Here are some essay answer questions on symbolism in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.

SYMBOLISM IN NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND

Discuss how physical structures named in this short novel represent psychological stances toward the world. Use examples of modern places and people from the twenty-first century to illustrate what you mean. The modern people you use may be yourself, people you know personally, or famous people, such as men and women in the news. Be sure you answer both parts (a) and (b), below.

  1. Discuss the Crystal Palace (pages 1118, 1124), the chicken coop (1124) and the anthill (1123). Be sure you amend what we said in class to suit the structure of this question. Remember to give an example of a contemporary person who "lives life" in each of these structures. In other words, describe someone who has adopted each of these stances toward the world. How successful is that individual's adaptation to modern life? Why?
  2. Discuss the Underground itself. What does the term mean to Dostoevsky? Before you answer, consider the use of the word "underground" on page 1156. List contemporary examples of "undergrounds". (First you'll have to decide what an "underground" really is. Are they places of refuge? Compromise? Retreat? Limited engagement of part of the world? Or what?) Again, describe someone whom you see as living life in a kind of underground. How successful is that individual's adaptation to modern life? Why?

 

 

Trace Dostoevsky's descriptions of "wet snow," beginning with its ironic use as the title of a bad poem on page 1128 and continuing with its use as an actual backdrop for the story (for example, on pages 1152,1154, bottom of 1155, 1156, bottom of 1164, bottom of 1166, 1179-80, and anywhere else where you can find it). Assume that the wet snow represents something abstract. This could be a real problem in the real world, a psychological burden of the narrator, or perhaps even an attitude of the whole society. Show how the "wet snow" affects/obstructs human relationships.

 

 

Discuss the brothel (whorehouse) as a symbol. Begin with the conventional meaning of a brothel and then look at how Dostoevsky has reworked this idea to make a broader, more disturbing statement about modern relationships. What does the Underground Man think he's looking for here? What does he find instead? What does this tell us about what's missing from modern man's life? HINT: To answer this question, pay special attention to page 1155 and pages 1158-9.

 

Several minor characters in this story represent types of successful adjustment to modern society. All are as disturbing as the Underground Man is himself. Explain what adjustment each represents, and why Dostoevsky finds each of these adaptations disturbing. I'm thinking now of Olympia the Prostitute (see page 1152), Zverkov (pages 1139-51), and Apollon the servant (first discussed on page 1142, described on pages 1170-4).

 

SYMBOLISM IN THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH

Ivan Ilyich's death is caused by his obsessive devotion to a place--the house that he regards as the culmination of his professional achievement, his career--the house he alone can decorate. The house represents Ivan himself. He's putting the finishing touches on his life as he decorates it. How does Tolstoy use individual concrete images here to convey the difference between what Ivan thought he was building and what he was really building? See pages 1216-17; compare to page 1206 and page 1228.

 

 

Examine Ivan Ilyich's early interviews with his doctor (pages 1220-1). Examine the frivolous speculations about the "vermiform appendix" on page 1225. The doctors adopt an attitude toward Ivan's illness that's oddly similar to Ivan's own attitude toward life. How does Tolstoy use the phony diagnoses of the doctors to tell us what's wrong with the medical/scientific understanding of life and death?

 

 

Discuss how Tolstoy makes use of the words and gestures of the guests at the funeral in the first chapter to tell us about their beliefs and character.

 

 

Examine the way all of the deathbed guests are dressed on page 1235. What does their dress say about their characters--who they really are?

 

RETURN TO 252 SYLLABUS.