Present Day Underground man.

If you were to see a man out like the underground man just walking around on the street and he started to talk to you how do you think it would go?
I'm going to paint a picture for you; there is a man in the corner of a restaurant sitting alone, hunched over in the darkness. He seems lonely so you go over there to talk to him. He sees you and says hello, but then immediately breaks eye contact and mutters something out of anger for doing so. You talk to him for a little bit and after a while he seems almost overeager just for talking to someone. He follows all of the points he makes with some sort of retraction such as, "that's not what I meant", "I'm only joking", or then again "I could be wrong" as if he is afraid you will leave the table or laugh at him for his beliefs. As the conversation progresses he becomes more and more aggressive and starts to finish your sentences for you and assume he knows what you are talking about. He starts to get angry with you for no reason and has snobby retorts any time you make a point. Finally, toward the end of the conversation he is extremely agitated and acts as if he is upset with himself but making excuses for it, and blaming you for all of his problems. When you at last try to reconcile with the poor fellow, he breaks off any connection he had with you and storms off cursing under his breath either talking to you or himself.
That is how I would envision an encounter with the Underground man (or someone like him) what do you guys think he would be like?

Notes From Middle Earth

I'm going to try and expand my comparison between Gollum and the underground man. Gollum, who appears to be almost bipolar and has talks with his two personalities, which seem to directly contradict each other- namely Smeagol and Gollum. Similarly, the underground man contradicts himself, and holds conversations with himself. Gollum and the underground man's inner conversations are slightly different though: while Gollum tries to grapple with good and evil, the underground man struggles with his place in society. Gollum and the underground are also very isolated, and seemingly "de-humanified" because of their isolation. The underground sincerely wishes he could be a fly, or an insect so that he could be noticed, while in contrast, Gollum is consumed by the power of the ring. I'm probably missing loads of comparisons, but I think the two characters really do have a lot in common.

Notes from Underground

I definitely found the second part of Notes from Underground to be a bit more interesting to read than the first. In part 1 I was initially intrigued by the narrator's distinct voice, but after a while I felt like I was reading the same things over and over again. It did remind me of stream of consciousness work, like that of Virginia Wolfe, which I also sometimes found myself struggling to get through. But part 2 read more like a novel. The underground man's experience with Liza was intriguing and prompted me to continue on. Today during class I wasn't entirely convinced as to whether the underground man is actually insane or not, but after finishing the novella and reading about his encounters with Liza, I feel more certain about my opinion- that being that he is, in fact, insane. His about extreme outbursts of emotion and irrational actions were like that of a madman.

Dostoevsky in "Notes from Underground"

The overhead notes on Dostoevsky mention that his works can be interpreted on various levels, and typically his work has been seen as biographical. I completely agree with this as the narrator of "Notes from Underground" seems to often contradict himself, which is in accordance with Dostoevsky's belief that it is human nature to be torn by its own contradictions. Dostoevsky exemplified his belief regarding human nature himself when he was exiled from Russia in 1849 as a believer in the Petrashevsky circle (an antigovernment and socialist group), however when he returned to Russia in 1859 he a completely new outlook as he became a strong conservative and nationalist. I believe there is a parallel between Dostoevsky and the narrator.

Thoughts on Hamlet

Sooo Hamlet. Because Hamlet was my favorite Shakespeare play we've read, I was excited to see it performed on stage and I thoroughly enjoyed today's performance.
The actors did a fantastic job of bringing to life every element of the play and illustrating the scenes to get the point across. I felt that the actor who played Hamlet (who was REALLY good) showed Hamlet's descent into insanity very well. While I was reading, I would often forget that Hamlet was going crazy until he had some sort of giant outburst, but the actor made a continuous effort to portray Hamlet's mental deterioration in everything he did. I also enjoyed the closet scene between Hamlet and Gertrude. While reading the play, the sexual undertones between the mother and son are only slightly detectable, but the actors made sure to bring that overt sexuality to their scene and physically portray the implied incestual relationship. I also thought Ophelia's descent into insanity was portrayed wonderfully, especially the part with the baby doll and the singing childlike death songs. Very creepy.

Hamlet

I believe that a person's familiarity with a Shakespeare play can completely alter their experience as an audience member. Today I saw a performance of Hamlet with absolutely no preparation or previous encounter with the actual play. I knew the line "to be or not to be" and the fact that Hamlet's father appears as a ghost- and that's about it. During the entire performance, I was struggling to make sense of the relationship between the characters, to remember names, and to decipher the meaning of their words. My experience today was completely different from that of the other Shakespeare plays I've seen (A Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth), both of which I had previously read and studied. I truly enjoyed seeing those performances because I understood the significance of the characters actions. I had had time to study the language of the play- to translate his rhymes and riddles. After todays performance I read a plot description of Hamlet and was shocked to see how many important things I didn't quite seem to catch. Having some degree of familiarity with the story makes watching the performance much more relaxed, and for me, much more enjoyable.

"Consciousness" in Notes From Underground relate to the goals of the 19th century

The man in Notes from Underground seems to talk a lot about how he is more conscious than others who are living in St. Petersburg and society in general.  He explains that consciousness is not necessarily a good thing.  He says that people who are more active and prominent in society and display less consciousness seem to fair the best.  The man seems to have been somewhat of an introvert throughout his entire life.  I believe that the author Dostoevsky is trying to get the point across the 19th century was a time of technological advancement and changing life as the industrial revolution occurred  and realism flourished.  Through his use of the man, Dostoevsky shows that consciousness and spiritual thinking were not as important as they once were and that sporadic thinking and activity in order to come up with technological advances seemed to be what people during the 19th century were looking for.  The man also appears unconfident as he constantly goes back on what he says and is inconsistent.

The man seems to be somewhat of an existentialist.  He separates himself from others and the technological advancement of the 19th century.  He seems only concerned with his individual self and therefore becomes isolated.