First, the Underground Man is
a nihilist
, which means that he believes that traditional social values have no foundation in nature, and that human existence is essentially useless. The Underground Man despises the society in which he lives.
What does the Underground Man suffer from?
The main issue for the Underground Man is that
he has reached a point of ennui and inactivity
. He even admits that he would rather be inactive out of laziness.
What would Nietzsche think of the Underground Man?
reading, which focused on the impossibility of knowing oneself, Nietzsche could think of the Underground Man without recourse to Chernyshevsky’s idea of freedom,
determinism and progress
. … Many scholars have found more or less oblique traces of this reading in the final works of the German philosopher.
Who is the Underground Man talking to?
The Underground Man is
Mr. Free Will
. He’s so free, in fact, that he’s going to bash his head against the wall of reason just because he won’t resign himself to the fact that 2+2=4.
What does the Underground Man represent?
Dostoevsky says that the Underground Man, though a fictional character, is
representative of certain people who “not only may but must exist in our society, taking under consideration the circumstances under which our society has generally been formed
.” The Underground Man is extremely alienated from the society in …
Why does the underground man consider himself highly intelligent?
The Underground Man considers himself highly intelligent because:
He never starts or finishes anything
. “Oh, gentlemen, perhaps I really regard myself as an intelligent man only because throughout my entire life I’ve never been able to start or finish anything.”
What is the message of Notes from Underground?
In his short 1864 book, Notes From Underground, Fyodor Dostoyevsky tells the
story of a man who is “too conscious.”
The man, whose name we never learn is so aware of his own thoughts and feelings as to cause him to be indecisive and overly self-critical.
Why does Dostoevsky leave the underground man nameless?
The absence of the name in the novel Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky is symbolic as it shows that the protagonist is an ordinary person who tells the story which is not unique and there are many people in the society who could appear in the same situation and come to the same conclusions; moreover, the reason for …
What is the Underground Man philosophy?
By Fyodor Dostoevsky
There’s also a strong current of radical, existentialist freedom and responsibility: the Underground Man suggests that
man has the freedom to fight against everything
, even 2+2=4, but he also admits that he is to blame for everything in his life.
Is the underground man a romantic hero?
The Underground Man fancies himself a
Romantic
figure. Like many a Byronic hero, he is a loner and feels misunderstood. He cannot fully connect with the greater society as he is an outcast. … He rejects finer feelings and emotions and seems to have a view of life which rejects many Romantic ideals, such as the sublime.
How did existentialism begin?
The term existentialism (French: L’existentialisme) was
coined by the French Catholic philosopher Gabriel Marcel in the mid-1940s
. When Marcel first applied the term to Jean-Paul Sartre, at a colloquium in 1945, Sartre rejected it. … However, it is often identified with the philosophical views of Sartre.
How important is free will to the underground man?
If man always acts according to reason and the laws of nature, then we could predict everything man would ever think or do. The Underground Man argues that
man will act against reason in order to prove his free will
. He is willing to suffer, destroy, and abandon reason all for the sake of his own freedom.
Where do underground men live?
The Underground Man informs us that he lives in
St. Petersburg
, which is a “theoretical and intentional” town. He proves to us through a variety of arguments that over-consciousness prevents him from acting in any way, and from ever becoming anything.
What prompts underground man to proclaim that he will no longer write from the underground?
What prompts Underground Man to proclaim that he will no longer write from the underground?
The Underground Man values his individualism and free will to the exclusion of social bonds and love
. Where does Dostoevsky place blame for the protagonist/narrator’s predicament?
Can a man of perception respect himself at all?
He wonders if, ultimately,
a man of acute consciousness and perception can ever respect himself
. … The stupid person, or the man of direct action, simply accepts pain as a part of the everyday aspect of living, but the man of acute consciousness searches for some reason or some purpose to the pain.
Is the Underground Man likeable?
The Underground Man is not likable
. … The beauty of the Underground Man, the antihero, and many Russian classics in general, is they validate our imperfections, and allow us an imperfect protagonist with which to identify and in whom to confront our own worst traits.
