The voice and conscience of Raskolnikov prove that he has an admission of guilt and can be redeemed, therefore connecting to the group of people pressuring Pilate’s decision becoming a conscience of guilt. In the Book of John chapter 19, Pontius Pilate is set to judge if Jesus Christ should be crucified or let go. Pilate finds no reason to put Him to death initially, and brings him out to the crowd of chief priests and officers that are demanding Him to be crucified. The aggressiveness of the crows pressures Pilate who tries to talk to Jesus, but Jesus refuses to talk to him. To this Pilate says he has the judgment and power to crucify or let Jesus go, yet Jesus replies that Pilate has no power, and the only power is given from the Father. The main aspect that I want to focus on is the pressure of the crowd on Pilate. In the continuation of the scene, Pilate tries to have Jesus released but the gathered Jews deny this and threaten him that if he lets Jesus go, he is not loyal to Caesar. They also bring up the fact that Jesus called Himself the Son of God and spoke against Caesar. Pilate tries to reason with the crowd once more, but to no mercy of the group and then Jesus is finally led away to His crucifixion. It reads, “When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him” (John 19: 6). Again there is conflict between Pilate and the crowd: “The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying he was more afraid” (John 19: 7-8). There seems to be a conflict between Pilate’s conscience of good and bad here, with the crowd representing the bad side while Jesus being the good. This highlights how his guilt will pay out and how bad seems to haunt and overcome Pilate’s sensibility and lead his decision.
This is of course similar to Raskolnikov’s guilt and decision making in his crime. They both have similar overwhelming aspects of their consciousness coming back to focus on their evilness. Of course their pushes to the ‘dark side’ are self-inflicted as they are both the individuals who made the choice and carried it through. In part two of Crime and Punishment, it is clear that Raskolnikov is experiencing a lot of guilt and it is overwhelming him. In the beginning of the section he has a twisted thought: “Perhaps all his clothes were covered in blood, perhaps there were stains all over them, and he simply did not see, did not notice them, because his reason was failing, going to pieces … his mind darkening” (Dostoevsky 91). Obviously Raskolnikov’s guilt is spiraling after the crime was committed, while Pilate’s is right prior to it, but both have this inner conflict of good and bad. The overwhelming power and sensation of evil seems to outweigh the good in both cases and they are left to deal with the consequences of their actions. Their similarities in stories and characteristics highlight just how frighteningly loud those voices of bad can be.