Imagine Dostoevsky, a man considered to be (and self proclaimed) of new found faith, ripped to shreds of contradiction and falsehood because of a ridiculous man, and his dream. The crucifier is Wasiolek, who stems off the traditional train of sacrament, and demands the interpretation of The Dream of the Ridiculous Man to be different. Only a radically brave critic could accuse Dostoevsky of "placing some cherished truth in the mouth and being of a self-interested person," and be respected for it. Wasiolek's arguments and evidence behind his personal discoveries of Dream of a Ridiculous Man are merits that I find refreshing. Before reading his article, I too was a close minded traditionalist in believing the story as sacrament.
I would have found Wasiolek's views too generalized had he not established a difference between the character and the author himself. Even though most of his essay is implying that Dostoevsky wrote the story based on the own voices in his head, Wasiolek makes a point that ."..no conviction in Dostoevsky's world can be abstracted." That statement is useable against anyone claiming that Wasiolek is assuming that the author and the character are the same person. He is simply trying to get his point across that the Ridiculous Man's dream is blasphemy, and seeing as how Dostoevsky believed dreams are important and real, there is a small connection. In his dream, the Ridiculous Man exploits himself continuously by imitating Christ and wanting to become the corrupted utopians Savior, and this exploiting is blasphemy and not the sacrament so many interpreters want to believe it is.
The unique views of Wasiolek are further supported by the fact that Dostoevsky uses dialectical concepts in his writing. While everyone is compelled to believe the story is sacramental and religious, Wasiolek remembers to look both ways down the dialectical road before crossing to a final decision. He finds the Golden Age is atheism, and why not? Atheism is the complete opposite of it being religious and I believe the Ridiculous Man to being blasphemous in his attempts to become Christ, for a true religious man would know that Christ is already a part of him. If it were not for the attention and the special status he would achieve by preaching, then the Ridiculous Man would most likely not take the time to imitate Christ.
Though throughout the novel, the only consistent nihilist is Bazarov, a reader notes how both the generation of the fathers and the generation of the sons are affected by his influence and by nihilistic views. With examination, one can attribute the profundity of
.... But if you flip to a few chapters later, we see a whole chapter on ‘Night Stories’, or dreams. Gottschall builds up the ideas that are essential to the understanding of dreams as stories in the few chapters in between. “In our dreams…we commit atrocities; we suffer tragedies….,” a statement from “Night Stories” that is seemingly unrelated to the book as a whole, unless we reflect on the idea from the previous chapter Gottschall talks of how humans are addicted to bad endings. When we look for connections between these of the topics, we can see that they are intertwined. Upon reflecting on the book as a whole after reading and rereading Gottschall’s writing, I begun to see this complex structure of topics he has woven together. All of the topics in this structure work together to deepen the reader’s understanding of the storytelling animal and what it’s all about.
During Russia’s transition to communism in the early 20th century, conflict and unease permeated every part of life. Nothing was stable and very little of what the Bolsheviks had fought for had come to fruition by the time the USSR disbanded in 1991. The “classless society”, which was to work together for the prosperity of everyone, never became a reality. In the end, the majority of Russia’s 20th century was an utter failure on a grand scale. However, there were many amazing products of the system do to the great importance of education in Russian culture. Priceless novels were written, timeless movies were made, and great scientific endeavors were realized despite the rigid control placed upon Russian persons by the government. In fact, some of the most memorable written works of the time were written protests to the creativity-stifling situation many writers found themselves in. Because of the danger to their lives should the wrong people be upset by their writings, Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov wrote their most popular, Soviet-life condemning novels under the guise of satire. Even though they’re satirizing the same subject, in both We and The Master and Margarita respectively, they take very different paths to do so.
Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a reminder that books can provide answers to questions we never asked, but yearned to know. For that reason alone, The Death of Ivan Ilyich should be considered a work of art. However, due to the many subtle hints and clues pointing at the underlying Christian nature of the book, it deserves to be added to the list of great modern Christian literature. Works Cited Tolstoy, Leo. A.
Dostoevsky was made aware of the problems with Nihilistic ideas while he was exiled in Siberia. Crime and Punishment was Dostoevsky’s first attempt at a psychological analysis of a person’s inner struggles to rationalize this radicalism. Raskolnikov represents that intelligentsia and is being used by Dostoevsky to portray and warn against succumbing to these ideals. Dostoevsky uses Raskolnikov’s life to illustrate the implications and applications of this Nihilist to the public and then expands upon it in Demons.
...’s disbelief in God, indeed justifies Smerdyakov for murdering Fyodor, and when Ivan realizes it, he loses his mind. It is certain that Ivan’s philosophy may represent Dostoevsky’s thoughts and feelings at times but ultimately, his faith in God remains stronger than ever.
