All through these early scenes Raskolnikov is somewhat feverish. Throughout the crime, he is not himself, and his irrational acts can be accredited to his illness. Ultimately, criminal theories suggest that the criminal is often sick when the crime is committed, and this theory will be used to alleviate Raskolnikov's guilt.
When Raskolnikov goes to sleep in the park, Dostoevsky lets us know that "A sick man's dreams are often extraordinarily distinct and vivid and extremely life-like. A scene may be composed of the most unnatural and incongruous elements, but the setting and the presentation are so plausible, the details so subtle, so unexpected, so artistically in harmony with the whole picture, that the dreamer could not invent them for himself in his waking state. Such morbid dreams always make a strong impression on the dreamer's already disturbed and excited nerves, and are remembered for a long time."
Thus, Dostoevsky is announcing to the reader that Raskolnikov's dream now and later will have special meaning to him and thus all the dreams are symbolic in one way or another.
When Raskolnikov awakens, he wonders if he can actually "take an axe. . .split her skull open. . .tread in the sticky warm blood. . .[and] hide." He ends by renouncing "that accursed dream of mine," thus symbolically rejecting his plan to murder Alyona Ivanovna. In the dream, Raskolnikov shows his dual nature at work. He is both the peasant Mikolka who cruelly beats the horse to death and also the boy who feels great compassion for the suffering horse. Thus, the waking Raskolnikov rejects the Mikolka aspect of his nature by renouncing the dream.
