Because the entire book is written in the voice of "Underground Man," Dostoyevsky presents an upside-down world. We are not asked to agree with Underground Man, but to watch him struggle with the ramifications of his own beliefs. Therefore, we cannot really read this as a book to learn truth from, but ironically there is truth in the rantings (I cannot call it a story).
Dostoyevsky knew that the rejection of Revelation in favor of Enlightenment philosophy would eventually lead to a place of absurdity. The extreme materialist eventually finds himself in a place in which he can no longer justify his own existence. However, in Russia, this thinking was particularly dangerous because it ran into a populace conscious of their own backwardness. Therefore Russia proved a fertile ground for a group of disaffected young people seeking the veneer of intellectualism. They become adrift in a godless world filled with meaninglessness. As the introduction states, "the Underground Man is at the same time Dostoyevsky's crowning illustration of what happens to a person whose mind and character have been shaped by a generation of Romantic and Hegelian-minded dreamers."
The meat of the book is an extended argument the man is having with some unseen interlocutors. He seeks to justify himself, but then realizes the ridiculousness of his arguments as they sink deeper and deeper into meaninglessness. He begins by describing his malice. "Well, the main point, indeed the crowning nastiness, was that even during my most splenetic moments I was constantly, shamefully, aware that not only was I not seething with spite but that I wasn't even embittered, and was merely scaring sparrows in vain, for my own amusement." (p. 4) He recognizes early on that all his attempts at depth of despair are simply play-acting. The rest of the book is the man talking about the only thing he cares about, "I'll talk about myself." (p. 6)
He seems to delight in being outrageous, but then can't seem to feel actually outraged. He wonders if others are feeling what he feels. Yet he wonders if he actually feels anything. He is the height of narcism, utterly consumed with himself, and utterly bored. Almost everything he says is self-justification for his clearly wasted life. He claims it is he, not those "successful" men one meets, who is truly alive. All others are "dull-witted and limited." (p. 16) One of Dostoyevsky's points in the novel was to uncover the meaninglessness of a life guided by nothing but instinct, devoid of free will. One thing the Underground Man makes clear is that he will NOT be governed by material forces. Therefore, he will intentionally act against his own "best interest," and embrace irrationalism, repeatedly remonstrating against the tyranny of "twice two is four." Yet he cannot find a way to escape the conclusion that he has no real free will. Dostoyevsky uses this man to demonstrate that the end of materialist thinking is rebellion against materialist thinking.
The second half of the book details his pathetic attempt to ingratiate himself with a group of old acquaintances. However, he is sufficiently delusional that they reject him. Of course this feeds into his narcism and desire to prove himself better than them. The one thought that is absolutely debilitating to him is that he is common, ordinary. He debases himself in episode after episode with the group. He is finally shown to be a fraud by a prostitute. However, unrepentant, he ends with this justification, "Strictly speaking, as far as I'm concerned, I've merely carried to extremes in my life things that you've never had the courage even to take halfway and what's more you've interpreted your cowardice as common sense and found comfort in deceiving yourselves. So perhaps I'll prove to be 'more alive' than you." (p. 118)
I can't say I enjoyed the book. It's very philosophical in its nature and that is not my bent. Plus Dostoyevsky was speaking to some specific heresies he was witnessing at this time in this context. So for me, although it has universal significance, it also requires too much prior knowledge. It's the extended rant of every intellectual who just knows he is above the hoi polloi.
