Dostoevsky, "Notes from the Underground": a summary

The work "Notes from the Underground" was written by Dostoevsky in 1864. The author of the notes is the hero of the underground.

The protagonist of the work

This is a collegiate assessor who came out recently after he received a small inheritance. The hero of the work "Notes from the Underground" 40 years. He lives on the edge of Petersburg, in a "shoddy" room. This hero and psychologically in the underground: almost always he is alone, betrayed "a dreamer," the images and motives of which were taken from books. The unnamed hero, in addition, explores his own soul and consciousness, while displaying courage and an extraordinary mind. The purpose of such a confession is to find out whether it is possible to be completely frank with yourself at least, without being afraid of the truth.

Philosophy of the main character

The hero believes that in the sixties of the 19th century an intelligent person is simply doomed to be "spineless." The lot of limited, stupid people is a different activity that is considered the norm, while an intensified consciousness is seen as a disease. The mind forces the protagonist to rebel against the laws of nature discovered by modern science. Their "stone wall" is "certainty" only for the "dumb" person. Obviously, the hero of the underground does not agree. He feels a "sense of guilt" for the fact that the world order is imperfect, and this causes him suffering. Science is lying that only the mind can be reduced to a person, "on the plate calculated". "The manifestation of all life" is a "will". He defends, contrary to all the "scientific" conclusions about the human good and human nature, the right to add to "positive prudence" "vulgar stupidity" to prove to himself that people are not "piano keys" on which the laws of nature play themselves.

The hero, who wrote notes from the underground, yearns for an ideal capable of satisfying his "breadth". This is not a career, not a pleasure, not even a "crystal palace", which is built by socialists, since it takes away the basic from the person - own desire. The protester protests against the identification of knowledge and good, which is not subject to doubt of faith in the progress of civilization and science. Civilization in us "does not soften anything," but only develops, in his opinion, "the versatility of sensations," and so pleasure is found in both humiliation and alien blood ... In human nature, in the opinion of the protagonist, there is not only a need Happiness, prosperity, order, but also suffering, destruction, chaos. "Crystal Palace", rejecting these negative sides, as an ideal is untenable, since it deprives freedom of choice. It is better therefore "conscious inertia", a modern "chicken coop", the underground.

The life of the hero, when he served in the office

However, it happened that the longing for reality drove from the corner. The hero who wrote the notes from the underground, described in detail one of these attempts. He still served at the office for 24 years and despised and hated, being terribly "touchy", "hypocritical" and "proud" of his colleagues, but at the same time he was afraid of them. He considered himself a "slave" and "coward", as any "decent" and "developed" person. With an intensified reading, he replaced communication with people, and at night in "dark places" "debauched".

The Episode in the Inn

Watching the game on the billiards, he barred accidentally once in the tavern one officer road. Strong and tall, he moved the silently "exhausted" and "low" hero to another place. Then he wanted to start a "literary", "right" quarrel, but only "angrily faded", fearing that he would not be taken seriously. The hero after this episode dreamed of vengeance for several years, tried many times at a meeting on Nevsky not to collapse first. When, in the end, they collided, the officer did not even pay attention to it, but the hero of the work was delighted, because he did not yield a single step backing his dignity, and put himself publicly on an equal social foot with an officer. All these observations of the hero for himself are described in the work of his author, Dostoevsky F.

"Notes from the Underground": lunch with former classmates

Occasionally, the underground man felt the need of society, which was satisfied only by single acquaintances: Simonov, a former school friend, and Setochkin, the chief of staff. During the visit to Simonov, he learns that in honor of a fellow practitioner a dinner is prepared and "enters into a share" with the others. "Underground" persecutes long before this dinner fear of possible humiliations and resentments, since the reality of the laws of literature is not subordinated and it is unlikely that real people will perform the roles prescribed in the imagination of one dreamer: they can, for example, recognize and fall in love with the main character for the mental superiority. He tries to offend and offend comrades at dinner. They just stop noticing it in response. At the other extreme, the underground runs into public self-abasement. Then the companions go to the brothel without him. For "literary" now he is obliged to take revenge on these people for the disgrace left, so he goes after everyone. However, those already dispersed through the rooms. The hero is offered Lisa.

Episode in the brothel

Further, Dostoevsky ("Notes from the Underground") describes the following events. After "debauchery", "rude and shameless," the hero talks to the girl. She is 20. In St. Petersburg, she recently, and she herself - a petty bourgeois born in Riga. He decides, guessing in the girl's sensitivity, to recoup it: draws picturesque pictures of the future prostitute, after which - family happiness, it is inaccessible. The effect is achieved: before convulsions and sobbing brings a girl disgust for his life. "Savior", leaving, leaves her his address. However, through "literary" break through in him the shame for "rascality" and pity for Lisa. He loves to conduct the main character of the work "Notes from the Underground" an analysis of his own actions.

Lisa comes to the hero

The girl comes in 3 days. The hero, described by Dostoevsky ("Notes from the Underground"), "disgustingly confused". He discovers to her cynically the motives of his behavior, but meets unexpectedly sympathy and love from her side. He is touched, confessing that he can not be kind. However, ashamed of weakness soon, she takes vengeance on Lisa and inserts 5 rubles into her hand for a full celebration. The girl, leaving, leaves unnoticed money.

Final of the work

The hero admits that he wrote his memoirs with shame. However, he only brought to extremes what the others did not dare to bring up to half. The hero was able to abandon the goals of society, which seem to him vulgar, but the underground is a "moral corruption". "Living life", deep relations with other people inspire fear. Thus ends the work "Notes from the Underground," a brief summary of which we described.

This story will not leave anyone indifferent today after reading. However, immediately after the publication of the "Notes from the Underground" in 1864, the reviews caused very few, although representatives of the revolutionary-democratic camp immediately became interested in them. The only immediate response to the work was Shchedrin's parody, which included a pamphlet "Swifts" in his review entitled "Literary Trivia". In it, ridiculing the participants of the magazine "Epoch" in a satirical form, he portrayed in the guise of the fourth swift of the "writer of the dull" Dostoevsky. To this tale the interest of critics was awakened after the novel "Crime and Punishment" was published, that is, two years later. In it, much of what was planned in the "Notes" was developed.