Notes from Underground: Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

The underground man enters Simonov’s apartment. Some other former schoolmates are also there, but no one seems to notice him, treating him like “some sort of ordinary house fly.” They are planning a farewell dinner for a friend named Zverkov, an army officer who was leaving St. Petersburg. The underground man had hated Zverkov in school because “he was such an attractive, lively lad,” and would often arrogantly brag about himself.

The underground man remembers how once Zverkov was bragging about his romantic exploits with peasant girls and how if the girls’ fathers protested, he would have them flogged. The underground man had attacked Zverkov, not out of pity for the girls but because everyone else around him was applauding and encouraging Zverkov, whom the underground man calls “a little insect.”

One of Simonov’s guests at his apartment is Ferfichkin, who had been the underground man’s “bitterest enemy” in school. Ferfichkin was “a despicable, impudent show-off.” Also there is Trudolyubov, a military man who had always treated the underground man “as a nonentity.” They are all planning Zverkov’s party, and the underground man invites himself to it, offering to help pay. He thought everyone would respect him for offering to pay, but they are simply surprised that he would want to come along at all.

Simonov and the others reluctantly agree to let the underground man come to their party and tell him to meet them the next day at five in the evening. Simonov asks him if he could pay his share of the money for the party now, but the underground man doesn’t have any money on him. He embarrassedly remembers that he owes Simonov money anyways, which he had never paid back.

The underground man leaves Simonov and berates himself for interfering with the party. He is angry with himself and thinks he shouldn’t go, but then admits to himself that he is really so upset because he knows that he is going to go, even though he has no money—what little money he does have he has to pay to his servant Apollon, whom he promises to tell his readers about later.

The underground man recalls his school years. He was “a lonely boy,” and didn’t get along with any of his schoolmates, who teased him. He grew to consider them as beneath him and “hated them terribly.” As years went by, he became more and more successful academically in school, but still felt a need for friends. He tried to make friends with some schoolmates, but says he “was already a despot at heart,” and, when he made one friend, simply wanted to “exercise unlimited power over his soul.” After the friend “surrendered himself” to the underground man, he despised the friend.

The next day, the underground man plans anxiously for the party. He doesn’t want to arrive first, because then he would seem overly eager. As he is getting dressed, he sees that there was a yellow spot on his pants, and worries that the spot will make him appear undignified. But, he thinks to himself, “this isn’t the time for thinking. Reality is now looming.” He imagines how horrible the party will be, but wants to go to prove he isn’t a coward and isn’t intimidated by Zverkov and the others. He finally leaves his home and hires a cab to take him to the party, “in order to arrive at the Hotel de Paris in style.”