Response

--The fact that Roskolnikov never uses the money he stole from the pawnbroker makes him guiltier in that his decision to murder was dictated not by need for survival but rather by a false and unrealistic premise that he formed in his elaborate brain. He never recovers the stolen items or cash because these were mere objects in his path toward establishing self-proclaimed supremacy and were by no means significant factors in his ultimate decision to murder.


 * Quote #1:**

"Of course she does not deserve to live,' remarked the officer, 'but there it is, its nature... Raskolinikov was violnetly agitated. Of course, it was all ordinary youthful talk and thought, such as he had often heard before in different forms and on different themes. But why had he happened to hear such a discussion and such ideas at the very moment when his own brain was just conceiving... //the very same idea?...// This trivial talk in a tavern had an immense influence on him in his later action; as though there had really been in it something preordained, some guiding hint." (pp.68-69)


 * Analysis:**

This scene gives the reader an idea of Raskolinov's way of thinking. His logic for the murders goes through his head here where he thinks that the murder is justified because he is helping humanity. This also shows us that Raskolnikov thinks of himself as a superior being that is above the laws of ordinary humans.


 * Quote(s) #2**:

"And //that// money...I don't even know really whether there was any money,' he added softly, as though reflecting. ' I took a purse off her neck, made of chamois leather...a purse stuffed full of something...but I didn't look in it; I suppose I haven't time...and the things-chains and trinkets-I buried under a stone with the purse next morning in a yard off V-- Prospect. They are all there now...'' (p.408)

"Sonia strained every nerve to listen. 'Then why...why, you said you did it to rob, but you took nothing?' she asked quickly, catching at a straw. 'I don't know...I haven't yet decided whether to take that money or not,' he said, musing again; and, seeming to wake up with a start, he gave a brief ironical smile. 'Ach, what silly stuff I am talking eh?...Let me tell you: if I'd simply killed her because I was hungry,' laying stress on every word and looking enigmatically but sincerely at her, 'I should be //happy// now." (p.409)


 * Analysis:**

These quotes show that money was not the motive for his crimes, and that his twisted rationalization was what was really behind the murders.