Notes From Underground

Comment on the underground man’s actions. How is acting here in relationship to the claims he made in Part 1?

The Underground Man describes himself as a man with an acute conscious rather than as a man of action. A man of acute consciousness thinks about situations and issues rather than just acting on them. The underground man invited himself to Zverkov’s fair well party, which ended badly. No one wanted him there, but he chose to stay because he wanted to show that he could. But he ends up getting insulted by Zverkov by the end of the night. This angers the underground man and starts to think of ways to get revenge in his head. He thinks of many ways to hurt Zverkov and comes up with a whole scenario in his mind. But from past experiences the reader would not be surprised if he chickens out. It took him a very long time to get his revenge on the officer. His acute consciousness holds him back from acting out his ideas. All he can do is continue to think but when it comes down to acting he stops at the last minute. So instead of slapping Zverkov, he goes to a brothel where he sleeps with a prostitute and has a deep conversation about having a family and daughters. He will always be a man of thinking, he will think of scenarios where he is a man of action, but he will rarely every act out.