Into the Abyss of Nihilist Absurdism: Critical Analysis of Dostoevsky’s The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

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Sajjad Ahmad, Sana Aziz, Umar Sajjad, Sharjeel Ahmad, Asfandyar Shah, Husamullah,

Abstract

This paper explores the impacts of nihilism and absurdism in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s short story The Dream of a Ridiculous Man which was originally written in Russian and mostly dedicated to the philosophy of nihilism and absurdism. This research is based on the notion that this whole universe is meaningless and purposeless; without any true meaning, but still, one must not inculcate the thoughts of suicide in mind. Searching for meaning is the meaning itself. This research highlights the events of nihilism and absurdism in the story and mainly focuses on the internal character of the Ridiculous Man and his psychological conflicts that attracted him to nihilism first and then to absurdism. Brain Gilbert’s Nietzsche and Nihilism (1999) and Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) have been used as a theoretical framework for this study.

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