Part 3: 4-6

As usual, these last few chapters portray Raskolnikov struggling with a conflict within his consciousness that makes its way into his actions causing others to question his sanity. The main occurrence in these chapters is the visit to Porfiry Petrovich’s home in which he makes himself appear guilty through his once again bizarre behavior. It almost appears that Raskolnikv has multiple personality disorder throughout this book. He alternates between appearing as a calm and collected innocent individual and other times a wildly sporadic suspect of some unknown crime. This is the first point in the story, however, that readers are given some sense as to why exactly Raskolnikov committed the murder. The article that Raskolnikov wrote “On Crime” basically describes somebody, assumably Raskolnikov, as a “superman” of sorts who is above all of humanity and with it, the moral code. Essentially, Raskolnikov seemed to be saying that he is above the entire world and what he did was not actually wrong, because he does not live by the rules and regulations of the society that he lives in. However, this article only seems to make himself appear guilty to Porfiry when he comes to get his pawned watch. As each page goes on, readers inherently lose any sympathy for Raskolnikov. At the beginning of the book, I somewhat rooted for Raskolnikov, because he seemed to be trying to live out some type of Robin Hood persona. Now, however, he seems to just be justifying his actions with the fact that he is better than everyone, and that the woman that he killed hadn’t a life worth living. As these last few chapters wind down, it appears as though Raskolnikov may finally be headed towards the literal punishment through legal means. Porfiry obviously suspects Raskolnikov of the crime trying to trap him with the question about the painters. Both Raskolnikov and Razumikhin agree that the police are beginning to suspect him as a murderer probably leading Raskolnikov to his dream about trying to kill Alyona, but failing. In this dream, she only laughs as he tries to kill her making him seem incompetent and delusional. This dream indicated to me that Raskolnikov may not be as confident in himself as he makes himself out to be.