Editing Notes from Underground (section)

== Themes and context ==
[[File:Dostoevskij 1863.jpg|thumb|Dostoevsky in 1863, the year before ''Notes from Underground'' was published]]
The narration by the Underground Man is laden with ideological allusions and complex conversations regarding the political climate of the period. Using his fiction as a weapon of [[ideological discourse]], Dostoevsky challenges the ideologies of his time, mainly [[nihilism]] and rational egoism.<ref name=":0" /> The novel rejects the rationalist assumptions which underlie [[Jeremy Bentham]]'s [[Utilitarianism|utilitarian]] social philosophy.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Simpson |first=Tim |date=2023 |title=Betting on Macau: Casino Capitalism and China's Consumer Revolution |series=Globalization and Community series |location=Minneapolis, MN |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |isbn=978-1-5179-0031-1 |page=289 }}</ref>

In Part 2, the rant that the Underground Man directs at Liza as they sit in the dark, and her response to it, is an example of such discourse. Liza believes she can survive and rise up through the ranks of her brothel as a means of achieving her dreams of functioning successfully in society. However, as the Underground Man points out in his rant, such dreams are based on a utopian trust of not only the societal systems in place, but also humanity's ability to avoid corruption and irrationality in general. The points made in Part 1 about the Underground Man's pleasure in being rude and refusing to seek medical help are his examples of how idealised rationality is inherently flawed for not accounting for the darker and more irrational side of humanity.

The [[Stone wall|Stone Wall]] is one of the symbols in the novella and represents all the barriers of the [[Law of Nature|laws of nature]] that stand against man and his freedom. Put simply, the rule that ''two plus two equals four'' angers the Underground Man because he wants the freedom to say [[2 + 2 = 5|''two plus two equals five'']], but that the Stone Wall of nature's laws stands in front of him and his free will.

=== Political climate ===
In the [[1860 in Russia|1860s]], Russia was beginning to absorb the ideas and culture of Western Europe at an accelerated pace, nurturing an unstable local climate. There was especially a growth in revolutionary activity accompanying a general restructuring of [[Tsardom of Russia|tsardom]] where [[Liberalism in Russia|liberal reforms]], enacted by an unwieldy autocracy, only induced a greater sense of tension in both politics and civil society. Many of Russia's intellectuals were engaged in a debate with the [[Westernizer]]s on one hand, and the [[Slavophiles]] on the other, concerned with favoring importation of Western reforms or promoting pan-Slavic traditions to address Russia's particular social reality. Although [[Alexander II of Russia|Tsar Alexander]] [[Emancipation reform of 1861|emancipated the serfs in 1861]], Russia was still very much a post-medieval, traditional [[Serfdom in Russia|peasant society]].

When ''Notes from Underground'' was written, there was an intellectual ferment on discussions regarding religious philosophy and various 'enlightened' utopian ideas.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wanner|first=Adrian|title=The Underground Man as Big Brother: Dostoevsky's and Orwell's Anti-Utopia|publisher=Penn State University Press|year=1997|pages=77}}</ref> The work is a challenge to, and a method of understanding, the larger implications of the ideological drive toward a utopian society.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Existentialism From Dostoevsky to Sartre|last=Kaufmann|first=Walter|publisher=Meridian Books|year=1956|location=New York|pages=52}}</ref> Utopianism largely pertains to a society's collective dream, but what troubles the Underground Man is this very idea of [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|collectivism]]. The point the Underground Man makes is that individuals will ultimately always rebel against a collectively imposed idea of paradise; a utopian image such as The Crystal Palace will always fail because of the underlying irrationality of humanity.