... Having entered the tavern, he drank a glass of vodka and ate a pie with some filling. He ate it again on the road. He had not drunk vodka for a very long time, and it instantly acted, although only one glass was drunk. His legs suddenly became heavy, and he began to feel a strong urge to sleep. 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 the same moment.

In a diseased state, dreams are often distinguished by their extraordinary convexity, brightness, and extreme resemblance to reality. Sometimes a monstrous picture is formed, but the situation and the whole process of the whole representation are so probable at the same time and with such subtle, unexpected, but artistically corresponding to the fullness of the picture details that they cannot be invented in reality by the same dreamer, be he the same artist, like Pushkin or Turgenev. Such dreams, painful dreams, are always remembered for a long time and make a strong impression on a disturbed and already excited human organism.

Raskolnikov had a terrible dream. He dreamed of his childhood, back in their town. He is about seven years old and walks on a holiday, in the evening, with his father outside the city. The time is grey, the day is suffocating, the terrain is exactly the same as it survived in his memory: even in his memory it has faded much more than it now seemed in a dream. The town stands openly, as if in the palm of your hand, not a willow around; somewhere very far away, at the very edge of the sky, a wood turns black. A few steps from the last city garden stands a tavern, a large tavern that always made him the most unpleasant impression and even fear when he walked past it, walking with his father. There was always such a crowd there, they yelled, laughed, cursed, sang so ugly and hoarsely, and fought so often; such drunken and terrible faces always wandered around the tavern ... Meeting them, he pressed close 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 goes, wriggling, further and three hundred paces around the city cemetery to the right. In the middle of the cemetery is a stone church with a green dome, to which he went twice a year with his father and mother to mass, when memorial services were served for his grandmother, who had died long 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 kutya was sugar made from rice and raisins pressed into the rice with a cross. He loved this church and the ancient icons in it, mostly without salaries, and the old priest with a trembling head. Near the 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 reverently crossed himself over the grave, bowed to her and kissed her. And now he dreams: they are walking with their father along the road to the cemetery and pass by a tavern; he holds his father by the hand and looks around fearfully at the tavern. A special circumstance attracts his attention: this time there seems to be a festivity, a crowd of dressed-up bourgeois women, women, their husbands and all sorts of rabble. Everyone is drunk, everyone sings songs, and near the porch of the tavern there is a cart, but a strange cart. This is one of those big carts that pull big draft horses and carry goods and wine barrels in them. He always liked to look at these huge draft horses, long-maned, with thick legs, walking calmly, with a measured step and carrying some whole mountain behind them, not at all pushing, as if it were even easier for them with wagons than without wagons. But now, strange to say, such a large wagon was harnessed to a small, skinny, savage peasant nag, one of those who - he often saw it - sometimes tear themselves with some tall load of firewood or hay, especially if the wagon gets stuck in the mud. or in a rut, and at the same time they are always so painful, so painfully beaten by peasants with whips, sometimes even in the very face and in the eyes, but he is so sorry, so sorry to look at it, that he almost cries, and mother always used to , takes him away from the window. But then suddenly it becomes very noisy: they come out of the tavern with shouts, with songs, with balalaikas, drunk, drunk, big, drunken men in red and blue shirts, with Armenians on the back. “Sit down, everyone sit down! - shouts one, still young, with such a thick neck and with a fleshy, red, like a carrot face, - I'll take everyone, get in! But immediately there is laughter and exclamations:

- So lucky!

- Yes, you, Mikolka, in your mind, or something: you locked up such a mare in such a cart!

- But Savraska will certainly be twenty years old, brothers!

"Get in, I'll take you all!" - Mikolka shouts again, jumping first into the cart, takes the reins and stands on the front in full growth. “The bay dave and Matvey left,” he shouts from the cart, “and the mare Etta, brothers, only breaks my heart: it would seem that he killed her, eats bread for nothing. I say sit down! Jump comin! Jump will go! - And he takes the whip in his hands, with pleasure preparing to flog the savraska.

- Yes, sit down, what! - laugh in the crowd. "Listen, let's go!"

“She hasn’t jumped for ten years, I suppose.”

- It jumps!

- Do not be sorry, brothers, take every whip, prepare!

- And that! Seki her!

