Yelizaveta Rapoport
Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote Notes from Underground in 1864. The novel encompasses the life and thoughts of a lonely, spiteful, sickly man ranting into a journal. Dostoevsky’s “underground man” is often grotesque, generally cruel, and completely isolated from other human beings. The underground man’s suffering is caused by his paradox of need. He yearns to attain a sense of connection with the outside world, while simultaneously demanding total independence and absolute free-will. Notes from Underground is a tremendous achievement in existentialist thought. The novel illustrates the existence of a single individual man who in the midst of his infinite failures struggles to exist, to define himself, to define the universe around him, and to belong. The diary of the underground man is a window into the true nature of existentialism.
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Published: Wednesday, April 9, 2008