Notes from Underground

In the book "Notes from Underground", Fyodor Dostoevsky chose the main character to be a unanimous Underground Man. This man in turn chose a different narrative structure. The structure is composed of two parts whereby in the first part we get an extensive, exhaustive look at the mature and present condition of the Underground Man. The second part is a story from his youth narrated from a mature point of view. This structure allows us to see the nature of the sickness of this man that he proclaims in the opening lines. It also allows us to see why he became that way and also to see his attitude now toward those distant events.
Part one of the book is fundamentally the exhaustive ranting by the Underground Man in which he sort of gives us a sketch of who he is, which is almost impossible to define. He announces that he is forty years old, retired from civil, loves to read, educated and has a good sum of money from an inheritance. He is basically alone, which is his own choice, as he has no friends or any acquaintances of any kind. Although on the surface it seems that he is free to do as he wishes as he has no job limiting him or financial difficulties yet he seems to be plagues with a complex social and emotional problems. Although, throughout part one, the Underground Man seems to be despising and valuing humanity in general, he seems to be inviting us to judge him or expect us to judge him and explore his madness. He simply seems to denounce everything in life because it does not seem to meet his demands.

Part two of the book is the youth of the Underground Man told by the "older" him. It is the Underground Man's ineffective attempts to make contact with other human beings; be it that this contact is wrong on all levels. He is in such need of any contact that he wishes he could brawl as he sees other men brawling: " and I envied this chucked-out gentleman, envied him so much that I even went into the tavern, into the billiard room: 'Perhaps I, too, will have a fight,' I thought, ' and get chucked out the window myself.' "(P. 49). He forces himself to such uncomfortable situations hoping that he could have a social life. He forces himself to go to a dinner party for a man he loathes. Even at the dinner party as he is ignored he stays and looks at them with contempt but he never leaves. He even goes on to seek a duel with a man he knows he is incapable to duel against. Thus, all his attempts to make contacts defeat themselves because he allows the opinions of others to dictate who he is. He is basically incapable of communication with others because he never learned how. All his life he was attached to a book and that was his friend. Even, when he actually had a friend he tried to control him because his notion of love is either domination or submission and nothing else.

Another point, which is a bit ironic, is the fact that the Underground Man can only visit his coworker Setochkin on Tuesdays, and therefore must limit and plan his desires for social interaction. This brings more artificiality, alienation and even frustration, since the simple contact has to be regulated and bureaucratized. It is crucial here to note the relation between part II and I as we see that early on, the Underground man has still ambitions for a social life and the fact that he fails miserable provides a critical explanation as to why he became the personality he is in part I.

Another key moment in part II is the preparation for the dinner as he finds a "huge yellow spot" (p.69) in his trousers. His choice of the color here is brilliant as yellow could symbolize his cowardliness and indignity. Not only that, but his inability to do anything to clean this embarrassing spot, marks his inability to help himself even though he is aware of his problems. This comes back in the end of part one where he describes the snow as "almost wet, yellow, dull" (p.41). Thus, this spot that once inhabited his trousers now describes his life.

The encounter of Liza, the prostitute, is the first sign of any hope for this man. As, for the first time we see him relaxed of his own thoughts to make a quick conversation with a complete stranger. However, he quickly regains his "consciousness" and tries to dominate her with his speech which he probably read in one of his books forgetting that in the process he is wickedly hurting her and not helping her even though he thinks he is. He acknowledges the shame of his act and admits that, for him, love consists only of domination: "for me to love meant to tyrannize and to preponderize morally. All my life I've been incapable even of picturing any other love." (p.125) He basically can not comprehend the concept of selfless love, and he has failed, as a young man, to understand that Liza has come to see him because of her love to him rather than to hear his nonsense: " I myself never guessed that she had come to me not at all to hear pathetic words, but to love me." (p.126). Thus, at this moment exactly, the Underground Man gives up the social life because he is too tired of trying: " I longed for 'peace,' I longed to be left alone in the underground. 'Living life' so crushed me, unaccustomed to it as I was, that it even became difficult for me to breath." (p.126) The Underground Man, thus deliberately chooses the underground to be his refuge from the world.

Finally, the last episode that breaks the camel's back is the moment where Liza slams his entrance door behind her. Liza who shined the only hope for his salvation, due to her patience and her acumen to see through his arrogant, aggressive façade, slams the door to disappear from his life forever. Thus, the Underground Man has now been shut underground for good.

All these factors, helps us understand what the narrator is ranting about in Part I. Moreover, Part I helps us understand his point of view in Part II. The result is this complete circle which Dostoevsky describes brilliantly of a man who is the product of the urban world, a man who is so unstable that he can not learn from his own mistakes sixteen years after they happened, a man who is paralyzed by his contradictions.

Biblography:

Fortin, Rene E. "Responsive Forms: Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground." Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 6 (1972), pp. 225-38

Neuhauser, Rudoplh. "Observtions on the Structure of Notes from Underground with Reference to the main Themes of part II." Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 6 (1972), pp 239-55.