Crime and Punishment. 1969 feature film 1 episode

Everyone climbs into Mikolkin's cart with laughter and witticisms. Six people climbed in, and more can be planted. They take with them one woman, fat and ruddy. She is in kumachs, in a beaded kichka, cats on her legs, clicks nuts and chuckles. All around in the crowd they are also laughing, and indeed, how not to laugh: such a staring mare and such a burden will be lucky at a gallop! Two guys in the cart immediately take a whip to help Mikolka. It is heard: “Well!”, the nag pulls with all its might, but not only jumping, but even a little step can cope, it only minces its feet, grunts and crouches from the blows of three whips that fall on it like peas. Laughter doubles in the cart and in the crowd, but Mikolka becomes angry and in a rage flogs the mare with rapid blows, as if she really believes that she will gallop.

“Let me go, brothers!” - shouts one regaled guy from the crowd.

- Sit down! Everyone sit down! - shouts Mikolka, - everyone will be lucky. I'm noticing! - And he whips, whips, and no longer knows how to beat from a frenzy.

“Daddy, daddy,” he calls 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, naughty, 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 it's bad for the poor horse. She gasps, stops, jerks again, almost falls.

- Slash to death! - shouts Mikolka, - for that matter. I'm noticing!

- Why is there a cross on you, or something, no, goblin! shouts one old man from the crowd.

“Is it seen that such a horse was carrying such a load,” adds another.

- Freeze! shouts a third.

- Do not touch! My good! I do what I want. Sit down some more! Everyone sit down! I want to go jumping without fail! ..

Suddenly, laughter is heard in one gulp and covers everything: the filly could not bear the quick blows and, in impotence, began to kick. Even the old man could not stand it and grinned. And indeed: a sort of staring mare, and still kicks!

Two guys from the crowd take out another whip and run to the horse to flog it from the sides. Everyone runs on their own side.

- In her muzzle, in her eyes whip, in her eyes! Mikolka screams.

Song, brothers! - shouts someone from the cart, and everyone in the cart picks up. A riotous song is heard, a tambourine rattles, whistles in the refrains. The woman clicks nuts and chuckles.

... He runs beside the horse, he runs ahead, he sees how she is whipped in the eyes, in the very eyes! He is crying. His heart rises, tears flow. One of the secants hits him in the face; he does not feel, he wrings his hands, shouts, 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 take him away; but he breaks free and again runs to the horse. She is already with the last effort, but once again begins to kick.

- And to those goblin! 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 with an effort swings over the savraska.

- Destroy! they shout around.

- My goodness! - shouts Mikolka and with all his might lowers the shaft. There is a heavy blow.

And Mikolka swings another time, and another blow from all over falls on the back of the unfortunate nag. She all settles with her backside, but jumps up and pulls, pulls with all her last strength in different directions in order to take her out; but from all sides they take it in six whips, and the shaft rises again and falls for the third time, then for the fourth, measuredly, with a swing. Mikolka is furious that he cannot kill with one blow.

- Living! they shout around.

- Now it will surely fall, brothers, and then it will end! one amateur shouts from the crowd.

- Ax her, what! End it at once, - shouts the third.

- Eh, eat those mosquitoes! Make way! - Mikolka screams furiously, throws the shaft, again bends down into the cart and pulls out an iron crowbar. - Watch out! he shouts, and with all his strength he stuns his poor horse with a flourish. The blow collapsed; the filly staggered, sank down, was about to pull, but the crowbar again fell on her back with all his might, and she fell to the ground, as if all four legs had been cut at once.

- Get it! - shouts Mikolka and jumps up, as if not remembering himself, from the cart. Several guys, also red and drunk, grab anything - whips, sticks, shafts, and run to the dying filly. Mikolka stands to one side and starts hitting the back with a crowbar in vain. The nag stretches its muzzle, sighs heavily and dies.

- Finished it! - shout in the crowd.

"Why didn't you jump?"

- My goodness! shouts Mikolka, with a crowbar in her hands and with bloodshot eyes. He stands as if regretting that there is no one else to beat.

- Well, really, you know, there is no cross on you! many voices are already shouting from the crowd.

But the poor boy no longer remembers himself. With a cry, he makes his way through the crowd to Savraska, grabs her dead, bloody muzzle and kisses her, kisses her in the eyes, on the lips ... Then he suddenly jumps up and in a frenzy rushes with his little fists at Mikolka. At this 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 says to him, - let's go home!

