Reflection of Bakhtin’s Theory into Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground,

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis: A Critical Analysis Through Dialogism, Dialogic

Self-Consciousness, Polyphony and Heteroglossia

By

Shazia Azim Oni

ID- 16103015

A thesis submitted to the Department of English and Humanities in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in English

The Department of English and Humanities

Brac University
September, 2020

© 2020. Brac University

All rights reserved.
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Declaration

It is hereby declared that

1. The thesis submitted is my/our own original work while completing degree at Brac

University.

2. The thesis does not contain material previously published or written by a third party,

except where this is appropriately cited through full and accurate referencing.

3. The thesis does not contain material which has been accepted, or submitted, for any other

degree or diploma at a university or other institution.

4. I have acknowledged all main sources of help.

Student’s Full Name & Signature:

Shazia Azim Oni

ID- 16103015
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Approval

The thesis titled- Reflection of Bakhtin’s Theory into Dostoevsky’s Notes From The

Underground: A Critical Analysis Through Dialogism, Dialogic Self-Consciousness,

Polyphony and Heteroglossia, And Monlogism Versus Dialogism: A Reflection of

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground – is

submitted by Shazia Azim Oni, ID- 16103015 in Summer, 2020 has been acquired as

satisfactory in fragmentary accomplishment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor

of Arts.

Examining Committee:

Supervisor: _______________________________
(Member) Seema Nusrat Amin
Lecturer, Department of English and Humanities
Brac University

Program Coordinator:
(Member) Seema Nusrat Amin
Lecturer, Department of English and Humanities
Brac University

_______________________________
Professor Firdous Azim
Departmental Head:
(Chair)
Professor and Chairperson,
Department of English and Humanities
Brac University
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Acknowledgement

I am very grateful and thankful to my thesis supervisor Ms. Seema Nusrat Amin who has

been an awesome teacher and adviser to guide me throughout the entire process of writing

this thesis. Without her guidance and help it was quite difficult for me to complete this work.

I have learnt a lot from her. Her gentle advice and suggestion inspire me a lot. I am also very

thankful to the chairperson Firdous Azim Miss and Abu Sayeed Mohammad Noman Sir,

Roohi Huda Miss, Anika Saba Miss, Ruksana Rahim Chowdhury Miss for helping me in

learning throughout these 4 years of Brac life. My heartfelt gratitude goes for all them

because it was impossible for me to complete this thesis without the supervision and

encouragement of these faculties.

Thank you Ammu, Abbu, Apu, Vaiya for supporting me. Thank you is not enough for the

sacrifices you did for me. Thanks a lot.

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Abstract

The main goal of this thesis is to discover the reflection of the Russian philosopher Mikhail

Bakhtin’s philosophy of dialogism, dialogic self-consciousness, polyphony, heteroglossia

into Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.

This thesis aims to do a critical analysis of Dostoevsky’s underground man and Franz

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis novella’s protagonist named Gregor through the philosophy of

Bakhtin. It discusses about the characters, themes and narration analysis of Notes From The

Underground and The Metamorphosis. It also aims to find out the similarities between these

two works. In this thesis paper, the phenomenon will be analyzed- Do Mikhail Bakhtin’s

philosophy has a correlation with Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground, Franz

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis through the idea of dialogism, dialogic self-consciousness,

polyphony and heteroglossia? If they do, then- how their discourses are interrelated with each

other? Why dialogism and Dialogic self- consciousness are important in terms of

interaction? In this paper, it will also be discussed- how Kafka is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “the

real life underground man”?

Table of Contents

Declaration................................................................................................................................ii

Approval ................................................................................................................................. iii

Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... v

Introduction: .............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Bakhtin’s Perspective: ............................................................................................................. 4

Dialogism, Polyphony and Heteroglossia in Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground:

.................................................................................................................................................... 6

Bakhtin’s philosophy of dialogism, polyphony, heteroglossia in Franz Kafka’s The

Metamorphosis:...................................................................................................................... 25

Similarities between Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground and Kafka’s The

Metamorphosis:....................................................................................................................... 39

Franz Kafka is Dostoevsky’s ‘The Real Life Underground Man’: .................................. 41

Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................. 46

Works Cited ............................................................................................................................ 49

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Introduction:

Human life is meaningless without doing interactions with others. This ‘other’ means

not only people but also with everything in this world. We are always indulged in dialogues.

Through the perspective of others one person can see one’s outward. We, the people are the

actors in the drama of our own minds. We are driven by our own desires and pulled by the

coincidence of our life. There are some incidents which occur in our life. Sometimes these

incidents are good, leaves a happy memory in our minds. Or, sometimes they come out as a

horrible incidence which leaves a dark mark both in our mind and in our life. Bad experience

of our past life sometimes becomes so sticky that it becomes hard to get rid off from them

and it becomes hard to heal our mind, heart and soul. Bad incident affects us psychologically

and emotionally. Many events happen in our everyday life. These multiple events can be the

consequences of our identification, repressing, suppressing emotions of us and causes

displacement of our position in our life. We are always indulged in dialogues. Through the

perspective of others one person can see one’s outward reflection. One of the most important

literary theorists named Mikhail Bakhtin provides the idea of dialogism, dialogical self-

consciousness, polyphony and heteroglossia in his book named The Dialogical Imagination.

Dialogism can be defined as the multiplicity of perspectives and voices. Moreover, it is also

referred as ‘doubled voiced’. Heteroglossia is a concept through which Bakhtin extends his

analysis of dialogism. It highlights the combination of existing speech genres to compose a

text and it also build up the characteristics of its characters.

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For my research purpose, I have used these four books, they are- Fyodor

Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Mikhail

Bakhtin’s Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics and The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays and

several journal articles from authentic resources.

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Bakhtin’s Perspective:

Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin was associated with Russian formalism which

talks about the functional role of literary devices and its main concept of literary history. For

studying poetic language it has included a scientific method. Bakhtin was working under

Stalinism (it is the ideology of Joseph Stalin-.formal general secretary of communist party of

Soviet Union, associated with the development of communism into-totalitarianism and

centralization. So we can say that he was a controversial figure; even though him and other

formalists formed the Bakhtin circle, where the ‘degeneration’ of the Russian Revolution into

Stalinism posed significant philosophical problems1. Bakhtin gives the idea of a theory which

is placed between structural and constructivist approach to discourse. In constructivist

teaching learning occurs as learners are involved in the process of the composition of

knowledge and meaning which is opposite to passive learning. Bakhtin is a system builder.

The system is not based on the sense of methodological closure. Moreover, it is open-ended

and refuses the idea of isolation. Bakhtin was the most famous and important theorist of

discourse in twentieth century. He gives the value to individualism. In his philosophical

works he states that, every person is unique and irreplaceable. This uniqueness is given to us

whether we want it or not. At the same time, we have to actualize our uniqueness through our

life.

We make our existence meaningful through a particular task by giving it a meaning.

Furthermore, we exist as it is a relationship between incomplete coordinates in space and

time, differentiating and relating to other coordinates. The self does not have fixity, it is
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indefinable. The author Miroud Souad- Alger in her article named “Bakhtin’s Contribution

To The Development Of The Novel” says that a human being cannot be completely disclosed

or known in this universe because it goes through constant changes and unfinalizability.

Moreover, unfinalizability is used to analyze Fyodor Dostoevsky’s works. Fyodor

Dostoevsky is a Russian Novelist. His works are based on human psychology which is

surrounded by problematic spiritual, social and political ambiences of 19th century Russia.

His works are also based on philosophical and religious themes.

After reading Dostoevsky’s work Bakhtin says that Dostoevsky’s works contain many

different voices. It is not constant into a single perspective. Furthermore, it does not even

follow the voice of author. Every voice has its own perspective. Within the novel these voices

have their own validity and their own narrative weight. The author does not interfere between

the character and the reader. It allows its readers to get shock or surprises from its characters.

It is not a single objective world. There is a plurality of consciousness where each has its own

world. The same can be seen in Kafka’s novels, novellas and short stories. Moreover, this

kind of work reflects human psychology which deals with the interaction of unconscious and

conscious elements and thoughts of a person’s mind. It finds out the repressed emotions and

fears of the mind of a person which affects his /her activities, behavior of everyday life and

these fears, emotions affect his /her interaction with others, and our relationship with others.
 Oni 6

Dialogism, Polyphony and Heteroglossia in Dostoevsky’s Notes From

The Underground:

Monology means it is a single voice. Bakhtin says that monological world is an

objectified world where it gives importance to a single and unified authorial consciousness. It

is a discourse in which one point of view is represented. It turns off the process of dialogue

and its potentiality. Whenever and wherever universal truth does not allow any other truth,

monologism appears there. We can link this situation with the Stalinist Russaia where

freedom is absent. At that time the statement of the government is took as pure truth and

nobody have the right to say anything against that. We can see the same situation in Notes

From The Underground. Here, the underground man discusses the 19th century Russian

society and culture which is indulged in anarchy and, for which people were losing their self-

identity, self dignity. It is a society where only fools could prosper in their life and become

successful. Intelligent and intellectual men like him are unable to do anything on their own.