...has never stayed in one place; he is always free and wandering around doing dangerous and exciting things with his life. Krakauer then proves that McCandless is not crazy, that many, in this case Tolstoy, feel his emotions. Some of these intensive emotions lead to the creation of dreams.
...s a whole they help Dostoevsky point out problems within societal norms (such as the treatment of women) and allow him to further develop the characterization of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov. The technique implemented within the dreams even enable Dostoevsky to show how differing realities collide because each individual character has a different interpretation of what is right and wrong within the society. Ultimately he proves that the characters’ individualistic principles collide with that of societies and as a result the characters are punished for differing. This final idea gives the reader the reader the impression that alternative characterizations and realities must be crushed and eliminated so the system does not become corrupted.
The fantastic tale “Was It a Dream?” by Guy de Maupassant is a story narrated from the first point of view, in which the main character, who remains anonymous, describes his desperation and overwhelming grief since the loss of his loved one. He also relates a supernatural event he experienced, while in the cemetery, in which he finds out the truth about his significant other’s feelings but refuses to accept it, or at least tries to ignore it. Maupassant’s readers may feel sympathy towards the narrator as they perceive throughout the story his tone of desperation, and are able to get to the conclusion that he was living a one-sided relationship. Maupassant achieves these effects in the readers through the use of figures of speech, like anonymity, symbolism and imagery, and the structured he employed in the story.
In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Raskalnikov undergoes a period of extreme psychological upheaval. By comparing this death and rebirth of Raskalnikov's psyche to the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, Dostoevsky emphasizes not only the gravity of his crimes, but also the importance of acceptance of guilt.
While confronting Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground seems a difficult task initially, one must be able to transcend the elaborate diction and parodies, and comprehend the author himself, while also taking root the message Dostoevsky had originally intended in the time it was addressed. Understanding the author himself, along with the period in which the work was written, augments one’s overall discernment of the passage. In the age he wrote, Dostoevsky must have seemed eccentric and outlandish; nevertheless, looking back on him from today with a literary understanding of modernism, he appears ahead of his time. His central premise, although difficult to determine amongst the satire, is humanity’s necessity for freedom and religion, specifically Christianity.
Long before George Orwell wrote 1984, a man by the name of Lord Acton wrote, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Orwell expresses a similar sentiment regarding the future of political powers, more specially totalitarianism. A totalitarian society is a government that is overruled by one major power, or person. Although the dystopian novel is merely fiction, Orwell created it as a warning and expression of fears about totalitarianism. Big Brother resembled Adolf Hitler in many aspects. When drawing parallels between the novel and an application of its politics in modern society, it is as though Orwell foresaw the development of numerous dictatorships and corrupt governments to come. The purging of undesirable elements by the governments of both Hitler’s Third Reich and Orwell’s Oceania were done in the pursuit of perfection and power, but both resulted in manipulative, controlling nightmares, which distorted humanity’s perception of reality.
...y view this as a Christian worldview, one that embraces the afterlife, I see it as a man looking forward to inevitable death because even if it came late he figured out a meaning to life. In so doing he may not have had the opportunity to relive his life as no man does, but he found peace and fulfillment in his acceptance of his end. Existentialism argues in the concept of the "eternal return" that an individual to be most fulfilled should live a life that, having to repeat it over identically for all eternity, would be a concept that would be embraced. If Ivan had the chance to come back he would not enjoy living the same life over, but given another chance to build a new one he would surely construct one that is different.
...Russian society and social norms. The greatest reminder of this is found in the fact that Lopahkin, the man who Ranevsky once spoke to condescendingly, is now the family’s last hope for survival. Ironically enough, Lopahkin is often glancing at his watch, a reminder that time is changing, and a message that he, himself, is a testament to.
In general terms, corruption is the act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle. In politics, corruption is the misuse of public power and image.Whether it is realized or not, no country is wholly free of the disease of corruption, and if it is allowed to develop and become significantly strong, it can obstruct the good processes of governing and deteriorate the fabric of society. It can become a barrier to continual development and make it so that essentially no room remains for justice to succeed. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the destructive force of corruption is clearly exemplified through the abundance of imagery concerning decay, death, disease, sickness, and infection as the play progresses. The first and foremost example of this corruptionis the murder of King Hamlet and the resulting incestuous marriage of Gertrude and Claudius, which forms the foundation for corruption becoming a regular happening in the state of Denmark.The disease of corruption in the play stems from Claudius and slowly spreads through Elsinore and eventually results in the collapse of Denmark, which is signified by the takeover of the castle and land by Fortinbras, the nemesis of Hamlet and the Norwegian Crown Prince.Through the characters of Polonius, Claudius, Ophelia, and Hamlet, the evolution and disease-like spreading of this corruption can be observed.