Contents
When it comes to world literature classics and especially Russian classics, one of the first names that comes to mind is Dostoevsky. His works that analyse the human soul and are full of deep analyses attract us. When reading Crime and Punishment, we feel the Raskolnikov character in our bones, and when we finish The Brothers Karamazov, we all feel sorry for Alyosha. Here is our world-famous author, before writing these literary masterpieces, the notes he wrote in 1864 and published in magazines were later compiled into a book called “Notes from the Underground”.
It is very difficult to call this book a novel. On the other hand, it would not be right to call it a book of ideas. This valuable work actually consists of many notes, just as the author mentioned. At this point, we should say that; if you are going to enter the world of Dostoevsky and read his works, reading these notes first will make your job easier. If you read the author’s other books without reading this work consisting of notes, it will be very difficult for you to understand him.
The events take place in Petersburg, Russia in the mid-1800s. You may feel bored at first while reading this book, which consists of approximately 140 pages. We had a hard time understanding what we were reading, especially in the first 10 pages. In other words, the first part of this work, which starts with the famous words “I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man!”, is quite deep and complicated as it offers sections from the inner world of our imaginary hero. After all, we are reading one of the deepest writers in history of world literature, so there will be a lot of confusion and difficulty, right?
Dostoevsky and His Notes!
If you get through the first part without any damage and show the necessary patience, the book will flow quickly, especially after page 60, and will come to an end. At this stage, we cannot help but mention the following; just as Tolstoy is a good analyst on social issues, Dostoevsky is also a complete expert on the human soul, mind and psychology, and he has dealt with these issues magnificently in this book. By the way, as the author also states, there is actually no hero in the book. According to him, in this work, all the characteristics that a hero should normally have been “deliberately” gathered in an anti-hero.
Our book begins with some quotes from the author’s own life and inner world. Dostoevsky, who introduces the subject by stating that he has a liver disease, also implies that his mental and spiritual health is not in good shape. The main subject of this work is the thoughts of a lonely man who had been a civil servant for many years, after receiving a small inheritance from a very distant relative, quits his job and withdraws into solitude and his own shell.
His apartment, where he lives completely alone except for his servant Apollon, is his “underground”. The mixed notes he writes from this underground about his character, inner world and life also form the title of the book. By the way, according to our author, the main character of the book is imaginary and the events that take place are not real. In this sense, our hero, who talks about his inner world and delusions in the first part, talks about his unpleasant memories with his school friends and his memories with Liza, perhaps his only love, in the second and lively part.
Notes From Underground Summary
Our hero, who states that toothache gives him pleasure and therefore he does not even think of going to the doctor, is actually an extremely gentle and good-hearted person, as we will understand in the following sections. This person actually draws a naive, sometimes arrogant and calm portrait in his inner world. At this stage, we would like to state that if you say you do not understand the book Notes from the Underground, this is very normal. For this reason, we recommend that you read the work at least twice, since it has few pages.
If you know the spirit of the 1800s when the work was written, you can also understand our hero’s hatred for the modern science of that period. In other words, according to him, the scientists of the period were materializing humans. This is what really angered him. In other words, he opposes science, which defines humans as “two plus two”, by saying, “Man is actually a creature consisting of his free will and desires.” In other words, according to him, scientists who try to control free will do evil, not good. Our hero also constantly makes insinuations against the fiction of Adam Smith. He was emerged at that time and is known as the founder of classical economics, “If each person maximizes his own interests, the interests of society will increase.”
At this point, you will be surprised that such realistic determinations were made two centuries ago while reading the book. While opposing the determinations of modern science, Dostoyevsky almost refers to today’s artificial intelligence revolution. In Notes from the Underground, the author actually states that science does not give humans the value they deserve.
A Complicated Soul
In the first part, there are such personal delusions, social determinations and psychological traumas. As we said, if you skip the first part, the events in the second part will quickly draw you in. In the second part, our hero talks about his meetings with his friends from school. He cannot overcome his grudge against them from the past and causes a scandal at the dinner he organized together. At this point, the Simonov character emerges and sees our hero as a “cocky and disconnected from society”.
After this “humiliating” event with his school friends, our hero meets the character Liza and falls in love with her. It should be noted at this point that the author makes the other party suffer even when he is in love. Ultimately, the author, who loses the other party’s love at the second meeting, parts ways with Liza forever.
At this very point, we have an observation that we need to make about the book and the author. You will see that the hero has extreme contradictions inside him while reading these deep notes. In other words, while stating that he is not in love at one moment, you will feel that he is full of love a little later. The author, who includes many examples like this, dances with the reader’s mind from time to time in the book.
Notes From Underground Quotes
The book, which describes the character analysis and the fluctuations in the hero’s inner world in the first part, ends by listing the flowing events in the second part. At the end of the book, the author actually implies that these notes are continuing, but the book has now ended. It is not known where or who has the rest of the notes. At this point, the work actually ends at its most exciting point, with a separation at the final stage of a love affair.
As in many books that stand out with their character and psychological analysis, this work, which is the subject of our article, also has very famous sayings and quotes by the author. As you will appreciate, Dostoevsky is one of the first names that come to mind in this regard in the history of world literature. You will also stop at certain places while reading the book, reread it and probably underline some paragraphs or sentences with a pencil, just like us. At this point, it would be unfair if we ended the subject without mentioning his very important observations on life, love, people and society.
The famous sayings and quotes that start with the famous saying “I am a sick man” continue to increase towards the end of the book. If you read the book with this perspective, you will definitely catch these very deep meaningful words and perhaps adopt them as a guide or motto for your life.
Quotes from Dostoevsky
At this point, we would like to list some important quotes and words from the book Notes from the Underground;
- I am a sick man, I am a bad man.
- In my opinion, loving means establishing a spiritual superiority over the other party, in other words, tyranny.
- Love can be nothing other than the right to tyrannize over the one we love, which we willingly grant.
- Insult is the most painful and painful emotion, but it is the most powerful purification!
- Which is better, an easily obtained happiness or a suffering that elevates a person?
- In fact, we are not even alive, we are stillborn creatures.
- I am a living being who has not even become an insect.
- People think their desires are the truth.