- Daddy! Why did they…poor horse…kill! he sobs, but his breath is taken away, and the words scream out from his tight chest.

- Drunk, naughty, none of our business, let's go! the father says. 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 he sat up in horror.

Thank God it's only a dream! he said, sitting down under a tree and taking a deep breath. “But what is it? Is it possible that a fever is beginning in me: such an ugly dream!

His whole body was as if broken; vague and dark at heart. He rested his elbows on his knees and propped his head on both hands.

"God! he exclaimed. hide, all covered in blood ... with an ax ... Lord, really? ...

He dreamed of his childhood, still in their town.- The description of this dream is inspired by autobiographical memories. Trembling with weakness, driven, skinny peasant nags, Dostoevsky could see in the village, in the estate of his parents, not far from Zaraysk. "Raskolnikov's dream of a driven horse" Dostoevsky chose to read at the evening in favor of pedagogical courses on March 21, 1880.

He runs beside the horse - he sees how her eyes are whipped ...- These lines resonate with Nekrasov's poems on the same topic: "and in weeping, meek eyes" (from the cycle "On the Weather", part II - "Until Twilight", 1859). Dostoevsky recalls these verses later in the novel The Brothers Karamazov (Part 2, Chapter IV, "Riot"). A similar motif is also found in V. Hugo ("Melancholia", 1846; publ. - 1856).

Dostoevsky called his novel "Crime and Punishment", and the reader has the right to expect that this will be a court novel, where the author will depict the history of crime and criminal punishment. In the novel, there is definitely the murder of an old pawnbroker by a poor student Raskolnikov, his mental anguish for nine days (this is how long the action of the novel continues), his repentance and confession. The reader's expectations seem to be justified, and yet "Crime and Punishment" does not look like a tabloid detective in the spirit of Eugene Sue, whose works were very popular in Dostoevsky's time. "Crime and Punishment" is not a judicial, but a socio-philosophical novel, precisely because of the complexity and depth of the content, it can be interpreted in different ways.

In Soviet times, literary critics paid the main attention to the social problems of the work, repeating mainly the ideas of D.I. Pisarev from the article “The Struggle for Life” (1868). In the post-Soviet period, there were attempts to reduce the content of "Crime and Punishment" to God-seeking: behind the detective intrigue, behind the moral question about the crime, the question of God is hidden. This view of the novel is also not new; it was expressed by V.V. Rozanov at the beginning of the 20th century. It seems that if these extreme points of view are combined, we get the most correct view of both the novel itself and its idea. It is from these two points of view that Raskolnikov's first dream (1, V) should be analyzed.

It is known that the tragic dream of the protagonist resembles a poem by N.A. Nekrasov from the cycle “On the Weather” (1859). The poet draws an everyday urban picture: a skinny crippled horse is dragging a huge cart and suddenly got up, because she did not have the strength to go further. The driver grabs the whip and mercilessly slashes the nag over the ribs, legs, even over the eyes, then takes the log and continues his brutal work:

And beat her, beat her, beat her!

Feet somehow spread wide,

All smoking, settling back,

The horse only sighed deeply

And looked ... (so people look,

succumbing to wrong attacks).

The "work" of the owner was rewarded: the horse went forward, but somehow sideways, trembling nervously, with the last of her strength. Various passers-by watched the street scene with interest and gave advice to the drover.

Dostoevsky in his novel enhances the tragedy of this scene: in Raskolnikov's dream (1, V), drunken men beat a horse to death. The horse in the novel is a small, skinny, savage peasant horse. An absolutely disgusting sight is the driver, who in Dostoevsky receives the name (Mikolka) and a repulsive portrait: "... young, with such a thick neck and with a fleshy, red, like a carrot face." Drunk, drunk, he brutally, with pleasure, flogs Savraska. Two guys with whips help Mikolka to finish off the nag, and the angry owner shouts at them to whip them in the eyes. The crowd at the tavern is watching the whole scene with laughter: “... the nag pulls the cart with all her might, but not only jumps, but even a little can’t cope with a step, only minces her feet, grunts and crouches from the blows of three whips that are pouring like peas on her." Dostoevsky whips up terrible details: the audience roars, Mikolka goes berserk and pulls a shaft from the bottom of the cart. The blows of a stick and whips cannot quickly finish off the horse: it “jumps and pulls, pulls with all its last strength in different directions in order to take it out.” Drunk Mikolka takes out an iron crowbar and beats the nag on the head; his assistant torturers run up to the collapsed horse and finish it off.

