Dostoyevsky's "Underground Man": An Examination of the World Beyond the View of the "Typical Man"

The essential philosophy of the main character in Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground can be derived from the first chapter to a series of masochistic deeds and rejection of the St. Petersburg society he so persistently examines. Through his analysis of natural laws and the ideas of reason, disease, and suffering, the narrator develops an attitude about humanity.

As a masochistic figure, the Underground man can often be viewed as irrational, even to the point of insanity, but many of his arguments about human nature are valid. Masochism, the infliction of pain on oneself for pleasure, emanates throughout the book, only slightly drawing away from the man's credibility, but in a way also offers a perspective on this condition as prominent in society. Perhaps everyone, he feels, is somewhat masochistic, and he personally refuses treatment, as many do, out of "spite." (15). The Underground man goes on to describe how moments of humiliation or incidents of wrong-doing brings him a comfortable pleasure. The narrator seems to compare himself to a "cultured man of the nineteenth century", who, after the first day of initial pain from a toothache, begins to grown for the "pleasure in all this conscious shamefulness." (25). Through self-destruction and obtainment of pleasure from pain, the philosophy of the Underground man gains a bit of irrationality but also paints the character as someone real, not falsified by superficiality.

As a man sprung out of a testtube, the Underground man separates himself from society, as he is not a ordinary product of nature, and as supposedly artificially created, he can offer a proper examination of the world without the view of a "typical man". He states that his intellect and awareness of human nature prevent him from taking humans-like actions. On the other hand, stupid men are not aware of the pitfalls in society and for that reason can continue to lead normal lives "acting unthinkably". A serious of natural laws, including a description of a stonewall, continue to develop the Underground man's philosophy. "Impossibility is a stone wall" (23), and for the narrator, this wall represents the limitations that hold back men who would otherwise seek revenge if offended or hurt by another. In part three of chapter one, the man expands this stonewall theory to encompass laws of nature and "conclusions of the natural sciences of mathematics." (23). He insists that most people consider these walls the end of their effort, but instead, even those lacking in intellect should refuse to accept these boundaries. To gain a perspective on the way that men act due to natural laws and the limitations faced by the human race, the Underground man isolates himself physically, as in his life in the apartment, and mentally, citing that he is a child born of a testtube.

The continuing theories of reason, morals, and human nature complete the philosophy of the Underground man. To the narrator, reason is not as important as most see it, as "reason is a good thing, that can't be disputed, but reason is only reason and satisfies only man's intellectual faculties, while volition is a manifestation of the whole life, I mean of the whole human life, including both reason and speculation." (35). To the Underground man, morals are present in society and yet men are continually disobeying their own set of values to preserve their own free will. This lack of control over one's own scruples come from an internal desire to prove that they possess free will. Humanity

inevitably leads to war and bloodshed, according to the Underground man, and the more "civilized" our culture becomes, the more satisfaction we draw from bloodshed. The more people create, the more they will thus destroy and it is for this reason that people fear completion. These ideas concerning reason and morals, as well as man's own desire to maintain free will, complete the philosophy expressed by the Underground man in the first chapter of the book.

The arguments both clearly stated and coyly noted by the reader via actions of the narrator, allow one to extract a complete philosophy of the Underground man in Dostoyevsky's work. Characterized by beliefs of suffering, disease, and reason, the attitude toward society and the laws of nature as expressed by the Underground man are derived in the first chapter of Notes from Underground.