This passage from the novel Crime and Punishment depicts Raskolnikov as a crazed maniac who has been caught up in the moment and later regrets his rash actions.  Raskolnikov has recently committed the murder of Alyona Ivanovna and now hears the footsteps of Lizaveta in the room with the dead pawn broker.  Fearing that he will be discovered and ratted out by Lizaveta, he quickly acts and kills her with a blow to the head with his axe. 

Raskolnikovdoes not even consider the fact that Lizaveta is an innocent bystander who has just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.  He does not realize that she is completely helpless to defend herself.  It says, “She only put up her empty left hand, but not to her face, slowly holding it out before her as though motioning him away.”  This demonstrates how thoroughly crushed she was at the loss of her sister and how she was too distressed to have the energy and will to defend herself.  If Raskolnikov was not in such a crazed state, he would have recognized her plight and found a different way out of the situation by using his great intellectual wit.

After Raskolnikov realizes that he has committed these two heinous murders, he immediately feels a sense of regret and extreme horror for what he has done to the two women.  He says, “It is very possible that he would have flung up everything, and would have gone to give himself up, and not from fear, but from simple horror and loathing of what he had done.”  Raskolnikov realizes now after he has murdered both of them, especially the unexpected second murder, what the true consequences are of his actions.  He is horrified of what he is capable of doing and that he is able of taking another person’s life.  He also becomes paranoid and pays attention to every little detail so as to make sure that there will be no possible way that he will be implicated in these hideous murders. 

The tone of this passage is very dark and dismal, which demonstrates to the reader Raskolnikov’s true emotions and thoughts while he is committing the murders.  The author uses words like “hopelessness”, “hideousness”, “horror”, and “loathing”, to further demonstrate the horrific tone of the passage.  These words only bring unhappy thoughts to people when they read them, so by describing the scene in this way, the author is sure to capture and jar the emotions of the reader in such a way as to make them despise Raskolnikov for what he has done.  The author also describes the passage in such a way that the reader feels like they are actually there experiencing what Raskolnikov is going through.  The author describes the actual murder as, “The axe fell with the sharp edge just on the skull and split at one blow all the top of the head.”  This vivid description enables the reader to witness the crime in motion and to experience the horrific way that Raskolnikov disposes of Lizaveta.  It adds to the raw emotion felt by the reader by putting them at the exact spot where the crime took place.  By using all of these devices, the author is effectively able to convey the raw emotions of Raskolnikov as he commits his murders.