"Notes from Underground"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains how the narrator in Dostoevsky's work represents the underground condition. A consideration of the narrator shows that the underground condition refers to a person defined by rejection and alienation, loneliness, a life based on fantasy, and anger and spite. Each of these aspects of the underground life is considered, with a focus on showing how these aspects define the person's life and on showing why the underground man acts the way he does.

From the Paper:

"The "underground condition" is associated with being disconnected, alienated, and rejected. The narrator explains that he is an orphan and that his relatives sent him away to school because they did not love him. At school, he was teased and hated by his peers. The narrator's life then has been based on a series of rejections. This rejection in early life has had a significant impact on the narrator's adult life. While in adulthood he should be able to gain control and seek acceptance, he finds himself unable to do so. The narrator has come to view himself as a rejected individual. This assumption then defines all his new relationships. In response, he acts in ways that cause him to be rejected from others. This is seen in his relationships with his workmates, with the people he meets at work, and his relationship with Liza. This is even seen in the way he writes the book, where he manages to isolate the reader. For example, at the start of the book he tells the reader that he was wicked official."

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