Dostoevsky And Existentialism

When considering the sources of existentialism,in addition to the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard,two Russian writers are often named: Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.Since the former writer's works appeared earlier,Dostoevsky is always entitled “the pioneer of existentialism”.Although this title might be inaccurate because the definition of existentialism remains opaque,the idea of existentialism is still a critical topic in analyzing Dostoevsky's works.During the special era of Russia in the 19 th century,Dostoevsky was promptly enough to notice the significant impact,which was caused by radical changes of the social environment,on human's internal world.Moreover,since Notes from The Underground,Dostoevsky had been creating characters with contradictory minds to show people's rethinking of their lifestyles and the meaning of life.The Underground Man,full of negative spirits and was desperate for expressing free will,is always considered as the start symbol of Dostoevsky's preference for selfcontradicting protagonists;meanwhile,later critics witnessed the figure of Nietzsche in this novella from the madness and extremeness of the Underground Man.On the other hand,the Ridiculous Man,who had realized the absurdity of the outside world and lost his faith,was preparing for suicide in despair.This also has the metaphysical meanings of existentialism.In addition,the protagonists of Dostoevsky argued fiercely about the question of “whether God exists”,from which they derived more discussions,such as “if the soul is immortal”,“the ultimate essence of good and evil” and “the ultimate boundary of freedom”.These arguments elevated the thinking to the level of all mankind and the whole world.Also,Chestov,Berdyaev and Camus all commented on this phenomenon;and there exists direct influence of Dostoevsky in their works.Similarly,to some extent, Kierkegaard's “despair”,Heidegger's “death” and Sartre's “free choice” are all connected to Dostoevsky's existentialism.However,due to the tradition of Russian Orthodox culture,Dostoevsky,a devout Christian,no matter what sharp questions were raised and how fierce the related arguments were,always came to a conclusion that the truth of life is with the God.His Christian spirit was different from the traditional moral teachings of the church;his divinity was to put human existence at the highest point of spirit.In detail,he believed that,by bearing the pain of the world from the depth of heart,cleansing the sins of human nature,and loving others as well as the world,humans would be awarded with the absolute freedom and the eternity of life.Dostoevsky's understanding of “existence” from the perspective of discovering “man in man” was quite advanced.Therefore,even though Dostoevsky and existential philosophers,all in their special periods and similarly started from the thinking of human beings,the pursuit of the will to live,and the meaning of the life,their chosen paths and drawn conclusions were different.