The underground man’s consciousness is so overdeveloped by the surrounding culture that he

does not actually have any character. It is consciousness which constraints him to develop a

character or personality within himself. In the society he is just acting like a puppet not more

than anything. The underground man is unable to share his real feelings with anyone.

Consequence of monologism is very worse. For this hazardous situation Bakhtin finds

a solution. He admires the characteristics of dialogue and dialogism. It permits different

people to speak to their minds. It helps to get rid of that box in which they were imprisoned.
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Though there are restrictions, human being always tries to find a way through which they can

express their thoughts. As monology is a dominant approach which only promotes shared and

universal matters, and refuses diversity that can be present in individuals, Bakhtin gives the

idea of dialogism, because monologism can lead to the expiration of freedom and dialogue.

Dialogism is in contrary to monologism. In dialogism there is no existence of

dominant perspective. Dialogism is an effective way of real life conversation. Here, in

dialogism each character represents their own beliefs, thoughts which relates to or interacts to

the perspectives of other characters. The discourses do not unfold, but interacts with each

other. The nature of human being is that he/she is always in dialogues. In dialogue a human

being wholly participates with his life, with his body, lips, eyes, soul, spirit. Through

dialogues a person interact with what is going on within himself. It is not closed system, it

has to be opened. In an isolated and in dominating environment an individual cannot be

flourished. Dialogism is always searching for answers. Here, the characters talk bluntly,

directly which goes forward for a future answer. The words of the character are anticipating

in the process of find an answer and put the answer into a structure. Bakhtin states that every

person has the nature to take an opposite position against the society and make a personal

opinion out of social interaction. So, there is always a room for arguing in dialogism. Instead

of focusing on unanimous agreement, Bakhtin gives importance to the individual personality

in every cultural group.

In Notes From the Underground we can see that it has two parts named- 1.

Underground and 2. A Propos of the Wet Snow. The first part presents the psychology of the

unnamed underground man. He is the protagonist of this novel. The underground man
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introduces himself to his readers. He lives in isolation. He says that he is a sick and spiteful

man. In addition to that, he says that he is a civil officer who tortures his petitioners. At the

same time, he reverses his statement and says that he is not a spiteful person but he wants to

be. He is suffering from liver disease but he does not take any treatment. He is not aware of

his self identity. He claims that he does not have any character. In his perspective men who

have characters are not intelligent. His consciousness is overdeveloped by his surrounding

culture. He compares himself as an insect. Here, insect is the metaphor for lowness and

insignificant. He considers himself as an insignificant, unloved individual. According to his

opinion, for consciousness people are unable to be anything as they want. He says that all our

actions are determined by the law of nature which destroys the self of an individual. Against

this law of nature consciousness causes humiliation which reminds us our own

powerlessness. However, the underground man finds pleasure in humiliation and sufferings.

Here, we can see that the underground man directly talk to the readers. Dostoevsky does not

place his own narrative voice between the character and the reader in his book. The author

does not interfere between the protagonist and the readers. The underground man shares his

perspectives, feelings. At the same time, he describes the condition of his society and

circumstances. He shares the perspective of Russian-culture and society. He also talks about

the enlightenment theories. In his perspective, enlightenment theories are not applicable in

real life. He talks about the law of nature and consciousness. It is clearly seen that multiple

voices, thinking and perspectives are present in this one novel. It represents the idea of free-

will, existentialism- Bakhtin appreciates this idea (Nesari, “Dialogism versus Monologism: A

Bakhtinian Approach to Teaching”, pg.642). So, we can say that dialogism is present in

Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground. In fact dialogism is the key element of this

novel. Presence of dialogism in Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground is counterpoised

to the monologism.
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The meaning of polyphony is multiple-voices. The author Ali Jamali Nesari in his

article named “Dialogism versus Monologism: A Bakhtinian Approach to Teaching” says

that, “Polyphony is a state which arises in fiction when the particular position of the author

allows a great deal of freedom for interaction among the characters of the story” (645). In

polyphonic novel the characters are given freedom to interact with each other, argue with

each other and even with the author. Different ideologies are available in a polyphonic novel.

There are varieties of conflicting ideologies in a polyphonic novel which altogether create a

voice. Polyphony and dialogue are interchangeable. Bakhtin describes Fyodor Dostoevsky as

a polyphonic writer. In Bakhtin’s perspective Dostoevsky is that polyphonic writer who

invented a new novel genre which has the capability to create a polyphonic world.

Meanwhile, it is also able to destroy the established forms which were in use in monologic

European novels. Polyphonic and dialogic novels are conjugated with each other. Polyphonic

novel get established through dialogic. We can even say that polyphony is the another name

of dialogism. So, it is clear that polyphony is present in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes From

The Underground which is full of multiple voices, perspectives and thoughts produced by a

single narrator.

In the book named The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays Bakhtin creates a term

named heteroglossia. In heteroglossia the language plays in a way that it puts the character in

a diversity of social situations and word views. These are present in every culture. Every

speech carries meaning within itself. Opposite meanings are also present there which develop

their social meaning from its relationship with those alternative meanings. In an

individualistic model ‘May be’ or ‘I think that…’ these kind of statements shows
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unreliability. These are the indication of lack of commitment to the truth by the individual

character. According to the hetereglossic perspective we can say that these phrases also can

indicate the idea of negotiation or come to an agreement to accept the diversity. It can have

no doubt with the uncertainty of the character. It can be an invitation to negotiate with those

who have different opinion. However, this negotiation is based on the circumstance and

social relationship between the speaker (character) and the readers. Heteroglossia creates a

universe which is full of interactions. In this universe a bunch of different perspectives or

voices create not only harmony, but also disharmony. Bakhtin states that a worldwide

dialogue has been formed by the presence of different voices. In heteroglossia, it becomes

problematic when there is an interaction between two people, but both of them face problem

to understand each other. Heteroglossia emphasizes the importance of other person’s

presence in an interaction or conversation.

To describe the discourse of the underground man in Notes From The Underground,

Mikhail Bakhtin says that this discourse is not a lyrical or epic discourse. It is calmly

gravitating towards itself and its referential object- first and foremost one reacts to it,

responds to it and it is drawn into its game. Bakhtin says that there is a game going on in this

text. According to a Freudian perspective on Notes From The Underground, it is considered

that the identity of this book’s protagonist and every single small details about him contains

the key to its solution. It is like a game which is orchestrated by Dostoevsky.

It would be helpful if we focus on Bakhtin’s perspective into the mechanism which is

used to animate the underground man to understand what is going on in this text. With which

the underground man is preoccupied, how and where he is living his life, what is the desire of
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his mind, what he really wants from his life, what are his perspectives towards himself, in

which things he is dependent on, what kind of impressions he gives to the people around him-

all of these questions rise in the readers mind while reading about the underground man. At

the same time, these are the questions which help to form the animated character of the

underground man. According to Bakhtin’s perspective, Dostoevsky’s underground man is not

an objectified image which is created in front of the readers’ eyes. It is an autonomous

discourse. Moreover, it is a pure voice which seems like the underground man is directly

talking to us. He has nobody to hear him, but he has us to listen to his stories; it seems like

we are listening to him attentively as if he is our relative, neighbor or friend. While reading

the book, it really feels like he is sitting in front of us in a chair and telling us about his life.

The underground man’s pure voice operates in a very particular way that it makes us

confused, it raises questions in our mind and we continuously ask ourselves- what is actually

going on? (Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, pg.22)

In Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground, the underground man criticizes the

norms of Russian society, culture and he also criticizes the idea of enlightenment theory. The

underground man is living in the underground for forty years. He is living a life without

standards. Alienation, isolation and suffering give him pleasure. There are many thoughts

which are going on in his head and mind. He is sharing his feelings to his unknown audience

or readers. He hates nature of law, because it creates consciousness within a person for which

he/she is unable to do the things what they want to do. He is a spiteful person, but he does not

have the courage to express his spitefulness to others. He is an honest and completely

unreliable speaker. His own statements contradict with each other. His surrounding

circumstances force him to act like a puppet and make him numb. He does not have the
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ability to interact with others. He is unable to show his empathy, sympathy and emotions to

others.

