In Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground” the narrative of the book is that men’s worst enemy is his consciousness, but a man would never get rid of consciousness despite its trouble. The book begins in the 1860s in St Petersburg, Russia, and follows a man by the name of “the Underground Man”. The book is separated into two parts, the first part takes place in present time and the Underground Man has detached himself from all societal norms and in a way alienated himself due to his consciousness. He has become cynical with age and goes through life with the notion of rationality. The Underground Man is persuaded by the Underground (conscious) and this creates conflict by making him analytical causing him to second guess decisions making it impossible to decide which leads to living only in his head. The underground is the underlying groundworks of everything we do. The underground is conscious, it’s the first measures to every action we make. Without it we wouldn’t be able to express what we experience. This makes it a valuable tool as it allows us to communicate through abstraction. We create culture through the process of experience, and then conscious (conceptualization), which transcends into language and or action. In the underground, The Underground Man believes that every intelligent and educated man must live in total misery due to conscious. This is because he is …show more content…
The underground has allowed us to create an environment that allows us to strive and survive. But it has also given us the ability to create rationality through irrationality and vice versa for our own personal benefit. The underground man is always attempting to embellish his existence through the underground, rather then looking for ways to change it. I think in turn the underground man lives through the underground, and what he perceives, compared to what is real: as many of us do to avoid self hatred and
As Rodya analyzes Luzhin’s character, he realizes that intellect unrestrained by moral purpose is dangerous due to the fact that many shrewd people can look right through that false façade. Luzhin’s false façade of intellect does not fool Rodya or Razumikhin, and although they try to convince Dunya into not marrying Luzhin, she does not listen. Rodya believes that Luzhin’s “moral purpose” is to “marry an honest girl…who has experienced hardship” (36). The only way he is able to get Dunya to agree to marry him, is by acting as if he is a very intellectual person, who is actually not as educated as he says he is. This illustrates the fact that Rodya knows that it is really dangerous because he knows that people can ruin their lives by acting to be someone they are not. Rodya also knows that people will isolate themselves from others just so that no one will find out their true personality. This is illustrated in through the fact that Luzhin tries to avoid Dunya and her mother as much as possible. The way he writes his letter, exemplifies his isolation, for Luzhin does not know how to interact with society. He has no idea how to write letters to his fiancée and his future mother in law. This reflects on Rodya’s second dream because he is unable to get Dunya married off to a nice person. He feels isolated from everyone else because his intellect caused him to sense that Luzhin is not telling the truth about his personality. However, it was due to his lack of moral purpose that Rodya berates his sister’s fiancé. He is unable to control himself, and due to his immoral act of getting drunk, Rodya loses all judgment and therefore goes and belittles Luzhin. Although Rodya’s intellectual mind had taken over and showed him that Luzhin wa...
Dostoevsky, Fyodor M. "Notes from Underground." Trans. Andrew R. MacAndrew. New York: Penguin Books, 1961.
The quest for power is an endless one for humanity. Countless tales of greed, strife, and triumph stem from this common ambition. Similarly, men universally seek freedom, a privilege entitling an individual to make independent decisions and express personal opinion. Exploration of the connection between these two abstract concepts remains a topic of interest, especially in the works of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground. Two distinct definitions of "power" exist: one deals with societally defined power, generally represented by wealth, leadership, and authority over the lives of others. The other defines a power within oneself, in which an individual gains a true picture of his human condition and relationship to society. In Invisible Man, the protagonist enters a Negro college, only to be expelled to New York. He then begins a career with the Brotherhood, a group to promote civil rights and support blacks. The narrator of Notes From Underground outlines a series of autobiographical recalled events that comprise the background for his philosophy concerning the human condition and freedom. Both Invisible Man and Underground Man, in their direct conflicts with power inequality, illustrate the universal human conflict in the pursuit of power. In each protagonist, heightened awareness of their human condition onsets a retreat underground to compile notes on the nature of power and freedom. Both conclude that freedom arises as a result of self-awareness and of ability to both recognize and accept a powerlessness of self amidst oppressive societal power.
...Agent. Both feel called to action, but when action is in front of them, asking them make a decision, they change their minds. Both are pessimists of the world, and both are desperate to see society and its twisted norms slowly go away. Even their names both symbolize a certain aspect; the man underground or the man that is hidden away, and the professor which is a name omits him from the rest of the classroom. Verloc has chosen a job that keeps him from the usual and allows it to alienate himself from others. Though his family’s falling relationship influences him be alone. When Verloc dies he sees his family fall apart in front of him. Mr. Verloc is like the Underground man because he alienates himself from getting close to other people. Mr. Verloc is like the underground man in the way he distances himself from everything including his wife, family, and world.
