FREE ESSAY ON UM NOTES

UM NOTES

PART #2
CHAPTERS 1-2
Summary 
The UM starts out talking about the office he worked in when he was twenty-four:
apparently he hated everyone there and likewise, they hated him. The narrative then
derails while the UM describes the Russian national character, which he believes
eliminates fools and elevates Romantics who appreciate the sublime and beautiful.
Returning to his description of his life, he notes that he had no friends and was always
alone, spending most of his time reading. He admits to satisfying his private desires in
various dens of vice.
The UM then describes an incident in a bar one night in which an army officer moved him
away from a billiard table as though he were a piece of furniture. He said nothing to the
man, but fostered deep seething resentment for this insult. He would run in to this same
officer in the street, and try to stare him down, but would always end up stepping out of
the way for him (the officer never recognized him). He writes the officer a long letter
listing his grievances, but does not send it. Instead he decid es to meet the officer in
the street and bump against him instead of stepping aside. The event, when it happens, is
anticlimactic: he and the officer bump shoulders, and the officer continues on his way,
seeming not to have noticed. The officer is late r transferred, and the UM never sees him
again.
The UM then describes how he would spend most of his time either depressed or dreaming of
grand lives for himself, all of which involve becoming an important charitable man,
beloved by all. He remains caught between two extremes--a hero or a hermit--with no
middle ground between the two.
Sometimes, the UM immersed himself so deeply in the sublime and beautiful that he would
be filled with a great love for mankind, and a deep desire to see others. On these days,
he would generally go to visit his supervisor, with whom he was friendly, a lthough the
visits were always disastrous--he would feel nervous and uncomfortable, unsure of what to
say. These visits would temper his love of mankind for awhile.
One day, in the midst of one of his better moods, the UM decides to visit Simonov, his
only friend from his school days. He did not have any other friends from school, having
deliberately disassociated himself from what that painful period in his lif e. He
expected Simonov to despise him, but this expectation only made him more intent on the
visit. The chapter ends with him stepping into Simonov's apartment.
Commentary 
For the first time, with the officer, we see the UM's self-described masochism in action.
He feels insulted by the officer in the bar, and ashamed of his own cowardice. The UM is
rarely capable of dealing with things actively. He goes back to his hole and broods for a
matter of years. There is a very long stretch of time during which the UM was obsessed
with the officer, from the moving in the bar to the push on the street. And all of this
is just as the UM described--he becomes angry and insulted, a nd begins to find pleasure
in his painful brooding.
The UM's description of his workplace is very revealing. We have been wondering what
experiences led the UM to his antisocial views, and here we begin to get some answers.
His vacillation between arrogance and fear is very evident--he either feels above his
coworkers (more intelligent, more thoughtful), or beneath, like a coward or a slave. His
arrogance makes them despise him more.
Lastly, the UM's delusions of grandeur further evidence his insecurity and obsession with
being accepted by society. The officer comes to him and begs for acceptance. He has a
flash of the sublime and wants to befriend his coworkers. He becomes a mil lionaire and
donates all his money to various charities. Although these fantasies disgust him, he
finds them to be romantic dreams which, despite his defense of the Russian Romantic in
Chapter 1 of Part II, are pathetic to him. Here we find another de ep contradiction in
the UM's character: he is disgusted by romanticism, and yet succumbs to romantic
fantasies. He also scorns these visionary fantasies, but distrusts societal rules as
well. The UM is never able to integrate these two dichotomies.
Part II: Chapters 3-5 
Summary 
The UM finds Simonov already hosting two other of their school acquaintances, Trudolyubov
and Ferfichkin. They are discussing a farewell dinner for another ex-schoolmate, Zverkov.
They take little notice of the UM as he enters. The UM then give s us an extensive
description of Zverkov--popular, very wealthy, now a successful officer in the army. The
UM and Zverkov had never been friends, mostly on account of Zverkov's tendency to mock
the UM.
Stricken with the memory of Zverkov and his ex-schoolmates ignoring him, the UM invites
himself to their dinner. They react poorly, noting that he and Zverkov were never
friends, and wondering whether he will have to pay for his meal. The UM stands his g
round, and the three reluctantly agree to let him come.
That night, the UM dreams of his terrible school days, which seem much like his
description of work. From the outset, the UM felt different and scorned, and so he hid
himself in intelligence and study, distancing himself more and more from his classmat es
as he grew older. The UM also mentions that he was an orphan in this section.
