Notes From Underground (Dostoevsky)

The second section of Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground amount to retellings of experiences the narrator experienced in his youth. The final chapter is one of the most important in the book, the narrator's recanting of his failed interaction with a prostitute named Liza. Perhaps more than at any other time in his existence, the narrator is able to achieve human contact with another human being through Liza. Lying in bed with her he lets down his ego, abandons his notions of romanticism, and disengages his superficial learning. Absent these defense mechanisms, he actually engages in dialogue with another human being and invites Liza to share her feelings with him. Instead of being tormented by his own personality tensions, the narrator actually becomes involved in his own deeper feelings. However, even this moment of unconscious breakthrough from the limitations of his personality will amount to futility. This is primarily because the underground man treats Liza just like he has every other human being. He will exert his superiority, flee from his deeper feelings, and attempt to justify his actions once more through a shallow and self-serving

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