"Notes from Underground" as Social Critique

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground" offers the underground man as a highly astute critic of society. The paper claims that the underground man celebrates freedom in the face of all adversity, seeks freedom in his every action. It argues that the philosophy he espouses centers on the distinction between the rational and the irrational faculties and what follows from the conflict between the two. He specifically rejects the rational and finds that those who accept the rational as a basis for their lives are reduced as human beings and made less natural and more mechanical. The paper maintains that what the underground man celebrates instead is emotion, the irrational, and in a sense the unexamined. The paper holds that he withdraws from the social order, lives on his own terms, and celebrates freedom above governance in all things. The paper concludes that he does not mourn for the fact that long-term governance is not possible, but only observes that this is so and suggests that living outside the norms of society is a better choice in any case.

From the Paper:

"The underground man chooses freedom over structure, but this choice is ironic. He chooses the freedom to do whatever he wants to do, but he says that the only answer for the intelligent man is to do nothing at all. Still, he sees the human being as made up of impulses that make the individual unpredictable. It might be best for the intelligent man to do nothing at all, but this might not be the decision the intelligent man makes. The underground man seems to have been shaped by forces that have determined what his decisions will be, but he is still able to make those decisions and is still influenced by both rational and irrational impulses as he does so."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground. New York : Vintage Books, 1994.

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• Analytical Essay # 146716 : "'Notes From Underground' and Modernism"
• Book Review # 115525 : "Notes From Underground"
• Analytical Essay # 60936 : "Notes from Underground"

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