The underground man most of the time thinks that- what others might think about

himself. He always tries to keep one step ahead of every other consciousness, every other

viewpoint on him, every other perspectives or thoughts about him. In every critical moment,

he admits that he always try to participate in the evaluation of others about him. He guesses

the sense and tones of these evaluations. Continuously he is trying to formulate possible

words to defining himself by others so that he could participate into others perspectives of

himself and interrupt his own speech. Here, he imagines that by doing this he is rejoining

with others. From this constant interaction we can see that the underground man’s life is

genuine.

The underground man does not have the ability to interact with others. And he is

unable to show his empathy, sympathy and emotions to others. He is brutally honest and his

genuine personality is revealed through a dialogic penetration (a theory of communication

which is based on dialogue) which feels free to reveal itself, and combined itself with the

circumstance and people. In Bakhtin’s words, the dialogic penetration of the personality of

the underground man has been revealed in the text. While reading the book, most of the time

we think that the dialogues are between the protagonist and the readers. It is true, but at the

same time we can also see it as an interaction which is going on between a patient and his

analyst. We can also assume a scenario where the underground man is sitting in front of us,

sharing ins and outs of his life and what is going on in his mind; and here we are sitting

beside him, attentively listening to him and it is our job to analyze his personality, among the
 Oni 13

multiple characters which one is the true one of the underground man. We cannot call

ourselves only imaginary listeners. We are also analyzers whose task is to focus on the clues

in order to understand the underground man’s psychic composition which are provided by

Dostoevsky.

As analysts we can see that we have entrance to the superficial manifestations of the

underground man’s dilemma. His anger, his hypersensitivity, low self-esteem, defensiveness,

his confusion about his own identity all of these things are making readers to confuse about

him and it is paradoxical as the underground man is an unreliable speaker. In the second

section of part one of the book, the underground man describes himself as an horribly

sensitive person who is suspicious and easily gets offended like a dwarf or a hunchback, but

he does not have the courage to protest. However, at the same time he again says that he

would have like to have his face slapped. He is saying this seriously and he would have

derived pleasure from this. Naturally for him it would be the pleasure of disappointment.

Here, the underground man uses metaphors like as- the dwarf, the hunchback which is

defined as the deformed beings. He uses these metaphors to criticize himself. Later on, in the

same way he also uses the metaphor of a mouse to make himself low. In this book the main

component is the language. The language is ornamented in such a way so that the protagonist

or the underground man can manipulate the language. He uses the language in such a way

that which attracts the readers or it grabs the concentration of the readers to participate in his

thoughts. A powerful intelligence has been used by the underground man in the book

throughout the narration. He precisely shares his innermost feeling with the readers, but at the

same time he repeatedly goes against his own feelings, ideologies.

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The underground man sometimes offers the insights into his real emotions, but he

again changes his mind as if he realizes that what he said was no right. So, he tries to correct

his previous statement by applying opposite perspective of him. It is confusing and

delusional. Here, we can see that this is the first manifestation of Dostoevsky. Resistance is a

normal part of a psychoanalytic condition. For example- a man goes to a dentist as he is

suffering from an intolerable toothache. But when the dentist comes close to him with a pair

of forceps for uprooting his sick tooth, the man will try to hold the dentist back albeit it is

necessary for him to uproot the sick teeth. Here, it is characterized as the neurotic resistance

where a person harms himself or herself by doing resistance. For instance, a person who is

suffering from bad situations or symptoms will do anything or sacrifice his money, time and

attempts to get himself or herself to free himself from those sufferings, miserable situations

or symptoms. But, this is the same person who goes against another person whose only

intention is to help him or who is helping him. We can relate this above situation with the

underground man. In the second part named “A Propos of The Wet Snow” in Fyodor

Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground we can see that, fifteen years ago, when he was

twenty four years old he wanted to do hangout with his school friends, though he did not have

a good friendship with them. It was his attempt to interact with people, because he became so

lonely that he wanted to change his condition or overcome this loneliness. He tried to interact

with his friends by attending a dinner party. But, unfortunately he was failed. He could not

interact with them. Moreover they insulted him. He felt so useless and low. He was ashamed

of himself.

The underground man was unable to take revenge on them. So, he had chosen a

prostitute or sex worker named Liza to locate his anger on her. Liza got emotionally attached

to the underground man. She fell in love with him. It was the girl named Liza who listened to
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the narrator carefully. She understood his words, his feelings. In this novel, Liza plays the

role of an empathetic human being who is a care-giver. Liza was so concern about his

feelings, his pains. It was Liza’s consciousness about him which makes him to share his

deepest feelings and secrets with Liza. The underground man states that, “Liza had

understood much more than I thought…” (Dostoevsky, pg.189-190). He reveals his deepest

secrets to Liza for not being good enough for the other people- it hurts him, makes him feel

low. In front of Liza he opposes to the crux of his troubled existence. He cannot be good for

some reasons, for his surrounding circumstances and situation, but he wants to be good. He

felt sad and said that, “I cannot be good” (190). It was Liza who was empathetic towards him

and she embraced the underground man. It represents her dialogic consciousness towards his

feelings. She patiently listens to him and participates in his narrative. It exemplifies the

benefits of dialogic consciousness. She responds to him with empathy.

However, in return the underground man brutally insulted her, humiliated her. When

Liza went to the apartment of the underground man, he became anger by assuming that his

low standard living makes him inferior in front of Liza. He felt very embarrassed and became

angry on Liza. It was his over consciousness which made him feel low in front of Liza,

though in reality his hypothesis was wrong as Liza was in love with him. After getting

intimated with Liza, he gave her money to make her feel insulted and told her to leave his

apartment. By hearing this from him Liza was shocked and broken. Liza did not take his

money and she did not even say a single word or protest against his humiliation towards her.

She just left with a broken heart as she was in love with him.
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The underground man realizes that what he did with Liza was not fair, he hurt her.

Then he ran after her to ask for her apology. But, after a while he thought that it is better not

to talk with her anymore. As a sympathetic and an empathetic person, Liza gets involved with

this unsolvable puzzle of the underground man, though she was unable to solve the problem

of his existential crisis. She wanted to help him, but the underground man does not let her to

help him. His interaction with Liza was unsuccessful. He did not want to understand the

perspective of Liza. This is the problem which is stated in Heteroglossia.

The underground man shares many beliefs, perspectives and views of society, nature

of law and enlightenment ideologies. He actually takes opposite position to these discourses.

He represents his own ideology and perspectives, but at the same time he also contradicts

about himself. He feels so low about himself. He thinks that he is so insignificant he does not

deserve anyone’s attention, affection and love. Presence of multiple thoughts, perspectives,

an interaction between those thoughts; an interaction with the surrounding circumstance;

opposition of an individual out of social interaction, harmony, disharmony of thoughts, a

room of arguments; difficulties to interact with others- everything is present in Notes From

The Underground which are the main discourses of heteroglossia. So, we can say that

heteroglossia is present in Notes From The Underground.

The underground man speaks about and represents the ideas of human interactions. At

the same time, he is forming a relationship between him and his readers (imaginary

audiences). The narrator is unnamed. He is only known as the underground man. The

underground man addresses his readers as imaginary or invisible audience who are also part

of this novel. The readers play the role of insightful or sensible authority, they have higher
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morality. He represents Bakhtin’s dialogic self-consciousness through deviating and

undeviating discourses with all these entities. Though an ever changing disharmony of

meaning is present in Notes From The Underground, the underground man discovers that this

literary form gives him meaning of his thoughts. Unity does not mean uniqueness. It means

integrity, completeness or wholeness. When each other holds together- this is called unity.

The underground man is a tragic anti-hero. His alienation or dividedness is the root or source

of his suffering. It is also the root of his consciousness. The author Shreya jalali in her article

named “Mapping Meanings in Motion: Dostoevsky's "Notes From Underground" and

Bakhtin's Dialogic Self-Consciousness as a Model for Clinical interaction” Says that, “The

underground man’s theoretical harangues are observed in practice when he meets with a

sympathetic prostitute Liza” (1). In this final interaction with Liza the identity is dialogic and

this form is so crucial to discover the meaning.

Fyodor Dostoevsky explains the paradoxical nature of human being in his novel Notes

From The Underground. The unnamed narrator- the underground man says that the

nineteenth century intellectual is groaning because they are suffering from unbearable

toothache. Soon his groans are becoming stentorian and disobliging. All of a sudden, the

person comes to know that by doing this he is not helping himself. He clearly knows that by

his moans he is actually torturing and infuriating others for nothing. In all this abasement

there is a voluptuous pleasure which the person feels. The underground man’s own resistance

is intellectual in nature. In the first part of the novel, we can see that the underground man is

so enthusiastic to draw an image of his personality, but often he contradicts with himself. He

discusses about achieving free will which is the ultimate goal of his life. Along with that he

describes the situations around himself and expresses his historical acumen by telling about

the condition of United States. There are some times when he talks about his emotions and
 Oni 18

feelings and there are some other times when he runs away from his own feelings by

changing the topic. He is repressing, eliminating or crushes his own feelings and emotions.

