An extraordinary man or woman is an illusion. It does not exist. No one is perfect. Part of being human means that you have flaws. Raskolnikov seems to forget this when he writes his essay on an extraordinary person.

I think that one of the reasons Raskolnikov commits the murders is because he creates an illusion for himself. He convinces himself that he is like Napoleon and should have divine right. He comes to believe that his ideas are more important than others and that he is above the law. I am not sure if an illusion to this degree qualifies him as mentally insane or not, but he did act on this on his illusion. Either way he seems to want to escape his reality. And in Russia in the 1800s that is almost understandable.

From time to time everyone creates their own illusions to escape. But I think illusions go too far when one acts on them. Marmeladov creates an illusion for himself daily so he can escape his home life. He is not very good at it so he drinks away the rest of his emotions. There is also an illusion around Sonia. Her family creates one by turning a blind eye to her prostitution because it is bringing in money. Both of these qualify as acting on an illusion, and like Raskolnikov, it doesn't help anyone, it just makes the situation worse.

Like in Lear, Raskolnikov's mother creates an illusion about her children. She doesn't really ask any questions about Raskolnikov at the end because she doesn't want to know the truth. I can't decide if she creates the illusion of the perfect son because she is protecting herself or protecting Raskolnikov because she doesn't want him to worry about her. I think it may be a little bit of both.

In most of the novels/plays we have read this semester family dynamics has really come into play for reality vs. illusion. I wonder if it will be the same with next semesters as well.