27540632

Nihilism and "Notes from Underground" Author(s): Joseph Frank Source: The Sewanee Review, Vol. 69, No.
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NIHILISM AND NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

By JOSEPH FRANK
among other vagaries were also to have the notion that // philosophy it could occur to a man to act in accordance with its teaching, one might make out of that a queer comedy. Kierkegaard, FEW more works often The in modern cited literature Fear are more Notes man" and Trembling. widely read or
than Dostoevsky's
ground. designation "underground and of the modern the vocabulary educated consciousness, Don has now begun?like Don Quixote, this character Hamlet, on one stature the symbolic take of the of Juan and Faust?to on or the book No creations. essay great literary archetypal some al without culture would situation of modern be complete into lusion ment to Dostoevsky's of the past figure. Every important cultural develop
from Under has entered
Expressionism, man as its own 5 and when the underground claimed as a prophetic he has been been adopted anticipation, exhibition as a luridly Notes repulsive warning.
half-century?Nietzscheanism, Crisis Theology, Surrealism,
Freudianism, Existentialism?has he held has up not to
Indeed, been discussed single but
seem to have from Underground by now would one conceivable from every point of view?with is the point of For this exception exception. important
2 view drop erudite the
NOTES of Dostoevsky of a hat?amid irrelevancies "cultural
FROM
UNDERGROUND Critics are ready to expatiate at the smokescreen of suffocating
himself. an
vast
Meanwhile, has gotten
pseudo-profundities?on of Notes from Underground. significance" little work the real point of Dostoevsky's fascinating lost in the shuffle. completely
increasingly and melodramatic
What
that Notes
was Dostoevsky
from
himself trying to do? Everyone

was originally begun
knows
Underground
as a polemic
inspired by Dostoevsky's opposition to the Socialist radicals of his time (popularly called Nihilists as a result of the label affixed to
them man in Turgenev's for the Russian Fathers and Sons). The outstanding spokes was Nicolai G. at this moment radicals
Chernyshevsky, whose Utopian
novel What
Is To Be Done?
a sensation. to What
had
in the spring of 1863 and had caused appeared as an answer was intended from Underground Done} runs y and as follows. the accepted account of the
Notes Is To Be them
relation
between
that man was innately and the radicals believed Chernyshevsky as to his once to reason, and that, enlightened good and amenable reason and science would true interests, enable him to ultimately construct lieved structive on Dostoevsky, society. perfect that man was irrational, evil, innately a ; not reason but only was faith in Christ the hand, be and de capricious could ever succeed other re
in helping him to master the chaos of his impulses. This view of

Notes from Underground first advanced by the Russian
ligious philosopher V. V. Rozanov in his brilliant study, The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor (1890). And regardless of the
explanations this Weltanschauung, differing has continued to reign
needs aThis assertion only one critic who has in his interesting article Slavia, VIII (1929-1930). periodical (though
offered
for
the
interpretation unchallenged
of Dostoevsky's genesis of Notes from Underground ever since.1
come across I have but not very much. some qualification, is A. Skaftymov This in toto. version the Rozanov reiected amidst Dostoevsky's "Notes Journalism," from Underground in a Czech but published in Russian This article, written contains in the Soviet Union) is still alive and active Skaftymov
JOSEPH Despite the hegemony not it has
FRANK Rozanov's
enjoyed,
however,
theory is at best only a beguiling

Rozanov toevsky's was art primarily enlisting but with the
and misleading
with
half-truth.
Dos of the
concerned
interpreting name awe-inspiring
novelist on the side of his religious philosophy;
and he unduly
one pole of the actual dialectic of the work, bringing emphasizes a as the entire meaning of the whole with it to the foreground for context. Worst of all, he sees the under total disregard was of what Dostoevsky ground man only as the simple negative attacking?the against If purposive this irrational social against activity. were just true, then we about the worst could only conclude in all of reason, evil and moral chaos
interpretation was that Dostoevsky
polemicist
literary history. Could Dostoevsky really have imagined that any reader in his right mind would prefer the world of the under
ground man as an alternative Utopia? Hardly! or as maladroit Dostoevsky as admirers like Rozanov?though to Chernyshevsky's was by no means idyllic Socialist as simple-minded certainly with
out fully realizing it themselves?would make him out to be. In reality his attack on Chernyshevsky and the Nihilists is a good
deal more been given subtle insidious, credit for. and effective than Dostoevsky a ever has
V. L. Komarovich with Beginning in detail Russian critics have explored
1924, the relation
in
number Notes
of
between
from Underground
that whole attempt Nevsky of
and What
Is To Be Done?
novella?for to bump encounter
of
It is now clear
the the
sections of Dostoevsky's man the underground or the famous Prospect,

but
example, into an officer on with

the text
the
prostitute
acute many the level of
stays too close to Skaftymov's analysis general remarks; and is quite disappointing. individual psychology to note, It is amusing that Rozanov's stand incidentally, point of view has become name ard in the Soviet Union. with is never mentioned Rozanov's by Soviet writers out an appropriate is the mildest), but his uncomplimentary ("obscurantist" epithet has become The only difference definitive. is that from Underground reading of Notes Rozanov the theologian of "evil of Dostoevsky's view approves heartily supposed and irrational human the Soviet Russians while it as a product of nature"; reject and line up with Chernyshevsky's decadence" "bourgeois "optimism."
4 Lisa?were
NOTES conceived book.
FROM
UNDERGROUND as parodies uncovering of of
entirely The
in Chernyshevsky's
episodes specific these parodies pro never
vided the first real glimpse

artistry} but the Russian
into the inner logic of Dostoevsky's

critics themselves have pressed
their own insights home with sufficient rigor. What

failed not to realize is that Notes from Underground conceived and episodes?was only certain details as one satirical magnificent parody. This Nihilism does not parody, however, and setting up a competing Rather, since parody and
they have
executed
as a whole?
in rejecting merely nature" version of "human by imitation, Dostoev
consist
in its place.
is ridicule
sky assimilates the major doctrines of Russian Nihilism into the life of his underground man 5 and by revealing the hopeless di
lemmas undermine in which these man he lands doctrines does not as a result, from within. as intends Dostoevsky The of tragedy to the be of in
underground cause of his rejection all the implications carnation?and
is popularly arise, supposed, It derives from his acceptance of reason. of "reason" in its then-current Russian those implications which the
particularly
advo
cates of reason like Chernyshevsky

or deny.
blithely preferred to overlook
Dostoevsky
himself clearly pointed to his use of parody in the

title of his novella. he writes, as the "Both the author themselves," such persons "are, of course, author of such
to the footnote appended and the Notes of the Notes fictitious. memoirs into Nevertheless, not only may, the
consideration society. more
if we take but must, exist in our society, led to the formation circumstances which intention than reading one is usually of the done, of is one of the representatives here is obviously Dostoevsky not?as society, ("our") society of nineteenth-century to bring before our
of our
It was my
public, characters
conspicuously of our recent past. He a generation that is still with us." of Russian about the formation talking often been claimed?about the
has
JOSEPH Western Europe or of "modern could expect all
FRANK culture." his readers of Western time of Peter the And Russian
society, had been
as Dostoevsky formed streamed underground evolution emplifies
to know, influence
by the successive into Russia man in himself the
accretions since the and
that had The of this ex
the Great. latest phases
embodies -, he
reflects
serio-comic
whose is a parodistic life persona process. impasse of this historical
Only
we
if we approach Notes
Dostoevsky's The work the underground corresponds
from Underground
choice consists of subject-matter of two tableaux each
in this way can

and method selected from
understand
of organization. the more life of
man?but
importantly,
to a different
also, and episode and very crucial
moment
in the spiritual history of the Russian intelligentsia. The first section shows the underground man in the ideological grip of the Nihilism of the Sixties , the second, as a perfect product of
the social Romanticism thus reveals the differing of the Forties. manner on Each section of the work of of the the to in which the personality the dominant ideology
educated moment?had live
Russian?depending been disorganized doctrines of to alien construction
according
and disrupted and ideals. which
by the attempt This reverses also explains
the peculiar was
the work,
chronologi
cal sequence and proceeds backward in time. The Nihilism

