1. The philosophical orientation of Dostoevsky in Notes from Underground is principally nihilism. The tone of the story from the outset indicates the narrator's alienation from society. He describes himself as sick, spiteful, unpleasant, as well as physically frail (Dostoevsky 3), and he can't seem to do enough to prove it. Dostoevsky's annotation of the content with footnotes creates a fictional confessional of Romanticist nihilis and determination to prove the futility of sentiment and comity. The narrator refers to his hopeless predicament and to having no regard or respect for himself, declaring as well that everyone is in the same predicament. That being so, he sees no reason to make a pretense of having anything like a positive regard for his fellow men: "Can a man possessing consciousness ever really respect himself" (Dostoevsky 11). Yet the story shows that the narrator is desperate to be held in high regard and hopeless of being so. He attempts to reach out for friendship--despite insulting the very friends he craves:
"These numbskulls think they're doing me an honor by allowing me to sit with them at their table, when they don't understand that it's I who's done them the honor, and not the reverse. . . . Right now, this very moment, I should stand up, take my hat, and simply leave without saying a single word. . . ."
Of course, I stayed (Dostoevsky 51).
Further, he borrows money, at once bullying and imploring his friend Zverkov for a visit to a house of ill repute. The narrator's attitude toward the prostitute who attends him is by turns contemptuous and solicitous. In one moment he says, "Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn't calculate his happiness. If he figured as he should, he'd see that everyone gets his share" (Dostoevsky 65). He grills her on her unhappy life, noting that he "had turned her soul inside out and had broken her heart . . . It was the sport, the sport that attracted me" (Dostoevsky ...