Nekrasov had only one young girl, who watched the horse being beaten from the carriage, took pity on the animal:

Here is a face, young, friendly,
Here is the pen, the window opened,
And stroked the unfortunate nag
Handle white...

In Dostoevsky, at the end of the scene, not advice is shouted out from the crowd of spectators, but reproaches that there is no cross on Mikolka, but only a boy (Raskolnikov sees himself like this) runs among the crowd and asks first some old man, then his father to save the horse. When Savraska falls dead, he runs up to her, kisses her dead head, and then throws himself with his fists at Mikolka, who, it must be said, did not even notice this attack.

In the analyzed scene, Dostoevsky emphasizes the ideas necessary for the novel, which are not in Nekrasov's poem. On the one hand, the weak child expresses the truth in this scene. He cannot stop the killings, although with his soul (and not with his mind) he understands the injustice, the inadmissibility of reprisals against a horse. On the other hand, Dostoevsky raises the philosophical question of resistance to evil, of the use of force against evil. Such a formulation of the question is logically brought to the right to shed blood in general and is condemned by the author. However, in the scene described, the blood cannot be justified by anything, it cries out for revenge.

The dream reveals the character of Raskolnikov, who will become a murderer tomorrow. A poor student is a kind and gentle person, able to sympathize with other people's misfortunes. Such dreams are not dreamed by people who have lost their conscience (Svidrigailov's nightmares are about something else) or who have come to terms with the eternal and universal injustice of the world order. The boy who rushed to Mikolka is right, and the father, not even trying to intervene in the killing of the horse, behaves indifferently (savraska still belongs to Mikolka) and cowardly: “They are drunk, they are naughty, it’s none of our business, let’s go!”. Raskolnikov cannot agree with such a position in life. Where is the exit? Character, mind, desperate family circumstances - everything pushes the protagonist of the novel to resist evil, but this resistance, according to Dostoevsky, is directed along the wrong path: Raskolnikov rejects universal human values ​​for the sake of human happiness! Explaining his crime, he says to Sonya: “The old woman is nonsense! The old woman is perhaps a mistake, it’s not her business! The old woman is only a disease ... I wanted to cross as soon as possible ... I did not kill a man, I killed the principle! (3, VI). Raskolnikov means that he violated the commandment "Thou shalt not kill!", on which human relations have been built from time immemorial. If this moral principle is abolished, people will kill each other, as depicted in the last dream of the hero in the epilogue of the novel.

In Raskolnikov's dream about a horse, there are several symbolic moments that connect this episode with the further content of the novel. The boy ends up at the tavern, where the nag is killed, by chance: he and his father went to the cemetery to bow to the grave of his grandmother and brother and go into the church with a green dome. He loved to visit her because of the kind priest and the special feeling that he experienced while being in her. Thus, in a dream, a tavern and a church appear side by side as two extremes of human existence. Further, in a dream, the murder of Lizaveta is already predicted, which Raskolnikov did not plan, but was forced to commit by coincidence. The innocent death of the unfortunate woman in some details (someone from the crowd shouts to Mikolka about the ax) recalls the death of Savraska from a dream: Lizaveta “trembled like a leaf, with a slight shiver, and convulsions ran all over her face; she raised her hand, opened her mouth, but still did not cry out and slowly, backwards, began to move away from him into a corner ... "(1, VII). In other words, before Raskolnikov's crime, Dostoevsky shows that the hero's bold ideas about the superman will necessarily be accompanied by innocent blood. Finally, the image of a tortured horse will appear at the end of the novel in the scene of the death of Katerina Ivanovna, who will utter her last words: “Enough! .. It's time! .. (...) We left the nag! (5,V).

The dream about the horse was like a warning for Raskolnikov: all future crime is “encoded” in this dream, like an oak tree in an acorn. Not without reason, when the hero woke up, he immediately exclaimed: “Can I do it?” But Raskolnikov was not stopped by a warning dream, and he fully received all the suffering of the killer and the disappointment of the theorist.

Summing up, it should be noted that Raskolnikov's first dream in the novel occupies an important place for social, philosophical and psychological reasons. Firstly, in the scene of the murder of a horse, painful impressions from the surrounding life are expressed, seriously injuring the conscientious soul of Raskolnikov and giving rise to the legitimate indignation of any honest person. The indignation of the boy in Dostoevsky can be contrasted with the cowardly irony of the lyrical hero in Nekrasov, who from afar, without interfering, watches the beating of the unfortunate nag in the street.

