Step inside Notes from the Underground

The film without the cuts. And the book itself.

A man retreats underground and finds himself still unable to escape other people.

9:41

The Cast

The Underground Man

Main

A retired official who turns consciousness into a locked room.

Locations

The Underground Man's Apartment

apartment

A shabby room on the city's edge, both the only refuge he has and the trap he cannot leave.

Passage

He knows his self-destruction is pointless, yet clings to it out of spite.

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The Author’s Pen

Spite Against Himself

I am a sick man.... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don’t consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it, though. Of course, I can’t explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I am perfectly well aware that I cannot “pay out” the doctors by not consulting them; I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still, if I don’t consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well—let it get worse!

Reading

This man introduces himself by everything wrong with him, and seems almost proud of it. He offers his sickness, his spite, his ugliness as if they were credentials rather than complaints. When he refuses to see a doctor "from spite," he admits the plan makes no sense: nobody is punished but himself, and he knows it perfectly well. That is the whole trap he lives in. He can see exactly how he is hurting himself and chooses it anyway, then dares us to fail to understand while insisting he understands it fine.

World Index

The Plot

The Underground Man Introduces HimselfAgainst the Crystal PalaceWet Snow and the HumiliationsLiza and the Banknote

The Cast

The Underground ManLizaZverkovApollonSimonovThe OfficerFerfitchkinTrudolyubov

Locations

Hôtel de ParisLiza's LodgingNevsky ProspectPetersburg StreetsThe Underground Man's Apartment

Objects of Note

Apollon's WagesLiza's AddressThe Banknote Given to LizaThe Crystal PalaceThe NotesThe Officer's SwordThe Sledge

Core Concepts

Consciousness as PrisonFreedom Against Rational CertaintyHumiliation and Wounded PridePerforming the SelfThe Fear of Human ConnectionThe Underground

The Author's Pen

A Spiteful OfficialSettled in MiseryLooked Upon With LoathingMoved Without NoticeShoulder to ShoulderToo Conscious To Be An InsectEnjoyment In DegradationEverlasting SpiteThe Stone WallA Sort of LoathingHatred and Envy of ZverkovEnjoyment In ToothacheCount Me InCrushed And HumiliatedPacing to Be NoticedConsciousness and InertiaIntelligence and InertiaWhy Should I DieSelling Body and SoulIndependent ChoiceYou Speak Like a BookHidden Convulsions of DespairLiza, Forgive MeTwice Two Makes FiveIncapable Of Loving HerThe Crystal Palace and Hen HouseEverlasting Spite

Plot point 01

The Underground Man Introduces Himself

I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. He has been living in his corner for forty years and he wants to tell you something - whether you like it or not.

Objects of Note

The Notes

A man who would rather write himself down than face anyone in person.

The Cast

Liza

Main

A young woman whose compassion breaks into the underground.

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Notes from the Underground

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 127 classics in the Literah library

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