28-29)Fyodor Dostoevsky’s remarkable insight into the psychology of man is seen in thedevelopment of Raskolnikov’s dream of the drunken peasants beating the old horseto death. He dreams that he is back in his childhood and as he is walking with hisfather, he sees a drunken peasant trying to make an old horse pull a heavy wagonfull of people. When the old horse is unable to pull the wagon, the peasant getsangry and beats the horse to death. The dream is significant on several planes,perhaps the most notable is that the dream is tied to Raskolnikov’s plan to murderthe pawnbroker. When Raskolnikov awakens, he wonders if he can actually “takean axe, split her skull open, tread in the sticky blood and hide”(qtd. in Breger 23). In the dream Raskolnikov is both the vicious peasant who kills the horse, and theboy who feels great compassion for the horse. This “double-edged nature” asTerras put it, is the type of psychology Dostoevsky used to make Raskolnikov reallyappeal to Crime and Punishment’s readers. Dostoevsky once wrote a letter to A.N. Maikov focused around a question“with which I have been tormented, consciously or unconsciously all my life-- thatis, the existence of God” (qtd. in Dirschel 59). In Dostoevsky’s writings “...thefight for belief is accompanied by the most vigorous apology for unbelief. But forthis reason they are all the more poignant both as literature and as humandocuments”(Lavrin 976). Dostoevsky’s personal struggle with the question of faith,and also his own experience as a doubting believer, are manifested in the charactershe develops. A large number of Dostoevsky’s books, (including Crime andPunishment), are written within the framework of a Christian doctrine; juxtaposingcharacterizations of believers and non-believers such as Raskolnikov and Sonia; andenforcing the ultimate good in developing a belief in Christ. Dos...