Secondly, in connection with the dream scene, a philosophical question arises about counteracting the evil of the world. How to fix the world? Blood must be avoided, Dostoevsky warns, since the path to the ideal is inextricably linked with the ideal itself, the abolition of universal moral principles will only lead a person to a dead end.

Thirdly, the dream scene proves that pain lives in the soul of the hero for the weak and defenseless. The dream already at the beginning of the novel testifies that the murderer of the old pawnbroker is not an ordinary robber, but a man of ideas, capable of both action and compassion.

In the novel "Crime and Punishment" a certain place is given to the description of the dreams that the main character sees. These dreams allow the reader to look into the innermost corners of his mind and better understand the reasons for his actions. The novel presents four dreams of Rodion Raskolnikov. Of these, he sees two before committing a crime and two after.

Raskolnikov's first terrible dream brings him back to childhood. But there is nothing bright and iridescent in this dream.

On the contrary, Raskolnikov's childhood city is very reminiscent of Petersburg, with its gloomy and suffocating atmosphere of average streets. The "heroes" of the dream are also similar to the inhabitants of the capital: all the same drunken men who crave cruel entertainment. A special place in the dream is occupied by the description of a miserable horse, which is brutally beaten to death. What is happening is so monstrous and meaningless that the heart of little Rodi is overwhelmed with a nagging feeling of compassion and bitterness from the realization of his own helplessness. The writer intentionally describes the murder scene in great detail, with great care. He seeks to emphasize the unnaturalness of violence and human cruelty. Waking up, Raskolnikov himself is horrified by what he had planned. The human essence of the hero opposes the planned crime, his bright soul repels the idea of ​​killing the old woman.

The action of Raskolnikov's second dream takes place in the desert. But in this hot desert there is a wonderful oasis with palm trees, camels, and most importantly, with clean and cool water. In a dream, water is a symbol of life. The inner "I" of the protagonist strives for pure and life-giving moisture, and not at all for death and violence. Unfortunately, Raskolnikov is in no hurry to listen to his inner voice.

After committing the murder, Raskolnikov sees his next dream. The hero returns to the scene of the crime and re-experiences the moment of the strike. He tries to kill the old pawnbroker in his sleep, but she sits on the floor and silently laughs at him, at his theory. Perhaps in this way Raskolnikov's subconscious convinces him of the inhumanity and senselessness of the murder. However, the hero is not yet ready for repentance.

Raskolnikov had a fourth dream already in hard labor. The events of this dream unfold in a fantasy world. The writer portrays a terrible picture of the apocalypse. The whole world has gone crazy: moral guidelines have been lost, people no longer distinguish between good and evil, they brutally kill each other. The world is doomed to self-destruction, because each person began to consider only himself significant, and his point of view - the only correct one. Human life has lost all value. After this dream, Raskolnikov realized the fallacy of his "Napoleonic" theory and realized what the "principle of permissiveness" could lead to.

Plan for writing:

1. Sleep in nature. The dream of killing a horse is an excursion into the past of the hero.

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 the horse, Dostoevsky defines the internal contradictions of Raskolnikov,

The path of the hero from the fall to purification is outlined,

The ambiguity and symbolism of a dream (images, artistic details, colors are determined, which will subsequently determine the events and fates of the characters),

3. Sleep - 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, crush 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")

Sleep content:

How old was the hero in the first dream? (“He is about seven years old and walks 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 a walk ... They are walking with their father along the road to the cemetery and pass by a tavern ...”

What struck Rodya? (“There was a small, skinny, savory peasant nag harnessed to such a large cart ... Everyone climbs into Mikolkin’s cart with laughter and witticisms ...” -

What happens in the cart and in the crowd? (“Laughter doubles in the cart and in the crowd, but Mikolka becomes angry and in a rage flogs the mare with quickened blows, as if she really believes that she will run at a gallop. kick".

How does little Rodya react to this? (“Daddy, why did they ... the poor horse ... killed!” He sobs, but his breath is captured, and the words are screaming out of his tight chest ... He wraps his arms around his father, but his chest is oppressing, oppressing. "The soul of a seven-year-old boy rebels, he pity 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 spiritual struggle and constitutes the most important event in the novel: threads stretch from him to other events.

