Notes from Underground

Favourite Quotes

“perhaps I really regard myself as an intelligent man only because throughout my entire life I’ve never been able to start or finish anything.” - p. 18¹

“They say work makes a man good and honest.” - p. 41

“with love one can live even without happiness.” p. 93

“honest people have good lives even in poverty” p. 97

‘which is better - cheap happiness, or lofty suffering?’ p. 130

Summary

Part 1: Underground

Chapter 1

• the underground man has nihilistic tendencies. He seems not to care about anything
• he worked in the civil service only to provide for himself. He left the second he could
• he’s neither good or bad. He is character-less.
  • He justifies this by saying only fools adopt a character; either becoming good or bad, or at least becoming something
  • intelligent men remain character-less

Chapter 2

• the underground man talks about his ‘sickness’
• he does bad things, things that he KNOWS are bad, and he feels guilty afterwards and beats himself up over it. Eventually this feeling turns into pleasure. Specifically pleasure in the consciousness of one’s own humiliation
  • furthermore, it’s the feeling of knowing there’s no way out; you cannot change yourself. Even if you wanted to change into a different person, you won’t truly want to. And if you did, then you’ll realize there is nothing to even change to.
• Overall, he seems to find pleasure in humiliation. He’s so beaten down by life that he’s accepted his humiliating spot.

Chapter 3

• on revenge: the normal man do acts of revenge because they view it as justice, but the underground man, the ‘highly conscious’ man, cannot because he is too aware of the complexities of revenge, therefore he goes back into his dark hole and dwells on whatever it was that wronged him until it consumes him

Chapter 4

• the underground pain talks about how the conscious men can even find pleasure in having a toothache
• the source of this pleasure are the moans that the conscious man makes, ensuring that everyone around him KNOWS he has a toothache

Chapter 5

“perhaps I really regard myself as an intelligent man only because throughout my entire life I’ve never been able to start or finish anything.” - p. 18

Chapter 6

• the underground man talks about laziness
• he views laziness as a positive quality, at least in comparison to the inertia caused by his consciousness
  • he does nothing because of his consciousness. This is inertia.
  • he doesn’t do nothing out of laziness, in fact if he did (i.e. he did nothing cause he’s lazy), he say it’d be a positive thing, because at least he’d be SOMETHING or have some sort of defining characteristic

Chapter 7

• the underground man argues against the idea that if man were to understand his own true desires/interests clearly, he would never do anything that goes against those interests (rational egoism). It would only be advantageous to him to behave rationally
  • the advantages common for men are prosperity, wealth, etc
• the underground man’s argument is that this is NOT the case; rather, man consciously acts AGAINST his interests and desires because there is another greater ‘advantage’, one greater than prosperity, wealth, family, etc: COMPLETE FREE WILL.
  • he says that man will become bored in a society based on rationally, logic, science, etc, and instead would welcome the opportunity to live according to his irrational free will
  • men prefer to act as they want to act, not act as reason/logic dictates
• the most important thing to man is his freedom of choice not to be constrained by anything, including reason

Chapter 8

• underground man continues to talk about the fact that man will do the irrational just to prove to himself and the world that he has independent free will

Chapter 9

• the underground man talks about how man has the compulsion to create, but also to destroy. This is because man is afraid of achieving the goal, or completing whatever it is he started to build
  • so it the process that man finds value in, not the end result
  • reminds me of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. Once you solve your problem, you have to move on to the next. Happiness is found in the process of solving the problem, not the fact that the problem has been solved
• he says that the achievement or the goal is a formula like 2x2 is 4, while the process is life itself. The formula is not life, but rather the beginning of death
  • reminds me of the story of Cus D’Amato. He said that he only continued to live because he had something to live for… lots of old people say this; that once they have nothing to live for anymore, that is when death truly starts
• ‘maybe he only likes creating it, not living in it.’ p. 32
  • talking about goals, or the ‘road’ referred to in the quote in lessons learned section (also on p. 32). Dostoevsky is saying that maybe the real enjoyment is in the journey, not the outcome, and this is why humans like chaos - because through chaos our journey is extended
• he talks about suffering; he says it’s just as important as well-being achieved via reason. Suffering is the cause of consciousness. Reason can solve problems, but then there’s nothing left to do
  • suffering can be beneficial. It can be a diversion or a release. Especially if your life is full of boredom, you at least need SOMETHING to deal with

Chapter 10

• the crystal palace is a metaphor for the progressive thinkers and utilitarians in the 1860s. It is a symbol for a utopian society. It represents rational egoism
• the underground man ‘sticks out his tongue’ at it. This represents his goal of not allowing reason to overcome his free will

Chapter 11

• his reason for writing: it is a relief from a nagging/bothersome memory. If he writes it down, it’ll calm him down
  • this is why journaling is so great, it can help you through traumatic experiences

Part 2: Apropos of the Wet Snow

Chapter 1

• the underground man lacked “moral courage”, not “physical courage”. This is why he didn’t confront the officer.
  • lack of moral courage is the lack of inner strength to assert himself or defend his honor in a meaningful way
  • as opposed to physical courage. The underground man didn’t mind getting beat up
• since he lacked moral courage, he instead wrote an ‘expose’ against the officer, using a slightly different name and used him as a caricature in a story. This was all he could muster up!
• he planned out quite a revenge… he’ll bump into the officer on the street! That was his idea of ‘revenge’. So at least he can have some dignity
  • it took him many tries because each time at the last minute he’d give way to the officer
• eventually he did bump into him and went home and was on cloud 9. But 3 days later, he felt the same shame he always feels.

