Test Essays
Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Realism
Notes from Underground played an important role in the development of realist fiction.
In the novel, the reader probes the mind of an individual on the outskirts of modern society and
examines the effects modern life has on that man’s personality. The protagonist is a low-
ranking civil servant in 1860s St. Petersburg who has gradually gone mad over a lifetime of
“coping” with the society around him.
The Underground Man served as a conduit for Dostoevsky’s ideas and was provided as
an example of the kind of problems that modern Russian society produced at the time. Like
Dostoevsky, the Underground Man is critical of rational egoism and other totalitarian visions of
“utopia”. He is extremely critical of dogmatism of any kind. At the same time, he is a victim of
the modern Russian urban experience. Deprived of any positive social interaction, the
Underground Man tries to relate to the world according to examples he finds in European
literature. The failure of these attempts makes him even more bitter and isolated, driving him
deeper underground.
The Love Triangles in Smiles of a Summer Night
Smiles of a Summer Night featured four couples that are mismatched with their
romantic affairs coming off as humorous. The plot features the actress Desiree and her love
triangle between Count Malcolm and Fredrik Egerman. Then there’s Malcolm’s wife Charlotte,
seething with hatred. Henrik’s young second wife, Anne, is falling for her stepson, Henrik. Then
there’s the maid Petra and the groomsman Frid, frolicking in the fields. As these characters
come together for a group dinner, lust, jealousy and masculine pride create tight tension.
The speaker is Fredrik Engerman, an 50ish attorney who is married to Anne, a sensuous
a 19-year-old. He and his son Henrik, a theology student, share the same household with Petra,
a young maid who flirts carelessly with both of them. Fredrik for several years was the lover of
Desiree Armfeldt, a renowned actress, and one night he takes his Anne to see her in a play.
Anne becomes nervous, because on the afternoon before the play they took a nap, and he
foolishly said Desiree's name in his sleep. That night after the play, he and Anne go to bed and
we discover that she is still a virgin. This frustrates him, but he doesn't want to rush anything.
After she falls asleep, Fredrik slips out to meet with Desiree, who teases him about Anne, and
the possibility that she may become attracted to Henrik.
Fredrik slips and falls into a puddle on his way into Desiree's house, and she gives him a
dressing gown that belongs to her current lover, Count Malcolm. Not long after the Count
Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Realism
Notes from Underground played an important role in the development of realist fiction.
In the novel, the reader probes the mind of an individual on the outskirts of modern society and
examines the effects modern life has on that man’s personality. The protagonist is a low-
ranking civil servant in 1860s St. Petersburg who has gradually gone mad over a lifetime of
“coping” with the society around him.
The Underground Man served as a conduit for Dostoevsky’s ideas and was provided as
an example of the kind of problems that modern Russian society produced at the time. Like
Dostoevsky, the Underground Man is critical of rational egoism and other totalitarian visions of
“utopia”. He is extremely critical of dogmatism of any kind. At the same time, he is a victim of
the modern Russian urban experience. Deprived of any positive social interaction, the
Underground Man tries to relate to the world according to examples he finds in European
literature. The failure of these attempts makes him even more bitter and isolated, driving him
deeper underground.
The Love Triangles in Smiles of a Summer Night
Smiles of a Summer Night featured four couples that are mismatched with their
romantic affairs coming off as humorous. The plot features the actress Desiree and her love
triangle between Count Malcolm and Fredrik Egerman. Then there’s Malcolm’s wife Charlotte,
seething with hatred. Henrik’s young second wife, Anne, is falling for her stepson, Henrik. Then
there’s the maid Petra and the groomsman Frid, frolicking in the fields. As these characters
come together for a group dinner, lust, jealousy and masculine pride create tight tension.
The speaker is Fredrik Engerman, an 50ish attorney who is married to Anne, a sensuous
a 19-year-old. He and his son Henrik, a theology student, share the same household with Petra,
a young maid who flirts carelessly with both of them. Fredrik for several years was the lover of
Desiree Armfeldt, a renowned actress, and one night he takes his Anne to see her in a play.
Anne becomes nervous, because on the afternoon before the play they took a nap, and he
foolishly said Desiree's name in his sleep. That night after the play, he and Anne go to bed and
we discover that she is still a virgin. This frustrates him, but he doesn't want to rush anything.
After she falls asleep, Fredrik slips out to meet with Desiree, who teases him about Anne, and
the possibility that she may become attracted to Henrik.
Fredrik slips and falls into a puddle on his way into Desiree's house, and she gives him a
dressing gown that belongs to her current lover, Count Malcolm. Not long after the Count