Trying to get rid of the obsession, Raskolnikov seeks to get as far away from home as possible. Falling asleep in nature. It is obvious that the terrible theory about the division of people into "trembling creatures" and "having the right" is hidden not in the St. Petersburg slums, but in the mind of the hero himself.

The dream plays a cruel joke with Raskolnikov, as if giving him the opportunity to make a "trial test", after which the hero goes to the old woman pawnbroker - for the second attempt.

- “In the last part of the dream, undoubtedly, the features of the terrible plan invented by him were reflected - let the 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.

In the composition of the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", Raskolnikov's dreams occupy the most important place, being an integral part of the construction of the work. Dreams in the novel are a reflection of the hero's inner world, his ideas, theories, thoughts hidden from his consciousness. This is an important component of the novel, which gives the reader the opportunity to penetrate Raskolnikov, to understand the very essence of his soul.

Dreams in psychology

The study of a person's personality is a very delicate science, balancing between precise attitudes and philosophical conclusions. Psychology often operates with such mysterious and ambiguous categories as "consciousness", "unconscious", "psyche". Here, to explain the actions of a person, his inner world, sometimes hidden even from the patient himself, is dominant. He drives his immoral thoughts and feelings deep inside, ashamed to admit them not only to others, but even to himself. This causes mental imbalance, contributes to the development of neuroses and hysteria.

To unravel the state of a person, the true causes of his moral suffering, psychologists often use hypnosis or solving dreams. It is a dream in psychology that is an expression of the unconscious in the human psyche, his repressed "I".

Sleep as a method of psychoanalysis in the novel

Dostoevsky is a very subtle psychologist. He seems to turn the souls of his characters inside out in front of the reader. But he does this not explicitly, but gradually, as if painting a picture in front of the viewer, in which everyone should see special patterns. In the work "Crime and Punishment" a dream is a way of revealing Raskolnikov's inner world, his experiences, emotions and thoughts. Therefore, it is so important to determine the content of Raskolnikov's dreams, their semantic load. It is also necessary in order to understand both the novel itself and the personality of the hero.

Church and bar

During the entire work, Rodion Romanovich dreams five times. More precisely, three dreams and two semi-delusions occurring on the verge of consciousness and unreality. Raskolnikov's dreams, the brief content of which allows you to catch the deep meaning of the work, allow the reader to feel the internal contradictions of the hero, his "heavy thoughts". This happens in the case of the first dream, in which the hero's internal struggle is going on to some extent. This is a very important point. This is a dream before the murder of an old pawnbroker. It needs to be focused on. This is a system-forming episode, from which, like a stone thrown into the water, waves diverge on each page of the novel.

Raskolnikov's first dream is a product of a morbid imagination. He sees him in his "room" after he met a drunk girl on the boulevard. The dream brings Rodion back to his distant childhood, when he lived in his hometown. Life there is so simple, ordinary and boring that even on holidays nothing can dilute the “gray time”. Moreover, Raskolnikov's dream was portrayed by Dostoevsky in gloomy, repulsive tones. The contrast is created only by green and red and blue shirts, which belong to drunk men.

In this dream, there are two places that are in opposition to each other: a tavern and a church in a cemetery. The church in the cemetery is a certain symbol: as a person begins his life in the church, so he ends it there. And the tavern, in turn, is associated by Rodion with malice, meanness, ossification, drunkenness, filth and depravity of its inhabitants. The fun of the inhabitants of the tavern, both in those around them and in the smallest Rodi, causes only fear and disgust.

And these two centers - a tavern and a church - are not accidentally located at a short distance from each other. By this, Dostoevsky wants to say that a person, no matter how disgusting he may be, can at any moment stop his low life and turn to the all-forgiving God. To do this, you just need to start a new, “clean” life, a life without sins.

Old childhood nightmare

Let us now turn not to the symbols of this dream, but to Rodion himself, who in a dream plunged into the world of his childhood. He relives a nightmare he witnessed in early childhood: Rodion, together with his father, goes to the cemetery to visit the grave of his little brother, who died at the age of 6 months. And their path ran through a tavern. At the tavern stood which was harnessed to a cart. The drunken owner of the horse came out of the tavern and began to invite his friends for a ride on the cart. When she did not budge, Mikola began to whip her with a whip, which he then changed to a crowbar. After several blows, the horse dies, and Rodion, seeing this, rushes at him with his fists.