Chapter 2

• underground man talks about how he would attend his bosses tea parties just so he can ‘attend society’
• he has 1 friend from school that he stayed in touch with, Simonov
• at this point he still wants to socialize with people. Remember, this story is from when he was only 24 years old. He truly becomes the ‘underground man’ later on in his life

Chapter 3

• underground man meets up with Simonov and 2 other school friends. They are planning on throwing a leaving-party for their other school comrade, Zverkov, who the underground man hates
• Zverkov is the representation of the active but stupid man - the opposite of the underground man. He’s popular and well-admired.
• the underground man desires to be liked, even admired, by Zverkov, exposing the fact that the underground man has the desire to be accepted by the type of man he hates the most
  • this just seems like a coping mechanism to me. The underground man clearly hates they way he is, and wants to be ‘active yet stupid’, because at least then you have something going for you in your life
• the underground man is very concerned about his external appearance
  • it seems he is always wanting external validation. At least that would make him feel better

Chapter 4

• they are at the dinner party. They all treat the underground man as an outsider
• the underground man associates a negative meaning to everything; this is a reflection of his own insecurity and bitterness
  • the second he gets to the restaurant, he arrives early, and he imagines all the waiters are looking at him with contempt and he is ashamed

Chapter 5:

• the underground man wants to exact revenge on Zverkov. He plans on slapping him, and hoping a duel would be declared
• he is on his way to the brothel where Zverkov and his friends are. On the way the underground man imagines the scenario where he slaps Zverkov. He imagines getting beat up but the others, and in a strange way he likes it. This shows his masochistic and self-humiliating tendencies
• why does he want to slap Zverkov?
  • slapping Zverkov is the representation of confronting real life, something he struggles with since he’s in the “underground”
  • “life” for the underground man is emotional contact with other people, specifically emotions of resentment, anger, and conflict. These are the only emotions he knows.
• the underground man is used to not having power over anyone, this is why he’s so timid and indecisive in front of these more powerful people, i.e. the ‘active’ men
  • but we see here that he can exert power over some people like the coachman and the prostitute, who are both of a lower class. The underground man has financial power over them
  • he exerts power over the coachman via physical violence
  • he exerts power over the prostitute via the fact that despite him being disgusting and the proustite NOT enjoying her time with him, he knows she can’t anything about it (she’s getting paid afterall) and he LIKES that fact

Chapter 6

• right after having sex with Liza the prostitute, he feels disgusted in the idea of sex without love

with love one can live even without happiness.’ p. 93

• the underground man says his lack of a family growing up (he was an orphan) is why he is ‘unfeeling’ as an adult - p. 95
• ‘honest people have good lives even in poverty.’ p. 97
  • there truly is no excuse for any of the bad people do while in poverty…
• ‘Love is God’s mystery, and should be hidden from all other eyes, whatever happens.” - p. 98
  • context: when a couple is quarrelling, they shouldn’t even involve own mothers or any family
• underground man gives Liza a speech about family values, having kids, etc, basically telling her prostitution is not a good life. She says his speech sounds like it came from a book, he takes offense to that
  • his speech to Liza but just be a self-projection; he’s afraid he’s going to be lonely, that no one will mourn his death, etc

Chapter 7

• underground man continues to berate Liza to the point where she’s crying
• as he’s about to leave, Liza shows him a love letter she’s received from a medical student she met at a party. He knows nothing of her prostitution. She is showing this letter to the underground man to prove that she has known honesty and sincere love. He has contempt for her love letter, but it could be out of jealously because he has no one that loves him

Chapter 8

• he’s worried about Liza coming over because his place is a disaster, at the same time he’s excited for her to come. This displays his fragile ego.
• the underground man has hatred for his servant Apollon which is rooted in the desire for domination. He wants to dominate Apollon, so he does it via withholding wages. But this doesn’t work well, just like bumping into the officer doesn’t work well.
  • the underground man likes to fantasize about these things, but when it comes to actually taking action, he collapses

Chapter 9

• “I was angry with myself, but, naturally, (Liza) was going to bear the brunt of it” - p. 121
  • the sign of a weak, terrible man
• Liza comes over. He goes off on her, giving her another emotionally driven speech. He breaks down and cries. She embraces him.
• The roles are reversed, she is the heroine and he is the ‘humiliated creature’
• A feeling of revenge/hated fills him. He wants to dominate Liza
  • the reason why he gets this hatred is because thus far, Liza has been the only person who he has full power over. But now the roles are reversed. So he wants to reclaim his power over her, and further even punish her for stripping him of this power

