Raskolnikov, also known as Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is a former law student who lives in extreme poverty in St. Petersburg, but his misery is not financial its philosophical. He believes that humans are divided into two categories, the “ordinary men” and the “extraordinary men”. The ordinary men have very simple tasks, according to Raskolnikov, their role is to obey and reproduce their kind, these men live in submission to rules and laws of the society and traditions, rules imposed upon them by men stronger than they are, the stronger men are the extraordinary men. The extraordinary men, he believed are the men who work for a greater purpose, who have right to step over the laws and rules established by society and men before them if it serves a higher purpose, they can break the rules create new ones. The ordinary must obey them and the extraordinary may get involved in something great to advance humanity or serve a higher purpose. 

“I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.”
~ Albert Camus, The Stranger

The murder of the old pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanova, is an experiment in the eyes of Raskolnikov to see if he is an extraordinary man himself. The old woman is widely disliked; he sees her as a useless person who is a mere moral equation rather than a human being, even in the novel Dostoevsky imposes on names while Raskolnikov is often seen to refer to her as an idea, she is a principle, not a person.

Things went downhill when during the “experiment” Alyona Ivanova’s sister Lizaveta Ivanova saw him right there in the act, the bloody axe, and her sister, on the bloody floor, head struck fatally. Lizaveta does not scream, she does not run, she simply sees him in terror, the reality of violence, right there in front of her, she sees right through him she raises her hands to protect herself from the gruesome animal that murdered her sister in cold blood as if that can save her, that’s the point where it wasn’t an experiment anymore but now it had turned into something way worse, something Raskolnikov had never imagined.. a crime, a cold-blooded murder. He strikes her as well.

This wasn’t meant to go down this way, he had panicked, it is a psychological catastrophic for him. He didn’t plan this. This exposed the failure in his theory. Killing Lizaveta can never be justified under any theory, he was never an extraordinary, infallible man, he was an ordinary, fallible human.

The immediate aftermath of murders resulted in total collapse of Raskolnikov’s psychology. His mind becomes a prison, he starts suffering from insomnia, hallucinations of Alyona and Lizaveta in his mind, he becomes paranoid, he starts suspecting everyone around him, he tries to justify his actions, but the moral side of his heart leaned towards guilt. He is confused, his identity fractures between good and evil one moment he tells himself that he is extraordinary and the other he feels like a murderer and a failure in truth he is neither a hero or fully evil; he is just painfully human. He withdraws from his family and friends including Razumikhin, his only friend.

Every question from police, every look from people, every observation, and coincidence mirrors with his inner panic, until he realizes he cannot live with himself. Sonia is another character in the novel, unlike Razumikhin she does not judge him, she does not lecture him, she simply shows him that through love and faith redemption can be possible, love can always outweigh theories and guilt. She stands beside him despite his crimes makes him to admit to what he has done and be honest with himself. First, he accepts his crime internally and then he finally surrenders to Sonia’s moral force of her compassion.
His theory failed, his “experiment” went horribly wrong but in the war, he had waged he found himself and through Sonia’s love he finally found redemption as well.

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem