The Enlightment Period of the Age of Reason in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground

529 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of the enlightenment period

The mid-eighteenth century was the Enlightenment period or the Age of Reason. French philosophes believed that reason could provide critical, informed, scientific solutions to social issues and problems, and basically improve human condition. Notes from Underground, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a famous anti-Enlightenment novel and is famous for rejecting the very notions of the French philosophes. Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground is a story about the thoughts, views, and actions of a strange unnamed man who we’ll refer to as The Underground Man. The Underground Man is strange because he lacked self-respect, he had sadistic and masochistic tendencies, and he enjoyed inflicting emotional pain on himself and others. Dostoyevsky does not believe in the norms set by society. The underground man is the opposite of what society deems acceptable and appropriate. He is intelligent with lucid perception, and is self-admitted to be sick, depraved, and hateful. He is determined to ruin every chance fate offers him to be happy and content. He actively seeks to punish and humiliate himself...

Show More
Related

  • A Comparison Of Abraham In Fear And Trembling

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    Like Abraham, the underground man’s “most profitable profit” (Ibid.) acts as a suspension of the moral, and as a rejection of determinist philosophies. Ostensibly, the underground man’s refusal to be “nothing but a sort of piano key” (Dostoevsky 19) seems incompatible with Di Silenctio’s portrayal of Abraham, but this is not the case. The underground man and Abraham share an identical belief in the absurd nature of human behavior and both reject the universal ethics of

    Read More

  • The Enlightenment Dbq

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    A time period known as The Age of Reason or The Enlightenment was when philosophy, politics, science and social communications changed drastically. It helped shape the ideas of capitalism and democracy, which is the world we live in today. People joined together to discuss areas of high intellect and creative thoughts. The Enlightenment was a time period in which people discussed new ideas, and educated people, known as philosophers, all had a central idea of freedom of choice and the natural right of individuals. These philosophers include John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith, and Mary Wollstonecraft.

    Read More

  • Literary Techniques Used by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment

    2235 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dostoyevsky's writing in this book is such that the characters and setting around the main subject, Raskolnikov, are used with powerful consequences. The setting is both symbolic and has a power that affects all whom reside there, most notably Raskolnikov. An effective Structure is also used to show changes to the plot's direction and Raskolnikov's character. To add to this, the author's word choice and imagery are often extremely descriptive, and enhance the impact at every stage of Raskolnikov's changing fortunes and character. All of these features aid in the portrayal of Raskolnikov's downfall and subsequent rise.

    Read More

  • Primary Anti-Heroism In Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    For the duration of his life, he has gathered awfulness, depression and melancholy because he is unable to avenge to his satisfaction wrongs done to him. Further ambushed by inquiries and problems, he keeps himself in this position by envisioning insults, and disguising the outrage they motivate. In the last part of the book, the underground man who is the storyteller and the protagonist calls attention to that he made a mistake by writing his memoirs because there is no point in indicating how he had ruined his life. He admits that "a novel needs a hero, and every one of the qualities of an anti-hero are explicitly assembled in the novel". With underground man, Dostoevsky depicts an opposite illustration of a legend who does not fulfill satisfy the expectation of readers, but rather still commands the novel as the principle

    Read More

  • Social Contradictions in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    The reader is forced to ask why Dostoyevsky would bother writing about this troubling man and his problems. The answer is that Dostoyevsky does not believe in the norms society sets for people. This man is the absolute opposite of everything society holds to be acceptable. Here is a man, with intelligent insight, lucid perception, who is a self-admitted to be sick, depraved, and hateful. A man who at every turn is determined to thwart every chance fate offers him to be happy and content. A man who actively seeks to punish and humiliate himself. Dostoyevsky is showing the reader that man is not governed by values which society holds to be all important. The point of Notes from Underground more than anything else is that humans actions cannot be calculated.

    Read More

  • Comparing Crime and Punishment and Notes from the Underground

    490 Words  | 1 Pages

    Dostoyevsky's characters are very similar, as is his stories.  He puts a strong stress on the estrangement and isolation his characters feel. His characters are both brilliant and "sick" as mentioned in each novel, poisoned by their intelligence.  In Notes from the Underground, the character, who is never given a name, writes his journal from solitude. He is spoiled by his intelligence, giving him a fierce conceit with which he lashes out at the world and justifies the malicious things he does.  At the same time, though, he speaks of the doubt he feels at the value of human thought and purpose and later, of human life.  He believes that intelligence, to be constantly questioning and "faithless(ly) drifting" between ideas, is a curse.  To be damned to see everything, clearly as a window (and that includes things that aren't meant to be seen, such as the corruption in the world) or constantly seeking the meaning of things elusive. Dostoyevsky thought that humans are evil, destructive and irrational.

    Read More

  • Dostoyevsky's Notes From the Underground and Martin Scorcese's Taxi Driver

    1562 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although he regrets it, the Underground Man’s inability to commit to one action, to save Liza or to repulse her, to seek revenge or attempt fit in, is what ultimately keeps him from connecting with others, it is what keeps him in the underground. Travis’ commitment to action ultimately leads him above ground. Works Cited Dostoevsky, Fyodor. A. Notes from Underground: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Responses, Criticism. Norton Critical Edition.

