Dostoevsky, Notes from The Underground
...e with all his faults, his pain, love, hate, ugliness, wretchedness, beauty of living it the way it is. Dostoevsky, when stating in the passage, “ itches and scratches”, he is referring to life and how imperfect it is, and how beautiful it is with all its scratches and itches. He belittles those who try to portray themselves as perfect, moral and rational beings. Life is not perfect nor should we try to make it perfect. “ two times two makes four is no longer life, gentlemen , but the beginning of death.” Here Dostoevsky again argues against prefectionism, against these mathematical social laws of nature, and how we must break free of them, or be condemned to live in fraudulence. Dostoevsky was against the explanation of human behavior and against any kind of rationalism and science that mapped out the existence of mankind. The opening passage of this paper is also serves as a maxim for “Notes From Underground”. Dostoevsky through out the text talks about mans quest for a rational, moral existence, one in which he looks upon with hate and disappointment, for Dostoevsky dreams of a liberated life, a life with no constraints against the will of mans freedom of choice. For instance, there is a similar phrase that is supports this theme. “ in life your constantly running up against people who are so well behaved and so rational, such wise men and lovers of humanity who set themselves the life long goal of behaving as morally and rationally as possible, so to speak, to be a beacon for their nearest and dearest, simply in order to prove that its really possible to live one’s life in a moral and rational way.” Shortly after this passage, Dostoevsky goes on to mock these beings who seek moral and perfect lives as eventually becoming perverse beings seeking, desiring, to inject, to submerge themselves in “ the most wicked rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply in order to inject his own pernicious fantastic element into all this positive rationality”. This theme that is concurrent throughout Dostoevsky’s “Notes From Underground”, and it is a concurrent theme in every conscious persons mind, we can all relate to Dostoevsky and the underground man. The underground man is motivated by aesthetic principles and views that which is boundless as the most beautiful. I very mush so agree and relate to Dostoevskys pursuit of the liberation of ones personality and desires. Man is driven by desires. Man wants to live a happy and truthful life, a life with meaning. I myself, as well as everything other living conscious being in this world want to live a life of fulfillment and satisfaction. Now I myself agree with Dostoevsky that the meaningful and fulfilled life is the one which is expressive of ones individuality, a life where desires and freedom of choice isn’t suppressed but rather venerated. Dostoevsky is not concerned with the pursuit of happiness around him, but in the pursuit of happiness within him. The issue here is not freedom from determinism but authenticity, the desire to be as fully human as one can be, to have one's desires mo...