Notes from Underground
Fyodor Dostoevsky announced his new work in the journal Epoch during 1864. He called it A Confession before changing the title to Notes from Underground. The text appeared as a serialized piece within that specific publication year. This initial announcement set the stage for a bitter, isolated narrative voice. Critics later identified this unnamed narrator as the Underground Man. He lived in St. Petersburg and worked as a retired civil servant. The story unfolded through a first-person confession format. Dostoevsky intended the work to be an excerpt from memoirs rather than a traditional novel.
The narrator describes himself as suffering from ennui and inertia. He states that all his actions stem from boredom. His mind is trapped in conscious sitting with arms folded. He feels a desire for revenge but finds no virtue in acting on it. Instead he concentrates on spitefulness. This internal state prevents him from solving his problems. He admits he would rather be inactive out of pure laziness. The character observes that utopian society removes pain yet humans need suffering to feel happy. He argues that removing pain takes away human freedom. Cruelty makes people moan about their pain only to spread it to others. The Underground Man hates men of action who live machine-like lives.
In the opening chapter the narrator challenges the simple math problem two times two equals four. He wants the freedom to say two plus two equals five instead. A Stone Wall represents the laws of nature blocking this free will. He attacks Nikolay Chernyshevsky's rational egoism which assumes economic well-being measures expediency. Utilitarianism coincided with socialism as a goal in Chernyshevsky's vision. The Underground Man ridicules enlightened self-interest as the foundation of Utopian society. He believes anyone can act against their own self-interest to validate existence. Some will do so simply to protest and confirm they exist as individuals. The idea of cultural systems relying on rational egoism is what the protagonist despises.
The Russian word podpóllya literally means under the fields. Pod stands for under while polya means fields. Chapter 11 describes listening to people like listening through a crack under the floor. This space is not big enough for humans but where rodents and bugs live. Folklore suggests evil spirits dwell there too. English translators often chose underground when crawl space would be more accurate. The syntax appears multi-layered with subject and verb at the sentence start. The object goes into the depths of the narrator's thoughts later. Dostoevsky repeats many concepts throughout the text. Mikhail Bakhtin noted that no single monologically firm word exists in the confession. Every word anticipates the words of an other.
Part two begins with the narrator's obsession over an officer who insulted him in a pub. The officer passes by without noticing his existence. The Underground Man borrows money to buy an expensive overcoat. He intentionally bumps into the officer to assert equality. The officer does not seem to notice it happened. Later he attends a going-away dinner party for Zverkov. Friends fail to tell him the time changed from five to six. He arrives early and argues with four men about his hatred of society. They leave him to visit a secret brothel. He follows them to confront Zverkov regardless of being beaten. He finds Zverkov already retired with prostitutes to other rooms. He encounters Liza a young prostitute instead.
Liza and the Underground Man lie silently together in the dark room. He confronts her with an image of her future which she initially ignores. She eventually realizes how she will become useless and descend further. Her thought of dying a disgraceful death brings her to realize her position. She becomes enthralled by his grasp of destructive social nature. He gives her his address and leaves before returning home. Fear grips him when she actually arrives at his dilapidated apartment. He curses her and takes back everything he said earlier. He admits he was laughing at her and reiterates her miserable truth. Near the end of his rage he wells up in tears. He confesses he only sought power over her and desired to humiliate her. He stuffs a five ruble note into her hand which she throws onto the table.
Common questions
When was Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky announced and published?
Fyodor Dostoevsky announced his new work in the journal Epoch during 1864. The text appeared as a serialized piece within that specific publication year.
Who is the narrator of Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky and what is his background?
Critics later identified this unnamed narrator as the Underground Man who lived in St. Petersburg and worked as a retired civil servant. He describes himself as suffering from ennui and inertia while stating that all his actions stem from boredom.
What philosophical ideas does the Underground Man attack in Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky?
The Underground Man attacks Nikolay Chernyshevsky's rational egoism which assumes economic well-being measures expediency. He ridicules enlightened self-interest as the foundation of Utopian society and argues that removing pain takes away human freedom.
How did English translators interpret the Russian word podpóllya in Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky?
English translators often chose underground when crawl space would be more accurate for the literal meaning of under fields. Chapter 11 describes listening to people like listening through a crack under the floor where rodents and bugs live.
What happens during the dinner party scene in Part two of Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky?
Friends fail to tell him the time changed from five to six so he arrives early and argues with four men about his hatred of society. They leave him to visit a secret brothel and he follows them to confront Zverkov regardless of being beaten.
All sources
15 references cited across the entry
- 1bookNotes From UndergroundFyodor Dostoevsky — W.W. Norton — 2001
- 2bookProblems of Dostoevsky's PoeticsMikhail Bakhtin — University of Minnesota Press — 1984
- 3bookNotes from UndergroundRobert Bird — William B. Eerdmans
- 4bookNarrative and FreedomGary Saul Morson — Yale University Press — 1994
- 6journalThe Case against Rational Egoism in Dostoevsky's Notes from UndergroundJames Scanlan — 1999
- 7bookNotes From UndergroundFyodor Dostoevsky — W.W. Norton — 1989
- 8bookBetting on Macau: Casino Capitalism and China's Consumer RevolutionTim Simpson — University of Minnesota Press — 2023
- 9bookThe Underground Man as Big Brother: Dostoevsky's and Orwell's Anti-UtopiaAdrian Wanner — Penn State University Press — 1997
- 10bookExistentialism From Dostoevsky to SartreWalter Kaufmann — Meridian Books — 1956
- 11bookProblems in Dostoevsky's PoeticsMikhail M. Bakhtin — Ardis — 1973
- 12bookThe Boundaries of Genre: Dostoevsky's Diary of a Writer and the Traditions of Literary UtopiaGary Morson — Northwestern University Press — 1981
- 13bookLectures on Russian literatureVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov — Picador — 1983
- 15bookInfinite ResignationEugene Thacker — Repeater Books — 2018