Note: This essay is mostly speculation about the stone wall; what Dostoevsky meant by it and what might be found beyond it. As it is only my personal speculation, take it only as that, and not as a fact that this is what Dostoevsky was trying to convey. The term 'bully' is used for anyone who acts in the manner described below, and is taken from the name of one of the people appearing in the "Notes From Underground" called Zverkov - which loosely translates from Russian to sun of a beast, or little animal. These bullies appear throughout Dostoevsky's novels; one of the most famous bullies is Peter Luzhin from "Crime and Punishment." A 'bully' is essentially a man of character, who has permanent form, and circumcised imagination.

Dostoevsky's narrator from Notes From Underground, the Underground Man, throughout the course of the book throws at us the notion of the stone wall. He defines the wall by giving us examples of it and clues on how to knock it down, or leap beyond it.

The Underground Man introduces us to the stone wall on page 13; "What stone wall? Well, of course, the laws of nature, the conclusions of natural science, mathematics." Undoubtedly he defines the stone wall as the natural laws which were popular as the result of movements such as positivism and Darwinism. A stone wall, is everything that keeps us bound to the way things are "supposed" to be, as dictated by nature and history. Neither nature nor history care about us, and act according to their own factions. The stone wall is an anchor that keeps us situated with a solid metal chain, in a hypothetical place that is meant for us only. The Underground Man, encourages us to shatter this chain, and break through the wall; he also tells us that this task is virtually impossible, and that he himself has not the strength to do it, "To be sure, I won't break through such a wall with my forehead if I really have not got the strength enough to do it…"

Those of us, who refuse to submit to the confines of the stone wall, will be hated by others and will eventually hate ourselves as well. The ones who refrain from tugging at the metal chain (the bullies) control the wall. These bullies form a special relationship with the wall, where both partners are happy and find comfort in each other's presence. The bullies, are the ones who stare you down, at the mere thought of freeing yourself - when you begin to "act up", and start pulling on the chain of conformity, and the wall begins to crumble, they begin to hate you and do all that they can to show you, and keep you in your place.

The Underground Man doesn't tell us explicitly that a way of breaking down the stone wall actually exists; he mainly tells us about the struggles and rewards of the process of finding it. The Underground Man gives us a very entertaining example of the fight on page 14, where he describes the pleasure found in tooth ache which are expressed through moans, "In these moans there is expressed, first, all the futility of our pain, so humiliating for our consciousness, and all the lawfulness of nature, on which, to be sure, you spit, but from which you suffer all the same, while it does not." The Underground Man gives us an argument, and then a counterargument, about all of his thoughts. Even in that quote, he tells us that we will always suffer, but nature, or the stone wall, will never do. The only thing we could do is to accept this pain and find pleasure in it, and, consequently, stand up, face forward, to the conventionality of the stone wall.

This constant struggle will put as in a surrealistic state, in which we will only receive glimpses of freedom. This surrealistic state is the state of chaos and nothingness where the laws and ideas imposed by nature and history disappear at certain times. In this state we shed our armor, and are left with three options. The first option is to give up, stop the struggle and go back to sit against the cold stone wall, and eventually becoming a part of it and therefore a bully. The second option is to continue the struggle, and stay suspended in nothingness, experiencing brief moments of freedom. This is where the Underground Man is at the telling of his story; he has shed his armor, but never crossed the stone wall. The third option is to reach the highest level of the struggle, lose the anchor and break through the stone wall, and experience complete and utter freedom which is found past it. Beyond the stone wall, there are neither rules nor laws which dictate life, as they are not needed. The mind is in a state of equilibrium with the universe, and doesn't need to submit to nature, mathematics, or history. This state might never be achievable, short of imagining it, while choosing the second option described above.

Bibliography
Notes From Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky (Vintage Classics 1993) Translation byRichard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.