Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground: Existentialism, Nihilism, and the Struggle of the Individual

Notes from Underground is a short but profoundly complex text, and in it, Dostoevsky explores the intricate landscape of human consciousness and freedom. The title itself—the “notes” of the “underground”—signals a confessional, introspective journey into the mind of a solitary man. The novel’s opening paragraphs, its generic and structural aspects, especially its dialogic and polyphonic dimensions, all set the stage for a work that is both intensely personal and broadly philosophical.

Existentialism and the Underground Man

One of the most compelling aspects of the text is its engagement with existentialism. Existentialism is a heterogeneous movement, ranging from Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard to Nietzsche, Rilke, Kafka, Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus. Despite this diversity, a common thread runs through these thinkers: the centrality of individual experience and freedom. While Christian existentialists and existential atheists differ in emphasis, Dostoevsky’s contribution as one of the earliest existentialist writers has been recognized by Nietzsche, Sartre, and Žižek. Nietzsche encountered Notes from Underground just a few years before his death and was profoundly affected. Sartre considered it one of the first texts in existentialism, quoting Dostoevsky’s famous phrase, “If God did not exist, everything would be permitted.” Even so, Sartre’s version of existentialism has limitations; Žižek describes Sartre’s Existentialism is Humanism as only one perspective, embodied in a single character in Dostoevsky’s novel.

Key Principles of Existentialism in Sartre’s Framework

At its core, existentialism emphasizes the radical freedom of the individual. Sartre’s 1945 lecture, “Existentialism is Humanism,” articulates several key principles:

1. Existentialism is humanism – Man is his own legislator, defining himself through his choices, seeking aims beyond himself.

   
   

2. Existence precedes essence – Unlike a technological object, man exists first and defines himself afterwards. Without God, there is no pre-conceived “human nature”; man is nothing but what he makes of himself.

   
   

3. Freedom entails anguish, abandonment, and despair – Anguish arises from realizing total responsibility; abandonment from the absence of external guidance; despair from acting without reliance on any hope outside one’s will. Deterministic excuses, in this framework, are for the coward.

   
   

The Underground Man: Alienation and Paradox

The Underground Man exemplifies these concerns. He is a bitter, misanthropic, isolated man living in St. Petersburg, alienated from society, former schoolmates, soldiers, and prostitutes alike. His self-loathing, intellectual intensity, and obsession with the absurdity of the sublime in his mundane life illustrate the existential condition. He rejects utilitarianism, insisting that man’s primary desire is free will—even if it results in self-inflicted pain, as in his strange pleasure in toothaches or liver pains.

The Liza Episode: Love, Hope, and Self-Disgust

The Liza episode in Part II exemplifies the Underground Man’s complex moral and emotional world. He oscillates between sentimentality and self-disgust, fantasizing about saving her from prostitution, educating her, and compelling her love—yet ultimately remaining trapped in his own contradictions. His actions, choices, and reflections illustrate existentialist themes of freedom, responsibility, and moral agency.

Existentialist Concerns in Notes from Underground

Several existentialist concerns run through the text:

1. Opposition to political nihilism and romantic socialism.

2. Assertion of choice, free will, and human capriciousness, in contrast to scientific determinism.

3. Experiences of abandonment and despair, illustrating human freedom in the absence of divine or deterministic guidance.

4. Dialogic inconclusiveness, reflecting the multiplicity of the self and the impossibility of a single, universal conception of humanity.

5. The Crystal Palace and chicken coop motifs, representing attempts to impose order and determinism on human life, against which the Underground Man rebels.

   
   

The Struggle of the Individual

The novel illustrates the struggle of a single individual who, amidst infinite failures, seeks to exist, define himself, and understand the universe. His infatuation with inertia and surrender to nature represents a temporary betrayal of existentialism; his return to free will and personal responsibility is triumphant. By the end, he remains alone and suffering, but he has achieved a profound consciousness of his being. In his anguish, he ceases to be lost in trivialities and develops a oneness with himself. He recognizes the universe exists, even if he does not comprehend it fully, affirming his profound humanity.

Paradox and Identity

Dostoevsky’s text combines confession, philosophical treatise, and short story, creating a hybrid identity. The Underground Man embodies paradox: cowardice and courage, expectation and fear, masochism and moral assertion. He cannot escape philosophical thinking; he is extremely intelligent, anxious, and alienated. His life is a struggle with meaning, essence, and freedom: to exist first, then define oneself. Naming, identity, and the very inability to define himself reflect the existential core of the narrative.

Free Will, Love, and Responsibility

Despite his cruelty, isolation, and spite, the Underground Man struggles to define himself and humanity, giving precedence to existence over essence. His reflections, failures, and paradoxical actions reveal the richness of individual subjectivity and the truths of existentialism. Love, as in the Liza episode, offers hope and moral aspiration, even as cruelty and incapacity for love complicate the picture. Through introspection, criticality, and consciousness, he becomes a true example of the humanity of the individual, asserting freedom and responsibility in a world governed by determinism and social expectation.

Conclusion: Existentialism as a Philosophy of the Individual

Existentialism, as reflected in Notes from Underground, emphasizes the individual’s radical freedom, responsibility, and confrontation with the universe. Unlike Romanticism, which escapes the here and now, existentialism embraces the present, with all its contradictions, suffering, and possibilities. Dostoevsky’s work reminds us that individuals, however wretched, must exist, struggle, and define themselves, embodying the profound complexity and richness of human existence.

References

Bakhtin, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Edited and translated by Caryl Emerson. University of Minnesota Press, 1984.

Rapoport, Yelizaveta. "Fyodor Dostoevsky: An Analysis of Existentialism within Notes from Underground." ULA International Institute, 2008, https://international.ucla.edu/institute/article/90377.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. “Existentialism is A Humanism.” Translated by Philip Mairet. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm.

Scanlan,, James P. "The Case against Rational Egoism in Dostoesvsky's Notes from Underground." Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 60, no. 3, 1999, pp. 549-567.