewing, but he prevailed, and so that nothing was visible from the outside when he put on his coat again. The needle and thread had already been prepared for a long time and lay in the table, in a piece of paper. As for the noose, it was a very clever invention of his own: the noose was intended for an axe. It was impossible to carry an ax in your hands along the street. And if you hid it under your coat, you still had to hold it with your hand, which would be noticeable. Now, with a loop, you just have to put the ax blade into it, and it will hang calmly, under your armpit from the inside, all the way. Having put his hand into the side pocket of his coat, he could hold the end of the ax handle so that it would not dangle; and since the coat was very wide, a real bag, it could not be noticeable from the outside that he was holding something with his hand through the pocket. He also came up with this loop two weeks ago.
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Dream about Ilya Petrovich.
Rodion dreams that Ilya Petrovich is beating his mistress. The dream is filled with terrible sounds: “she howled, squealed and wailed,” the voice of the beating man was hoarse, “he had never heard or seen such unnatural sounds, such howling, screaming, gnashing, tears, beatings and curses.” In the hero's mind, the dream is confused with reality. He thinks about the blood he shed, about the people he killed. The hero’s entire being resists the murder committed. When Ilya Petrovich beats the mistress, questions arise in Raskolnikov’s head: “But for what, for what... and how is this possible!” Rodion understands that he is the same “genius” as Ilya Petrovich.
The meaning of the dream about Ilya Petrovich.
Killing is alien to human nature. The dream was introduced by the author to show the horror and inconsistency of Raskolnikov’s theory.
Symbolism: the staircase, which is the scene of the dream, symbolizes the struggle between good and evil.
Full text of the episode "Dream No. 3"
He arrived at his place in the evening, which means he had only been there for about six hours. Where and how he walked back, he didn’t remember anything. Having undressed and trembling all over, like a driven horse, he lay down on the sofa, pulled his overcoat over himself and immediately forgot... He woke up in complete twilight from a terrible scream. God, what a cry! He had never heard or seen such unnatural sounds, such howling, screaming, grinding, tears, beatings and curses. He could not even imagine such atrocity, such frenzy. In horror, he rose and sat down on his bed, freezing and suffering every moment. But the fighting, screaming and cursing became stronger and stronger. And then, to his greatest amazement, he suddenly heard the voice of his mistress. She howled, squealed and wailed, hurrying, hurrying, letting out words so that it was impossible to make out, begging for something - of course, that they would stop beating her, because she was beaten mercilessly on the stairs. The beating man’s voice became so terrible from anger and rage that it was just hoarse, but still the beating man also said something like that, and also quickly, inaudibly, hurrying and choking. Suddenly Raskolnikov trembled like a leaf: he recognized this voice; it was the voice of Ilya Petrovich. Ilya Petrovich is here and beats the mistress! He kicks her, bangs her head on the steps - it’s clear, you can hear it from the sounds, from the screams, from the blows! What is this, the light has turned upside down, or what? You could hear a crowd gathering on all floors, along the entire staircase, voices, exclamations, people coming up, knocking, slamming doors, and running. “But for what, for what, and how is this possible!” - he repeated, seriously thinking that he was completely crazy. But no, he hears too clearly!.. But, therefore, they will come to him now, if so, “because... it’s true, all this is from the same thing... because of yesterday... Lord!” He wanted to lock himself