Doestoevsky
Have you ever had a friend that you and others tended to pick on a little bit more then normal? Someone who you respected as a person but often failed to show it out in public. Or perhaps a family member, such as a younger sibling, that you never presented to others with pride but couldn’t help but feel your were a very fortunate person to have them in you’re life? If you have done this, then you are not much different then 19th century Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky and his surface portrayal of women. Nearly every female character in Dostoevsky’s novels are characterized either by being weak women and allowing the men in their lives to make all their decisions or by having professions that lack respect from the rest of the world such as prostitution. The key to these portrayals is that they are simply on the surface and by reading deeper into the story; you can find a completely different level of respect and admiration for these characters. As a woman in Russia in the 19th century, it was common to turn to prostitution if a woman was without family, home, or any possibility of subsistence. The Russian government was surprisingly very careful and very strict with their prostitutes. In the 18th century, prostitutes were required to register with the police and be under close medical supervision. If a prostitute was found outsider her brothel by police then she was returned there. Prostitutes were looked upon so poorly that Empress Elizaveta Petrovna ordered all prostitutes to be found and caught and shortly after, an edict, issued by Pavel I ordered that any prostitutes that were caught in both the capitals of Moscow and St. Petersburg would be regulated to Siberia. Prostitution was, and still is, considered a sin. In Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, the main character, which is nameless, is a male who is living his life out of spite. His only reason for living is to be noticed by others for the pain, suffering, and disruption he causes. After many difficult conversations with old “friends” and an attempt to challenge one to a dual, he ends up at a brothel. He shows up to the brothel to meet the other gentlemen he was at a party with earlier, but upon arriving, he finds all of the men already engaging in activities with the employees. After borrowing a few rubles from a friend, he decides to partake in his own activities. This is where the first main woman character comes into a play, a prostitute named Liza.