Part 1: Chapter 5 Summary

Raskolnikov sets out to visit Razumikhin to ask for help finding work, (teaching or translating) but his other plan haunts him and makes him nervous, feverish and disoriented. He steps into a cafe for vodka and pastry, and then falls asleep by the road. He has a vivid, terrible dream in which he is a child again with his father. He sees a crowd watching a peasant violently abuse a horse that is too old and thin to pull its cartful of passengers. While the horse tries frantically to pull the load, wheezing and straining, more people pile on the cart. The others beat it with heavy pieces of wood and iron. Raskolnikov watches in tears and begs them to stop, but people ignore him. Slowly they beat the animal to death, while someone suggests that an ax will finish the...