on the hook, but his hand did not rise... and it was useless! Fear, like ice, surrounded his soul, tormented him, numbed him... But finally all this commotion, which lasted for ten faithful minutes, began to gradually subside. The hostess moaned and groaned, Ilya Petrovich still threatened and swore... But finally, it seems, he calmed down; now you can’t hear him; “Has he really left? God!" Yes, then the landlady leaves, still moaning and crying... and then her door slammed... So the crowd disperses from the stairs to the apartments - they gasp, argue, call each other, now raising their speech to a scream, now lowering it to a whisper. There must have been many of them; Almost the whole house came running. “But God, is all this possible! And why, why did he come here!” Raskolnikov fell helplessly onto the sofa, but could no longer close his eyes; he lay for half an hour in such suffering, in such an unbearable feeling of boundless horror, which he had never experienced before. Suddenly a bright light illuminated his room: Nastasya entered with a candle and a plate of soup. Looking at him carefully and seeing that he was not sleeping, she put the candle on the table and began to lay out what she had brought: bread, salt, plate, spoon. “I suppose I haven’t eaten since yesterday.” He walked around all day, and the feverish man himself beats. - Nastasya... why did they beat the landlady? She looked at him intently. - Who beat the landlady? - Now... half an hour ago, Ilya Petrovich, the warden's assistant, on the stairs... Why did he do that to her? beat you up? and... why did he come?..Nastasya looked at him silently and frowning and looked at him like that for a long time. He felt very unpleasant from this examination, even scared. “Nastasya, why are you silent?” - he finally said timidly in a weak voice. “This is blood,” she answered finally, quietly and as if speaking to herself. “Blood!.. What kind of blood?” he muttered, turning pale and moving away towards the wall. Nastasya continued to look at him silently. “Nobody beat the mistress,” she said again in a stern and decisive voice. He looked at her, barely breathing. “I heard it myself... I didn’t sleep... I sat,” he said even more timidly. - I listened for a long time... The warden's assistant came... Everyone came running to the stairs, from all the apartments... - Nobody came. And it’s the blood in you screaming. It’s when there’s no way out for her and she’s already starting to bake her liver, and then she starts to imagine... You’re going to eat, or what? He didn’t answer. Nastasya still stood over him, looked at him intently and did not leave. “Give me a drink... Nastasya.” She went downstairs and two minutes later returned with water in a white clay mug; but he no longer remembered what happened next. I only remembered how I took one sip of cold water and spilled it from the mug onto my chest. Then came unconsciousness.
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Dream about a laughing old woman.
In a dream, Raskolnikov goes to the old woman’s apartment after some tradesman who calls him there. This is a second reliving of the crime committed by the hero. Rodion tries to kill the pawnbroker - he hits her on the head with an ax, but “she didn’t even move from the blows, like a piece of wood.” He “looked into her face from below, looked in and froze: the old woman was sitting and laughing.”
Raskolnikov tries to escape, but there is nowhere to run - there are people everywhere. He wanted to be above this crowd (“trembling creatures”), but they laugh at his pathetic attempt to change the world through murder. The old woman is alive and also laughs at him, because by killing her, Raskolnikov killed himself - his soul.
The meaning of the dream about the laughing old woman.
The hero's subconscious speaks of the senselessness of murder, but he is not yet ready to repent.
Symbolism: The old woman's laughter is used as a way to debunk the Napoleonic element in the hero.
