Chapter 05
The Dream of the Mare
“Of course, I’ve been meaning lately to go to Razumihin’s to ask for work, to ask him to get me lessons or something...” Raskolnikov thought, “but what help can he be to me now? Suppose he gets me lessons, suppose he shares his last farthing with me, if he has any farthings, so that I could get some boots and make myself tidy enough to give lessons... hm... Well and what then? What shall I do with the few coppers I earn? That’s not what I want now. It’s really absurd for me to go to Razumihin....” The question why…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
Master this chapter. Complete your experience
Purchase the complete book to access all chapters and support classic literature
Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Key Quotes & Analysis
"on the next day after It, when It will be over and everything will begin afresh...."
Context: Planning when he will finally visit Razumihin
He has already moved the crime from vague idea to calendar logic. The casual tone shows how deeply the plan has taken root before he admits it to himself.
In Today's Words:
He schedules normal life for the day after the thing he will not name. That is how fixation works: the terrible act gets a placeholder on the calendar before you admit you mean to do it. Anyone planning a blowup at work or a final betrayal knows that rhythm.
"Father! Why did they... kill... the poor horse!"
Context: After Mikolka and the crowd destroy the mare
The dream gives Raskolnikov a language for horror his adult reasoning keeps trying to mute. The child's question is the chapter's moral center.
In Today's Words:
A child asks why adults killed a helpless animal while everyone watched and laughed. The dream strips away every utilitarian excuse and leaves plain grief. That is conscience speaking before philosophy gets another turn. You know that feeling when cruelty is obvious and the room still treats it as entertainment.
"Freedom, freedom!"
Context: After renouncing his plan on the bridge
For a brief window he believes he has escaped obsession. The relief is real, which makes the Hay Market reversal more devastating.
In Today's Words:
He feels released from a spell that has owned him for weeks. Anyone who has finally said no to a destructive impulse knows that lightness in the body. The tragedy is how quickly a chance overheard sentence can make you feel the choice was never yours to make.
"everything was suddenly and irrevocably decided."
Context: After Raskolnikov learns Lizaveta will be away at seven
He experiences the decision as external fate rather than choice. That framing lets him treat murder as logistics instead of moral agency.
In Today's Words:
One overheard appointment and he decides the universe has chosen for him. People do this with job offers, affair timing, or market luck: they call it fate when they want permission to stop wrestling with their own intent. The sign did not create the want. It removed the burden of owning it.
Thematic Threads
Conscience
In This Chapter
The mare dream and waking horror against taking an axe
Development
Introduced here as the last full protest before the Hay Market reversal
Obsession
In This Chapter
Scheduling Razumihin for the day after It
Development
Deepened from secret idea to internal timetable
Fate
In This Chapter
Overhearing Lizaveta's seven o'clock appointment
Development
Introduced here as coincidence treated as predestination
Crowd cruelty
In This Chapter
Mikolka's audience laughs while the mare is beaten to death
Development
Foreshadows public indifference and normalized violence
Freedom
In This Chapter
Brief relief on the bridge before the sense of irrevocable decision
Development
Shows how quickly moral escape can collapse
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
This is not a test. Five prompts guide you through the chapter, from how it opens to how it closes, so you notice context and rhythm rather than facts to memorize. Sit with each question in your own words. When you see "One way to read it," treat it as a starting point, not the only answer.
- 1
Why does Raskolnikov plan to see Razumihin only after It, when everything will begin afresh, and what does that timing reveal?
analysis • surfaceOne way to read it
It names the crime he still treats as a threshold event. Friendship belongs to the life after, not the present rehearsal, which shows how completely the plan has partitioned his world into before and after.
- 2
In the mare dream, why does the crowd laugh, the boy kiss the dying horse, and his father say it is not their business?
analysis • mediumOne way to read it
The scene fuses public cruelty, innocent horror, and adult withdrawal. The father teaches looking away from suffering that does not belong to you, while the child feels the blows as personal guilt.
- 3
After the dream Raskolnikov prays never to do that accursed thing, then whispers Freedom on the bridge. What does that sequence show about his will?
application • mediumOne way to read it
Conscience speaks vividly in sleep, and he genuinely recoils from axe murder in daylight. Yet freedom quickly becomes emotional relief, not moral release, because the underlying idea has not been uprooted, only postponed.
- 4
At the Hay Market he overhears that Alyona will be alone tomorrow at seven, and the crowd's laughter feels like fate. Why does coincidence tighten his trap?
analysis • deepOne way to read it
He has been waiting for a sign, and chance supplies the exact window his plan requires. Interpreting laughter as destiny lets him feel chosen rather than responsible, reversing the morning's renunciation.
- 5
By the chapter's end he feels free, then imprisoned again. How does Dostoevsky show reason and impulse fighting over the same act?
reflection • deepOne way to read it
Horror and prayer can cancel the deed for a moment, but overheard opportunity reactivates obsession. His mood swings are not random; they track how close the theory is to becoming a date on the calendar.
Critical Thinking Exercise
Audit a Too-Perfect Sign
Recall a time a coincidence, message, or opportunity arrived exactly when you wanted permission to make a difficult or questionable choice. Write what you wanted before the sign appeared, what the sign seemed to prove, and what you did next. Would you have acted without it?
Consider:
- •Separate genuine new information from confirmation of an existing desire
- •Notice whether relief felt like loss of responsibility rather than loss of want
- •Ask who else might have been harmed if you treated timing as destiny
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 6: Overhearing Fate
With tomorrow at seven fixed in his mind, Raskolnikov prepares with mechanical precision: a coat noose for the axe, a fake pledge to distract the pawnbroker, and a slow climb up the stairs to her door.
