Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov both suffered greatly for similar crimes of murder. Raskolnikov suffered physical ailments as well as emotional suffering whereas Svidrigailov suffered emotional and physical pains. Although both men suffered for the same type of crime, they took different ways to receive consequences for their actions.
Raskolnikov chooses to murder the pawnbroker because she is a female with a position of authority over him who also has the worst traits of a society. The pawnbroker is the complete opposite of him. Where Raskolnikov is a handsome, she is ugly. Where Raskolnikov is poor, she is rich. Where Raskolnikov is a suffering male, she is a strong independent female. The old woman oppresses the poor with her business of pawning objects at a quarter of their real worth. He sees that although she has power over him, she is physically weak and easy to overcome.
Raskolnikov sees the murder of the pawnbroker as a way to address certain issues he is unsure of in his life. He needs money for his family, and he sees her murder as a way to address his family's poverty and as a way to save his sister from prostitution. He sees himself as an extraordinary man that can murder people for the revolutionizing of the world. He thinks that people like Napoleon only became great because people had to die for his cause in order to change the world. He sees this murder as a way to change the way the people in poverty around him are being treated. He believed the murder would be a good deed for society because of the way she cheated people out of their money.
Although Raskolnikov planned the murder of the pawnbroker, many things happened that he didn't plan. For example, during the murders of Lizaveta and the pawnbroker he left the door wide open. These faults of the murder made him emotionally unstable and paranoid that someone was going to find out what he did. He stayed in his bedroom for days and days becoming sicker every minute. He became emotional about the murders and let those emotions make him physically weak.
Raskolnikov eventually becomes so unstable that he sees the needs to return to the place where the murder was committed. Revisiting the scene helps him grip reality; it shows him that it really happened. When he gets back to the scene, the blood is gone and there is no longer any evidence that he was even there. His whole theory of being an extraordinary person was crushed because what he did mattered to no one. He almost wants to get caught for his actions. He sees two painters fixing up the flat of the pawnbroker and inquires with them about the blood. He wants the painters to link him to the crime so that he can become turned into the police office and become guilt free for what he did. He realizes that he no longer killed for his humanitarian ideas, but merely for his own pleasure.
Many days after the murder, Raskolnikov dreams that he is murdering the pawnbroker all over again. He tried killing her with an ax time and time again to no avail. No matter how hard he tries, she won't die. Instead, there are people in the room and the pawn broker himself laughing and mocking his inability to kill her. This symbolizes Raskolnikov's realization that the pawn broker still holds power over him. She controls his emotions right now with all the suffering he is putting himself through.
Svidrigailov is a self centered individual who was constantly introduced to the reader in the novel as someone who does things for his own personal gain. Svidrigailov was indebted to his wife because she was his only hope to get out of jail. She paid his bail in return for his friendship and marriage. His wife holds that money over his head as a way to make him do whatever she wanted. Svidrigailov marries her, but not for true love. He marries her because he needs someone to financially take care of him. She mistreats him and abuses their relationship. She only marries him because she needs a companion to be with her at her old age.
Svidrigailov realizes that the only way he can get out of his wife's tyranny is to murder her. She sets a contract with him concerning his relationship with other women. He can never leave her because of the bail money she put forth for him. He can't leave their premises without permission from her. But the greatest blow to him was when she told him that he wasn't capable of real love; it can never happen to him. He saw her as an oppressive force against his emotions. It all built up inside of him for so long, and he needed to release all of that hurt and anger into her murder. His wife was found dead in the bathtub with a glass of wine with the suspicion he murdered her going around town.
After the murder of his wife, he started having dream revisits of her during any time of the day. In these dreams, she is sometimes giving him advice or just watching over him. These dreams make him think back to her murder and any possible guilt he may have associated with that murder. He starts to feel uneasy and realizes that maybe her "ghost" will haunt him for the rest of his life. He can never really get past her stronghold over him.
Although both men murdered women who have some sort of hold over them, they chose different outcomes and suffered in different ways. Both men suffered dreams or ghost reappearances of the women they killed. Their actions haunt them everyday sometimes to the point of delirium and mental insanity. Both men killed these women because they thought by murdering her they would benefit from it, when in reality the suffering outweighed any good it may have done.
Raskolnikov decided to be more honorable in receiving his consequences for the murder of Lizaveta and the pawnbroker. He confessed his murder to Sonia who gave him moral support and encouragement. She helped him realize that no matter what she will be there for him along with everyone else that loves him. Talking to Sonia gave Raskolnikov a release of all of his fear, guilt, and obsession. Confession was the fulfillment of the murder, the end of the act for him. Raskolnikov leaves Sonia's apartment with the intent of turning himself into the police to receive whatever consequence they may have for him. Because he was so truthful with the police, he was served a light sentence and will eventually be able to start a new life with Sonia with the past behind him.
Svidrigailov decides to hide what he as done from the world and to end his life in the most cowardly way possible- suicide. Svidrigailov's last night on earth was spent in a dark and dirty part of the town separated from anyone he would recognize. He used this separation from the life he knew as a way to let the guilt build up inside of him. Eventually, the guilt over the murder became too great for him and he killed himself with his wife's old gun. He died a coward's death and didn't face up to any consequences for his actions. He saw suicide as the easier way out of the situation.
Although Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov committed similar crimes, they made choices that would forever shape their lives. Both men had equal opportunities to change their future based on the ways they reacted to their murder. The suffering they endured became too much for the men to bear and needed to find a way out. Raskolnikov and Scidrigailov were separated apart from each other by these choices: one as someone with great strength and one as a coward.
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