In the novel the underground man says that mouse-hole dwellers like him should be

kept out of the way. People like him may spend forty years sitting under the floor in isolation,

but once they get out of it they will continuously talk without stopping. Here, he is saying

that how lonely he is in this underground where he has nobody to talk or interact with. It is

the hopefulness of the sad inner voice of a ‘mouse-dweller’ like him who really wishes to

change this condition, remove, eliminate or erase this alienation, isolation and wants to

interact or communicate with others in a good way. But the problem is that he fears to

express himself. He fears about the perspective of others about himself, because it has stuck

in his mind that people always take him negatively, they do mock about him. He considers

himself as good for nothing.

The readers are moved by the pain of the underground man. Actually the thing is that

he is manipulating his readers, he is playing with the minds of his readers. He is inviting them

to participate in his biography and at the same time repeal an emotional involvement within

the readers. In the fifth section of this novel, we can see that the narrator shares a childhood

memory which is painful for him. He says that he was punished by his father for a mistake

which he did not even do. This was insulting for him to accept the punishment. Still he kept

quiet and accepted the punishment. He could not say that “Sorry, Papa. I will never do it

again”. It was not like that he did not want to say it. He wanted to say it, but instead of saying

it he just took the blame on him with which he had nothing to do. He was deeply moved. He

repented because of his weakness- not to protest against his father and he cried.
 Oni 19

The underground man’s resistance of his early feeling transforms this early feeling

into the form of low self-esteem, denial and anger. His father was to be blamed who inspired

contradictory feeling of exasperation and compunction in his son who was only an innocent

child who was unable to distinguish between right and wrong, who did not even know what

was right and what was wrong. It makes him sick to remember this memory of his past. All

those repentances, promises of reform, emotional outbursts- everything was just a lie for him

as he did not do anything wrong. These were all fake, all pretentious and nothing but

nauseating lies. The feeling of childhood turns into anger in adulthood. This anger is directed

inward towards himself, instead of towards his father. May be for this reason, he compares

himself with the mouse, the dwarf and the hunchback. Every single day the underground man

is suffering from self-torment, low self-esteem and self-doubt.

At the very beginning in introduction, the unnamed narrator says us that he is a sick

man, spiteful man, mean man. After this childhood incident we can say that he was made a

sick child too. In this case, we can say that the underground man’s interaction with his

imaginary audience or readers is determined by his interaction with his father. He locates his

anger on his readers or imaginary audiences. He also does the same thing with Liza. He

makes his imaginary audience in his head to bear the burden of his endless attacks. In the

novel he states that he wishes to stick his readers into a mouse-hole for forty years. He wants

to see how they will feel living in a mouse-hole like him. He asks his readers- Is it

permissible to leave a man alone in the underground for forty years? He throws these angry

words at his readers which he wanted to do with his father instead of saying him sorry. But,
 Oni 20

at that time he could not do this. His weakness or inability to express his feelings makes him

sick.

Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin says about the underground man that what he

(the underground man) fears the most is that other people may think he feels remorse, he is

repenting in front of someone, may be on the basis of someone else’s evaluation he is

reconciling himself, he needs the acceptance, recognition and affirmation by others for his

self-affirmation, or he is asking forgiveness in front of someone. All of these are directed into

the one way, it is happening because he is anticipating the other people’s response. It is not

only about his childhood, it is about that unsolved feeling which he could not solve and he

carries it with him into adulthood. This enactment of unsolved feelings is symptom of a

unique type of resistance. This resistance is called transference. In resistance a person recalls

or repeats the emotional impulses, abusive scenarios, attitudes from his past life. He uses this

as a resistance to go against those people who comes forward to help him. In the case of

transference if the person is male, he obtains this thing from the relation to his father. He fits

others in the place of his father. By doing this he makes a resistance against them. After that,

he feels free and becomes independent in himself. So, we can say that the underground man’s

desire for free will was derived from that childhood conflict which was related or associated

with his father. About the underground man Bakhtin says that his (the underground man’s)

reaction towards other’s perspectives, discourses or consciousness is an extraordinary

dependence for him. However, concurrently it initiates uttermost hatred, hostility towards

others. He shows refusal to accept other’s judgment. The underground man’s impassioned

arguments for free will expressed his desire for being independent. It has infected with his

unresolved feelings of his past life towards which he has a dependency.

 Oni 21

In Notes From The Underground the important element of the narration is that this is

unsteady, continually in process and the narrator is unreliable. It is in first person narrative

form. The narrative form is blatantly formed around the voices of several implied others. The

underground man frequently digs into the second person thinking to explain this, “I bet that is

just how you think. But let me reassure you, ladies and gentlemen: I do not care in the least

what you may think, but I have not really been slapped” (Dostoevsky, 92). Bakhtin says that

it is an endless dialogue which is actually heading towards infinity or limitlessness. Here

one’s viewpoint towards oneself is inextricably interlinked with one’s viewpoint or attitude

towards another- Bakhtin gives the name of this term as dialogic self-consciousness.

Gathering of inharmonious voices altogether compose a narrative which gives the idea of

‘Self’ and ‘Others’. Here, the narrator anticipates in other’s perspective, it is a vicious cycle

in which he is trapped in. In this case, one can neither be finished nor be finalized. At this

point, Bakhtin does not seem to approve this process as a productive capability which appears

as opposition to Dostoevsky’s narrative strategy. Moreover, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ‘the

underground man’ is that character who is psychologically palpable. The humanity of the

underground man has been resided by the painful memory of his past life. From this we get

the answer why the underground man calls himself as a mouse. In the novel, the unnamed

narrator tells his readers to assume that the mouse is being constantly humiliated by others.

The mouse desires to avenge itself. Because of its intensified consciousness it repudiates the

justice of it. As the poor mouse was being stigmatized at the very beginning, it starts to mire

itself with more mud because of its doubts and questions. There is a lethal pool of adhesive

mud which is consisting of torments and doubts of the mouse, and the spit of gobs which is

aimed by the practical men of action. The men are standing around that lethal pool like a

dictator or a judge and vigorously laughing at the poor mouse.

 Oni 22

The underground man divulges both his anger and pain by using the mouse as a

metaphor. It is a paltry being which is relative to the men of action and the authority. The

authority is objectifying the mouse, spitting, mocking as well as laughing at it. From this

description the imaginary audience or readers can hear, visualize and feel the sufferings of

the underground man. The underground man says that, with a contemptuous smile the mouse

is shrugging its puny shoulders and disgracefully scampers towards its mouse-hole. The

derided, downtrodden mouse plunges in to a virulent, cool as well as never ending loathing in

its evil-smelling, disgusting nest. The mouse is continuously tormenting, torturing and

taunting itself. It will not take revenge on that person who hurt him. However, it will hurt

himself a hundred times instead of taking revenge on others. Here, he is describing his own

mental situation. He is representing Bakhtin’s dialogic self-consciousness (it is a literary form

which gives meaning to the existence of the character through a dialogic interaction between

‘Self’ and the ‘Others’) through deviating and undeviating discourses. Furthermore, though

an ever changing disharmony of meaning is present in Notes From The Underground, the

underground man discovers that this literary form gives him meaning of his thoughts. Unity

does not mean uniqueness. It means integrity, completeness or wholeness. When each other

holds together- this is called unity. The underground man is a tragic anti-hero. His alienation

or dividedness is the root or source of his suffering. Moreover, it is also the root of his

consciousness.

The author Shreya jalali in her article named “Mapping Meanings in Motion:

Dostoevsky's "Notes From Underground" and Bakhtin's Dialogic Self-Consciousness as a

Model for Clinical interaction” Says that, “The underground man’s theoretical harangues are
 Oni 23

observed in practice when he meets with a sympathetic prostitute Liza” (1). In this final

interaction with Liza the identity is dialogic (it means a communication which is presented in

form of dialogue) and this form is so crucial to discover the meaning. In this novel the

important element of the narration is that this is unsteady, continually in process and the

narrator is unreliable. Furthermore, it is in first person narrative form. The narrative form is

blatantly formed around the voices of several implied others.

According to the perspective of the underground man being rational means pervade

the society. He takes the unadulterated irrationality of human behavior to an extreme level. In

Notes From The Underground he says that, “What do I care about the laws of nature and

arithmetic if I have my reasons for disliking them” (Dostoevsky, 93). He again states that, “I

do not have to accept a stone wall just because it is there and I do not have the strength to

breach it” (93). That is why, for him everything is a mess which is impossible to define what

is actually what. . Here, the underground man also criticizes the law of nature. He thinks that

law of nature reminds human being about his/her weakness in front of the nature. Just

because nature of law is obvious, it does not mean that the underground man has to abide by

the law of nature or respect it. He thinks like that.