Sixties uppermost in the consciousness of
of the
Dostoevsky's
for the story. the immediate and had provided inspiration readers, a man was not primarily individual Since the underground private but order sacrifices type, Dostoevsky and development of inner growth as possible from the very cal timeliness Notes from Underground, not then, a social the natural to obtain first page. of a biographical as much polemi
is not
the self-revelation
personality, pathological evils of "human nature," sky's involuntary
adoption
over the a theological cry of despair a Dostoev work least of all expressing of "im of Nietzsche's philosophy
6 moralism" liantly and ironic
NOTES the will Swiftian control we must
FROM
UNDERGROUND
to power.2 On the contrary, it is a bril for its self-conscious remarkable parody and Machiavellian set the work back the finesse. in the to prove context from But of co
mastery, this contention which
satirical
it came, and endeavor on which Dostoevsky ordinates
to supply depended
framework his
to obtain
effects.
II.
The us an famous
The Dialectic
tirade of
of Determinism
opening
picture unforgettable "funk-hole" his Petersburg his character?or rather, his
from Underground gives man in the underground stewing over the peculiarities of and mulling total inability to become a character.
of Notes
Nothing
could be more
abject, petty and ridiculous than the
to be treated for a liver refuses of his life. He image he gives an out of "spite"; made in his ailment he remembers attempt an was to he in browbeat officer when still the civil service, youth, for no reason of his honesty, other and than then, the assertion when he he boasts of petty vanity; how "contemptible" realizes
such boasting is, he deliberately

even more The in the eyes underground a chaos of conflicting defined himself. says, man, feels as that "I did man,
lets it stand to degrade himself

to be nothing more than and his conflict may be character?his quest for
of the reader. seems indeed, emotional impulses; for his know own how even
of a search not
or good, either "either spiteful At either a hero or an insect." most conscious also "guilty of "the of sublime the most
he to become anything," or an honest a blackguard he when the very moment and he tells which?
us, he was
the beautiful," actions contemptible

as
in Notes reflected "Nietzscheanism" from so-called (especially dostoevsky's book by Leo Shestov, has been the subject of an influential Dostoevsky Underground) a and thinker Shestov is The Philosophy and Nietzsche, powerful of Tragedy (1903]. or rejects whatever critic who but an extremely neglects literary irresponsible writer, tosses he simply As a consequence does not iibe with his opinions. aspect of a writer as "hypocritical." out Dostoevsky's Christianity and of Shestov's book have had a wide and German translations circulation, French a eood deal of confusion of Dostoevsky's the real meaning work. about have caused on the ideas does not depend value of Shestov's I might add that the philosophical about Nietzsche. for that matter about Dostoevsky?or of his views accuracy
JOSEPH
FRANK
well, which,
in fact, everybody is guilty of, but which, as though
on purpose, to commit when con I only happened I was most scious that they ought not to be committed." he asks plain Why,
tively, should this be so?

The answer or to this question "psychopathic" But the has "abnormal" been sought invariably trait of the underground in some man,
which is then usually traced to the hidden recesses of Dostoevsky's

psychology. a vides perfectly he happened," normal a sort and ... and of inertia own plausible assures us, which you make man's pro underground monologue answer to his question. "Whatever
fundamental
with the in accordance "happened and by laws of intensified consciousness is a direct those of consequence laws, not only not to." man change yourself, but you in other
therefore couldn't attributes
could any
simply
attempt
words, determinism.
to his The
underground
Dostoevsky, a belief remarks
"well-educated
man, underground not to be enough superstitious," laws of intensified
who
in scientific that he is well up
is quite and he
on the most enlightened opinion of his time; he knows all about

science and the consciousness; accepts
the fact that whatever

cause
he does is inevitable and unalterable be
it is totally determined by the laws of nature. man of the underground thus springs di The moral impotence one cornerstones from his the of Cherny of of acceptance rectly This determinism. aspect of Cherny shevsky's thought?absolute
shevsky's philosophy
To Be Done} ; and himself Chernyshevsky
is mentioned
the behavior
only incidentally inWhat

of some of forced the characters?as to concede?can
Is
is embarrassedly
in his re hardly be reconciled with this doctrine. Nonetheless, sounding article on The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy (1860), which was equally if not more famous than his novel, Chernyshevsky had flatly denied the existence of anything re
free will?or, for that matter, any kind of will. motely resembling to Chernyshevsky, is "only the subjective An act of will, according our minds the in rise of thoughts which accompanies impression
8 or actions from
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND actions or external facts."
preceding
thoughts,
Dostoevsky
underground
thus begins his parody of Nihilism

man use Chernyshevsky's philosophy and
by having
the
as an excuse
for his moral flaccidity. Under

sky's moral
the magic wand of Chernyshev

consequentially!, all
determinism, if taken seriously action has become impossible. demoralization situation. he wishes to The of his
With
wildered dented that
skillful dialectical ingenuity, Dostoevsky

character man, before for underground someone
displays the be
this unprece imagines for having instance,
forgive
magnanimously "For I should most
slapped him in the face; but the more he thinks about it, the more
impossible not have such an action known what becomes. to do with who would certainly to my magnanimity?neither face would have slapped my to the laws of nature; nor
since forgive, most probably the Or give same." suppose
the man have done
it in obedience
to forget, since though even if it is the law of nature, it hurts all

he wishes but to act the other to take way round?not How can to for one take
magnanimously
revenge. reasons
revenge when nobody is to blame for anything? "One look and

the object disappears into thin air, your of toothache evaporate, no one "the there is
no guilty man,
something blamed." the all That
the injury is no longer an injury but just fate,

for which can be is why, man says, as the underground result of consciousness the legitimate direct, is to make
in the nature
inevitable action
and
impossible."
matter
of revenge?then the "laws
on the is taken?say if any action Or, be out of spite." "it would merely Spite of nature" make other
is not a valid cause for any kind of action, but it is the only one
left when
mate.
any
response the
illegiti under
In
such
ground with unrivalled member of
vacuum created the moral passages, determinism of scientific man's acceptance psychological the intelligentsia, acumen. reason
by
But while, forces him
is expressed as a well-trained to accept de
JOSEPH
FRANK
terminism, it is impossible for him humanly to live with

clusions. writes as As a result of "you any the laws of intensified sardonically, it were though are quite consolation Or,
its con
he consciousness, a in right being blackguard, to the blackguard that he the slap in the face, it
actually
is a blackguard." it hurts reaction?a of anger all
as regards Both these
is impossible to forget because "though even if it is the law of

nature, human upsurge all the same." moral at the comments a pose a total revulsion insult of being at being an blackguard, a scien slapped?against tells the under
tific rationale that dissolves

possibility man ground totally dignity manage It are of a human that
all human responsibility and thus

