Dostoyevsky and the inversion of narrative convention - the great dream sequence

In the 5th chapter of F Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov does an about face and decides not to visit his best friend; he's not explicit about the reason but implies that he doesn't want to see his friend until "after," that is until he has completed his planned murder and robbery. He goes on a long and troubled walk and the strangely lies down on the ground and naps. Then begins one of iconic scenes in all of D's work and R dreams about returning to childhood. He's an a walk w his father past a church and cemetery where he pauses at the gravesite of his youn brother then they walk on past a tavern where men are aloud and drunk and he witnesses one sadistic man overload a wagon and slash the small horse who cannot budge the overloaded cart. He slashes and beats the horse to death to the boy's horror - everyone seems to enjoy the scene and when the young R dashes coward to protect the horse his father pulls him back. This terrifying scene - was it a memory or pure dream work? - shows us R's kindness and also his helplessness in the face of horror. D breaks the rules here - long dream sequences and the bane of 2nd-rate novelists, too tempting and a cheap way to develop character without real narrative consequence - butbD as usual takes on convention and inverts it to his purposes- this entire novel is such an inversion, a murder mystery without the mystery, a crime novel that's about redemption.

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