templating the murder of Alyona. His humane side, the child, tells him to live and let live. And his "extraordinary" side, according to his definition, tells him that he should eliminate Alyona altogether, for the good of mankind. The flip side of this is that the mare itself could represent Raskolnikov. However, the burden which the mare must carry (the cart, the people, etc.) could represent two separate things, depending on if it is viewed in context before or after the actual murder. Before the murder, the burden could represent the moral question that is plaguing Rodion. Should he kill Alyona? Or should he leave her be? Because of the importance of this question to Raskolnikov, it weighs him down heavily at first. However, later on, he rashly decides to kill Alyona. If looked upon after the murder, the load on the mare in the dream could represent the mental burden placed on Rodion. He had a burden of guilt on him, and he could not justify the murder even according to his own theory. Even though Porfiry Petrovitch did not have many of the people purposely harassing Raskolnikov by mentioning various facets of the murder, it was as if those who were "beating" the truth out of him were pawns of Porfiry (or that of truth and the law in general), just as those beating the life out of the mare were pawns of Mikolka (or that of cruelty). Two other characters of the novel represent the two different sides to Raskolnikov, Sonya Marmeladov and Svidrigailov. Sonya is the warm side of Raskolnikov. She is a prostitute forced into that field because her father drinks away all of the money in the family. She is meek and submissive. She will give her father her last copeck even if he comes to her totally drunk. Raskolnikov is at once attracted to and repulsed by this personality. Svidrigailov is the cold and detached personality that Raskolnikov both hates and embraces. The goal of the novel is to make Raskolnikov into one character. Sonya helps ...
