The Underground Man, the story’s narrator and his own worst critic, describes himself as a spiteful, proud, ill,  and envious man. Yet, he later rebuffs that statement and says he was lying signaling the readers that they are faced with an unreliable narrator. There is no telling if what he says next will have any truth to it. Nevertheless, he continues his monologue, in a manner that sounds like a train-of-thought process voicing his opinions seeking the reader’s approval and understanding, even though he repeatedly states that he doesn’t care. His constant use of the word Gentlemen, is to continually hold the attention of the audience and appeal to them. At the age of 40 he doesn’t feel like a fulfilled person, especially when he compares himself to a man that wasn’t born from the bosom of nature, but was made from a laboratory test tube (p 640). He blames this loss of oneself on many things, but always comes back to ultimately blaming himself. The acute consciousness he refers to stops him from doing many things he believes a normal person would do. His memories from boyhood are summarized as “…no one was like me, and I wasn’t like anyone else.” (p 659) posing the question if, at 40 and still having the same outlook, he was unable to transition into a more mature individual and let go of his childish behavior.

His view on pleasure, although at first may seem slightly disturbing, describes a larger scope of human essence where not everything is ideal and pure, “…the pleasure resulted precisely from the overly acute consciousness of one’s own humiliation; from the feeling that one had reached  the limit; that it was disgusting, but couldn’t be otherwise; you had no other choice – you could never become a different person; and that even there were still time and faith enough for you to change into something else, most likely you wouldn’t even want to change , and if you did, you wouldn’t have done anything, perhaps because there really was nothing for you to change into” (p 638). Dostoevsky’s exploration of the human psyche hits head on, describing a new type of generation. The generation that is tired of the ideas of Enlightenment, as the narrator speaks on his distaste for the laws of nature (p 641), and no longer taken with the ideas of Romanticism, where the narrator calls them stupid and often ridicules the “beautiful and sublime”. The question though still remains if this narrator really reflects any particular person, if he reflects humanity as a whole, or if a person like that is entirely fictitious. Notes from Underground is an early work of existentialism, where this dark side of humanity is exposed raw questioning the readers to consider if they share any similar qualities with the narrator. This unrestrained and realistic outlook on human thoughts presents a man in a limbo of existence, afraid to be seen but at the same time afraid to be forgotten, hating himself yet unwilling to change, feeling lonely and isolated but never escaping the social world. Are we the Underground Man? Or are we pretending that we’re not?

John Keats, uses a poem in which he refers to bird and all it represents to ask the question of contradicting ideals. Is it better to live in reality, or to depart from it and escape to a dream? Is it better to live a short life and enjoy the quick and fleeting moments of happiness and passion or live forever and miss out on the joys and sorrows of a life?

From the very first four lines of the poem, Keats describes the departure from reality in feeling like he is being under the influence of a substances like opium and hemlock (both highly toxic and poisonous). Then in the second stanza he longs for wine that would help him fade away into a state of further illusion and fantasy when he says, “O for a draught of vintage! […] With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple stained mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim;” (Lines 11-20). He wishes to leave to a place where he wouldn’t be bothered with problems and worries of life, and  in the third stanza he describes reality as a gloomy and dreary place, “Where but to think is to be full of sorrow and leaden-eyes despairs: Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Or new love pine at them beyond tomorrow” (Lines 27-30). The question of beauty is a repeating theme in Keats’ poetry and he struggles with the question of its meaning. Is true beauty immortal, or the fact that it’s fleeting gives it its essence. The passing of time seems to get us all, yet this nightingale, an embodiment of nature and art can defy the cruelty of time.

The bird itself becomes a symbol of immortality. Keats speaks to the nightingale in the seventh stanza saying that he represents an immunity to the passage of time, “Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird! No hungry generations tread thee down; The voice I hear passing night was heard In ancient days by emperor and clown” (Lines 61-64). Keats grapples with the cruelty of time and his inability to conquer it, and brings up the conflict of death and how final it would be. Keats knew he was going to die soon due to a family history of illness and the idea of death excites and terrifies him at the same time. He sees the appeal of it and where in the sixth stanza he writes, “…for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Called him soft names in many a mused rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seem it rich to die” (Lines 51-55). Yet there is a realization of the bittersweet taste of death and his reluctance to leave just yet because he wouldn’t be able to hear the beautiful melody of the bird, “Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain- To thy high requiem become a sod” (Lines 59-60).  The passing of time can also be observed in the time shifts of the poem, where he starts in the daytime and then progresses through the nighttime finally returning to the initial question of his departure from reality in the final stanza asking, “Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music: – do I wake or sleep?”(Lines 79-80) leaving the readers to contemplate and decide on their own.