Redemption From Underground

    In his book Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky writes of an unnamed protagonist who spends his days conflicted by his inner battle of what he wants to do and what he actually does. The narrator is a learned man who realizes he has a choice to change his actions but refuses take the steps to improve his life and his happiness. There are only a handful of other characters in this novel, one of them a prostitute named Liza. Liza is a significant character in the second part of Notes from Underground titled “Apropos of Wet Snow” which is based off of a poem by N. A. Nekrasov. To contrast his character of the narrator, Dostoevsky uses Liza as a symbol of redemption and beneficial change.

    Liza is redeemable despite her past and her current situation. We are introduced to Liza after the narrator has failed to interact with old classmates. Drunk and frenzied, the narrator goes to a whorehouse in an “attempt” to follow his classmates who are long gone (86-87). It is is in this despicable place that he sees Liza. He describes Liza as appearing young and kind, but, in his words, “Serious to the point of strangeness” (86). After taking advantage of her services, the narrator awkwardly asks Liza about herself. Though Liza tries to shut out the narrator by appearing “coldly indifferent” and “sullen” (87-88), the narrator pushes her to conversation. Reluctantly, Liza reveals she is from Russia, and she has been in the whore house for two weeks in order to pay off her debt to the mistress of the house (89, 105). Liza doesn’t say why she left home, but when the narrator is waxing on about the honor in marriage, she suddenly interjects: “Some [fathers] are glad to sell their daughter, and not give her away honorably” (95). We can infer that after a bad home life, Liza came to the city to escape her home and ended up having to support herself by selling her body. From her disgust at what she’s done to her unwillingness to talk of the reality of her situation, it is clear she isn’t happy with her life but doesn't think she can change. Similar to the narrator, Liza feels like she is stuck in her lifestyle. She doesn’t think she deserves love and happiness. Unlike the narrator, however, Liza is prompted to seek after the life she wants.

    As a symbol of redemption, Liza changes and chases after a better way after she realizes it is what she desires. Spurred on by having an audience, the narrator talks about a life of love and how a marriage can cultivate love and survive even in times of unhappiness (97-98). Liza hears of this ideal, this loftiness of thought, and thinks it too good to be true. She wants to believe that she can have a life full of love, but she tries to cover up her vulnerability by calling the narrator’s ramblings “bookish” (98), thus infuriating the narrator. Liza, in her attempt to cover up her vulnerability, has hit a nerve with the author. She is calling his talk of love and marriage an unattainable ideal only present in books. The narrator, furious at Liza for seeing through his lofty ramblings, begins to speculate what will happen to Liza if she continues down the path she is on. He paints a picture of suffering and loneliness. He says that after a life of selling her body, it will break down, and no one will mourn her death (102-103). He has finally gotten to her deepest fear. She becomes distraught and begins sobbing. Ashamed, the narrator give Liza his address, hoping she will never come to visit him (104). Much to the fear of the narrator, Liza shows up at his house a couple days later. The first thing she says to the narrator is, “I want...to get out of there...for good” (120). It is in this determined goal that we see her desire to change. After getting a glimpse of how love can look and realizing she can have it, she decides to actively pursue that life. She has come to the narrator’s house because he is the one who has prompted her to make a better life for herself. Her choice to change herself is contrasted with the narrator’s unwillingness to change himself. He claims to be looking to the loftier ideal, but he does not do anything to change his situation. The narrator, realizing that Liza is looking to him as motivation to change, has a breakdown and reveals how unhappy he is: “Liza, whom I had insulted and crushed, understood far more than I imagined. She understood from it all what a woman, if she loves sincerely, always understands before anything else — namely, that I myself was unhappy” (123).
 
   Liza, after realizing she can be redeemed and is worthy of love, desires to redeem someone else: the narrator. Liza recognizes the narrator’s need for love, and she is willing to help him fill that emptiness in his life. Unfortunately, the narrator does not believe he can actually love. Knowing it will insult her, he tries to pay her for her companionship (126-127). Liza leaves hurriedly and does not come back, despite the narrator’s calling out to her. Liza realizes she is deserving of love, but she knows she cannot rely on someone else to make her feel worthy. I like to think that she did not just return to her old lifestyle. I believe she found some way to pay off her debt. Perhaps she also found someone to love and who could love her in return.

Dostoevsky uses the redemptive, action-driven character of Liza to strongly contrast the obstinate, unchanging nature of his narrator. The narrator is consumed by his thoughts and will not change his ways, despite being aware of the steps he can take. Liza, however, sees an ideal and starts taking the steps to achieve the ideal. Both characters seem stuck in an unhappy lifestyle with unfortunate family lives, but the difference between them is Liza has the courage and the drive to make a change. Though there is no mention of religious influence in Notes from Underground, Liza is a symbol of redemption reflective of the redemption we have in Christ. The love of Christ changes a person from the inside out, and I believe Dostoevsky intentionally created Liza to display that redemptive power — the redemptive power that overcomes all pasts and presents and motivates every future.