Crime and Punishment - My name is RaskolnikovIt is obvious that Raskolnikov did not kill Alyona. Nikolai did it. He confessed, didn't he? Of course, of course, I know what you are saying: Raskolnikov also confessed. But it is obvious that his confessions were not true confessions. Raskolnikov had seen Nikolai's true confession and was so moved that he decided he would also like to try confessing. And we should not neglect the symbolism of Christ in the novel. Raskolnikov is the obvious Christ figure; he is poor, he is generous, he is schizophrenic. It all adds up. Raskolnikov is the second incarnation of Christ but no one realizes that it is Him. A little sad. Raskolnikov's theory of the superior man should not be neglected. Nicolas, for his part, is the scum of the earth. He's a minor character, and minor characters always commit murder in books. What else should they do? We must not only be interested in the psychology of the characters in the novel, but also that of the author. Dostoyevsky would not write a story about a vile murderer. No. Dostoyevsky was a good Christian writer. C&P is a manual for becoming a Christian, not a psychological murder thriller. Raskolnikov gives many reasons for the murder, and it is clear from the large number of reasons he gives that Raskolnikov is innocent. He can't even come up with a realistic pattern! Nobody is fooled. I certainly wasn't. Raskolnikov is surely a messed up character. He is upset because he can't find work, so he decides to plead guilty to a murder he knows nothing about just so he can go to forced labor in Siberia. Oh, sure, he wanted to go back to the apartment and wondered where the body was. Of course, he could recount the entire murder in realistic detail. These are just coincidences, just like his meeting with Marmeladov. C&P has often been criticized for its excessive use of coincidences. Perhaps the most confusing scene in that it leads many unwary readers astray is the actual description of the murder itself. Of course, it was just a dream. Dostoyevsky was very fond of dream symbolism and used it often in C&P. So it is now obvious, I am sure, that Raskolnikov did not kill Alyona, but that Nikolai did. But why did Nikolai kill Alyona? Well, Nikolai was one of the first existentialists. He just killed her for fun. Better than going to the cinema.