After reading the second part of the book, it took me by surprised that Raskolnikov's punishment is only in his head: his paranoia of being caught, the delusions of the blood stains, his newly risen fever, and excessive tiredness. I truly enjoy reading this book because of the suspense that is built within the chapters. His actions are not ones that would be natural occurring even though to him they seem almost "mechanical". When he tries to the hide Alyona's purse and belongings in the wallpaper, all I could think was that he should hide them or someplace else or burn the rags and his sock to erase any possible clue that could be linked back to him. I remembered that in last chapter of part one, he is very careful of his actions and plans everything out but in part two, his mind becomes even more disorganized. To Raskolnikov, he just then, after the murder, lost his mind and soul at once, but to me it seems that he had lost them a while back when he started to plan out the murder. I am interested to see if he completely loses the small sanity he has left or if he turns himself in due to the guilt that he feels.
I too thought that Raskolnikov was very lucky to not have gotten caught by now. It is true all his emotions are serving to his own punishment. I suspect that in the future new punishments will come, especially because he is not doing a good job of staying calm and I wouldn't be surprised if he slips up and says something he is not supposed to. I like the word “mechanical” that you use because his thoughts almost sound like a formula for what action he should take next. However, he is becoming like a broken machine looking over seemingly obvious actions to destroy evidence. I agree that in part one he was much more meticulous and even surprised me that he had the mental strength to carry out the murder without a misstep. I think also that Raskolnikov broke mentally a long time ago and you could tell how the thinking and extensive planning about the murder was a big weight on his shoulders that he almost had to release. Yet, I think the guilt is proving to be a much bigger weight then then he expected. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did turn himself in.
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