"Reason"
response.
irrational not
or even are of guilt of indignation feelings but conscience and a sense of and unjustified; for mankind?and they "reasonable"?happily themselves of all the same. level of the person so-called the moral-emotive
to assert is this
assertion
ality, striving to keep alive its significance in the face of the laws
of nature, "masochism." that is expressed He confesses, by the underground in a much-commented man's passage:
I felt a sort of secret, abnormal, contemptible on coming home on one of the foulest nights some used action that day dastardly to go on nagging myself, damnable sweetness, I was . . . and
delight when, in Petersburg, secretly, accusing I
I used to realize intensely that again I had been guilty of

inwardly, myself,
myself,
shameful,
till at last the bitterness I felt turned into a sort of Yes, into delight! . . . The
so intensely and finally, into real positive
worrying
delight!
was there degradation. Whatever
feeling of delight
aware of my own
just because
a passage of this kind may reveal about Dostoevsky's to the trained clinical of Notes eye, in the context psyche from not it to does refer to the under but Underground Dostoevsky ground man; and it has a specific dramatic function. The am
10
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
biguous emotive laws
"delight"
response It signifies to abdicate his refusal his conscience of nature. even and submit to reason as his silently determinism, though sures him that there is he can really do to change for the nothing man better. The "masochism" of the underground thus has a reverse significance from that usually attributed to it. Instead
man arises from the moral of the underground to the blank nullity of his human nature of the
of being a sign of pathological abnormality, it is in reality an indi

of the underground of his moral preservation cation man's sense. paradoxical spiritual health?his
///.
is only from tion of the normal It ground he argues This man's all
The Man
of Action
with its deceptive that we can grasp interlocutor transvalua the under with whom
this perspective, moral horizon, to the
relation
through a follower is obviously interlocutor et de de la nature of action, I}homme as we man, a mechanical man see, accents product knows what his of
imaginary the first part of Notes
from Underground. a man of Chernyshevsky, la v?rit? ^ and the under
ground simply
that all human life is theory But the the laws of nature. of action does not?that
underground this theory makes less. heart," "I
the man
all moral
action with man. the
puting normal The
envy such a man says the underground But perhaps that. man,
or at least meaning impossible, all the forces of my embittered "He normal is stupid?I man should am not dis be
for example,
the man
of revenge, "goes feeling He horns." with lowered as the basis ioned for his action,
straight does not i.e.,
stupid." of action, inspired by a to his goal, like a mad bull, that what he thinks of realize a ludicrously by the laws old-fash
of nature. and unscientific prejudice that allows him to maintain his compla is only his stupidity man's with un cency, and to look on the underground squirmings men action in of Or the contempt. conversely, "capitulate feigned It all sincerity" before the "stone wall" of scientific determinism and
is justice, eliminated
JOSEPH the laws of nature, which exert
FRANK "a sort of calming action not influence
11
upon
them, a sort of final and morally

even
decisive influence and perhaps

do not simply them to be allow
a mystic one." The of plain men that scientific determinism understand does "morally a smug with behaving Very decisive" about anything; of being and they
awareness
up-to-date, of the
accept its conclusions while they go on
ignominious underground knows who what the "stone wall" man, only really as a can a means nurse resent consequence, and, only despicable ment that he cannot But the justly discharge against anybody. cannot his with well-known man, underground "masochism," help as some sort were of human free still response pos if behaving too well sible left, can." and meaningful?"consequently your head namely, knocking "Is it not much man, better "to be aware there is only one solution as hard as you the wall cries the everything," to be conscious of
exactly different
as in the past. is the response
against to understand
underground
of everything,
all the impossibilities and stone walls? Not to be reconciled to any of those impossibilities or stone walls if you hate being reconciled
to them? nations To reach the most irrefutable by way of the most on the eternal hideous conclusions own fault that is a stone wall, not it is your fault at all, if there to doing nothing, logical theme combi that it
is somehow
your clear it is abundantly to abandon yourself at first
though again and therefore and silently
sensuously
and impotently gnashing your teeth?"

man the paradoxes of the underground to reach a paroxysm of psychopathic but appear self-accusation; once we understand the logic of Dostoevsky's it is quite creation, Here, sight,
clear that nobody in the world

the underground all other moral with man. He
can be guilty of anything except

that been the has abolished idea of guilt, along the laws of by the same.
knows
notions, in having moral nature; yet he persists else for him And since there is nowhere
responses just to assign moral
responsi
bility, by the most

for everything.
irrefutable logic he and he alone is to blame
12
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
The portrait of the underground man we have been tracing is developed up through Chapter VI of the first part of Notes from
Underground. imaginative determinism of Chernyshevsky's by the underground It is only his moral-emotive but its instincts. son, rejection by the complex that we can grasp from this point of view, indeed, of the under of Dostoevsky's creation. The self-mockery raillery ground usually man, been he uses the disgusted pejoratives but as we have taken literally; such In the entirely reading same way, the continual is intended to convey a literal about seen misses have himself, case of in the .And, as we have tried to show, dramatization of a double movement: it is based on an the acceptance rea man's
"masochism," meaning. underground irony.
Dostoevsky's of the self-derision tragi-comic
man
a consummate
The underground man becomes what he is because his life is

the reductio and ad absurdum of action; obtuseness portray whole Only where at all; the more repulsive self-confident man of the man the metaphysics this he portrays and hideous Far from wishing judge. as the embodiment of evil, of life
(and himself)
of
as being, the more he underlines

his
the incredible
to the
the underground of Notes purpose in a world there
is quite the opposite. from Underground a difference, can make choice human where only is is no absolute any morality determinism, possible adroitly necessary defends man's the underground for any morality precondition
and Dostoevsky as the "capriciousness" whatsoever.
Beginning
Dostoevsky been aiming formulation; on the one Palace.
The Crystal Palace with Chapter VII of Notes from Underground, IV.
shifts his target of attack. Up at Chernyshevsky's but now he turns metaphysics to his ethics to this point he has in its most general of "rational egoism"
to the ideal of the Crystal hand, and, on the other, use of the same are these doctrines Both by the exploded
JOSEPH that Dostoevsky strategy as it were, of projection wishes strates ment to attack has already has into
FRANK
13
already employed?his the absolute. Dostoevsky, its goal; and
technique, that is,
places himself imaginatively at the position where the doctrine he

achieved then he demon of this achieve the moral-psychological incompatibility some aspect of the nature of man?in meant realism and
with
this case, man's
need to feel spiritually free and morally

what Dostoevsky of his work?a of the median "fantastic In
responsible.
This
is
when he spoke of the "fantastic realism" rather than and the extreme of the possible use of this the actual; and his first large-scale occurs of this in Notes Underground. man waxes the section, underground human the regeneration of the whole of its own advantages." But what from
realism"
part over the "theory of merry race by means of the system
the first
is man's
average formulas"?
true advantage? Can it only be found by "taking the

of statistical on scientific and economic figures and relying "That's the trouble, says the under gentlemen," there "that which exists something commiseratingly, every man than or (not to his greatest good, one most valu that there exists
ground man to almost is dearer
upset the logic of my argument) able good too, that (the one, the one we are talking namely, desirable if need honor, things, good The than be, peace, which tone all other goods, is ready to challenge
is being overlooked, constantly which is and more greater about) and all all for the sake of which a man, law, that is to say, reason, and useful those excellent
short, prosperity?in can he obtain that provided is dearer and to him
language a parody is clearly of some of the more precision, philosophical Even more in The Anthropological laborious passages Principle. "one to is understand however, why Dostoevsky's important, valuable honor, good" peace, ethics is placed in such opposition immitigable ultimate etc. The goal was the creation
desirable and most primary than anything in the world." of its pretense of this passage, with
most
to of of
"reason,
Chernyshevsky's
prosperity," of "rational
egoism"
14 a sanctified
NOTES
FROM out
UNDERGROUND of sheer rational calculations of
humanity
which,
self-interest, had lost the very possibility of doing evil.

