Notes from the Underground: Analysis of Major Characters
"Notes from the Underground" is a philosophical novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, featuring a complex narrator who grapples with feelings of self-loathing and social alienation. The protagonist, a government clerk, presents himself as a tormented individual, consumed by his own depravity and intellectual pretensions. He experiences a profound disconnect from humanity, often indulging in self-pity and masochistic behaviors, while simultaneously recognizing his capacity for cruelty and manipulation.
Key characters include Liza, a young peasant girl who seeks solace and love from the narrator, only to be met with disdain and rejection. Her journey highlights the painful intersection of vulnerability and exploitation. Anton Antonitch Syetotchkin, the narrator's kind superior, represents a stark contrast to the protagonist's bitterness, embodying generosity and warmth that the narrator both admires and resents. Meanwhile, Simonov, a school friend, and Zverkov, an army officer, illustrate the varying responses to social status and camaraderie, with the narrator often feeling inferior and humiliated in their presence. Overall, the characters in "Notes from the Underground" serve to explore deep themes of isolation, power dynamics, and the darker aspects of human nature.
Notes from the Underground: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Fyodor Dostoevski
First published: Zapiski iz podpolya, 1864 (English translation, 1913)
Genre: Novel
Locale: St. Petersburg, Russia
Plot: Impressionistic realism
Time: Mid-nineteenth century
The narrator, the “I” of the treatise, a man convinced of his own depravity. A theorist addressing imaginary listeners, his readers, he declares that he will tell only the truth. Ugly in face and misshapen in body, though with an intelligent, even practiced alertness, he was for many years morbidly shy and grotesque in his vices. A government clerk of a mean and vindictive disposition, he declares that he would devote his life to idleness and the creation of beauty could he live again. As it is, he will continue in the same vein, acutely conscious of his intellectual prowess, aware of the pleasure he finds in humiliating himself painfully. He knows himself a pretender (even this autobiographical sketch is in jest), but he is now incapable of feeling. He describes incidents that show his lack of acumen, his inability to love or take action, his despicable indulgence in self-pity, and his consciously depraved behavior. He presents his bookishness, his intense self-consciousness, his inability to follow a line of action, and his masochistic-sadistic impulses as examples of humankind's perverse nature, which refuses the attainment of perfection or even the striving for it.
Liza (LIH-zuh), a peasant girl come to St. Petersburg, an inexperienced prostitute. As the victim of the narrator's determined debauch, the rather handsome, strong, contemplative Liza finds in the man's drunken meanderings a kind of solace. Accepting his admonitions as to the life she is beginning, she goes to see him because she believes that he offers her hope and love. Although his own surroundings are even more distasteful than hers, she insists on unburdening her feeling of love for him. Taking advantage of her tender feelings, he makes love to her and then tells her spitefully that he has no feelings except the desire to wield power, to hold another soul in his hands. Humiliated, she throws back the money he disdainfully gives her and leaves him.
Anton Antonitch Syetotchkin (ahn-TOHN ahn-TOHNihch seh-TOHCH-kihn), the narrator's immediate superior in a government office, a kind man with a pleasant family and a generous disposition and the one person the narrator seems to respect. Anton lends the young clerk advances on his salary and welcomes the lonely and bookish young man into his home. Evenings spent listening to discussions of conservative politics and mundane affairs cause the young man to postpone his burning desire to embrace humankind, a desire that is as false as his other emotions.
Simonov (sih-MYOH-nof), the narrator's school friend, a pleasant person who lends him money and occasionally entertains the self-conscious clerk. Simonov allows the narrator to come with other student friends to a farewell party for a mutual friend. Later, he becomes embarrassed at the fellow's boorish behavior but lends him money to continue the debauch at a brothel.
Zverkov (zvehr-KOHF), an army officer who owns two hundred serfs and is much respected in consequence. Because he is a hale fellow, an amusing storyteller, and a man about town, the narrator resents him. Zverkov, instead of taking offense at the insulting manner of his former schoolmate, declares that such a low person cannot insult him. This haughtiness, coupled with his bragging stories of conquest, infuriates but tantalizes the narrator, who abases and humiliates himself purposely before his old friends.