What Is Social Determinism In The Note From Underground?

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Henrik Ibsen were two famous writers of the nineteenth era who became famous by writing about realism with their masterpieces; Dostoyevsky with the “Notes from Underground” and Ibsen with “Hedda Gabler”. Both works are based on the realistic picture of the whole society, between rich and poor, where their protaonist’s actions are result of social determinism. Social determinism is the theory that describes a person whose behavior is influenced by the society. According to this concept, the characters of “Notes from Underground” the underground man, and “Hedda Gabler” Hedda Tesman, are products of social determinism.
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 …show more content…

Even though he was just a servant for some reason he always seems to act like he was superior to him. This behavior from the servant makes the underground man hate him so much and make him develop this way of always feeling less than other people.
At the same time, there is Hedda Gabler, who is a product of social determinism. She was raised in an upper middle class ambient with different ambitions from the women at her time, where they supposed to stay at home and have kids. But just to meet the expectations of the society, she got married to a man that she never loved, and she started to live a life she never wanted.
Hedda married Tesman, an academic student who supposed to have a potential success, not because she loves him, but just because as she said “It was a great deal more than any of my other admirers were offering”. In this quote she is showing her real feelings meaning that she never loves him and she just married him because he was the best option among the

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