"rational egoist," according to Chernyshevsky, than a clever man "may
A true
say to him even if
self:
able
I will be wicked, I will do people harm; but he will not be

to do that any more can be a fool
he wanted to be one." Not Dostoevsky

posed choose the alternative: between either moral and evil, good And the answer himself free
but Chernyshevsky
i.e., with the all freedom
had
to
freedom, or "reason" the
its material man is that is pre to
advantages. man's need cisely and the
of
to feel "one
underground autonomous and morally for which he
most
valuable
good" that
is ready
sacrifice all the others. To obtain this "good" he will "deliberately

consciously desire stupid, outrageously something just because only what unreasonable is injurious, to have he wants even stupid, to the right at all events, be, "it pre to us, namely,
desire for himself even what

an obligation by however stupid serves what our personality The to desire and
is very stupid and not to be bound

is sensible." this "good" For may
is most
precious and our individuality."
and most
important
of "rational man's rejection underground ideal its ultimate the way for his reaction against
paves egoism" in the future?
In this future Utopia, de the world of the Crystal Palace. all the laws of nature govern scribed inWhat Is To Be Donef
ing society will have been discovered. Here Dostoevsky are now is no
longer dramatizing
purely deterministic
the moral-psychological
world; the laws of nature
impossibility of a
seen in
the light of their future triumphs, which will guide man's way
was Palace The material to overwhelming Crystal prosperity. as all Chernyshevsky's readers knew, on the Fourierist modelled,
phalanstery;
details only of life
and Fourier had calculated and combined all the

with The a precision phalanstery, that was not as Emile
in the phalanstery but maniacal. mathematical
in available Palace is now conveniently of the Crystal description 'Chemyshevsky's with and selections edited in a new of Notes edition from Underground, English E. Matlaw of relevant material translations i960). Paperbacks, (Dutton by Ralph
JOSEPH Faguet
reau."
FRANK "c'est l'Arcadie d'un chef de
15 bu
once
pithily
remarked,
The triumph of the Crystal Palace presupposes that science will

have table fare. taught man to being a regret in addition free-will, to his wel hindrance error, was also a positive speculative nor For that man science proves neither will "possesses that his
and never has done, and ... he himself is nothing more caprices, or organ-stop." than a sort of piano-key it might be (Fourier, as the laws and mentioned, spoke of the phalanstery embodying
principles of "harmony." His

in What whose a famous Is To notes Socialist Be Done}* could treatise
chief disciple, Victor Consid?rant,

mentioned human in anagrammatically a to "clavier" passions hence Dostoev that man the under is?a even crea if you is
compared
be blended The
into such harmony: trouble I'm even is, however, inclined,"
sky's musical "phenomenally
imagery.) ungrateful.
ground man, "to believe on two ture who walks
that the best definition legs and is ungrateful."
says of man For
"shower all the earthly blessings upon him, drown him in hap
piness, the head over ears, so that such only bubbles should be visible upon him on as surface, or bestow economic prosperity . . . even a dirty
would leave him with nothing to do but sleep, eat cakes, and only
about keeping world worry history man will, out of sheer ingratitude going . . . play then he will, trick on you."
This "dirty trick" is precisely that he will throw everything over

set his heart on the most uneconomic and positively board, will to himself "for the sole purpose of proving harmful nonsense, are men were so necessary) that that still men and (as though not keys on a piano." this point, the underground chaos which universal duplicates, chaos of the underground
Sociale a lively
At
man
rises
to a climactic
vision level,
Fourier
of the
on the life
This
socio-historical
man's
in the earlier
chapters.
And
and
?La Destin?e him expounded
(1834-1838). style, was more
work, read widely
which systematized than Fourier himself.
16 in both
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND is the same?the in which For revolt of the
cases,
the cause of this chaos the vision further
personality free-will
against have no
of a world
reason
for being.
and personality even if such a
world could really be created,

even if he even but a piano-key, really were nothing to him by natural science and mathe proved even then he would to come to his senses. refuse [man] he will devise all he will plan destruction remedy, ... sorts of sufferings. If you calculated by the mathematical and curses?so that the mere
if this were matically, . . .And and say
if he has no other
possibility of calculating it all before hand would

and of reason would and triumph his in the end?well, reason
chaos, that this, too, can be and darkness, table?chaos,
stop it all
to
if that were
happen man would go purposely mad in order to rid himself

carry point.
inNotes at first sight, seems more Nothing from Underground, than this invocation to the gods of darkness? daring and shocking to not surprisingly, all destruction, chaos, and madness. And, of have same taken it with the interpreters Dostoevsky invariably literalness with which man's "maso they took the underground chism" and "immorality." nor None have paid the slightest in the attention
to the hypothetical
cast these assertions, the senseless
and conditional form in which Dostoevsky

have they seen them light of his
projection of the future ideal of the Crystal Palace.

however, and self-destructive as a last-ditch way revolt of envisaged by Dostoevsky only stances where man has no other of his personality. clear abundantly as he man
In fact,
freedom in circum is
Indeed, that his frenetic exists
defense, of preserving the autonomy man himself the underground makes
actually as he might be ever were ierist Utopia in the name of curses,
does not refer to man harangue in ordinary to "irrational" it applies life; to become if Chernyshevsky's Four forced realized. and For after darkness declaiming lividly man the underground
chaos,
JOSEPH
FRANK
17
returns to reality for a moment and adds:

that to resist the temptation to rejoice that
"And how is one after

all this has not hap
pened yet and that so far desire depends on the devil alone knows
what."
Once having envisaged the completion of the Crystal Palace,

however, that create such and the underground an ideal was clear man continues, in Chapter wanted. IX, "Man to ques likes to
tion the confidence of Chernyshevsky

what man really
and the Socialist radicals
the underground is undeniable," paths?that man wishes man to accomplish and socially useful pro agrees -y man denies that man wishes labor. But the underground ductive to achieve the static secular Apocalypse will have of the Crystal Palace, man to
reach the literal end of history when all further striving, moral
struggle, and inner conflict ceased. Perhaps "is
instinctively afraid of reaching the goal and completing the build . . .Perhaps he only loves building it and not ing he is erecting? aux animaux domestiques living in it, preferring to leave it later
such as ants, ?the maux need ant-hill." sheep, etc., etc., ideal . . . They [ants] have one marvel
lous building of this kind, a building that is forever indestructible

The of the "ant-hill" have all is suitable no they inkling desire aux ani exactly domestiques to feel creative and they free?because because of man's is to com
reason and the laws plete their appointed tasks in conformity with
of nature through all eternity.
was a comparison of the Socialist ideal to an "ant-hill" use commonplace in the Russian journalism of the period, but the of such an image here as a symbol for the secular end of history "If humanity very probably derives from Alexander Herzen. This
went straight to some goal," Herzen wrote in From the Other
Shore (1855),
would stop the animals
"there would be no history, only logic; humanity

status quo form, in a spontaneous if the libretto existed, history would like lose
in some finished . . . Besides,
all interest, it would become futile, boring, ridiculous."

