In Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky tells a story of a young man that has been forced out of his studies at a university, by poverty. In these circumstances, he develops his theory of an extraordinary man (Frank 62). This conjecture is composed of the ideas that all great men must climb over obstacles in their way to reach their highest potential and benefit human kind. In Raskolnikov's life, the great obstacle is his lack of money, and the way to get over this obstacle is to kill a pawnbroker that he knows. The victim is a rich, stingy, and heartless old crone, and by killing her, taking this evil from the world, Roskolnikov does many great deeds for mankind (Jackson 99),(Kjetsaa 182).

"The little old crone is nonsense!' [Raskolnikov] thought, ardently and impetuously. 'The old woman was a mistake perhaps, but she's not the point! The old woman was merely a sickness…I was in a hurry to step over…it wasn't a human being I killed, it was a principle!" (C&P, Pevear 274).

Consciously, Raskolnikov refuses to accept guilt for committing the crime because he believes that there is nothing to be sorry for. Subconsciously, he knows that he has taken a human life and must suffer the consequences. His guilt and suffering because of it can be seen in his delirium. Right after Raskolnikov kills the pawnbroker he falls ill. When he sleeps, he has nightmares; when he walks, he sees ghosts. These visions are his subconscious telling him that he is wrong for not taking fault and confessing his sin.

In his delirium Raskolnikov believes that he sees ghosts. "And just now I imagined that perhaps I really am mad and was only seeing a ghost"(C&P, Pevear 295). He believes that he has seen a phantom, "exaggerated by his troubled and sick imagination" (C&P, Pevear 331-332). He is deathly afraid of being given away by his outburst and lack of self-control and is afraid of his guilt. These visions that haunt him, are there to remind Raskolnikov that he has committed a sin.

"'What do you want?' Raskolnikov asked, going dead.
The man paused ….
…'What is this?' Raskolnikov cried out.
'I am guilty,' the man said softly.
'Of what?'
'Of wicked thoughts.'"( C&P, Pevear 356).

Raskolnikov believes that these are outside sources that are bothering him. But the truth is that he is inventing them himself. His punishment is his sickness and the terror given by the phantoms that are in constant pursuit of him.

When he does not see apparitions, he imagines that the people around him are not real. His savior, compassion-evoking friend, Sonia, is constantly being compared to a ghost. "Look at your hand!", Raskolnikov says, "Quite transparent. Finger's like a dead person's."( C&P, Pevear 316). When he sees her on the street he sees her as an apparition that flashes before him (C&P, Pevear 526). All that is good and pure is no longer real. Raskolnikov puts himself in seclusion from those that he knows and loves and that are pure and alive (Frank 98). The only way that he keeps in touch with Sonia, is that her presence is ghost-like, faint, and self-serving.

Raskolnikov's feelings of guilt can also be seen in his nightmares. In the novel, Dostoyevsky writes:

"In a morbid condition, dreams are often distinguished by their remarkably graphic, vivid, and extremely lifelike quality. The resulting picture is sometimes monstrous, but the setting and the whole process of the presentation sometimes happen to be so probable, and with details so subtle, unexpected, yet artistically consistent with the whole fullness of the picture, that even the dreamer himself would be unable to invent them in reality…. Such dreams, morbid condition, dreams are always long remembered and produce a strong impression on the disturbed and already excited organism of the person"(C&P, Pevear 54).

Such are the dreams that Raskolnikov experiences. "The dream is necessary to the creation of these characters, since only in their dreams can be read the full horror of the impulses which motivate their actions" (Mortimer 115). A dream is the subconscious thought of the character. "The dream allows portrayal of the unconscious of a character" (Mortimer 108). In Raskolnikov's dreams, his true feelings and fears come out. It is here that his guilt and fear are visible.

Raskolnikov first dream is about his childhood. In it, he is a little boy, walking through the street with his father, when he approaches a tavern. In front of the building there is a drunken man, Mikolka, who is trying to force a small mare to pull a cart full of people that is way too heavy for it. The horse tries to move, but Mikolka wants it to run, and whips it. When Mikolka sees that his horse is not fulfilling its duty, he hits it with an ax, until it dies (C&P, Pevear 54-59). Raskolnikov (as the boy) runs to the dead horse and kisses it, in the process he gets blood on his hands (Mochulsky 304). In this dream Raskolnikov is Mikolka, killing a poor wretch for no reason. In a drunken rage he takes the life of a living thing, with no regrets due to his state of mind. It is in this dream that he worries that he might not be strong enough to kill. "In order to commit murder, Raskolnikov must stop believing both in the power of life and in the horror of violent death." (Mortimer 111).

In his next nightmare, Raskolnikov follows a man to the pawnbroker's apartment, where he again tries to kill her. In the dream, however, she is ghost-like and will not die. She sits on a chair, her face covered, and laughs at him (C&P, Pevear 276-278). "Murdered once, she still lives in his dream, and he must atempt murder again and without success. She is at once the personification and the symbol of his guilt." (Mortimer 113). At this point in the novel Raskolnikov realizes that he is not one of the extraordinary men that he had hoped to be. He has guilt and some regret over committing the murder. A truly great man like Napoleon, would not look back.

The final dream that Raskolnikov has, is in Siberia. He dreams of the world being poisoned by pestilence and that everyone is infected and killed except for a chosen few. The pure, chosen ones, were destined to begin a new generation of people and a new life, to renew and purify the earth. The problem was that these people were neither heard, nor seen. When Raskolnikov wakes up from this dream, he is saddened and begins to wish to see Sonia (C&P, Pevear 547-549). This is where he begins to appreciate her goodness and purity and to learn to enjoy life and to abandon his egoistic theory. The chosen people are the ones that are like Sonia, kind, quiet and faithful, not the rationalists and superior ones (Mortimer 116). So in this dream, Raskolnikov sees that for his unrepentant thoughts, he would die in the pestilence.

Through Raskolnikov's fears, the reader is able to see that he does feel guilt. When he is awake and sober in mind, he is an egoist and believes that he is extraordinary. It is through his visions of ghosts and phantoms, that one can feel the guilt haunting him. Through his dreams, he sees for himself that his beliefs are wrong.