Analysis of the first dream

It is this dream in the novel "Crime and Punishment" that is the most important component of the entire novel. It allows readers to see the murder for the first time. Only the murder is not conceived, but real. The first dream contains a meaning that carries a huge semantic and symbolic load. It clearly demonstrates where the hero developed a sense of injustice. This feeling is the product of the quest and mental suffering of Rodion.

Only one in the work "Crime and Punishment" Raskolnikov's dream is a thousand-year experience of oppression and enslavement of each other by people. It reflects the cruelty that governs the world, and an incomparable longing for justice and humanity. This idea with amazing skill and clarity F.M. Dostoevsky was able to show in such a short episode.

Raskolnikov's second dream

It is interesting that after Raskolnikov saw the first dream, he no longer sees dreams for a long time, except for the vision that visited him before the murder - a desert in which there is an oasis with blue water (this is a symbol: blue is the color of hope, the color of purity). The fact that Raskolnikov decides to drink from the source suggests that all is not lost. He can still give up his “experience”, avoid this terrible experiment, which should confirm his extravagant theory that the murder of a “harmful” (bad, vile) person will certainly bring relief to society and make the life of good people better.

On the edge of the unconscious

In a feverish fit, when the hero does not think much because of delirium, Raskolnikov sees how Ilya Petrovich allegedly beats the owner of his apartment. It is impossible to single out this episode, which took place in the second part of the novel, as a separate dream, since it is more “delusions and auditory hallucinations”. Although this to some extent suggests that the hero anticipates that he will be a "renegade", "outcast", i.e. subconsciously knows that he will be punished. But also, perhaps, this is a game of the subconscious, which speaks of the desire to destroy another “trembling creature” (the owner of the apartment), who, like the old pawnbroker, is not worthy, according to his theory, to live.

Description of Raskolnikov's next dream

In the third part of the work, Rodion, who has already dealt with Alena Ivanovna (also killing the innocent Lizaveta Ivanovna at the same time), has another dream, gradually turning into delirium. Raskolnikov's next dream is similar to the first. This is a nightmare: the old pawnbroker is alive in her dream, and she responds to Raskolnikov's fruitless attempts to kill herself with laughter, laughter "ominous and unpleasant." Raskolnikov tries to kill her again, but the hubbub of the crowd, which is clearly unfriendly and vicious, does not allow him to do the job. Dostoevsky thus shows the torment and throwing of the protagonist.

Psychoanalysis of the author

This dream fully reflects the state of the hero, who was "broken", as his experiment showed him that he was not able to step over people's lives. The laughter of the old woman is a laugh at the fact that Raskolnikov turned out to be not a "Napoleon", who can easily juggle human destinies, but an insignificant and ridiculous person. This is a kind of triumph of evil over Raskolnikov, who failed to destroy his conscience. Purely compositionally, this dream is a continuation and development of Raskolnikov's reflections on his theory, according to which he divided people into "trembling creatures" and those who "have the right." This inability to step over a person will lead Rodion to the line, to the possibility of "reborn from the ashes" in the future.

last dream

Raskolnikov's last dream in the novel "Crime and Punishment" is another kind of half-asleep-half-delusion in which one must look for hope for the possibility of the hero's rebirth. This dream saves Rodion from the doubts and searches that tormented him all the time after the murder. Raskolnikov's last dream is a world that must disappear due to illness. As if there are spirits in this world who are endowed with a mind, who have a will that can subjugate people, making them puppets, possessed and crazy. Moreover, the puppets themselves, after infection, consider themselves truly smart and unshakable. Infected people kill each other like spiders in a jar. After the third nightmare, Rodion is healed. He becomes morally, physically and psychologically free, healed. And he is ready to follow the advice of Porfiry Petrovich, ready to become the "sun". He is thus approaching the threshold beyond which lies a new life.

In this dream, Raskolnikov looks at his theory with completely different eyes, now he sees that it is inhuman, and regards it as dangerous for the human race, for all of humanity.

Healing

Many writers used dreams in their works, but few were able to achieve what F.M. Dostoevsky. The way he subtly, deeply and at the same time vividly described the psychological state of the character with the help of a dream amazes not only the layman, but also true connoisseurs of literature.