Dostoyevsky's Dream Of Raskolnikov

Days after his confession of the murder and time spent in prison, Raskolnikov still believes his failed act of murder as a simple error of reasoning. However, he recollects memories of a persistent dream, where he envisions a completely new world infected by a plague and society is attacked by microbes “endowed with intelligence and will” (Dostoyevsky 427). He explicates of men contaminated with these microbes becoming enraged and depicts their notions of superior intellectuality as foolish suffering. Raskolnikov’s dream of a horrible plague illustrates the absolute truth intellectuals possess for their false superior justice (Morson 10). The dream portrays Raskolnikov as one of these infected individuals of society, and he criticizes the so-called intellectuals’
Upon his revelation, Raskolnikov states of “a pure chosen people, destined to found a new race … no one had heard their words and their voices” (Dostoyevsky 428). Raskolnikov’s positive, almost respectful, descriptions of the pure chosen group exhibit the refashioning in his perspective, as he identifies himself as a part of the chosen people, the quiet commoners of society. In addition, he reflects upon the pain his actions evoked from Sonia, whom he identifies as a “chosen” individual; Raskolnikov realizes it was because of his selfish need for comfort, he established ignorance towards her visible suffering. His new attitude towards Sonia reveals the foundation of his revelation, as he comprehends the sharing of suffering as a way to peace. Raskolnikov attempts a self-reflection, as his consecutive dreams elicit a backward, forward, or inward relationship with one another (Uwasomba 293). His dream demonstrates a forward towards progression, a progression rejecting the extraordinary theory from his first dream and an acceptance of the