Guilt in Crime and PunishmentIn Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky tells the story of a young man who was forced to abandon his university studies because of poverty. In these circumstances, he develops his theory of the extraordinary man (Frank 62). This conjecture is composed of the idea that all great men must overcome obstacles in their path to reach their highest potential and benefit humanity. In Raskolnikov's life, the great obstacle is his lack of money, and the way to overcome this obstacle is to kill a pawnbroker he knows. The victim is a rich, greedy, and heartless old woman, and by killing her and removing this evil from the world, Roskolnikov accomplishes many great deeds for humanity (Jackson 99), (Kjetsaa 182). ‘The little old woman is nonsense!’ [Raskolnikov] thought ardently and impetuously: “The old woman may have been a mistake, but that is not the point! The old woman was only an illness …I was in a hurry to step over…it wasn’t a human being that I had killed, it was a principle!” (C&P, Pevear 274). Consciously, Raskolnikov refuses to accept his guilt for committing the crime because he believes there is nothing to regret. Subconsciously, he knows that he has taken a human life and that he must suffer the consequences. His guilt and the suffering that results from it are 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 he sees ghosts. “And just now I imagined that perhaps I was really crazy and that I was only seeing a ghost” (C&P, Pevear 295). He believes he saw a ...... middle of paper ......e Sonia (C&P, Pevear 547-549). It is there that he begins to appreciate his goodness and purity and learns to enjoy life and abandon his selfish theory. The people chosen are those who are like Sonia, kind, calm and faithful, not the rationalists and superiors (Mortimer 116). So, in this dream, Raskolnikov sees that because of his unrepentant thoughts he would die in the plague. Through Raskolnikov's fears, the reader can see that he feels guilty. When he is awake and sober-minded, he is selfish and believes himself to be extraordinary. It is through his visions of ghosts and ghosts that we can feel the guilt that haunts him. Through his dreams, he sees for himself that his beliefs are false. Works Cited: Dostoyevsky, Fyodor M. Crime and Punishment. Trans. Jessie Coulson. Ed. Georges Gibian. New York: WW Norton & Company, Inc..., 1989.