Notes From Underground

After reading the first part of Notes from Underground, we learn a lot about the character of the man who lives underground. He is a man filled with contempt and spite. He is a bitter man living in St. Petersburg , Russia in the 1860s. As an ex-civil service worker, he lives in a corner house. He gets food from money that he inherited. The protagonist throughout the book contradicts himself and inflicts self harm. 

In the book, he explains how "there is even enjoyment in a toothache" (13). Within this comment, he contradicts himself and inflicts self harm. Most people can attest to the fact that toothaches can be quite painful and unpleasant. He agrees that it can be painful but argues that you can still find enjoyment in the pain. I understand finding enjoyment in something boring or unpleasant, but I do not understand finding enjoyment in something PAINFUL. Throughout the book, one of the themes we see is this man contradicting himself just like he does here. The man finds enjoyment in pain so he inflicts self harm and brings on pain. 

He seems to enjoy all the bitter things in his life and does everything in the book out of spite. I didn't understand what spite was before reading this, but he engrains the definition by using spite so much. Spite is the desire to hurt and annoy. 

In the first page of the book, he comments that his "liver is diseased" (3) but he doesn't "treat it and never [will]" (3). Clearly here he shows how he inflicts self harm and pains himself by not seeing a doctor or getting treated. He makes no attempts to try to get it better out of spite. He then explains how "I know better than anyone that I thereby injure only myself and no one else." (3). He injures himself and doesn't even care enough to make an attempt to get better. He is clearly a bitter man full of spite.

Overall, I found the first part to be a tougher read because all of his notes put together was not too clear about what he was saying, but two themes of contradiction and self-infliction were clearly present.