Notes from Underground

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Notes from Underground: Unreliable Narrator 1 key example

Part 2, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Can You Trust Him?:

The Underground Man acts as an unreliable narrator throughout the Notes, especially in Part 2, as he describes the events that led to him moving underground 20 years ago. He recalls being an outcast in Russian society, with his coworkers and acquaintances holding great contempt towards him and disliking him for seemingly no reason beyond his inability to connect with them:

At work in the office I even tried not to look at anyone; I was aware not only that my colleagues considered me eccentric, but that they always seemed to regard me with a kind of loathing. Sometimes I wondered why it was that no one else thinks that others regard him with loathing.