"I am an old man. I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man," The underground man. From the very first lines Dostevsky has stated who our character is. We get to understand who the undergound man and his function in society, while he is not anyone of remarkable standing thatis what makes him so fascinating and appropriately sumes up the mentality of the time and place: Imperial Russia during the 19th century. Dostoevsky also tries to use the underground man as a platform to address utopian idealist during this era, the same group of people who established authoritarian soialism over the country. I would say that the underground man is the definition of a round complex character. Again, Dostoevsky uses this to his advantage by making the rest of his characters as flat and cold to the protagonist
When it comes to setting Dostoevsky captures Saint Petersburg quite well. Using the city in the second part, as well as its overall run down nature to further accentuate the underground man's psyche. This setting was also used in the 1997 cult classic Brother (Брат) to help establish a similar psyche for Danila Bagrov, who is portrayed as mixture of the underground man and Rodion Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment (I recommend this movie, but scenes of extreme violence, language and, in the sequel film, nudity, all exist, so please watch with discretion).
The plot is mainly based on the character, but the second part tells of a story of the underground man getting betrayed by some old friends one night when they had decided to meet up for dinner, the underground man resents them for such a thing, and leaves, only to follow them to a place, presumably, a brothel, where he blacks out, he wakes up in the presence of a young prostitute, Liza, who believes in utopian ideals and how she can climb the social ladder even as a prostitute, but the underground man says otherwise and that she is foolish in holding such asinine beliefs. He leaves for his quarters, but is visited by Liza a few days later and comes to pity him in her interactions with him, enraged by this, the underground man insults her until she leaves. The notes end.
So what can I say about this work, it is one of the best classics there is, in my opinion. Concise, yet functional in plot (unlike a certain Fitzgerald novel of similar length that starts with "G" and ends in "Atsby"), Notes from Underground serves toremind the reader of man's flawed nature and why utopia cannot work without perfect people, which, as we are shown in this work, are uncommon to come across, and because of these imperfect characters shows why this book of so worthy of my praise. Recommended!
In my opinion, this is THE classic literary work to read, as far as what I have read.