Free Will In A Clockwork Orange

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Throughout Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess free will is exhibited by The Underground Man in Notes from Underground and Alex in A Clockwork Orange when both characters are capable of exerting free will to the point of self destruction. Humans tend to exert their free will in an effort that goes against authority and makes them more individualistic, which results in their unpredictable identity and destiny.
Alex was a highly intelligent teenager in Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange. Alex had free will, but refused to do what was best for his long-term outcome because he was too occupied with trying to show he was uncommon and unique by listening to Classical music, speaking Nadsat, and resorting …show more content…
The underground man elaborates, “That is not all; then, you say, science itself will teach man (though to my mind, it's a superfluous luxury) that he never has really had any caprice or will of his own, and that he himself is something of the nature of a piano-key or the stop of an organ, and that there are, besides, things called the laws of nature; so that everything he does is not done by his willing it, but is done of itself, by the laws of nature. Consequently, we have only to discover these laws of nature, and man will no longer have to answer for his actions and life will become exceedingly easy for him” (Dostoevsky VII). People no longer have to struggle to survive with the industrial invention of tools. Tools become crutches and negatively affect individual character development. People become self-destructive in order to prove they are alive and not machines, or piano keys. People lived in tribes thousands of years ago and in the modern era people are socially …show more content…
The Underground man attempts to speak to people he doesn’t like and holds Simonov in conversation. It is really awkward, and Simonov eventually excuses himself making it clear The Underground man is burdensome. The Underground Man wants to go to dinner with his former schoolfellows despite the fact that The Underground Man’s biggest enemy Ferfichkin will be there. His former schoolfellows give him a look that means he has the worth of a common fly. The Underground man locks himself in his underground hole for forty years. He is watching life happen for his former schoolfellows around him. While his former schoolfellows become wealthy, successful, and obtain long term relationships his life remains
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