Literary Criticism on Notes From the Underground
Uploaded by fuenteserik12 on Feb 18, 2017
Literary Criticisms Applied to Notes From the Underground
“Now, I am living out my life in my corner, taunting myself with the spiteful and useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot become anything seriously, and it is only the fool who becomes anything” (Dostoevsky). These words, spoken by the Underground Man in Notes from the Underground, portray the mindset and conscious of the man, who is not named or given much information about. His mind thinks that men who are intelligent like him, are afraid of completing goals and moving forward, unlike a man who is not intelligent, a fool, who can do as they please because they grow from nothing into something. This shows the way his conscious understands concepts and reacts to things in the world, which is why he isolated from the world in the underground. Because he believes his intelligence is superior, which leads back to his thoughts of intelligent men are not capable of anything. This leads him to believe he is nothing in the world. In this case, by applying the archetypal and psychoanalytical critical theories, one gains a deeper understanding of the theme, paralysis of the conscious man in society , in the novel Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevski.
The setting of the novel is during the mid 19th century in St. Petersburg, Russia. Notes from the Underground begins with the Underground Man, who’s name is never given, as the narrator of the whole story explaining himself and his thoughts to the audience. The novel is divided into two parts. The first part consisting of the Underground Man explaining his past that he was a civil worker but inherited money from a family member. Although refrained from telling the reader about his past, the narrator informs the reader about his philosophical theories about people and society and how he is fascinated with romanticism. For example the man says, “Well, even in toothache there is enjoyment, I answer” (Dostoevski). In this part the man elaborates on the idea of how pain can be enjoyable by a person, which allows the person to engulf in the misery they are are going through. Overall, this is the main emphasis on the first part of the novel where the man gives little information on himself but more on his ideas of society itself.
In the second part of the novel, the narration consists of past events...