Summary: Chapter VI
The Underground Man wakes up after having slept with the
young prostitute. He hears a clock wheezing, and he takes in the
details of the dirty, narrow room where he has been sleeping. He
remembers the events of the previous day as if they had happened
a long time ago, and slowly he begins to feel anguished. Next to
him, the prostitute opens her eyes and looks at him with indifferent
curiosity. The Underground Man realizes that he has never spoken
to her, and he suddenly feels disgusted with the idea of sex without
any kind of love. They stare at each other, and the Underground
Man becomes uncomfortable.
To break the silence, the Underground Man asks the prostitute’s name,
and she tells him that it is Liza. He continues to ask her about her
background, but she seems unwilling to elaborate. Suddenly, he begins
to tell her the story of a prostitute who died in a basement and whose
former clients drank to her memory in a tavern. He then launches
into a long, moralizing speech about the shamefulness of prostitution
as a profession.
This lecture clearly moves Liza. The Underground Man becomes fascinated
by the idea that he can elicit emotion in her. He feels that doing
so indicates that he has some power over her. At the same time,
he is genuinely interested in her, and feels emotionally unstable himself.
He waxes sentimental about the value of family, describing the love
he would feel for his daughter if he had one. When Liza implies
that her own family may have sold her into prostitution, the Underground
Man launches into a long speech about the value of marriage and
the happiness it can bring. At the end of his speech, he tells Liza
how much he loves little children, painting a glowing picture of
a young mother and father with a plump, rosy baby. The Underground
Man imagines that this picture will convince Liza to stop being
a prostitute, but after he finishes his speech, he worries that
she will laugh at him.
When Liza begins to speak, the Underground Man encourages her
tenderly, but she tells him that his speech sounds like it was taken
from a book. He is offended. In retrospect, he convinces himself
that Liza’s mockery was only a form of self-defense, and that she was
genuinely moved by his speech. But at the moment he has not yet
come to this revelation, and a “wicked feeling” comes over him.
Summary: Chapter VII
The Underground Man defends himself against Liza’s statement that
his speech sounds like it was borrowed from a book. To the contrary,
he says, the speech rose up in his soul in response to the baseness
of Liza’s situation. He feels vile for being with her because she
is a prostitute. However, if she lived a purer life in a better
place, he says, he might fall in love with her and accord her the
respect that is denied a prostitute. He tries to convey to her how
shameful and sordid her situation is. As a prostitute, she is throwing
away her youth, her virtue, and her health. He continues his speech
in brutal fashion, describing in detail Liza’s inevitable death
from consumption, predicting how ill-treated and friendless she
will be in her illness, and how little respect she will get in death,
as no one will mourn her.
The Underground Man gets so carried away in his speech
that it takes him a while to realize that Liza is in complete despair,
sobbing convulsively into her pillow. Suddenly horrified, he starts
to get ready to leave. When he lights a candle, however, Liza gets
up with a “half-crazed smile” and looks at him. He takes her hands
and gives her his address, telling her to come to him. She promises
to come, and he says goodbye to her.