After a day of nervous preparation, in which he concludes that all his clothes are far
too shoddy, the UM heads off to the restaurant. The dinner goes badly from the start. The
time had been changed without the UM's knowledge, so he has to wait for an h our before
the other four men arrive; the wait humiliates him greatly. Zverkov treats him with
condescension, leveling him with insults. Throughout the meal, the UM antagonizes his old
schoolmates with jokes about Zverkov's slight speech defect and the overall lacking
intelligence of the group. All of this stems from his own insecurity about his shabby
appearance and meager salary-- these men have enjoyed much more success than him.
Finally, the UM gives an inappropriate offensive toast to Zverkov, wh ich nearly leads to
a brawl. He spends the rest of the night brooding, and none of the other men talk to him.
When they leave to go to a brothel, however, the UM begs to go with them, and asks
Simonov for money. Simonov, disgusted with the UM's behavio r already, gives him the
money in disbelief.
In the carriage ride, the UM fantasizes about striking Zverkov in the nose to avenge
himself for the insults of the evening, and about reconciling with Zverkov and becoming
lifelong friends. He arrives at the brothel to find that his compatriots have alr eady
gone. He spots a young prostitute, and, on a whim, hires her with Simonov's money, noting
how disgusting she must find him.
Commentary 
In Part I, the UM tells us about his masochistic ideas of getting pleasure from pain: in
this section, he deliberately decides to go the dinner because he knows it will bring him
pain. Somehow, in bringing pain on himself, he is acting out his resentmen t of his old
schoolmates. Thus, we can see how many of the themes introduced in Part I influence the
UM's actions in Part II.
Before the dinner, the UM fantasizes about winning over Simonov, Ferfichkin, and
Trudolyubov with his wit and charm, and forsaking Zverkov. He then invites Zverkov over,
and they toast to their eternal friendship. But there is arrogance in this vision a s
well--his insecurity prevents the UM from being comfortable among friends in a social
setting. Zverkov's early jokes are not mean-spirited, but the UM takes immediate offense
at them and must retaliate to save his honor.
Romanticism has emerged as something of an undercurrent here. In the previous section,
the UM defended the Russian Romantic as someone who sees things very clearly. His defense
of romanticism clearly mirrors his own caution about logic and law in Part I . During the
carriage ride, he chides himself for his romantic fantasies about Zverkov, displaying the
inner contradiction that makes Zverkov despise himself and his own values.
The UM's description of his schooldays is predictable. The only new important piece of
information that is the UM's family history--he was an orphan. The UM represents a
character whose basic problems (before whatever insanity he has now) are insecurity and a
need for acceptance, coupled with a constant feeling of alienation. The UM has never,
throughout his entire life, had the benefit of a central group of people by whom he was
accepted and loved. And, lacking that center, one can see how he entered his early school
days feeling slighted and abandoned by the world, and carried these feelings throughout
his adulthood.
Lastly, we should mention the UM's notion of life. His attendance at the dinner was
based, in part, on his feeling that not going would be cowardly, avoiding life. When he
is in the carriage, intent on slapping Zverkov in face, he prepares himself f or a
confrontation with real-life. The UM seems to equate life with conflict. Or rather, he
seems to equate life with emotionally satisfying contact with other people, and the only
avenues of emotion open to him are resentment, anger, and conflict. The UM knows that his
dark cellar forbids him to experience real life; he remains aware of his own predicament,
his own interminable alienation. He seems to think that by immersing himself in life, he
might somehow put himself back into society, and in some way regain his dignity.
Part II: Chapters 6-10 
Summary 
The UM wakes up next to the prostitute and makes conversation with her. She is cold and
removed, until they start talking about another prostitute who died that morning of
consumption. The conversation sparks something in the UM, and he gives the pr ostitute,
Lisa, an impassioned speech about how she is doomed to the same sordid fate if she stays
in this life; he then starts babbling about homes and families and love in a somewhat
nonsensical way. Lisa tells him that he is talking as if reading from a book. The UM
continues, painting a vivid picture of the sordid horrors awaiting Lisa if she remains a
prostitute. He criticizes the baseness of her profession, and notes how it is destroying
her both physically and emotionally.
Lisa is finally moved to tears, and shows the UM a letter she has from a young man she
met at a party, in which he professes his love for her. Before leaving, the UM gives her
his address, and tells her to visit him.
