Question

What does Dostoevsky mean by being an underground person? How does the main character define being underground?

Answer 1

Dostoevsky means by being an underground person is a person who he as a narrator introduces himself as a man who is a spiteful person; whose every action is dictated by spitefulness. He admits in the end that he finds it is impossible to be anything as he can't be spiteful or heroic; he can only be nothing as he is a man of acute consciousness and such a person is automatically rendered inactive because he considers too many consequences of any action before he performs any act and therefore never gets around to doing anything. Thus the narrator i.e. the protagonist i.e. the main character defines himself being underground by saying that he is the man of acute consciousness; who is always worried about the consequences and thus rendered inactive.