Herzen's works, Dostoevsky publicly expressed special
Of all
admiration 2
18
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
for From
accidental.
the Other Shore;* and the similarity is too great to be

Now Herzen, more than any other single individual,
was responsible for the propagation of Socialist ideas in Russia; but he never accepted the Nihilist scientism and determinism of
the Sixties. Like Dostoevsky and no member succumbed Dostoevsky himself, Herzen was a member of
the generation of the Forties which had been nurtured on Schell

ing and Hegel; ever politics, materialism. of completely here this generation, to the lure regardless of mechanical to argue of
is thus using
the Forties
against the Sixties, as he was to do later again in The Devils And this interplay between the generations, as we (1871-1872). shall see, is of first importance for understanding the meaning of
Notes The from Underground ultimate argument as a whole. of the underground man against the
Crystal Palace is that it outlaws suffering. "In the Crystal Palace it is unthinkable; suffering is doubt, it is negation, and what sort of Crystal Palace would it be if one were to have any doubts about
it? And yet I am convinced that man will never renounce real
suffering, that is to say, destruction and chaos.

it's the sole cause of consciousness!" Within
Suffering! Why
the ideological man's con
text of Notes
same function
from Underground,
as "masochism"
"suffering"
clearly has the

in
or as the underground
verted irony.
sciousness"
It is the only way left of keeping alive his "con

being,
indi his personality, of asserting to the and moral in returning And viduality prob responsibility. at this point?the IX? lem of "consciousness" end of Chapter
as a human
Dostoevsky
tion with pears
rade.
brings his demolition of the Crystal Palace into rela

his earlier chapters, the underground the unity of what establishing man's and disorderly spasmodic
one of his works I praised article "Old Acquaintances" in the summer took place
to be
ap ti
with the late Herzen, chatting 5"0nce, From See Dostoevsky's the Other Shore" It ls likely this conversation 1873. Writer, in London. visited Herzen Dostoevsky
to the skies? in Diary of a of 1862, when
JOSEPH
FRANK
19
V.
In Chapter ground, rather, suddenly self-torture amply X,
The Palatial Hencoop

section of Notes note from being Under struck, or of a new remained
the penultimate aware the reader becomes had hitherto all
of a note which ringing and
out above suffering Still,
the others.
of the underground the underground
Up man man's
in the background to this point, the had been made sacrilegious as
evident.
sertion that he had found "delight" in his suffering, and the sar castic satisfaction with which he flaunts this "delight" before the
horrified eyes the of his But interlocutor, somewhat his anguish. unbearable Torn his in Chapter situation of the and not that the X, we become the underground of his our sense of mitigates aware of how literally man is. really and the revolt of
between
convictions
reason
conscience I have
"Surely the conclusion Can this be man
man cries out: the underground feelings, been made for the sole purpose of drawing I am made the way is a piece of rank deceit?
I don't believe under it." The sole purpose? some to his rack is solution for searching ground desperately re and he makes very clear that the underground ing dilemma; means no volt of the personality, it may be, is by valuable though a positive answer. the Crystal Palace myself "I rejected to stick out one's not be allowed sole reason that one would at it" (again a self-mocking out my I should and derisive . . .On image for for the
tongue the revolt of
moral
of
freedom).
"But I did not say that because I am so fond

tongue. have the contrary, to stick it out I'd gladly at all." have
sticking that
let my tongue be cut off out of gratitude if things could be so ar

ranged no wish leaves us in no doubt that Dostoevsky all ideals, is desperately far from rejecting the underground man, one that for searching
would
not
truly satisfy the needs of his spirit.

to revolt in rabid
Such an ideal would

on the contrary,
spur his personality alternative ideal
frenzy;
it would
This
lead to the willing

obviously
surrender of himself
could only
in its favor.
recog
be one which,
20
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
nizing the autonomy of the will and the freedom of the person
ality, appealed and self-interest Dostoevsky's we to the moral nature of man instead of to "reason" a letter of in the service know of determinism. X originally From
that Chapter
contained
some
clear indication that this alternative ideal was that of Christ; but this part of the text was mangled both by the censors and by the
carelessness "I of the proof readers. am not at all about my happy "there better are not terrible article," Dostoevsky wrote
after the publication of the first part of Notes

ground; have been
from Under
and it would errors, proofreading to publish the penultimate chapter (the most twisted swine sentences the censors
important, where the very idea of the whole article is expressed)

rather than to publish it this way, that is, with and contradictions. But what can one do? What
I derided everything, and sometimes blasphemed for appearance, they let it get by, but when from all this I de duced the necessity of belief in Christ, they cut it out. Why, are are! Where
the the government?" perhaps against conspiring some of these we corrected may assume, Dostoevsky, censors errors
when he revised the magazine text for publication in book form; but while the alternative ideal to the Crystal Palace is clearly
some confusion in the final still remains indicated, enough in Chapter X, the underground arises when, This confusion to structure to another the Palace compare Crystal begins would "You be a "real" see" he palace says, "if instead of a hencoop. it [the Crystal Palace] were not text. man that
a pal
ace but a hencoop, and if it should rain, I might crawl into it to avoid getting wet, but I would never pretend that the hencoop
me from the rain. to it for sheltering out of gratitude me even a hen that in circumstances and tell such You you laugh I reply, is if the it certainly coop is as good as a palace. Yes, not not to of It is the wet." usefulness in life is get only purpose was a palace but the that is impugned the hencoop man, by the underground a return in for its that for fact that it is mistaken i.e., palace,
JOSEPH
FRANK
21
practical advantages
But the underground that
it has been elevated

man refuses
into mankind's
the
ideal.
to accept is not the
palace as his ideal. "But what is to be done if I've got it into my

head that [i.e., can not to get wet] the only purpose of
hencoop-qua
life, and that if one has to live, one had better live in a palace?"
Here, against fusion man a "true" poses underground the "false" and this is the point at which the con palace; occurs. man For the underground com this develops as follows: "For the time being," he says, "... I re see, a hencoop it because for a palace. of my own The Crystal Palace may of be as we
parison fuse to accept have
just an idle dream, itmay be against all the laws of nature, I may
invented stupidity, because certain
old and irrational habits of my generation. But what do I care whether it is against the laws of nature? What does itmatter so
long as it exists in my desires, or rather exists while my desires
exist?" Now
"Crystal everything latter This
it is obvious that something

mentioned for in this it has stood "Crystal desires man's throughout Palace" is a structure
is wrong
here:
the
of
Palace"
is the opposite passage the rest of the text. that exists
against
the laws of nature instead of being their embodiment;

answer the to man's and not underground allusion their suppression. to "certain old
it is an
Moreover, and irrational
habits of my generation" reminds us that he is a member of the

of the Forties. This paves the way for part two of the generation indicates and also that the Forties work, Dostoevsky's recognition ?whatever else this era may have been guilty of from his point
of view?still
portance of
believed in the existence of the will and in the im

In any case, it is clear that the refers to the "true" palace which that Dostoevsky the same allows cannot help but baffle the
"Crystal but the fact is not a hencoop; to stand for both "palaces" designation
reader.8
and desire. feeling Palace" of this citation
has pointed S. Borschevskii, eA Soviet that Dostoevsky out, quite scholar, rightly, uses two words he says for "palace." Sometimes and (dvorets) literally "palace" he speaks of a crystal sometimes On this basis, Borschevskii "building" (zdanie).
22
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
Despite Dostoevsky's
ever, quires revolt it must the essence the for latter freedom. of his
indication of this alternative ideal, how

of the underground man in the negative phase of ideal, and All the he he knows laws can do with re the that
conception to remain trapped He longs
for another
?he
determinism exist, but?accepting not yet know how to attain it. "I know that I shall never despairingly: does promise, with an to the
of nature is affirm a com
be content
according accept as the crown for

years."
zero because and recurring it exists everlasting laws of nature and actually not I will exists. of all my desires a of ninety-nine big house hundred with and model flats
the poor
on a lease
ninety-nine
our last glimpse of the underground man, in the final Chapter XI, masterfully depicts this state of mind, in which he both denies and affirms his underground revolt and his "dark And
cellar" in the space of a few lines.
Though
of
I have said that I envy the normal man to the point

