Monday, January 10, 2011

Role of Liza, The Prostitute

Since we haven't fully discussed Liza's role in Notes from Underground in class yet, I thought we could talk about her signifiance on the blog. I believe that Liza's character and her interaction with the young Underground Man serve to justify his withdrawn and defeated personality at age 40. Although it is possible that the Underground Man loved Liza, he was incapable of demonstrating care and affection toward her. Instead, he chastised her. This attack could have been an extremely brutal attempt to save her from debauchery, or rather, a vicious attempt to assert his authority over an individual in order to gain power. In fact, the Underground Man himself expresses this inability to engage in a loving relationship as he explains, "With me loving meant tyrannising and showing my moral superiority...Love really consists in the right – freely given by the beloved object – to tyrannise over her...I did not imagine love except as a struggle. I began it always with hatred and ended it with moral subjugation, and afterwards I never knew what to do with the subjugated object." I believe that the Underground Man's choice to attack such a compassionate person prevents the reader from sympathizing with him. How do you all think Liza adds to the dynamic of the novella?

8 comments:

Julia said...

I agree with you, Samantha, that the Underground Man used Liza to assert power over her. Although he verbally assaults her with cruel words, I still sympathize with the Underground Man because he is so incapable of letting himself connect with others. I think Dostoevsky presents the extreme actions of the Underground Man to depict the effects of living in the world of the 19th century, a time where real connection to others may not be possible.

Samantha said...

I found an article that discusses the archetypical role of the "saintly prostitute" in literature. The author discusses how in both the Bible and in Dostoevsky's works, prostitutes serve as women who guide men to salvation.

http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/studentpapers/Magdalen.shtml

Samantha said...

http://community.middlebury.edu
/~beyer/courses/previous/
ru351/studentpapers/Magdalen.shtml

This is the link. Sorry- it was cut off.

chrissy said...

I think the scene with Liza is sort of ironic. She is the only person we see the Underground Man talk with for a great amount of time. However, the feeling of the scene makes it seem as if human connections can never really happen.

Steven said...

Chrissy is absolutely correct. There is an irony found in his lack of human connection with seemingly the only person with whom he attempts to connect or even talk. I believe his actions come out of Underground Man's selfishness. As mentioned in class, it is very possible that he wants to assert power over someone he feels is weaker than him in order to gain superiority. But at the same time, I believe he also attempts to save her from the madness of prostitution because he feels it will uplift him and will also make him superior to her. However, he approaches this issue incorrectly. His condescending attitude shows his ignorance about prostitution, his lack of understanding that she might not have chosen that lifestyle due to her harsh family problems. In the end, his final action of placing money in her hand shows his lack of development and inability to establish human connections despite all the qualities he possesses as an ideal romantic figure.

Chloe said...

Although he's cruel to Liza, I sympathize with the Underground Man because of his inability to connect with another human being. After he attacks her for being a prostitute, however, we see the Underground Man showing signs of sorrow and apology. By saying that he was "carried away by his own pathos", the Underground Man begins to fall for his own bookish words. His objectives seem unclear, but that's mainly because he doesn't know how to communicate with another person. Liza is the collateral damage of his troubles.

Olivia Celata said...

In reference to Liza, Underground Man states, "You have no idea who this woman is... This means--everything!" Like we mentioned in class today, the Underground Man would be frightened if Liza truly meant everything to him. Having a connection to a person completely goes against everything he has ever known, which of course is based off of a limited perspective. However, out of this fear, the Underground Man missed a life-changing opportunity and became the disordered, forty old man he is in Part I.

Blaine said...

I believe Liza represents the Underground Man's final opportunity to connect with another human being. After the Underground Man humiliates himself in front of his old school mates, he asserts power over a someone inferior in order to make himself feel better. Oddly, the underground Man's words hit home for Liza. She attempts to connect with the underground man but this ends in futility.