Individualism Through 'Notes on Underground' by Dosteovsky

Dostoevsky’s Novella “Notes From Underground” presents us with a spiteful, confronting and yet appealing individual who has paved the way for many alienated souls seen in literature. The term ‘individual’ is used to describe a human being; therefore every human being is inevitably individual. However, the unnamed narrator in ‘Notes From Underground’ has a perpetual longing for confirmation of individuality and self authenticity which is where we can revisit Kaufman’s point that individuality is “wretched and revolting”. The narrator’s thirst for individualism has driven him to alienation, constant contradiction and the sacrifice of his happiness, this to me, is the wretched part. Later Kaufman states that although this quest is full of “misery” it is “the highest good”. The fact that Dostoevsky has created a character that is viewed as a hero, much like Holden Caulfield (Catcher in the Rye) and Yossarian (Catch 22) is where the good is found. Through all the spite and revolt the narrator portrays, he is still able to be indentified with by people not only in 1800s Russia, but 200 years later by people today. He speaks of problems with money and health and his constant contradictory of himself brings him further away from the secrecy and exclusivity from the audience by the narrator and closer to being one of them.

The unnamed narrator of ‘Notes From Underground’ has a constant negative tone throughout the piece. His opening lines are short, aggressive and pessimistic. “I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man.” The use of ellipses and brutal full stops in conjunction with repetition allows us to immediately create the voice that is negative. This tone is the foundation for the narrator’s struggle with identity and being an individual. He states “a man in the nineteenth century…ought to be…a characterless man” showing us his rejection of the norm and illuminating his thirst for individuality. He expresses his felt oppression by this thirst which adds to the sacrifice...