Dostoevsky’s Notes from Undergound - Reactions to an Overdeterministic

Dostoevskys Notes from Undergound - Reactions to an Overdeterministic ExistenceSome of the works cited are wantingDostoevsky presents his Notes from Undergound as the fragmented ramblings ofan unnamed narrator. On the surface, the characters account appears disjointed andreaches no conclusive end ing until the author intercedes to end the book. How forever, aclose examination of the underground humanitys language reveals a progression in hiscollected ravings. After expressing dissatisfaction with the notion of determinism, theunderground man perceives the irony of his ultra-deterministic reality. Through hisnarrative, the underground man discovers the truth about his predestined, fictitiousexistence.Dostoevskys work is divided into devil sections throughout the first section,Underground, the narrator discusses and resists determinism. The underground mancompares deterministic life to a mathematical formula, ii times two equals four. Hesuggests that, according to the determinis tic model, life conforms to a set of predestinedevents and actions, and its outcome is inevitable. The underground man condemns theformula, asserting, After all, two times two is no longer life, gentlemen, but thebeginning of destruction(24). In his essay Narrative and Freedom, critic Gary Saul Morsonelaborates upon the narrators statement, adding, For life to be meaningful and for workto be more than robotic, thither must be something not just unknown but whitewash undecided(Morson 196-7). According to the underground man, the pre-existence of the solutionimplies that no other close may be reached once one embarks on life, one cannot race the inevitable outcome of death. Morson emphasizes the underground mansres... ...nd man ab initio believes that by identifying the cause of hisdefectiveness, he will be able to specify his seemingly doomed life.Instead, he discovers that his real defect, his existence as fiction, preventshim from ever altering his circumstances. After herald ing self-awarenessas the key to controlling his own life, he finds that self-awareness onlyallows him to perceive how little control he could ever have. workings Cited and ConsultedBerger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. smart York Anchor Books, 1990.Escher, M.C. Drawing Hands. Cover of Norton edition of Notes from Underground.Katz, Michael R., ed. Notes from Underground. New York W.W. Norton & Company,2001.Chernyshevsky, Nikolai. What Is to Be make? Katz 104-123.Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground. Katz 3-91MorsonTodorov