The next morning, the UM wakes up amazed at his sentimentality the night before. He
clearly has grave doubts about Lisa visiting. He writes what he considers to be a very
well-phrased letter to Simonov, paying him back and apologizing for his behavior (by
blaming it on the wine); he gives the letter to Apollon, his manservant. Over the next
few days, he throws himself into worrying about whether or not Lisa will visit. This
leads into an aside about Apollon, who appears to have the ability to dri ve the UM mad
with shame and anger.
One evening, in the midst of the UM's concerns about Lisa's arrival--he vacillates
between fantasies about a future for the two of them together and total apathy)--and
torment over Apollon's judgmental stares, Lisa arrives. They sit down to tea, and the UM
has a fit of anger at Apollon, explaining to Lisa how he torments him. Then, feeling
ashamed of his house and himself, he tries to make Lisa feel awkward and unwelcome by not
speaking to her. When she finally speaks, he explodes at her, disavowing hi s pathetic
speeches the night before as sentimental rubbish, and telling her that he only humiliated
her because he had been humiliated that evening. He then continues on a rant about his
own pathetic state, describing how much he hates her for finding him like this, and how
ashamed he is of himself in every way. Lisa's response to all of this is, surprisingly,
tender understanding.
The narrative then skips ahead. The two have had sex, and the UM has once again exploded
in anger at Lisa. She is alienated from him entirely now, crying in the bedroom. When she
leaves, he presses some money into her hand, in an attempt to be as insul ting and
demeaning as possible; Lisa leaves the money behind when she goes. The UM changes his
mind and goes after her, but she is gone.
The notes end with the UM, back in his later state, offering his thoughts on the pathos
of real life as compared to life in literature, but noting that he is proud of his
decision to live in the emotional extremes of the real world rather be average. A brief
parenthetical note informs us that the Notes do not end here, that this paradoxical
fellow wrote more, but that we may stop reading here.
Commentary 
In this final portion we see a reversal of the chain of abuse. Until now, we have seen
countless examples of the UM being abused; now, we see that humiliation reflected onto
Lisa.
Throughout the Notes, we have seen the UM take out his aggression on himself to somehow
satisfy his desire for revenge. In this section we see what is perhaps a more sinister
example of his emotional dysfunction--since he is powerless with Zverkov and his friends,
he seeks a position of power with Lisa. He humiliates her by pointing out the baseness of
her profession, and elevates himself by trying to save her from her terrible fate.
At the beginning of Chapter 9, the UM notes that he would make Lisa pay dearly for this.
We might ask ourselves what this is: his shameful house, his clothes, his nervous
demeanor, his ugly face, his miserable future. Lisa becomes the reposit ory for all the
aggression he has built up against those he perceives as having slighted him throughout
life. In this way, the UM moves from victim to victimizer.
The UM's emotional shortcomings bring us to some sobering ideas about the character. The
UM himself notes, at one point, that he could never have really loved Lisa or anyone
else, since to him love meant tyranny and moral superiority. The UM has remaine d alone
and unloved his entire life, and has spent nearly all his emotional energy trying to
protect himself from what he perceives as the shaming insults and jibes of others. How
can someone like that possibly build the emotional tools to love, or be lo ved, or
interact with others in society with any success?
Conclusion 
In Part I of Notes from Underground, we are presented with a man estranged from society.
He is acutely sensitive and totally unable to handle himself with other people. He is too
timid, it seems, to address any of the many wrongs visited on him directly, so he
develops a masochistic system in which he finds a way to take out his aggression on other
people by hurting himself (like going to visit Simonov, or going to the dinner, or not
going to the doctor). This evokes his nihilistic side-- the UM refuses to accept what he
calls the twice-two-makes-four rules of rationality that govern society. He becomes a
little confused on this point: at times he appears to be saying that he refuses to accept
these laws because they hamper his free ch oice as an individual, and at other times he
appears to be bemoaning people's fixation with proving their free will. The confusion is
as important as the clarity--it is most important to recognize the attack that the UM
makes in his mind on the structure s of society.
Part I can be seen as a guide to Part II, which can be viewed as a model series of events
that illustrate the UM's inability to interact with other people. By the end of the
Notes, the UM is an indisputably ambiguous character. He refers to himse lf as an
anti-hero, but the UM is neither hero nor anti-hero. Remember that Dostoevsky strove to
depict real people. By the time we meet him, the UM has suffered a lifetime of fearing
real life, a lifetime apart from the real world, confined instead to isolation, solitude,
and masochism.
Bibliography
Internet- Spark notes