Dostoevsky and Nietzsche's Overman The definition of übermensch, or overman, in Barron's Concise Student's Encyclopedia makes anyone who has read Nietzsche's Zarathustra - even aphoristically, as I tried to do at first - cringe. Barron's Encyclopedia defines an overman as someone who "has his act together and gets things done." Of course, considering that this is a summary of one part of Nietzsche's ideas, and that the encyclopedia reduces his entire philosophy to one short paragraph, this is
Dostoevsky and Psychology "A sick man's dreams are often extraordinarily distinct and vivid and extremely life-like. A scene may be composed of the most unnatural and incongruous elements, but the setting and presentation are so plausible, the details so subtle, so unexpected, so artistically in harmony with the whole picture, that the dreamer could not invent them for himself in his waking state. . . "1 Fyodor Dostoevsky's remarkable insight into the psychology of man is seen here in the
Dostoevsky was an Anti-Semite Literary anti-Semitism is as old as Western culture itself. A full listing of writers who have expressed hostility toward Jews and/or Judaism--from Shakespeare to T.S. Eliot, from Pushkin to Pasternak, etc.--would add up to a Who's Who of Western literature.1 Undoubtedly, Dostoevsky follows in this tradition. It is disparaging, however, that as the true novelist of ideas and Christian love, Dostoevsky could harbor such ill will towards the Jews. Does this not
Analysis of Dostoevsky and Nietzsche's Literature 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
The Relation between Dostoevsky and the Characters of The Brothers Karamazov "I'd die happy if I could finish this final novel, for I would have expressed myself completely." This statement from the author of "The Brothers Karamazov" helps elucidate the underlying purpose and theme of one of the greatest masterpieces of world literature. Superficially, the novel deals with a horrifying parricide and how the supporting characters devised direct and indirect circumstances leading to the murder
Within the tortured mind of a young Russian university student, an epic battle rages between two opposite ideologies - the conservative Christianity characteristic of the time, and a new modernist humanism gaining prevalence in academia. Fyodor Dostoevsky in the novel Crime and Punishment uses this conflict to illustrate why the coldly rational thought that is the ideal of humanism represses our essential emotions and robs us of all that is human. He uses the changes in Raskolnikov's mental state
Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND, has held many labels, such as being a case history of nuerosis or a specimen of modern tragedy. The most popular label it has obtained however, is being the author's defense of individualism. The novel is writen as a performance, part triad, part memoir, by a nameless personage who claims to be writing for hiomself but consistently maipulates the reader--of whom he is morbidly aware-- to the point where there seems to be no judgement the reader
might not fit the picture of their perfect and humane society. Through these problems and opposites that cross and overlap each other, Dostoevsky depicts social issues, especially the problem of murder, through an image of people who go through pain. He presents a graphical experience of ones who do not know how to deal with humanity and its problems. Dostoevsky himself does not give a clear solution nor does he leave one with the certainty of faith for an example. He says himself: Finding myself
head against it until he collapses. Works Cited Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Responses, Criticism. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1989. Works Consulted Fanger, Donald. Introduction. Notes From Underground. By Fyodor Dostoevsky. Trans. Mirra Ginsburg. NY: Bantam, 1992. Frank, Joseph. "Nihilism and Notes from Underground." In Modern Critical Views: Fyodor Dostoevsky. Ed. Harold Bloom. NY: Chelsea House, 1988: 35-58
The Pathological Protagonist of Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground Dostoevsky’s vision of the world is violent and his characters tortured; it is no wonder that many have viewed his work as prophetic of the 20th century. However, though Dostoevsky, in his unflinching portrayal of depravity, gives the Devil some of his best arguments, the Gospel often triumphs. Ivan Karamazov is at least offered the possibility of repentance when kissed by his saintly brother Alyosha. Raskolnikov, the nihilistic
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
seeps its way into Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha's lives causing innocence to request fault and suffering. With intricate characterizations, Dostoevsky magnificently presents the internal agony that derives from a wavering spirit. The religious teachings of the great elder Father Zosima engross the minds of the spiritually inadequate throughout the novel. Dostoevsky essentially carries these guidelines to peaceful immortality by means of the character Alyosha. At the death bed of the holy man, Alyosha
amoral belief that Truth is found only by following one's own nature. Because divinity lies within one's nature, it is logical that not following one's nature is to reject the will of God. Emerson's words spell out the very point Dostoevsky wishes to refute. Dostoevsky conveys that this notion of a personal "constitution" is the very cause of immorality and misery among human beings. For it is in one's personal "constitution" where isolation begins and the common Truth in all beings is defied
Such a complex motive is worthy of such a complex subject. Works Cited Beebe, Maurice. "The Three Motives of Raskol'nikov." As printed in Crime and Punishment. Ed. By George Gibian. W. W. Norton & Company. 3rd Edition. New York, 1989. Dostoevsky, Feodor. Crime and Punishment. Ed. By George Gibian. W. W. Norton & Company. 3rd Edition. New York, 1989.
men to salvation as well. This trend was particularly taken up in nineteenth-century Russian literature: "Elevated into powerful literary symbols by authors like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy..., prostitutes became female archetypes who either disillusioned the men with whom they associated or raised them to a higher plane of being" (11). Dostoevsky uses this idea of a "saintly prostitute" repeatedly in his works. The archetype that Bernstein claims he creates in based on the image of Mary Magdalen from the
The Brothers Karamazov once found himself seconds away from death, only to be granted a reprieve moments before the firing. Although only a method intended to teach him a lesson, the trick had quite a harrowing effect on Dostoevsky. After his close encounter with death, Dostoevsky underwent a total change, and so all of his new notions became a part of "The Brothers Karamazov", which he wrote at the end of his life. For example, once he reexamined his values he began to reject the blindly accepted
Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky first presents Smerdyakov, in The Brothers Karamazov, in Book 3 of Part 1. The author divulges details of the conception of the fourth son of Fyodor Pavovich Karamazov. Late on a September evening, a drunk Fyodor, by modern standards, "rapes" a homeless woman. Stinking Lizaveta, the victim of Fyodor's violence, was a legend in the town. Regardless of her unattractive and dirty appearance, her poverty, and homelessness, the townspeople regarded her
phrases such as "a brazen brow and a Karamazov conscience," "voluptuary streak," and "Karamazovian baseness" abound. Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, the father of the brothers Karamazov, is the embodiment and the source of this immorality. In him Dostoevsky creates such perversity and depravity that one can feel no positive emotions for the man. His physical appearance--he is "flabby" with "small, suspicious eyes" and a "long, cavernous mouth with puffy lips, behind which could be glimpsed small
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
Analysis of The Inquisitor's Argument in The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky makes a strong case against Jesus in "The Grand Inquisitor": Jesus did not love humanity sufficiently to care for the greater good of the race. The majority of people, according to the Grand Inquisitor, are weak and "like sheep." Jesus prized freedom of faith above all else, and because he cared more for that freedom than for the happiness of people, the Grand Inquisitor and the Catholic Church, as led by he Inquisitor