Bakhtin suggests that loophole is present in this narrative form. Loophole means that

it is one’s retentiveness through which he/she alters the final or conclusive meaning of his/

her words. It is responsive and at the same time contrary to the evaluation of oneself made by

another. The loopholes create unclosed tones. These unclosed tones make the character

ambivalent or ambiguous and elusive for others and also for him, for which every single time

he contradicts and he is confused about himself. The main thing of this novel is the
 Oni 24

underground man’s identity. Here, the identity and consciousness both are dialogic. He

argues that an intelligent man does not have any personality or definite identity, by saying

this he proves that he does not even identify or think himself as a definite feature. The

underground man says that only fools can prosper in life and by doing this they finalize their

identity. We can say that it is his monologic achievability.

Here, in the novel the underground man states that, “Even if I do address myself to

invisible readers, I do it only because it makes it easier for me to write…” (116). He is

confronting his own methodology or ideology. His main focus is on the narrative. The

underground man is composing a narration which is contradictory and paradoxical. However,

through this narrative form or narration, he is trying to discover a deeper meaning of his life.

His focus is not in the audience. He considers them as a part of the process of story-telling or

telling his own biography.

In Notes From The Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky aims to understand and provide

the impulsion for morality. His focuses is on the understanding of ‘Self’ which takes place in

relation to others. This is the reflection of Bakhtin’s theory of “dialogic self-consciousness”.

Repeatedly changing nature of the identity, plurality of the narrative, relativism -all of these

make a correlation between Bakhtin’s “dialogic self-consciousness” and Fyodor

Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground. The underground man concludes and states

that, “Left alone with literature, we immediately become entangled and lost…” (195).

Literature is all about narration, narrative. Moreover, this narrative interact with oneself,

others and life as whole.

 Oni 25

Bakhtin’s philosophy of dialogism, polyphony, heteroglossia in Franz

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis:

After knowing the story of the underground man we can relate his life with the

famous author Franz Kafka who is a German-speaking Bohemian famous novelist. Franz

Kafka was the most prolific and expressive practitioner in history. The famous modernist

author Virginia Woolf called him as “the human art”. Franz Kafka was successfully able to

expose the dominance and power of politics, science, technologies during the European post

wars through the medium of fiction in a symbolic form. In addition to that, he was able to

observe the horrendous and nightmarish existential implications of power and the potentiality

of this power is to transmute human existence into a possibility. Among Franz Kafka’s many

famous works, The Metamorphosis novella is one of his best known works which was

published in 1915.

The story of this novella is about a commercial traveler named Gregor Samsa. One

day in the morning while waking up from strained dreams, he finds himself metamorphosed

into a gigantic insect with numerous legs. As everything turns out to be strange, he becomes

perplexed and startled. The story is mainly told by Franz Kafka through the perspective of

Gregor Samsa, as if the narrator were planted with Gregor’s human consciousness inside

Gregor’s insect body. Though the story is not told in Gregor’s own voice, it is all from

Gregor’s viewpoint. The story is told from a third person limited perspective but Franz

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis actually follows the discourse of Dialogism, polyphony and

heteroglossia. The author Ali Jamali Nesari in his article named “Dialogism versus

Monologism: A Bakhtinian Approach to Teaching” mentions that, the Professor Christopher

 Oni 26

B. Hays in his article named “The Silence of the Wives: Bakhtin’s Monologism and Ezra 7-

10; Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination Consultation” says that- “monologic discourse is a

discourse in which only one point of view is represented, however diverse the meaning of

representation (Hays, 2005p.7)” (Nesari, 642). In his paper he also mentions that- the

philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin in his book named Problems of Dostoevsky states that "a

monologically understood world is an objectified world, a world corresponding to a single

and unified authorial consciousness" (Nesari, 642).

In Mikhail Bakhtin’s opinion, whenever and wherever universal truth statements

appear, monologism emerges there. He links this situation to the time of Renaissance Europe.

Its great focus on a view of aesthetics as beauty and truth as opposed to the carnivalesque

state of medieval society. Bakhtin contends that during medieval era truth was eluded and

censured by popular culture when they used satiric dialogue characterized by burlesque,

satire and laughter (Bakhtin, 1986 p.68). As Bakhtin was living in Stalinist Russia, he was

very much aware of the inauspicious outcomes of monologism because during that time

freedom was at a loss. The statements and orders of government were construed as truth and

nobody was permitted to say anything against it. Bakhtin finds a solution for this hazardous

situation and the solution was to cherish the considerable attributes of dialogue and

dialogism.

Dialogue and dialogism have the potentiality for permitting different people to speak

their minds and get out of the box in which they were trapped. The professor of Cultural

Theory and Intellectual History named Craig Brandist in his article named “Bakhtin, Cassier

and Symbolic Forms- Radical Philosophy” mentions that philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin

practices this kind of approach with his secret group called ‘Bakhtin Circle’ (Brandist, 2002,
 Oni 27

p.56). It clearly shows that Bakhtin used to believe that despite of all the restrictions people

would always find a way to express their feelings and individual frame of thoughts. So we

can say that in modern educational situation a monologic approach is the dominant approach

which assists a shared and universal meaning and at the same time disregard the differences

that may be exist among distinct individuals. The author Eugene Matusov argues in his article

named “Applying Bakhtin Scholarship on Discourse in Education: A Critical Review Essay”

by saying that- as there is always another perspective present in a class, teaching can never be

monologic. But the attention which governments give to education is an obvious sign of

monologism (Matusov, p.220).

According to Bakhtin’s opinion, monologism turns off the process of dialogue and its

potential. Though the story of The Metamorphosis is told in third person narration, the

narrator Franz Kafka actually uses the philosophy of Bakhtin’s Dialogism, polyphony and

heteroglossia so that he can express the protagonist’s thoughts, feelings, perspectives, agony

in a magical imaginative way. The style of writing The Metamorphosis is so unique that the

intellectuals have created the adjective ‘Kafkaesque’ so that they can describe anything

reminiscent of Kafka’s uncommon works.

The third person limited perspective of The Metamorphosis permits the audiences to

get in the protagonist’s head and perceive what happens outside his room. The physical

change of Gregor Samsa happens overnight which becomes very challenging for Gregor and

his family. As the story is apprising in third person limited perspective that means the

narrator is not a character in the story. Here, the narrator is telling the story from a

knowledgeable site and he is able to dive enormously into one character’s feelings, thoughts

and circumstances to better acknowledge his point of view.

 Oni 28

Franz Kafka chooses to continue a singular focal point on Gregor for most of the

novella with hasty switches to other characters’ point of views. The audiences or readers are

able to experience the dreadful metamorphosis with Gregor through his eyes. The story of

this novella opens with the line “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious

dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug”

(Kafka, pg.3). Therefore, the tale will continue to unfurl mainly through the feelings,

thoughts and perspective of Gregor. It is appropriate that the viewpoint focuses on Gregor,

since he is the protagonist. Because of the perspective, the readers get engaged with his

isolation alongside him. It makes the readers understand his (Gregor’s) circumstances along

with him. When Gregor feels a sensation, the narrator notifies the readers about the sensation

in advance to letting them know what that means. For example, the readers get a feeling of

Gregor’s hunger and newfound disgust for foods once he used to love. The readers are able to

see his inner condition through this perspective and they can feel his distress, pain, misery,

isolation.

Now after Gregor’s physical metamorphosis, his family despises him for whom he

has been working in a humdrum job for so long. Through Gregor’s thoughts, the readers can

feel his hopelessness and anguish at approaching to these realizations. Not only the readers

but also the narrator of this story moves beyond Gregor’s perspective as if the narrator

himself experience these sufferings before. The narrator takes a place in the opposite side of

the door where Gregor never goes after the genesis of the story. Moreover, it is through the

narrator who is focusing on the events outside Gregor’s room so that the readers can observe

the events which are hidden from the protagonist. The narrator successfully reveals Gregor’s
 Oni 29

family’s reactions to his unorthodox condition. Through his family’s eyes the readers are able

to see their hesitation, fear, confusion and ascending revulsion for Gregor’s physical state.

Franz Kafka thoroughly uses the device ‘character’s inner condition analysis’ which

turns characters’ speech from a narrative function into a plot where the words of a text can be

rephrased from within. During the Bildungsroman tradition for the expansion and explanation

of the plotted tasks, extended verbal interpolations serve as an engine which intensifies the

epic narrative world and extensively presents a viewpoint that will be included into

biographical trajectory (traditional overdetermination and individualization). Furthermore,

Bildungsroman is a German literary genre which concentrates on the psychological and moral

growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood in which the changes of character is very

important. This kind of work contains the tale of the growing up of a sensitive person who

searches for answers to his questions through disparate experiences.