I wouldn't care to be in his place in the
exasperation,
circumstances in which
cease
I find him
(though
I shall never
him. No, no, the dark cellar is, at any rate, of envying to me!). much In the dark cellar one greater advantage can at least. ... am I'm I I am afraid Sorry, exaggerating. as as I well that it is because twice-two, know, exaggerating not the dark cellar that is better, but something some else, I long for but cannot find. thing else altogether, something
To hell with the dark cellar!

as the opposition to the crystal dvorets X of the crystal (false) interprets Chapter zdanie (true). to this theory. In the very first sentence is only one objection There of Chapter uses zdanie to refer unmistakably to the "false" palace. "You believe X, Dostoevsky Palace forever that is to say, in one at which in the Crystal {zdanie) indestructible, etc. See S. Borschevskii, Schedrin i Dos you won't be able to stick out your tongue," toevsky 1956), p. 97. (Moscow, seems to be no way of clearing up this matter There short of consulting the original We may that Dostoevsky at this point tried to link speculate, however, manuscript. the symbol of a "true" Crystal Palace with must Christ. But this have certainly and confused startled the censors, who had also read Chernyshevsky and took the a as Palace of atheistic Socialism. Hence Crystal symbol elim they systematically nated all the Christian allusions interwoven with the Crystal Palace.
JOSEPH
FRANK
23
What
cannot from
that "something
attain it, forms Underground.
else" is, and why

the substance of the
the underground man

second part of Notes
VI. The
Idealists of the Forties from Underground is subtitled:
second part of Notes
of the Wet Snow." Since the snow plays no role what "Apropos ever in the story, one may wonder chose to high why Dostoevsky answer to heighten it in this manner. The is: the sym light This the quotation from bolic atmosphere. subtitle, along with serves to set this second part firmly used as epigraph, Nekrasov to evoke. that Dostoevsky It in the ideological wishes ambiance
had already been noted in the Forties

writers snow"
(by P. V. Annenkov)
that
"wet school" were of the "natural fond of employing as a typical feature of the Petersburg and Dos landscape; summon an uses to it in up instantly toevsky image of Petersburg most the Forties?an and premeditated "abstract image of the had become in the whole whose existence very sym world," city in Russian literature for the violence culture. the moral and unnaturalness In addition, and spiritual of the Russian toWestern up the poem climate of
bolic
by Nekrasov the period. Nekrasov's
adaption also conjures
famous
poem,
to which
Dostoevsky
had
also
al
luded ironically in an earlier work?The

(1859)?reproduces the pathetic confession
Friend
of the Family
prosti
of a repentant
tute redeemed from her degraded life by the author:

a word When of fervent with conviction, the lowest dregs of dark affliction, From A soul from eternal doom I saved; Citing etc., was some further lines, Dostovesky cuts it short with suddenly his that the poem indicating feeling chatter. The redemption-of-a~
etc.,?thereby completely
indirectly conventional
24
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
prostitute theme, which runs from social Romantics like Eug?ne Sue, George Sand and Hugo right through to Tolstoy's Resur
rection (1899), had become a commonplace in the Russian litera
ture of the Forties and also figures as a minor incident inWhat Is To Be Done?. The climactic episode in the second part of
Notes ground The from man Underground?the and the prostitute part of Notes the sentimental encounter Lisa?is between clearly an the ironic under parody
and reversal of this social Romantic

second to satirize
clich?.
then, is intended of the Forties just
from Underground, social Romanticism
as the first part had satirized the Nihilism of the Sixties. And a good deal of light is thrown on this second part by articles that Dostoevsky published in his magazine Time in the years immedi ately preceding the composition of his novella. The Forties,
Dostoevsky spirit of Then wrote analysis in 1860, had into been our the moment intellectual to principle, when classes. we lived "the . . . ac penetrated was done
everything
according
cording to principles, and we had a horrible fear of doing any thing not according to the latest ideas." All spontaneity and unself-consciousness was lost; not to live by the light of "the latest ideas" was literally unthinkable. And under the influence
of "the sian latest ideas" a new social intelligentsia?the the Forties. As Dostoevsky "Byronic describes the Rus among appeared idealists the liberal of natures," type these idealists were to
them, it was
burning trouble that
help "humanity";
their become powers. angry
but they could find no occupation worthy

not really worth was the everything All so dirty
of
to one
said "They and curse?that more
hardly had the desire to wiggle

dinner fine was worth irony even
a single finger, and that a good

this was taken as the fat and idealists became
of despair, as sometimes even when, happened, rosy-cheeked?or were their hands to cheat at cards and caught with idealists were But since these else's pockets. always
than anything." these when
they began in someone longing to
JOSEPH "sacrifice" themselves for "the
FRANK
25
of humanity," good Dostoevsky at their word. he asks, tauntingly pretends Why, a sacrifice?and should go so they not really accomplish perhaps to read? "Sacrifice far as to teach a serf child O yourselves, . . . he bitingly "for the good of all. giants," them, enjoins with Sacrifice sublime your temperament yourselves completely, to take them to and your sublime ideas?lower shrink yourselves, yourselves, one this child." particular of the Forties, social Romanticism in Dostoevsky's The opinion,
had fostered an inflated "egoism of principle," which allowed the

Russian to intelligentsia while beneficence actually And live in a dream-world their own vanity task confronting of "universal" with perfect these liberal complacency. idealists was to live up to their own pretensions, i.e., to turn their to heighten love of "humanity," abstract which served chiefly act of self-sacrifice their own self-esteem, into a concrete directed toward a particular, a concrete individual. This is of course pre nursing the moral
moral
cisely the theme of the second part of Notes

and we with been find corresponding atmosphere grating, of shift the new harsh,
from Under ground $
jarring;
to accord of style and treatment the period. the irony had Earlier the final argument of the under But what of burlesque now and comes carica
ground man against the world of the Crystal Palace could only
be the rage of madness and self-destruction. to the foreground comic tone is a lighter
ture.
The
youthful Romantics
underground and "except ... it
man,
as Dostoevsky could reading
conceives
him,
is stuffed full of bookish ideas culled from the European

Russian social Romantics?"I cas though I was not from says of himself,
and
speak" he a book.' "
Describing
reading me." mented lusions literary, time
his own life he writes:

[the
"At home I mostly
spent my
and tor excited, reading] delighted the second part there are constant al All through un to the artificiality of his responses ("how paltry, affair would the whole and commonplace be," he thinks at
26 one
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
but an extended burles Entire sections are nothing point). to and pedantic reactions man's stilted que of the underground to the power the simplest human and it is a testimony situations;
of received ideas that Dostoevsky's sharply derisive comedy so should long have gone unnoticed. This comedy predominates in all the episodes preceding the meeting with the prostitute Lisa;
for in these the underground one. man is caught in what we may call
a "dialectic of vanity," which parallels the "dialectic of determin

ism" in part The underground man's vanity convinces him
of his own intellectual superiority and he despises everybody; but

