Study Questions & Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. How much should
we trust what the Underground Man tells us? Pick one section of
the text in which you feel he is particularly reliable or unreliable,
and discuss what this might tell us about the text as a whole.
2. The Underground
Man uses several images or phrases—the Golden Age, the idea of the
crystal palace, “two-times-two-makes-four,” the mouse-man, and so on—as
metaphors to convey his ideas. Pick two of these images and discuss
their relationship with each other and with the Underground Man's
arguments.
3. Much of the
Underground Man's social world centers on people whom he integrates
into his power structure. How does this obsession with rank and
power manifest itself throughout
Notes from Underground?
How it is consistent with the Underground Man's character?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Some critics see the Underground
Man as insane, while others see him as a fairly lucid—if maladjusted—observer
of society and his place within it. Evaluate the Underground Man's sanity,
using concrete examples from the text.
2. The city of St. Petersburg
is an important presence throughout the novel. Select one passage
and explain how St. Petersburg affects the Underground Man. How
does the city function as a character in the text?
3. Though the Underground Man
is not meant to represent Dostoevsky himself, interesting comparisons
can be drawn between the two. What are the most significant similarities and
differences between them?
4. Dostoevsky was famously wary
of the Roman Catholic church. What evidence for this bias can be
found in Part I of Notes from Underground?
5. Dostoevsky had a great talent
for showing his readers the world through the confused eyes of his
characters. How does he use this ability to heighten, rather than
diminish, the sense of realism in the novel?
6. Though elements of Notes
from Underground are tragic, the text is not a “tragedy”
in the formal sense. How does Dostoevsky create this modern, realist
story in a manner very different from the classical literary expectations
of tragedy? Which elements from older forms of tragedy does he include, and
which does he exclude?
7. The Underground Man abhors
the way in which progressive thinkers of his era worship reason,
but he does not necessarily totally reject reason outright. Discuss
his attitude toward reason and logic. What value does he assign
to logical, rational thinking, and how does he make use of it? For
a starting point, pick a passage and begin your discussion with a
close reading.