Chapter 10

‘which is better - cheap happiness, or lofty suffering?’ p. 130

• Liza leaves because she realizes what he truly is: a hatred filled man that doesn’t love her
• he gives her some money, but she throws it to the table. It is at this moment he realizes how pure and good she is. She goes after her to beg for forgiveness
  • this moment shocks him because he has been let down my life and society; no one could do such a noble act

Analysis

Notes and Quotes

• “it’s their sicknesses that everyone takes pride in” - p. 7
  • this is classic case ‘victim mentality’.
• “… I am firmly convinced that not only too much consciousness but even any consciousness at all is a sickness.” p. 7
• “The more conscious I was of the good and of all this “beautiful and lofty”, the deeper I kept sinking into my mire, and the more capable I was of getting completely stuck in it.” p. 7
  • mire = swampy or boggy ground, mud, etc
    • referring to bad deeds (as he stated a bit earlier)
  • This reminds me of when JP said that people avoid setting goals for themselves, because it sets the parameters of failure, and people don’t like to fail. Dostoevsky is saying that the more conscious the underground man got (i.e. setting goals), the more he was ‘failing’. Maybe it’s cause the parameters of failure were more clear, therefore failure was more evident
• “it were my most normal condition and in no way a sickness or a blight, so that finally I lost any wish to struggle against this blight. ” - p. 7
  • he’s talking about the fact that the more conscious he got, the more he sunk into his mire.
  • he viewed it as being so normal to him. It was as if his life was MEANT to be that way. He accepted it, therefore he stopped struggling against it.
  • this is what a lot of people go through IMO. They are struggling against some problem, but eventually it gets to a point where they can’t handle it any longer and accept things for how they are. He simply accept the fact that maybe they were meant to be this. They give up.
• “How can a man of consciousness have the slightest respect for himself?” - p. 16
• “perhaps I really regard myself as an intelligent man only because throughout my entire life I’ve never been able to start or finish anything.” - p. 18
• ‘There’s no guaranteeing that it won’t, for example, be terribly boring then (because what is there to do if everything’s calculated according to some little table?)’ - p. 25
  • This is one of Dostoevsky’s main ideas across his books. That humans need at least a little chaos to ‘keep things interesting’. If life is utopian, humans will create trouble on purpose.
  • also, man desires absolute free will, above all else. See chapter 7 summary
• “I even think the best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful.” - p. 29
• “even if it should indeed turn out that he is a piano key, if it were even proved to him mathematically and by natural science, he would still not come to reason, but would do something contrary on purpose, solely out of ingratitude alone; essentially to have his own way. And if he finds himself without means - he will invent destruction and chaos, he will invent all kinds of suffering, and still have his own way!” p. 31
  • Dostoevsky, through all these passages and more, is trying to convey that humans do not want to be predictable, they do not want to feel like a machine or a piano key, rather they want to feel like they are in control, and have free will, because having free will is what makes humans human
• the underground man is very much against the ideas of rational egoism
  • in chapter 1 he said he refuses to see a doctor for his liver. He is fundamentally going against his self-interest. He is obsessed with free will.
• Man can curse, which is what differentiates him from other animals - paraphrased from p. 31
• ‘Man is predominantly a creating animal, compelled to strive consciously towards a goal and to occupy himself with the art of engineering - that is, to eternally and ceaselessly make a road for himself that at least goes somewhere or other.’ p. 32
  • at the same time, the underground man says that man not only likes creating, but also chaos and destruction. See chapter 9 summary
• ‘maybe he only likes creating it, not living in it.’ p. 32
  • talking about goals, or the ‘road’ referred to in previous quote. Dostoevsky is saying that maybe the real enjoyment is in the journey, not the outcome, and this is why humans like chaos - because through chaos our journey is extended
• ‘with love one can live even without happiness.’ p. 93
• ‘honest people have good lives even in poverty.’ p. 97
  • there truly is no excuse for any of the bad people do while in poverty…
• ‘Love is God’s mystery, and should be hidden from all other eyes, whatever happens.” - p. 98
  • context: when a couple is quarrelling, they shouldn’t even involve own mothers or any family
• The underground man is incapable of normal communication, this is why he’s disliked in society (for example by Zverkov and his friends). So his retreat is literature and books
  • this plays against him though; Liza says that his speech is as if it was taken out of a book, to which he took offense to
• ‘which is better - cheap happiness, or lofty suffering?’ p. 130

Main Idea of the Book

• This book aims to expound on the idea of the “underground man”. Such a man has a few qualities:
  • nihilistic: doesn’t care for himself or the world
  • insecure and bitter, and therefore associates negative meanings to everything
• The main philosophical points are as follows:
  • man desires free will above all else
  • humans need at least a little chaos to ‘keep things interesting’. If life is utopian, humans will create trouble on purpose.

Footnotes

1. i.e. you’ve never tested yourself. How else would know your intelligence without a test? ↩