    Read More

  • underground

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Notes from the Underground, the narrator is tormented by his desire to be a free individual and by his anger at the class system of Russia. However, these two feelings do not occur at the same time. In part one of the novel, The Underground Man is engulfed with the feeling of wanting free will. Then, in part two the he has a change of heart and is begging for the control of society and the class system. Unfortunately, he tries to become a part of society and fails.

    Read More

  • Freedom in Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground

    1805 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground: A New Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Responses, Criticism. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1989.

    Read More

  • Dostoyevsky ‘Notes from Underground’ Critique

    1600 Words  | 4 Pages

    The tone of “Notes from Underground” is sharp, strange and bitter. The bitterness of the book is traced to the multiple personal misfortunes the author suffered as he wrote his novel. Through these personal tragedies it can be argued that the author presented the position of the “underground man” through his own experiences. Additionally, the research holds the second belief that the novel’s presentation of “underground man” is founded on the social context the novel addresses (Fanger 3). Through this, it was found that Dostoevsky presented the suffering of man under the emerging world view directed by European materialism, liberalism and utopianism. As he began writing his novel, Dostoevsky had been directed by the romantic error that looked at utopian social life and the social vision of satisfying and perfecting regular life for man. The failure for the society to gain these achievements was as a result of the distant liberalism and materialism that reduced the power of reasoning and...

    Read More

  • What Is Social Determinism In The Note From Underground?

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    The underground man is the product of the social determinism due to all the personal experiences that he had throughout his life with the society. He is a person who always wanted act in a different way but he stops himself and act as how the society wants him

    Read More

  • Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

    1626 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist, journalist, and short story writer that discussed the psychological state of the human soul in many of his works, one in particular is Notes from the Underground; which was published in 1864. Notes from the Underground, had a great influence in the 20th century; the novel takes a man’s inability to communicate with society and uses it to teach readers about the importance of other humans in our daily lives and how that affects the way we think, live, and learn. Although the narrator has alienated himself from society, Dostoyevsky uses his knowledge of diction, style, grammar, and many other literary devices to show the reader that the narrator is lacking the knowledge to communicate with another human being thus giving a tortured man to define what the meaning of life is to someone who feels no love, happiness, sympathy, and has no features that make up the human soul but has everything that is materialistic.

    Read More

  • Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons, We

    1554 Words  | 4 Pages

    Raskolnikov, a former student, forced to drop out of the university because he is unable to afford the tuition, is forced to work part-time with his friend Razumihin as a translator. Through this endeavor, Raskolnikov, or Rodya as his mother calls him, becomes well versed in the literature and existentialist philosophies of the time. Writing to a local newspaper, Rodya ventures to propose a superman theory similar to that of Nietzsche, made popular around the time Dostoevsky wrote the novel. “I only believe in my leading idea that men are in general divided by a law of nature into two categories, inferior (ordinary)… and men who have the gift or the talent to utter a new word.” This principle, that man is simply either ordinary or extraordinary, limited by rules and boundaries or allowed to transgress these barriers en route to his planned greater goal for humanity, gains Raskolnikov little profit or renown. Though the extraordinary man theory could easily be applied to Napoleon, as is done in Rodya’s thesis, few of Dostoevsky’s characters accept its revolutionary psychological approach to criminal behavior. Only the lead detective, Porfiry Petrovich, comes to accept Raskolnikov’s approach. This parallel epiphany is ironic, indeed, because throughout the novel, Rodya and Porfiry are cast as foils. Even this revelation, though...

    Read More

  • Importance of St. Petersburg in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment

    2602 Words  | 6 Pages

    Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment explores the dangerous effects of St. Petersburg, a malignant city, on the psyche of the impoverished student Raskolnikov. In this novel, Petersburg is more than just a backdrop. The city plays a central role in the development of the characters and the actions that they take. Raskolnikov survives in one of the cramped, dark spaces that are characteristic of Petersburg. These spaces are like coffins; they suffocate Raskolnikov's mind. St. Petersburg creates a grotesque environment in which Raskolnikov can not only create the "Overman Theory," but he can also carry it out by murdering a pawnbroker in cold blood, then justify his actions with the belief that society will be better off without her. Raskolnikov finds no relief outside of his cramped room; the Petersburg climate is just as oppressive to the psyche as the cramped space of Raskolnikov’s room. Not only is the outside air dangerous; it forces him to find relief in the devil’s tavern. While wandering the infernal streets of St. Petersburg, Raskolnikov enters the devil’s realm in the form of Petersburg taverns. These are evil places, where treacherous ideas of robbery and murder circulate. Raskolnikov overhears the twisted idea to kill the pawnbroker inside one of these infested taverns.

    Read More

  • Dostoevsky's Notes From The Underground

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground” the narrative of the book is that men’s worst enemy is his consciousness, but a man would never get rid of consciousness despite its trouble. The book begins in the 1860s in St Petersburg, Russia, and follows a man by the name of “the Underground Man”. The book is separated into two parts, the first part takes place in present time and the Underground Man has detached himself from all societal norms and in a way alienated himself due to his consciousness. He has become cynical with age and goes through life with the notion of rationality. The Underground Man is persuaded by the Underground (conscious) and this creates conflict by making him analytical causing him to second guess decisions making it impossible to decide which leads to living only in his head.

    Read More

More about The Enlightment Period of the Age of Reason in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground

Open Document