Underground Man Analysis

Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a psychologically charged novel in which the primary element that plagues the protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov, is not a person but rather an idea; his own idea. Raskolnikov has an unhealthy obsession with rendering himself into what he perceives as the ideal, supreme human being, an übermensch. Raskolnikov forms for himself a theory in which he will live purely according to his own will and transcend the social norms and moralities that dominate society. Raskolnikov suggests that acts commonly regarded as immoral are to be reserved for a certain rank of “extraordinary” men. Raskolnikov’s faith

One word that has come to represent the mid-18th century Enlightenment movement is “Reason”. The French philosophes believed that reason could provide critical, informed, scientific solutions to social issues and problems, and essentially improve the human condition. Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground is one of the most famous anti-Enlightenment novels for its rejection of these very notions. Through this novel he showed what he believed were gaps in the idea that the mind could be freed from ignorance through the application of reason, and the rejection of the idea that humankind could achieve a utopian existence as a result.

In the novel The Running Man, the author Michael Bauer highlights the experiences of three characters whose voices are misrepresented in the text. Tom Leyton has many dark secrets that he has kept hidden from everyone. Mrs Mossop’s painful childhood has also had an impact on her negative thoughts on Tom Leyton. Joseph Davidson is an introvert whose personal struggles impact on his self esteem and friendships at school. Techniques such as silkworm metaphor and motif represent their lives and how they play out during the novel,

made the reader assure himself that this man will be cast into the pit. The narrator's rescue

Poverty is an essential motif in Crime and Punishment that enables characters to expose their isolation from society. Raskolnikov demonstrates the true effect that poverty can have on an unemployed man in the 1860s. Razumikhin is seen as Raskolnikov’s foil character that reacts to his form of poverty in the opposite way of Raskolnikov towards society. The weight of being desperately pour effects Marmeledov to extensive lengths that ultimately ends in his death.

The narrator’s diction on the page can be described as vain due to the fact he doesn’t need an introduction when the narrator says it is “not really necessary” (4). The narrator’s diction reveals that he has a methodical, stone cold personality that puts the narrator in a more superior position then the human race. Achieving

The basis of any good short story is the ability to grab the reader’s attention and keep it. In order to do this, the narrator must be able to pull the reader into their experiences. Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King both analyze the narrator’s characterization and the first-person point of view in similar fashion. However, they both have different purposes and reliabilities when writing their short stories. The narrators of “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Man in the Black Suit” are similarly characterized, however “The Man in the Black Suit’s” difference of reliability results in a scarier tone.

The book’s main focus is on the gradual disillusionment of the narrator and his personal battles. In particular, the book develops the battle the narrator faces when he discovers the truth about the Brotherhood organization. He eventually realizes that they are using him for their own purposes and encouraged him to incite the blacks to a riotous level so they will kill one another. The narrator develops feelings of hopelessness when it becomes apparent that he is being betrayed by both white and black cultures. His overwhelming feeling of emptiness comes to a climax when he falls into a manhole during a riot. While hibernating in the underground black community, the narrator struggles to find meaning in his invisibility and to come up with his true identity. The seclusion allows the reader to realize the disillusionment of the narrator. Ellison does an incredible job of getting inside the narrator’s character and describing his emotional battle. At times it feels as if the text is purely his thoughts transcribed directly onto the page. The narrator traces back his history

The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright is full of symbols. The story is that of a man who after being accused of a murder starts living in underground sewers, in an attempt to escape the law. There are several themes in the story, however, underground life is a powerful major theme in it that has several meanings and implications in the context of the story. Underground can be seen as a potent symbol meaning an escape from the social institution and its bondage, as a relief from inequality and racial divisions, as solitude and self-discovery and many more similar things. Underground is also the stage for the most of the drama that takes place as a part of the story. However, underground also appears as a symbol of repulsion and revolt. Overall, the writer has used the symbol of underground to expose the corruption and chaos in the society in a brilliant manner.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky paints Underground man as someone who is tortured in his novel Notes From Underground. Despite everything that Underground man says he is lost and has no sense of his identity. When the character of Liza is introduced the reader gains some hope that the Underground man can find love. Although Underground man ultimately pushes Liza away, he really loved her through his own idea of love. Underground man shows this love for her through his first conversation with Liza, his trying to save Liza, and, ironically, through his cruelty towards Liza.

my capacity for life” (Dostoyevsky, 19) By using himself as an example, and describing reason as only “one twentieth” of a person’s capabilities of life, the Underground Man emphasized the small role that reason plays.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel, Notes from the Underground Man, uses the idea of a modern dystopia by depicting a story that revolves around a distressed older man. Throughout the novel, the main character has a narcissistic belief that he is better than everyone else because of his acute sense of consciousness. His awareness however, also causes him to believe not only are people ignorant to the world around him but that they are also against him. In contrast, critics believe that the main character, the underground man, actually suffers from psychological disorders that causes him to reason this way. Psychological disorders are defined as a wide range of conditions that can affect mood, behavior and thinking, and based on his conduct in the novel, the underground man presents himself as an individual who is subjected to obsessive compulsive behavior, social repression and paranoia.

From declaring he wanted to become a Napoleon to wishing for financial independence to murdering for his own sake, he rattles off various motives, showing his obsessive rationalization (394-397). By presenting his conflicting intentions, Dostoevsky exhibits the chaos within Raskolnikov’s mind.

Firstly, the book presents the underground man as an enlightened individual based on his ability to shrink away from societal norms. His self ostracization from his community allows him to overanalyze his every thought and actions. This enables him to form his opinion about free will. During his time, an emphasis is placed upon science and reason. As a symbol of this progress within society, the crystal palace was then given meaning of the ideal utopia. A place where civilization and mankind can accomplish anything once it has found all the laws of nature that influence human behaviour. The underground man argues, “What sort of will of one’s own can there be if it comes to tables and arithmetic, and the only thing going is two times two is

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment offers much social commentary. The novel is brimming with architectural imagery, including mentions of stairs and doors. Dostoevsky’s use of architectural imagery seems to comment on the morality of characters in the novel and in extension, the morality that exists within society, as well as the idea of an extraordinary man.