The scene between mother and son shows a new side of Rodya. Since they are alone, a very important fact to him, he is able to freely express his love for his mother — a thing that he has earlier found tedious, confining, and a violation of his theory of the superior man. In this highly charged emotional scene, he is able to not only express his love to his mother, but he is also able to ask her to pray for him. This change is a sign that he is beginning his redemption.
In his last talk with Dunya, she also emphasizes the saving quality of suffering. But again, Raskolnikov revolts against this basic idea. He still has an intellectual belief in the idea that provoked the crime. His only regret is that he has disgraced the nobility of the idea because he, as a person, is cowardly and contemptible.