when he realizes that he cannot rest without their recognition of
his superiority, he hates others for their indifference and falls into self-loathing at his own humiliating dependence. This is the inevitable dialectic of an egoism which cannot forget about itself
for a moment, and, in seeking to wrest recognition from the
world, only receives dislike and hostility in return. Psychologi that cally, this dialectic duplicates the conflict of all against all of arises socially from theWestern European principle egoistic under the that is individualism. And Dostoevsky's implication
ground man?an "educated man, a modern intellectual," as he
as a result of imbibing the European gleefully calls himself?has, culture popular in Russia in the Forties, lost almost all capacity
for undistorted and selfless moral feeling.7
im the work on Summer Notes (1863), his Winter Impressions 7A11 through of the nature contrasts Notes Dostoevsky Underground, from mediately preceding man with that of the Russian. Western European of individuality, is "a principle he writes, in the Western nature, What predominates in self-definition of personal a principle intense egoism, of isolation, self-preservation, and all other people, to all nature this I in opposition terms of one's own I, in placing to valuable and equally as an autonomous, equal completely independent principle nature in to this, the Russian In contrast it." outside that exists everything feels individual each in which a response of true "brotherhood" possesses stinctively for the other. a part of all and is ready to sacrifice himself himself in the second part this contrast and dramatizes particularly transposes Dostoevsky of the "Russian that this view It might be observed of Notes from Underground. and those under his also shared by Herzen in origin, was though Slavophil nature," and the left-wing and by Mikhailovsky and Sixties, in the Fifties influence Populists in the Seventies.
JOSEPH
FRANK
27
VII.
The
Lisa
into tragedy, when the under however, changes comedy man encounters another human fails finally being who ground was aware to respond in the accustomed fashion. well Dostoevsky on in texture, while the second of this alteration and, working part stand thing of his novella, what happens is called here. wrote a to his brother transition Mikhail: Exactly "You the under same
in music. chapter,
there is just seemingly, two this chatter, but suddenly in the last is re chatter; chapters, solved the catastrophe by a catastrophe." (In the final version
In the first
is actually developed through Chapters V to X). This catastro phe is the incident with the prostitute Lisa, which resolves the
conflict between in dexterous of the con ality And, by the ironic paradox it reveals all the shabbiness of the intelligentsia's "ideals" clusion, when with spontaneous and unselfish confronted love. The rival patron incident with Lisa The enters. begins ar the underground man's treats him like any other proprietress As he goes out with her, he catches on imaginary fashion. sentimental idealism and ethical re
in the brothel. and a girl to me:
sight of himself
revolting sive
in a mirror:
pale, that.
"My flustered face looked utterly

with dishevelled hair. 'It's
evil, mean, . . ." Not
all right, I'm glad of it,' I thought, I'm glad that I'll seem repul
to her. I like subdue weight or earlier his companions the underground to be taken seriously, he is to her, the more his egoism having to insult been them man able with either to sufficient
characteristic
ally anticipates revenging himself on the helpless girl. The more

repulsive and need for domina
tion will be satisfied by forcing her to submit to his desires.

man not by physical attains his of her hostile submission triumph and resentful alone, however, over Lisa. For when attitude, takes the that
It is
the underground aware he becomes thought stirred on
"a peevish form
inmy mind and seemed to pass all over my body like some vile
sensation." This thought of an effort to play
28
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
Lisa's feelings, and to triumph over her not only physically but
morally The as well. underground man thus proceeds to break down the armor
of indifference and assumed cynicism by which Lisa protects her self against the debasing circumstances of her life. Mingling horrible details of degradation with
banality Balzac's succeeds self down. and makes Le P?re them Gorioi all the more
images of felicity whose

poignant?and drawing on man her underground feelings about
in bringing causing of None the
in the process?the to the surface Lisa's true total humiliation of of her
emotional
break
this was
course meant
seriously;
the under
ground man simply had been carried away by the power of his
But this time his words is too hit home?Lisa eloquence. to see through naive and helpless "I worked their falsity. young, a a state" he says, "that I felt up into so pathetic myself lump ris . . . of a sudden I stopped ing in my throat and?all and, bending a violently over to listen with beating began apprehensively, bosom was heaving and she was Lisa's heart." spasmodically, efforts to contain her sobs. "She bit the pillow, harrowing making own
she bit her arm till it bled (I saw it afterwards), or clutching at her dishevelled hair with her fingers, went rigid with that super
human The sist effort, holding her breath and clenching her teeth." carried man, underground to the exalted role living up cannot re away by his victory, that he of hero and benefactor
had so often given himself in fantasy. When he leaves Lisa he gives her his address with a lordly gesture, inviting her to come
see him; and it is on this gesture turns the that Dostoevsky moment denouement the under For the of the second part. man his charla haze of the from emerges ground self-adulatory and tanism, he is stricken with terror. He cannot bear the thought
stern man he was, but 8"You see, I once knew a father who was very strict, a very . . and feet. kiss her hands he used to go down on his knees to his daughter, ^ She at some party, in the and he'd stand for five hours would dancing spend the evenine ... same place without in a dirty old He would go about taking his eyes off her. to everyone he had," etc. coat, he was a miser else, but on her he'd lavish everything
JOSEPH
FRANK
29
that Lisa might

dressing-gown,
see him as he really is?wrapped

living in his squalid "funk-hole,"
in his shabby
completely un
der the thumb of his manservant Apollon, immersed in all the exterior poverty and ignominy of his daily life. Never for a moment does it occur to him that he might help her nonetheless; he is so absorbed in himself that the only thought of her as a
reality my heart is an obscure and sense of guilt. something "Inside kept me, deep would down not in die, conscience, stirring,
and manifested
After ground began cerned a few man
itself in a feeling of poignant anguish."

days pass more and Lisa does not appear, he the under says, "I all of even con love cheerful; sweet day-dreams." re-education, you were at times,
becomes
in rather indulging the process of Lisa's first because
These confession
her
for him, and his own confession that "I did not dare lay claim to
your heart was afraid yourself want I knew under my influence and that, out of gratitude, to respond to my love, it?it would force you would deliberately rouse a feeling that you would
in your heart which perhaps did not really exist, and I did not
on my part? despotism . . . it would have been in short, here I got indelicate. (Well, a sort of European, in inex myself entangled George-Sandian this because be sheer
pressibly noble subtleties)."

are a slap both at with these reveries?which Interspersed Sand's in the Forties, and the strong Sandian influence importance Is To Be Done??is in What the low comedy of the under to bend to his will. man's efforts the stubborn Apollon ground as it were, here uses the classical theatrical technique Dostoevsky, one serious and the other farcical; and he of two identical plots, enter under Lisa when the them adroitly interweaves by having all of his hysterical is revealing ground man the imperturbable Apollon. By pitch this of time, the underground frustration and nervous man has impotence reached He in face of
exasperation.
a dangerous breaks down
30
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
completely before the bewildered Lisa, sobbing and complaining But all this is so humiliating that he is "tortured" by Apollon. that he cannot help turning on her in spiteful fury when, by
stammering that she wishes to get out of the brothel, she reminds
him of all that has taken place. And here he breaks into a famous tirade, in which he tells her the bitter truth about their relation:
"To avenge my wounded pride on someone, to get my own back,
I vented my spite on you and I laughed at you.

