Analysis Of Dreams In Crime And Punishment By Fyodor Dostoevsky

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Why do we dream during sleep? The dreams are often very compelling, that makes us wonder of the purposes. But does dream has a purpose? Many psychologists believe dreams have many different features of purposes such as foreshadows the future, imagination of what we cannot be, put us in a difficult situation to confront and more. In the novel “Crime and Punishment,” the author Fyodor Dostoevsky utilizes different “dreams” to foreshadow the future event and to reveal his true inner consciousness toward his evil crime. The first dream in the novel comes from Raskolnikov a day before he commits the crime. He dreams about back in his childhood, when he was seven years old, and as he is walking with his father, they notices a drunken peasant, Mikolka, beating his old …show more content…

The crowds shouted “Fetch an axe to her!” and Mikolka “dealt a stunning blow to the poor mare… [and] stood on one side and began dealing random blows with the crowbar. The mare stretched out her head, drew a long breath and died.” After witnessing this terrible murder, young Raskolnikov “put his arms around her bleeding dead head and kissed it, kissed the eyes and kissed the lips.” This dream foreshadows the murder of old pawnbroker and her innocent sister. The old horse represents Alyona Ivanova and Lizabeta Ivanova and two main characters of the dream, young Rodya and Mikolka, symbolizes Raskolnikov’s two conflicting side of consciousness. The young boy represents Rodya’s caring and sympathetic side which shows the goodness conscience and uncertainty of committing crime. On the other hand, Mikolka represents the evil side of Raskolnikov, no feeling towards the murder and heartless of killing innocent lives. Likewise

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