Leon Shambroom 9/28/03 Raskolnikov has a dark and disturbing dream in chapter five. In this dream, he witnesses a group of routy and drunken group beating a mare to death for fun. A young boy cries out in horror for the people to stop, but they kill the mare regardless. Raskolnikov awakens frightened and confused. This dream is both an expression of his antisocial nature, and an early representation of his desires and misgivings about murdering Ivanova. This dream reflects Raskolnikov's separation from the rest of society. When he introduces the mob, he describes them in a very impersonal way. He only names Mikolka, but leaves the rest of them as a single entity which functions as an extension of Mikolka. Raskolnikov obviously feels pity for the horse, but the mob feels the exact opposite. He shows them to be brutal and thoughtless, and seems completely isolated from them. This runs parallel to what we have seen of Raskolnikov in real life; he is quite shy around strangers, and avoids social contact at all costs. He is a paranoid introvert. This dream is also obviously a foreshadowing to Raskolnikov's murder of Ivanova. While Raskolnikov hasn't deliberately thought about killing her yet, his subconscious is apparently working out plans to do the deed, as shown in this dream. The mare, which is shown to be brutally and wrongly slaughtered, is representative of Ivanova. This shows that Raskalnikov has misgivings about committing murder. The mare hasn't done anything to hurt anyone, it has just become a useless expense to the the townspeople. The town would be better off without it, but killing it is an gruesome deed. This description fits Ivanova to a tee. Thousands of pages have been written about about this dream, so these ideas are nothing new. Regardless, these are the impressions I got from reading a little deeper into it.
Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!