miliated, cal give so I too wanted to humiliate someone." inversion you for . . . Nor of his egoist's the tears which shall I ever
I had been hu
With the typi never for
ago to you!" But
"I shall logic, he shouts: I was shedding before you a minute am I for what you confessing forgive at least
at this point,
a strange
thing
occurs?strange
to the
underground man.
Instead of flaring up herself
and hitting
man to? is accustomed the underground back?the only response She throws and suffering. that he too is unhappy realizes Lisa
herself
tears; not very
into his arms to console him, and they both break into
but given the character to any selflessly . . . occurred "It the underground man, who a cannot moment such feelings, of can last
respond
as I to me just then, overwrought long. that she was the changed, was, that our parts were now completely same crushed and humiliated was the I heroine now, while exactly four days before." to me that night as she had appeared creature And love dared not out of love but out of hate, to her on the spot to revenge him. man the underground on her for himself makes
to try to console and humiliate complete into her hand; manages
Lisa
having to make his revenge more, note he slips a five-rouble her further, broken but though by this encounter, completely on the table unnoticed before to fling the money Even is starkly depravity
leaving. All revealed the moral man of the underground depravity so much scene?or in this climactic perhaps not
JOSEPH as moral through impotence. the novella, this awareness For he
FRANK retains his moral awareness
31 all
putting the five-rouble silent,
snow-filled
note, street
his egoism prevents him from ever although into practice. Even when he finds here, he distractedly rushes out after Lisa in the to ask her forgiveness. But then, pull
ing himself up short, he realizes the futility of all his agitation. For he understands very well that "I could not possibly have
loved anyone because, I repeat, to me love meant to tyrannize the most and be morally And superior." as he turns slowly he home, rationalization of all for his conduct.
conceives
diabolic
Will
in
. . . that she should now carry that insult [his] heart an with her for is What insult but a sort of puri ever? away It most is the and painful form of con fication? corrosive . . . The of that humiliation sciousness! will raise memory her and purify her by hatred, also by for and, well, perhaps . . . . . . which is better: giveness And, really cheap hap
it not be better, [he thinks] suppressing the living pain
piness or exalted suffering? Well,
which is better? allows his under
With
this final stabbing irony, Dostoevsky

man to use
the very idea of purification ground through suffering as a rationalization for his viciousness. In so doing, he returns to the main theme of the first part and a places it in new light. "Con were seen to be values when the "suffering" out of a need to preserve his human man, underground identity, to suffer himself wished rather than to rationalize as his conduct an effect main of the laws of nature. of egoism, But there the possibility that only be devilishly cause to others to they will interpreted primarily a as we of their suffer souls. And here, way purifying might add, an has on but inadvertent Dostoevsky provided prophetic parody an all those critics who have so often accused him of advocating indiscriminate "salvation through suffering." a function so long is always as these values re sciousness" and
32
NOTES
FROM
UNDERGROUND
VIII.
As end, tion. his the second part the underground For one moment racking dialectic. of Notes man
Conclusion
comes from Underground to returns his frustrated again caught a glimpse to an isola
he had Lisa's
miliation, man's torments?in sacrifice?is centricity. the same the When
her whole-souled short, her
complete disregard identification with
of the way out of of her own hu
only way she rushes
for capacity to break the sorcerer's into the arms of
the underground selfless love and self ego the underground spell of
man, not thinking of herself but only of his suffering, she is at

will that "something else" which his egoism illustrating him to attain. This "something else" is the ideal of the voluntary out of love. self-sacrifice of the personality In man his encounter with Lisa, the underground has met this ideal never allow time
in the flesh; and his failure to respond to its appeal dooms him
irrevocably we whole, cultivation for the future.
Nonetheless,
see
if we
that the a sense
look at Notes
idealistic
from Underground
as a
its with of the Forties, egoism on noblesse and its of of spiritual emphasis a not have individual moral does consciousness, merely negative was It because of such "old and irrational habits" value. precisely of his generation tween the Forties that, as we noted, the underground man held
out against the Nihilism

sky's work. and preserved Such a sense ever; and Egocentric a sense of
of the Sixties; and this is the relation be

that continues it may inner though the to prevail in Dostoev have been, the sentimental
and Sixties
idealism of the Forties still stressed the importance of free-will

is the presupposition this s the basis on which of the personality. autonomy for any human world what "egoism." it is not by itself two, for the under Exactly the same in The Stepan defends
Dostoevsky But so long as such egoism remains self-centered, a moral see in part as we more is act; required, man to achieve moral self-definition. ground relation Devils, between where the the
was later portrayed two generations sentimental idealism of the old liberal
JOSEPH
FRANK
33
Trofimovitch Verkhovensky is far superior morally to the utilitar ian ruthlessness of Peter Verkhovensky; but Stepan Trofimovitch is himself morally impotent, and, like the underground man in
part two, rhetorically longs for some contact with "reality." As a coda to the entire work, Dostoevsky offers some remarks
inwhich both ideologies of the radical intelligentsia are rejected;

and that in which echoes the same plea to return to the Russian For these articles. in Dostoevsky's ideologies hear the natural, instinctive, spontaneous, spiritual we "soil" have
disoriented
reactions
of the Russian
to such
intelligentsia to the point where, without such foreign ideas, they are totally helpless; but so long as they cling
crutches, they us alone without can never learn to walk by themselves.
man the underground any books," writes in a lose ourselves "and we shall at once get confused, caustically, on to we to not hold know what shall to, maze, cling to, what to de to respect to hate, what and what to love and what what "Leave
spise. We even find it hard to be men, men of real flesh and blood, our own flesh and blood." And to the reply that the
underground while man is only speaking for himself, Dostoevsky re
affirms the "typicality" he had stressed in the opening footnote,

the technique of satirical exaggera time defining "For my part," that he had used. caricature tion and parodistic to ex carried "I have remarks the underground man, merely tremes at the same
in my life what you have not dared to carry even half-way, for common in your cowardice you have mistaken and, addition, sense and have comfort in that, deceiving found yourselves." more seems to the interpre could it confirm me, Nothing, amply tation of Notes from Underground offered in these pages.

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Nihilism and "Notes from Underground" Author(s): Joseph Frank Source: The Sewanee Review, Vol. 69, No.

NIHILISM AND NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

from Under has entered

half-century?Nietzscheanism, Crisis Theology, Surrealism,

Freudianism, Existentialism?has he held has up not to

Indeed, been discussed single but

2 view drop erudite the

NOTES of Dostoevsky of a hat?amid irrelevancies "cultural

UNDERGROUND Critics are ready to expatiate at the smokescreen of suffocating

Meanwhile, has gotten

increasingly and melodramatic

himself trying to do? Everyone

Chernyshevsky, whose Utopian

in helping him to master the chaos of his impulses. This view of

of Dostoevsky's genesis of Notes from Underground ever since.1

JOSEPH Despite the hegemony not it has

theory is at best only a beguiling

interpreting name awe-inspiring

novelist on the side of his religious philosophy;

interpretation was that Dostoevsky

V. L. Komarovich with Beginning in detail Russian critics have explored

1924, the relation

sections of Dostoevsky's man the underground or the famous Prospect,

example, into an officer on with

acute many the level of

NOTES conceived book.

UNDERGROUND as parodies uncovering of of

episodes specific these parodies pro never

vided the first real glimpse

into the inner logic of Dostoevsky's

their own insights home with sufficient rigor. What

in rejecting merely nature" version of "human by imitation, Dostoev

underground cause of his rejection all the implications carnation?and

cates of reason like Chernyshevsky

blithely preferred to overlook

himself clearly pointed to his use of parody in the

consideration society. more

JOSEPH Western Europe or of "modern could expect all

society, had been

as Dostoevsky formed streamed underground evolution emplifies

by the successive into Russia man in himself the

accretions since the and

that had The of this ex

the Great. latest phases

whose is a parodistic life persona process. impasse of this historical

in this way can

of organization. the more life of

also, and episode and very crucial

educated moment?had live

Russian?depending been disorganized doctrines of to alien construction

and disrupted and ideals. which

by the attempt This reverses also explains

the peculiar was

cal sequence and proceeds backward in time. The Nihilism

personality, pathological evils of "human nature," sky's involuntary

6 moralism" liantly and ironic

NOTES the will Swiftian control we must

mastery, this contention which

it came, and endeavor on which Dostoevsky ordinates

picture unforgettable "funk-hole" his Petersburg his character?or rather, his

abject, petty and ridiculous than the

such boasting is, he deliberately

lets it stand to degrade himself

the beautiful," actions contemptible