What is the theme of Notes from Underground?
What is the theme of Notes from Underground?
Loneliness, Isolation, and Society He speaks and writes from a mysterious place underground, separated from society. But even before retreating underground, he feels isolated even within society, whether at school (where he had no friends) or at work (where he hates all his coworkers).
Why is the underground man spiteful?
He is spiteful because he resents the direction of development he finds in his society, and his revolt against these unacceptable trends render him, in the eyes of his contemporaries, a spiteful being.
What is the Underground Man’s theory of desire?
The Underground Man complains that man’s primary desire is to exercise his free will, whether or not it is in his best interests. In the face of utilitarianism, man will do nasty and unproductive things simply to prove that his free will is unpredictable and therefore completely free.
What does the Crystal Palace symbolize for the Underground Man?
The Crystal Palace For progressive thinkers of the era, the idea of a crystal palace represented the ideal living space for a utopian society based on reason and natural laws. The Underground Man says he despises the idea of the crystal palace because he cannot stick his tongue out at it.
What is the tone of Notes from the Underground?
Many aspects of Notes from Underground–and especially, as Dostoevsky himself noticed, the tone–seem strange, sharp, and even bitter. To some extent, the bitterness of the novel is traceable to the many personal misfortunes Dostoevsky suffered while the novel was being written.
Who is the audience in Notes from the Underground?
The narrator of Dostoevsky’s Notesfrom Unclergro~~nd has two different audiences for his confession: the “gentlemen” he addresses thl-oughout the polemic of Part One, and the reader given to him by his “editor.” The Underground Man knows nothing of the reader; and at the end of the polemic, he tries to dismiss the ” …
What does the Underground Man postulate as the most important aspect of life for mankind?
What does the Underground Man postulate as the most important aspect of life for mankind? “Man needs only one thing, his own independent desire, whatever that independence might cost and wherever it might lead.”
Who is Liza in Notes from Underground?
Liza is one of a long string of quiet, meek, passive, downtrodden women who inhabit Dostoevsky’s novels. Through her, the Underground Man has the possibility of coming into touch with real humanity, but being unable to escape from his own ego, he needlessly and viciously insults Liza.
Why would the narrator have been happy to be called a sluggard by another person?
The narrator wishes that he could simply say that he is a sluggard or that he is lazy. This would at least be a quality and he could then be positively defined as “a sluggard.” He says that he once knew a man who prided himself on being a connoisseur of Lafitte.
Is Dostoevsky nihilism?
Dostoyevsky urged Russians to rediscover their native roots and Christian Orthodox ideals, eschewing the Western ideologies that he saw as infecting Russian society. Through his novel Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky targeted Russian nihilism that had taken a hold of the Russian youth.
