Another important factor that contributes to the Underground Man’s
indecision is his intense self-consciousness. Though the Underground
Man is frequently irrational, he is also extremely analytical and
acutely conscious of every thought, urge, and feeling that crosses
his mind. It is this heightened consciousness that makes him aware
of all of the “opposite elements” inside him, so much so that he
can never make a decision or act confidently on any of his desires.
The Underground Man is also highly conscious of what others think
of him. He is intensely aware of our presence as readers. He addresses
us frequently and directly, calling us “gentlemen,” and he constantly
analyzes and revises his statements in the fear that we are judging
him. Indeed, the Underground Man treats us like a panel of hostile
judges, looking down upon his underground life from our comfortable
position above ground, from the vantage point of the social world
he has fled.
Because we are aware that the Underground Man is conscious
of our presence, we must question the validity of any statements
he makes about not writing for our benefit. The Underground Man
is a prime example of what is known in literature as an unreliable
narrator: because everything we learn from the Underground Man is
filtered though the lens of his own nihilistic, anguished perspective,
we can never be sure he is telling us the objective truth about
anything. We must use what we learn about the Underground Man’s
psychological state to fully understand his motives for telling
us something, and to get a clear picture of the facts of his interactions
with people.
Dostoevsky’s note highlights the fact that the Underground
Man is an unreliable narrator. By telling us that the Underground
Man is fictional, and by describing the social conditions that might
have produced someone like the Underground Man, Dostoevsky distances
himself from his narrator. Because Notes from Underground is
written in first person, it is easy to imagine that Dostoevsky and the
Underground Man share the same perspective. However, one of the
hallmarks of all of Dostoevsky’s works is his ability to create
distance between himself and his characters. One of the techniques
he uses to accomplish this distance is humor. Indeed, in this novel,
the Underground Man’s behavior is so absurd that it often verges
on the comic. Though Dostoevsky may share many of the Underground Man’s
opinions about society, he prefers to put those opinions in the mouth
of someone rather unappealing and unconvincing. Dostoevsky feared
that if he made his arguments too well, his readers would accept
them without weighing their good and bad points.
The fact that the Underground Man is a civil servant is
another important element. Many of Dostoevsky’s most famous characters are
low-ranking civil servants who are lost in the society of nineteenth
century St. Petersburg. The Underground Man is just an average man,
neither a philosopher nor a professional writer. As such, he does
not use any philosophical terms when discussing his ideas. Although
in his youth he was a great admirer of “the literary,” by the time
he is writing these notes, he has generally abandoned literary language,
except in cases when he uses it ironically. Instead, the Underground
Man uses everyday language with a kind of deliberate awkwardness.
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