Though Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis starts with Gregor Samsa discovering

himself turned into a grotesque varmint in his bed, at this stage the transformation is

psychologically incomplete and it allows the author to lead a philosophical observation or

inception of the nature of individuality, personhood, identity and self. In his novella Franz

Kafka provides the nature of the query which is noteworthy and it proves that Kafka also

provides a polyphonic, dialogic work which is an example of what the philosopher Mikhail

Bakhtin has called ‘heteroglossia- the opposed voices’, instead of offering a monologic

elucidation. The author Kevin W. Sweeney in his article named “Competing Theories of

Identity in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis” says that, “Since Kafka does not privilege any one

theoretical perspective, the reader is encouraged to undertake what Giles Deleuze and Felix

Guattari have called an ‘experimentation’, a process which involves a recognition of the

 Oni 30

inadequacy of the respective opposed theories and an acknowledgement of the unresolved

nature of the debate” (Sweeney, pg.23). This statement means that, as Franz Kafka does not

specify any theoretical perspective, the readers take on the theory named ‘experimentation’

(according to Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari)- it is a process in which insufficiency of the

opposed theories exist and at the same time the unsettled nature of the debate also exist. It is

the novella’s tripartite structure which helps the readers in this process of experimentation. In

the novella in every single section the protagonist named Gregor Samsa strives to leave his

room only to be driven back into it. Thought it is happening in a repetitive way, each section

of this novella moves along with an opposing and different philosophical theory about the

nature of the ‘self’ and the preservation of individual identity.

The first section of the novella The Metamorphosis presents a dualist inception of the

person- Gregor is aware of being disembodied from his original body and at the same time he

is being imprisoned into an alien organism. Furthermore, in the second part materialist and

behaviorist perspectives confronts the previous theory. Eventually, in the third part both

theories are countered by a social constructionist theory of the self and individual identity. In

the first part of this novella the author highlights Gregor’s awareness and he also highlights

Gregor’s capacity for rational or intellectual thinking and deliberation. For instance, Gregor

hesitates swaying his new gigantic body off the bed by thinking that, “he had better not for

the life of him lose consciousness…[yet] the most rational thing was to make any sacrifice

for even the smallest hope of freeing himself from the bed” (Kafka, pg-7). The author Franz

Kafka let his readers to enter into Gregor’s internal conscious life. This helps the readers to

have empathy and sympathy for Gregor’s miserable life and the readers can understand the

logic behind his behavior. This perspective of the author shows the readers that Gregor is

spaciously segregated from his family. The family members of Gregor are excluded from
 Oni 31

sharing his trauma as they beg him to open the locked door outside his room and it indicates

that something is going wrong in the room. The locked room of Gregor is a regular or usual

human room which becomes a philosophical metonymy for his individual mentality. His

dilemma symbolizes the philosophical complication of other minds and it also includes

inferring the existence of a mind from outward behavior and physical phenomenon.

After going through physical transformation, Gregor’s voice have changed so

drastically that when he is explaining why he missed the train to his office manager and

family, his voice sounds like an animal to everyone. That is why after hearing his voice the

manager says to Gregor’s family that, “Did you understand a word?... That was the voice of

an animal (Kafka, pg.13). It makes Gregor realize that though his speech seems clear to him,

it is incomprehensible to the people outside his door. After this realization, Gregor starts to

lose his conviction in his personal unification or integrity and now a metaphysical barrier

segregates him from other people. Gregor’s family and office manager also have the

confusion about the rationality of his actions. As everyone is unable to comprehend the

reason behind lock himself by the door, the office manager tells Gregor through the door that,

“I thought I knew you to be a quiet, reasonable person and now you suddenly seem to want to

start strutting about, flaunting strange whims” (Kafka, pg.11). From this statement of the

office manager it is clear that, both his family and the office manager think that his behavior

is irrational and out of the character. When Gregor finds out his family is calling a locksmith

and a doctor, he predicts by thinking that, “Integrated into human society once again and

hoped for marvelous, amazing feats from both the doctor and the locksmith, without really

distinguishing sharply between them” (Kafka, pg.13). It is Gregor’s perspective that the

locksmith will not only erase the barrier but also it will introduce him into the human and

personal province again.

 Oni 32

The perspectives of the family, office manager and Gregor confirm his status and

place as a person in his family and the work place. All of these perspectives indicate that this

novel The Metamorphosis follows the philosophy of dialogism. According to Bakhtin’s

dialogism, here we can notice that each characters of this novel are representing their own

thoughts and beliefs which interact with the perspective of other characters. The discourses

are interacting with each other. Though the third person narration exists, the characters are

also in dialogues. Here, there are many opposed, different voices and perspectives going on

in the head of Gregor. Moreover, the circumstances of Gregor and his surrounding people

represent opposed beliefs and thoughts- it is the indication of polyphony. As the meaning of

polyphony is multiple voices, here we can see that the author allows freedom for interaction

among the characters of this novel. Here, we can notice different ideologies are available.

In the novella, the family and the manager become more assured of Gregor’s

irrational behavior, while he opens his door and discloses himself. Everyone becomes afraid

of his insect epiphany. According to their opinion, Gregor’s appearance into the living room

is considered as a disgraceful behavior. Gregor’s father drives his loathsome insect body into

his bedroom by wielding the manager’s cane and trampling his foot. At this situation, for the

family and the manager Gregor’s rational persuasion is considered as unsuitable. Here, the

readers can notice that, no mercy, sympathy or empathy is shown towards Gregor for his

metamorphosed physical condition. Although his father is stamping his foot more forcefully,

Gregor humbly turn his head and accept the humiliation and abandonment from his family.

The family leaves him all alone with his sufferings in the room. Their response towards

Gregor’s illness is a compromise. They accept the insect as Gregor and they believe that
 Oni 33

when he recovers he will be fine again. His father and mother constantly ask his sister

whether his physical condition has shown some improvement or not.

The author shows us that Gregor is not happy at all with his insect body. He cannot

act according to his choice, he cannot unlock his door, is unable to leave his bed because of

the carapace. Moreover, he does not have any answers for the questions of his family. He

finds out that he has many little legs and he is unable to control them. Actually, he is lacking

mental control over his new insect body. The insect body of Gregor is giving rise to a new

character of its own which is interrupting the integrity or unification of his original character.

For example, in the first section of this novel the readers can see that Gregor starts to break

his jaws at some coffee spilling from an overturned pot after entering into the living room

(Kafka, pg.18). His apprehensive reaction towards his father’s hissing is another proof of his

new insect behavior which is mentioned in the novel while he hisses himself with anger

(Kafka, pg.44). In the second part of this novel, when Gregor’s insect body is permitted to act

in its own natural way rather than being enforced to stand upright in a human poster, he feels

well. The antenna of his insect body helps him to crawl up the bedroom walls and he starts to

like it for hanging from the roof. Gradually he finds out the advantages his antenna (Kafka,

pg-31-32). Moreover, his appetite gets changed. Once he loved to drink milk but now milk

becomes a disgusting food to him. Now he prefers to eat rotting tomatoes, leftovers, a slice of

cheese-which is uneatable (Kafka, pg. 24).

It is mentioned in the novella that, “From day to day he saw things even a short

distance away less and less distinctly” (Kafka, pg.29). The range of Gregor’s vision reduces

and simultaneously his sense of connection with the outside world decreases. He gradually

starts to isolate himself from everything and forgets to notice the passage of time (Kafka,
 Oni 34

pg.47). His mental and emotional condition and reaction change often in such a way that he

cannot even comprehend them. He begins to get afraid of those things which would not make

any harm to him. Along with this, he discovers that the empty high ceiling of his bedroom in

which he is enforced to lie flat on the floor makes him feel nervous, but he does not know the

reason why does feel nervous (Kafka, pg. 23). He also feels this same nervous, panicked,

uneasiness when his sister cleans his room (Kafka, pg. 30). Here, the readers can notice that

Gregor is going through an internal war which is going on within his mind and head.

Sometimes he feels good, sometimes he feels sad, nervous. There are opposing thoughts

which are constantly debating with themselves. So, according to polyphony and dialogism it

is proved that there are multiple voices, thoughts and beliefs which are making conflicts

within Gregor and making the readers confused about his mental condition. Furthermore,

multiple voices, opposing beliefs and thoughts are giving rise to numerous questions in his

mind and they are triggering him to search authentic answers for these rising questions.

