Notes from Underground: Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

The underground man arrives at the party before anyone else, and finds that the table isn’t even set for their dinner yet. He learns from a waiter that dinner has been ordered to start at six, not five. The underground man feels embarrassed and shamed as he sits for an hour, waiting, while a waiter sets the table. At last, Zverkov, Simonov, and the others arrive. Simonov apologizes for forgetting to tell the underground man that they had changed the time of the party. Zverkov and Ferfichkin laugh at the idea of the underground man waiting for an hour before the party, irritating him.

Zverkov asks the underground man about his work, speaking with long, drawn-out words, and the underground man mockingly imitates this manner of speaking. Zverkov comments that the underground man does not make very much money at his job. After some tense conversation, all the other guests start talking amongst themselves, leaving the underground man “completely crushed and humiliated.” He thinks of leaving “out of contempt,” but ends up staying and getting drunk.

The underground man watches the other guests as he drinks more and more wine. He comments that they “have forgotten all about me.” He breaks into the conversation once, and the others notice how drunk he was. He says that Zverkov looks at him “as if I were an insect.”

The underground man stands up to make a toast and makes a comment about how he hates “obscene stories and the men who tell them,” alluding to Zverkov’s habit of telling such stories. Everyone is upset at this, and Ferfichkin says the underground man should be “whacked in the face for saying such things.” The underground man responds by challenging Ferfichkin to a duel, at which everyone simply laughs.

The underground man stays at the party, where he continues to drink. He tells the reader about how he “smiled contemptuously and paced up and down” the room. He stomps his boots loudly, but no one pays him any attention. He says he understood that he was humiliating himself, but didn’t care. He says that his “enemies behaved as if I weren’t even in the room.” Finally, Zverkov suggests they all go to a brothel.

The underground man asks Zverkov and everyone else for their forgiveness, apologizing for his behavior and for insulting them. Zverkov replies that he could never feel insulted by the underground man. The underground man says he “stood there as if spat on.” He decides to go with them to the brothel, grabs Simonov by his coat, and demands that he lend him some money for the occasion. He imagines that if he follows the others to the brothel, either they will “all fall on their knees, embracing me, begging for my friendship. . . or else, I’ll give Zverkov a slap in the face.”