Important Notes from The Underground
Important Notes from The Underground
One of the major ideas throughout Notes from the Underground, by Fyodor Dostoevsky is the suffering brought about by isolation from society. Dostoevsky is suggesting that it is nearly impossible to escape the suffering and pain brought on by isolation and it can only be possible if you realize that you must help yourself. Throughout this novel the narrator, also known as “the underground man” experiences many levels of suffering and pain. Dostoevsky is saying that in order to overcome this suffering the narrator will have to take the opportunity to save himself.
This is the story of an unnamed man only referred to as “the underground man”. This underground man is the narrator of the story. The story he tells is a first person account of his own past experiences. There are two major parts to this story. This first is a description of the narrator and his warped world view. The second is a story from years past that illustrate his earlier described opinions.
We learn in the first part of this story that the narrator does not suffer physically but instead suffers mentally and emotionally. The underground man feels alienated by his peers and isolated from a society that, he feels, can never accept him. Since, in his view, he can never be accepted, he retreats to an “underground” world of self isolation. The narrator believes that neither he nor society has the ability to change. Since he does not accept the possibility that he may change he will remain forever depraved.
The narrator has struggled for his entire life with feelings of depravity and shame. This has given him negative feelings toward himself and toward all of mankind. It has gotten to the point where feelings of shame are normal and acceptable to him. The narrator does not realize it but he is only further contributing to his problems. Not only does society alienate him but he alienates himself further by accepting and even inviting society’s torment of him. At this point in the story it seems he will never be able to find salvation.
The narrator believes that the feelings he is experiencing are inevitable and because of this grows to enjoy these feelings. He puts himself in degrading situations on purpose. He claims to do this to try and escape the boredom of his life. The actual reason he does...