In the second part of this novella the readers can notice that Gregor is crawling to

bedroom door as he gets attracted to the smell of the food (Kafka, pg.21). Actually Gregor is

acting from his animal instinct and his self awareness is decreasing gradually. It is the

unhurried replacement of his previous personality. When Gregor mentions that he prefers to

eat leftover slice of cheese which is uneatable at the same time he also asks himself that does

he become less sensitive (Kafka, pg.24)? Thus, the readers are able to notice that gradually

Gregor’s character is becoming delusional and it provokes the reader to question about

Gregor’s actual identity. He is feeling worried for not being able to support his family. When

Gregor’s sister is moving furniture out of his bedroom in order to give him more space for

crawling, by giving objection the mother says that the view of the empty wall is

heartbreaking. After hearing his mother’s objection, Gregor feels that his feeling does not
 Oni 35

match with his mother as he wants the furniture to be moved out of his bedroom. It makes

him realize that something has been removed from his life. Furthermore, he perceives that he

is standing on the verge of forgetting his human past (Kafka, pg.33). Gregor understands that

his new preferences and attitudes are in clash with his human past. His consciousness and

understanding are in conflict with his present insectile character. The protagonist Gregor is

rather beautifully grotesque by the narrator.

Gregor’s insect state and behavior are newly initiated, they do not arise from his past

life, and they are free from his human past. Nonetheless, his awareness is related to his

human past. Moreover, Gregor’s both human character and insect character are not joined,

there is no united personality that combines both human and insect attributes. In

consequence, the transformed Gregor is fissured into two characters instead of a unified

‘self’. Moreover, both characters are conflicting with each other while jointly existing in the

same body and it is an unresolved clash. In this novel the author and narrator Kafka preserves

the opposition and tension among Gregor’s identities. Gregor sometimes acts as a self-

conscious person, sometimes he acts as an instinctual organism and several times he wants to

behave like a social person. But he becomes a ‘shadow being’ who is trying to maintain

himself in a disintegrating family relationship. According to Bakhtin’s philosophy of

polyphony, there are many different ideologies existing in Gregor’s head and they are

continuously opposing, clashing with each other. For this reason Gregor’s mind is changing

drastically, making him as well as the readers confused about his condition. Therefore, we

can say that Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a polyphonic novella. Moreover, we can

see in the novella that Kafka sets the narration in such a way that where every character is

indulged in their own dialogues and their dialogues are interacting with each other.

Furthermore, the dialogues of Gregor, for example- “I have to deal with the problems of
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travelling, the worries about train connections, irregular bad food, temporary and constantly

changing human relationships which never come from the heart…” (Kafka, pg. 4) – here the

protagonist is talking to himself and at the same time he is sharing his feelings and thoughts

with the readers. The narrator allows his protagonist to share his beliefs with the readers and

at the same time the narrator himself describing Gregor’s thoughts. So, we can say that, here

Gregor is also directly talking with his invisible readers through his own dialogues and it is

noticeable that he is unable to express his feelings with his family members, so it seems like

he chooses to share his insights with the readers.

In the final section of this novella named The Metamorphosis, the author represents

Gregor as an individual who is constituted by certain social relationships. Though he

maintains psychological continuity, he fails to preserve those relationships which gradually

destroy his individual entity. It is not only Gregor’s peculiar behavior which is to be blamed

for being obstacle to his self validation and social integration. Here, the family’s reaction

towards Gregor’s metamorphosed body also plays a very major role. If his family would take

his transformed physical condition in an easy way and shows sympathy, empathy towards

him, he would never feel nervous, anxious and lose self-confidence. If they would accept

him, listen to him carefully, then his self could be maintained and saved from being eroded.

However, as his family or closed ones reject Gregor and refuse to hear from him, his identity

begins to fall apart with the self-constituting ties. Here, we can also observe that, Gregor is

very much conscious about what others are thinking about him.

In the middle of the novella, the readers can observe that although Gregor is going

through mental and physical difficulties, he tries to make everything normal with his family

by being patient. Nevertheless, he fails to convince them and makes himself isolated which
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convince his family to believe that Gregor is unable to understand their words or speech.

Though Gregor’s sister Grete tries to keep a communication with him, but it does not last so

long as at the end of the day he is just a monster to them.

When Gregor’s father is suggesting that they could come into an agreement if Gregor

could understand them, in reply Grete says that they should get rid of the idea that it is

Gregor. For so long they believe that it is their misfortune. If it was their Gregor, he would

realize the fact a long ago that it is impossible for human beings to live with this kind of

creature and he would go away on his free will. Then they would not have a son and a

brother. However they would be able to continue living their life and remember his memory

(Kafka, pg.52). Gregor’s family can neither maintain the family bond with him nor establish

a new one as they cut off the communication with him.

The death of Gregor in the next early morning is an act of brotherly consideration. As

he realizes the hopelessness of his situation, the readers can assume that he commits suicide

consciously. He no longer wants to live segregated from his loving ones and that is why he

finally starves himself to death. In the novella, the narrator says that Gregor is thinking about

his family with deep love and emotion, and it is his conviction which makes him believe that

if possible he should be disappeared for the betterment of his parents and sister (Kafka,

pg.54). Furthermore, his previous denial to eat leads up to this conviction. According to

Bakhtin’s philosophy of heteroglossia, we can see that in this novella the language is playing

in such a way that it puts the protagonist in a diversity of social situations and word views.

Here it is noticeable that, this novella is full of different perspectives and all these different

perspectives come to an agreement to accept the diversity. At the same time, different
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perspectives, thoughts and beliefs are making the protagonist Gregor an uncertain character

and these different voices not only creating harmony but also creating disharmony. So, we

can say that Franz Kafka’s famous novella The Metamorphosis follows Bakhtin’s philosophy

of heteroglossia. Thus, from the above discussion we can come into a conclusion that Franz

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis carries and follows Bakhtin’s philosophy of dialogism,

polyphony and heteroglossia.

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Similarities between Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground and

Kafka’s The Metamorphosis:

Dostoevsky’s the underground man and Franz Kafka’s Gregor both of them isolate

themselves from the outside world and living in isolation. By living in alienation they have

found themselves in their own way, but at the same time they and their behavior become

irrational to the society and other social beings. Suffering, alienation and isolation give

pleasure to the underground man, same goes for Gregor. Gregor is ready to sacrifice

everything for the sake of his family’s happiness and at the end he proves it by sacrificing his

own life. The most similar phenomenon is- their ideologies, thoughts and beliefs are always

in conflict with each other which make the both characters very uncertain. Both protagonists

are honest to themselves and others. Both of their circumstances are forcing them to act like a

social puppet and also threatening their individual identity, entity.

The underground man and Gregor both of them do not have the ability to interact

with others and they are unable to sharing their feelings with others. If we notice we can see

that, both of the protagonists’ present lives are in the contradiction with their past lives.

Ideologies, memories of their past lives are taunting them in their present. The underground

man and Gregor both of them feel low about themselves. They both represent their own

beliefs, thoughts, perspectives in these two works, but at the same time they also confused

about themselves. In the both works, the underground man and Gregor are suffering from

existential crisis. Therefore, we can say that both works follow the philosophy of

existentialism, individualism and Bakhtin’s philosophy of dialogism, polyphony and

heteroglossia. Loneliness, isolation, alienation, freedom, self-identity, individualism, pain,

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sufferings, dilemma, self versus society, thoughts versus action- these are the themes in both

works- Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes From The

Underground . Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes From The Underground is one of the first

existentialist novel which was written in 1864. The Metamorphosis is Franz Kafka’s best-

known works which was published in 1915, it is also an existentialist novella.

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Franz Kafka is Dostoevsky’s ‘The Real Life Underground Man’:

The famous novelist Franz Kafka had an abusive relationship with his father. His

father named Hermann Kafka was a selfish, huge overbearing businessman. Franz Kafka

used to consider his father as a true Kafka who was a strong, healthy, dominating, self-

satisfied human being. Franz Kafka spent his childhood in loneliness. He did not get time,

affection and love from his parents. His troubled relationship with his father is manifested in

His Letter to His Father (Brief an den Vater)- this name is given to that letter which he had

written to his father. It was a hundred pages long letter where he expressed his dissatisfaction

about his father’s totalitarian behavior towards him. The actual letter is forty-seven pages.

The friend and biographer of Franz Kafka named Max Brod has published Kafka’s

letter to his father. This autobiographical documentation is about 15,000 words. Though it

does not increase our knowledge of real Kafka, still it introduces us with Kafka’s doubt about

his own real life. Like his diaries there are no explanations or complements of his creative

works in this letter. It purely adds riddle to his identity and his writings. At the age of thirty-

six Kafka wrote this letter to his father in November, 1919. It was less than five years before

his death. At that time, he started doing work in America and was writing his famous two

novels- The Metamorphosis and The Judgment. In these two novels, he had uplifted the

image of a father nearly to the Godlike stature. In both of the works he represents father

figure as a superhuman dimension and his narrations in the works describes the father-son

relationship with full of psychoanalytic acidity. It is obvious that here Kafka successfully

dissolve the image he had of his father into something inexpressible, intangible,
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indecipherable. After that, he leaves it to the readers to decide what to call this supreme

dimension of human being- God, father, or nothing. He starts the letter by saying that his

father once asked him why he is so afraid of him. As usual, Kafka did not know how to give

the answer of his (father’s) question. His father’s question indicates the anguish which was

intrinsic in their father-son relationship from the very beginning. Kafka never breaks his

silence in front of his father. We can see the same scenario in the underground man’s

childhood where he could not break his silence in front of his father, though he was not

responsible for any mischief.

