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The Theme Of Power In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes From The Underground

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In the Novella Notes From the Underground , by Fyodor Dostoevsky , the Underground Man’s constant demand for power over others leads to the Underground Man losing self-control over his thoughts and actions. In part one, the Underground man believes he is superior over others due to his powerful free will, rejecting logic and the implementations of society. This is contrasted in part two, where he utilizes the stories from romantic novels he reads while in school, and applies them to real life situations with Liza the prostitute, and the Police officer. The underground man equivalates his intelligence to power in part one. His hyperconsciousness gives him superiority over the average citizens in society due to their logic based decisions since he rejects logic because he concludes that a utopian society is absolutely unreachable and absurd. Since the Underground man believes he has more intelligence due to his free will, he convinces himself that he has a duty to assert his power over others. Furthermore, his free will do to as he pleases is true power …show more content…

In part one, The underground man rejects utopian societal views and believes in restricts mankind from acting on its desires, ultimately concluding that his free will and hyperconscious give him power because he means that he is superior due to his vast amount of intelligence. On the other hand, in part two, he applies what he learns from romance novels onto real life situations, which does not work because of the differences from fantasy and reality. He struggles to validate himself to society by displaying power over others. The Underground man needs self validation, and the only way he can achieve this is through dominance over others, which he attempts to receive through his intelligence with Liza. Power struggles signify a desire for confirmation of self

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