Raskolnikov's Dream in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov's dream about the mare can be used as a vehicle to deeply probe his mentality and find out how you really feel inside. The dream suggests that Raskolnikov is a "divided" man; after all, his name in Russian means "divided". His personality has a cruel and reckless side as well as a caring and compassionate side. Through the dream and the symbols contained therein, the reader can insert Raskolnikov, as well as other characters from Crime and Punishment, into any of the various parts of the dream. Each part played by a character leads to a different conclusion about that character. Raskolnikov himself "fits" into the positions of Mikolka, the child and the mare. If Mikolka, the drunken owner of the mare, were to represent Raskolnikov, then the mare would most likely represent Alyona Ivanovna. Mikolka's senseless beating of the mare is similar to the brutal attack on Alena by Rodion. (It should be noted that both Alena and the mare were females.) These heartless attacks foreshadow ...