In the letter to his father, it is written by Kafka that his father used to abuse him

emotionally and he expressed speculative attitude towards him which bothers Kafka a lot,

mentally and physically. Kafka felt low because of the abusive behavior of his father. He was

very afraid of his father. To remove the distance or gap between themselves, he wrote this

letter. To hand on the letter to his father, Kafka gave it to his mother. His mother was also so

afraid that she did not deliver it to her husband. So, she had returned it to Kafka. Kafka never

refers his father’s insulting opinions towards him as an individual act of brutality or the

inertia of the heart. However, he always takes them as an expected reaction from his father.

Art, love, disease- these three form the core of this letter and his works. Kafka dedicates two

books named- The Castle, The Trial to his father. In the letter he also mentions about his

fiancé Felice Bauer with whom he broke his engagement twice and put an end to their affair

which had lasted since 1912. According to Max Brod, this engagement was sorrowful and

short-lived. In the letter Kafka mentions that for him the idea of marriage becomes a matter

of principle rather than of love. His tuberculosis had been diagnosed in September, 1917. He

returned to Prague by 1920. He has adjusted to his tuberculosis by 1919. In the letter to his

father he also mentions that it is his desire to marry the blood to come out of his lungs. He
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symbolizes the inflammation of this infection by giving it name- Felice Bauer whose depth is

existed in its deep justification. The art of his writing has a relation with his disease. Because

of the disease, he gets the opportunity to do his writing in peace. Kafka succeeds in the

kingdom of negativity in his hopelessness, in the dissatisfactions of his life plans and in the

fragmentariness of his works. Literature offers him the opportunity to share his insights with

the world through his writings. This is the same thing the underground man applies in his

own life to express his thoughts, beliefs, ideologies with the audiences or the readers. For

both of them, literature is close to their hearts which provides them the opportunity to do self-

observation. Moreover, as an authentic writer, Kafka is capable of incorporate duality in

single phrase. Though he does this in simple language and style, his writings carry double

aspect which confuses the readers. If we observe the statements or narration of underground

man we can also notice that double aspects and duality are exist in his statements.

About two weeks after the finding of his disease, in his diary Kafka writes that he

would put himself in the hands of death and it would be considered as a Great Day of

Atonement ( in Judaism, it is the holiest day of the year, Jews people celebrate this holy day

by performing fasting and prayer). Kafka’s tuberculosis reminds us the underground man’s

liver disease from which he is suffering for a long time, but he does not want to be cured

because he thinks that he deserves this suffering as a punishment.

Kafka had suffered throughout his whole life for not getting the acceptance as an idle

son from his father. He had sought for his father’s approval, acceptance and love, but he

could not get it. On Kafka’s writings, his father had a significant influence. His self-esteem,

self-confidence was very low about himself. He used to feel shy about his body. He could not
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share his grief with his father or with others. So, he used to express his feelings through the

characters of his protagonists. Kafka’s letter to his father opens up a horrified child’s world to

the readers, but the letter assumes this world as considerable. It reflects the psychological

insight of a grown up. Kafka had played daring games as a writer with the very substance of

his life by using both biographical material and curable intention of the letter. He had raised

his conflict to the level of literature by telling his life as a parable and commenting upon it in

his unusual way. If we see the narration of the underground man we can see that, he is telling

his ideologies, perspectives, the story of his life to his readers through the literature. Though

he is telling them in a simple language, his statements are carrying dual and opposite thoughts

in a single phrase. So, we can say that Kafka and the underground man both of them playing

with the minds of the readers.

Kafka is very much present in his novels and writings. He always speaks through his

characters or directly talks with his readers like the underground man. His books have the

ability to influence his readers. Kafka abuses and manipulates his readers through

psychologically and emotionally- the underground man also does the same. He evokes

negative strong emotions, for example- regret within his writings which is enough to kill an

individual every single moment. Kafka was ideologically motivated. He was abused by his

father-he transformed it into an artistic form in his writings.

Kafka’s writings are actually about himself. He always put a tragic ending to his

protagonist’s, because his protagonist’s dying scenes were a source of his intense pleasure.

He used to think himself as those fictional characters of his writings. As he could not take his
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life in reality, at least he could kill himself in his fictions- this is the main thing which gave

him satisfaction.

Kafka was never successful in his relationships with women. During his life time, he

had closed relationships with several women. He was engaged with Felice Bauer twice, but

he broke up his engagement with her. He abandoned his lover- it is similar with the

underground man as he does the same with Liza who used to love him. Kafka could have

overcome his traumas and insecurities, but he could not do that which made him suffer and

made his life miserable. He carried this burden of regret and grief within himself throughout

his entire life. Kafka could not protest against his father’s abusive behavior which gave him a

trauma and it also affected his both childhood and adulthood. The same thing happens with

the underground man. The underground man could have corrected his father’s mistake, but he

could not do that, he could have saved his relationship with Liza, but he did not do that

because suffering and loneliness give him pleasure. So, after seeing all these similarities

between Franz Kafka and the underground man, we can easily say that Franz Kafka is Fyodor

Dostoevsky’s the real life underground man.

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Conclusion:

In part one, named “Underground” of Notes From The Underground, the

underground man proceeds or works in such a way through the forms of resistance which is

devised by the author Fyodor Dostoevsky. In this way it manifests the symptoms of

resistance. Emotional materials are hidden under this resistance. Later on, these emotional

materials give rise to the dependence and at the same time antagonism towards his readers.

The eleven sections of the first part of this novel is like an analytical section which gives rise

many questions and confusions. These questions move towards to the answers to the second

part of this novel which separates second part from the first part. After these eleven sections

of the novel, the underground man discloses the real events, memories of his life. The second

part of this novel carries the significant, actual and authentic events of his past life which are

intricate with unsolved problems. Even Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote about this in a letter to his

brother. In the book named Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoevsky to his Family and

Friends he said that, “You know what a modulation is in music. It’s exactly the same thing

here. The first part is apparently idle chatter; but suddenly this chatter is resolved, in the last

part by an unexpected catastrophe” (31).

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Now if we talk about Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, then we can say that by

losing his position as a bread winner Gregor loses his family and the foundation of his

existence and at the same time he also loses his own life. It was actually Franz Kafka himself

who is expressing his thoughts and feelings through the protagonist Gregor. Franz kafka’s

Metamorphosis supports the existentialism and Kafka had a good intimacy with

existentialism. In most of his writings, a sign of polyphony, dialogism, heteroglossia,

existentialism and essence had been discussed. In this novella a conflict between soul and

dark possession is shown. The metamorphosis shows to its readers- how the circumstances

and time stood against Gregor and for this reason at the end he sacrificed his life too. So, he

could not even fulfill all the society’s needs as his family demanded too. The author Stanley

Corngold in his book named Franz Kafka: The Necessity of Form says that, Kafka was

especially disappointed with the conclusion of the story and On January 19, 1914 he wrote-

“Great antipathy to Metamorphosis Unreadable ending”. Franz Kafka was never happy with

the ending of his novella.

After observing the above discussion we can say that Dostoevsky’s Notes From The

Underground and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis- go with Bakhtin’s theory of Dialogism,

dialogical self-consciousness, polyphony and heteroglossia. Their discourses are interrelated

with each other. In Notes From The Underground and The Metamorphosis- multiple voices,

perspectives, conflicting theories, rhetoric, uncertainty -all of these connect the others with

the self and they altogether encourage and motivate the readers to stick to its protagonist and

his ideologies till the end. This is the reason for which this novel and the novella both give

rise to many questions and debates about morality and humanity.

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Mikhail Bakhtin in his book named Problems Of Dostoevsky’s Poetics defines

Dostoevsky’s underground man as the total sum of his (underground man’s) own self-

consciousness and consciousness. In this way, the Notes from the Underground has been

elucidated in an alternative way. It is based on the philosophical and ideological aspects

which deal with the psychological sides of a human being. At the same time, from the above

discussion of Franz Kafka’s real life tragedy, we can say that he is Dostoevsky’s ‘the real life

underground man’.

Furthermore, their discourses are important for connecting ourselves with others in

our real life. Without interaction or communication life becomes meaningless, one start to

indulge him/her in nihilism and it becomes hard to survive in this universe.

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