It is a given that our culture will vary differently than of one that dwells in the tunnel. In prehistoric time, the underground was seen as a place of safety, much like it is seen today for the mole people. Throughout literature, the underground man, as Toth explains, is extreme, withdrawn and isolated. He is self exiled from human society and only maintains as much contacted as needed to survive. He believes in nothing and is often filled with rage and anguish (177). Many of the tunnel dwellers share many of the same practices and use of material objects key to their survival like eating rodents, using loose electrical wires for electricity, finding water through leaky pipes and cardboard and garbage for building a home. They all share the same knowledge and ideas of how live in the tunnels. They evolve by the changes in their environment and learn how to change to better protect themselves from predators like outsiders or from the dangers of trains. They have norms like we do but what they considered to be a norm, is what we may see as a folkway. Some may even develop their own language so others in their group can understand them. The nature of this counterculture and its formation shows that our society has the ability to create various countercultures that can either show how we excel or fail as a society. However it does show that if we were to
The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley follows Alette's journey through the underground subway system, which ends up being a whole different world. Alette's mission to take down the oppressive tyrant that controls this underground world, symbolizes her desire to confront male hegemony. Through refrences to the thesis, form, and historical context it is undeniable that the author is taking the reader on a journey through Alette's struggle with patriarchy.
In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky gives the reader an inside look to the value system that he holds for himself, as well as the type of characteristics that he abhors in people as well as the characteristics that he admires in people. He uses characters in the novel to express his beliefs of what a person should be like in life to be a “good'; person. Specifically he uses Raskolnokv to show both good and bad characteristics that he likes in people. Also he uses Svidriglaiov and Luzin to demonstrate the characteristics that people should shun and his personal dislikes in people.
Bellow, Saul. "Man Underground" Review of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Commentary. June 1952. 1st December 2001
Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Dostoevsky, the only one who has taught me anything about psychology.” The two writers share many similarities and differences. Dostoevsky clearly had an effect on the thinking of Nietzsche. The two would be considered both philosophers and psychologists. Both writers became prominent in the late 19th century in Germany and Russia respectively. Dostoevsky was noted for his Russian literary classics and would be responsible for a flowering of late 19th century Russian literary culture. His Russian contemporaries include Leo Tostoy and Anton Chekov. Dostoevsky’s most famous works include The Brothers Karamozov, The Idiot, and Crime and Punishment. Nietzsche is most famous for his philosophical works such as thus spoke Zarathustra. The two writers have many similarities in their philosophy. They both see a changing role in religion. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky also differ sharply on some other aspects of life. One of these being the differing views on the role of the fatherland. Nietzsche’s beyond good and evil and Dostoevsky’s crime and punishment are two works that can be compared and contrasted to show the similarities and dissimilarities of the two geniuses. The two men offer great insights in these books on morality and the affect it can have on the actions of the individual and the society as a whole.
The underground man is the product of the social determinism due to all the personal experiences that he had throughout his life with the society. He is a person who always wanted act in a different way but he stops himself and act as how the society wants him
Fanger, Donald. Introduction. Notes From Underground. By Fyodor Dostoevsky. Trans. Mirra Ginsburg. NY: Bantam, 1992.
Hansen, Bruce. “Dostoevsky’s Theodicy.” Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1996. At . accessed 18 November 2001.
Dostoyevsky's characters are very similar, as is his stories. He puts a strong stress on the estrangement and isolation his characters feel. His characters are both brilliant and "sick" as mentioned in each novel, poisoned by their intelligence. In Notes from the Underground, the character, who is never given a name, writes his journal from solitude. He is spoiled by his intelligence, giving him a fierce conceit with which he lashes out at the world and justifies the malicious things he does. At the same time, though, he speaks of the doubt he feels at the value of human thought and purpose and later, of human life. He believes that intelligence, to be constantly questioning and "faithless(ly) drifting" between ideas, is a curse. To be damned to see everything, clearly as a window (and that includes things that aren't meant to be seen, such as the corruption in the world) or constantly seeking the meaning of things elusive. Dostoyevsky thought that humans are evil, destructive and irrational.
Raskolnikov is the quintessential modern man who places his faith in a radical idea. He believes that the only way for him to express his identity is by breaking established boundaries. According to Immanuel Kaunt, boundaries are set in place in order to bring a person happiness when they are followed. Boundaries do not constrict a man’s self-identity rather they help to form it. It is not necessary to break boundaries in order to establish one’s own self-identity. In Crime and Punishment all major characters break either moral, legal or social boundaries throughout the book. The consequences they face show that breaking boundaries is not necessary in shaping one’s own identity.
While America sleeps safely at night, safe and secure in their world, there is another world taking place, a menacing and wild world. Right beneath their noses, taking place in their super markets, in empty warehouses, abandoned buildings, parks, and at roller skating rinks. Many will never know or hear about this world, for it may be safer not to know. For if one knows, he may be tempted to want to experience this world. Just indulging one night has been known to alter many lives. For once you go to the underground, there is no turning back.