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             ClassicNote on Notes from Underground
             The Underground Man, as the protagonist is generally referred to, introduces himself in the opening of the first chapter. A footnote by the author informs us from the start that this protagonist is a fictional character but that people like him must exist in the present cultural setting. The footnote lays out the goal of the first part of the novel, which is to explain how such individuals come into being.
             The Underground Man begins by stating that he is sick, spiteful, and unpleasant. He explains that his liver is diseased but he refuses to see a doctor out of spite even though he respects the medical profession. He is forty years old and used to work for the civil service, but was a very rude official and tortured the petitioners who came to see him. He then explains that, in fact, he is not at all spiteful and would certainly have been more pleasant if someone had only shown him some sign of friendship. Once again he reverses his position, saying that if he accepted some such token of friendship he would be tortured by shame.
             The protagonist says that in fact he was never a rude official, but had just lied to the reader out of spite; he instantly goes on to say that though he had tried to be spiteful he could not be because his nature contradicted it. His nature would not allow him to become anything or to have any character at all, since intelligent men cannot have character. Men of character and action, on the other hand, are never intelligent. This is what he believes at the age of forty and must therefore belong to the wisdom of old age; forty is extreme o...