 After Raskolnikov awakes, he calls it “such a hideous dream,” the same term he earlier used to describe his plot to kill the old woman.The child of the dream, who watches horrified as the events unfold, represents the part of him that clings to innocence, but another part of him, represented by the peasants, is driven by hardship and isolation to become cold and unfeeling.The laughter of the peasants in the face of brutal slaughter reveals the extent to which they have been desensitized by their suffering, which is a reflection of Raskolnikov's own condition.