Full text of the episode "Dream No. 4"
He forgot; It seemed strange to him that he did not remember how he could have ended up on the street. It was already late evening. The dusk deepened, the full moon grew brighter and brighter; but somehow the air was especially stuffy. People walked in crowds along the streets; artisans and busy people went home, others walked; it smelled of lime, dust, and stagnant water. Raskolnikov walked sad and worried: he remembered very well that he left the house with some intention, that he had to do something and hurry, but he forgot what exactly. Suddenly he stopped and saw that on the other side of the street, on the sidewalk, a man was standing and waving at him. He walked towards him across the street, but suddenly this man turned and walked as if nothing had happened, with his head down, without turning around and without giving any sign that he was calling him. “Come on, did he call?” - thought Raskolnikov, but began to catch up. Not ten steps away, he suddenly recognized him and was frightened; it was a tradesman from a long time ago, in the same robe and hunched over in the same way. Raskolnikov walked from a distance; his heart was beating; We turned into the alley - he still didn’t turn around. “Does he know that I’m following him?” - thought Raskolnikov. A tradesman entered the gates of a large house. Raskolnikov quickly walked up to the gate and began to look: would he look back and call him? In fact, having gone through the entire gateway and already going out into the yard, he suddenly turned around and again seemed to wave to him. Raskolnikov immediately passed through the gateway, but the tradesman was no longer in the yard. Therefore, he entered here now on the first staircase. Raskolnikov rushed after him. In fact, two stairs up, someone else's measured, unhurried steps could be heard. Strange, the stairs seemed familiar! There's a window on the first floor; the moonlight passed sadly and mysteriously through the glass; here is the second floor. Bah! This is the same apartment in which the workers smeared... How did he not find out immediately? The steps of the man in front died down: “it means he stopped or hid somewhere.” Here is the third floor; should we go further? And how quiet there is, it’s even scary... But he went. The noise of his own steps frightened and worried him. God, how dark! The tradesman must be hiding in a corner somewhere. A! the apartment is wide open to the stairs; he thought and entered. The hallway was very dark and empty, not a soul, as if everything had been taken out; Quietly, on tiptoe, he walked into the living room: the whole room was brightly bathed in moonlight; everything is the same here: chairs, a mirror, a yellow sofa and framed pictures. A huge, round, copper-red moon looked straight into the windows. “It’s been so quiet for a month,” thought Raskolnikov, “he’s probably asking a riddle now.” He stood and waited, waited for a long time, and the quieter the month was, the stronger his heart beat, and it even became painful. And all silence. Suddenly, an instant dry crack was heard, as if a splinter had been broken, and everything froze again. The awakened fly suddenly hit the glass and buzzed pitifully. At that very moment, in the corner, between the small wardrobe and the window, he saw a cloak as if hanging on the wall. “Why is there a cloak here? - he thought, “after all, he wasn’t there before...” He approached slowly and guessed that it was as if someone was hiding behind the cloak. He carefully pulled back his cloak with his hand and saw that there was a chair standing there, and an old woman was sitting on a chair in the corner, all hunched over and her head bowed, so that he could not see her face, but it was her. He stood over her: “Afraid!” - he thought, quietly released the ax from the loop and hit the old woman on the crown, once and twice. But it’s strange: she didn’t even move from the blows, like she was made of wood. He got scared, leaned closer and began to look at her; but she also bent her head even lower. He then bent down completely to the floor and looked into her face from below, looked and froze: the old woman was sitting and laughing - she burst into quiet, inaudible laughter, trying with all her might so that he would not hear her. Suddenly it seemed to him that the door from the bedroom opened slightly and that there, too, seemed to be laughing and whispering. Fury overcame him: with all his might he began to hit the old woman on the head, but with each blow of the ax, laughter and whispers from the bedroom were heard more and more loudly, and the old woman was shaking all over with laughter. He rushed to run, but the entire hallway was already full of people, the doors on the stairs were wide open, and on the landing, on the stairs and down there - all the people, head to head, everyone was watching - but everyone was hiding and waiting, silent... His heart was embarrassed, his legs don’t move, they’re frozen... He wanted to scream and woke up.
[collapse]
Dream about trichinae.
Raskolnikov's last dream shows the result of his difficult and long internal struggle with himself. The events of the dream take place in a fantasy world.
The hero sees terrible pictures of the end of the world, which is approaching due to a terrible disease caused by new microbes - trichinae. They penetrate the brain and inspire
to the person that he alone is right in everything. Infected people kill each other.
Moral guidelines are lost. However, there are several people who have had this disease and were able to survive. They are the ones who can save humanity, but no one sees or hears them. Meaning: Dostoevsky shows a way out - we need to overcome moral nihilism, and then people will be able to understand God and discover the truth. The hero abandons his theory and realizes what permissiveness can lead to.
Symbolism: sleep - purification and rebirth of the hero.
The meaning of dreams. Dreams help to understand the hero’s psychology and show how Raskolnikov’s worldview is changing.
