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Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Hatred and Desire:
In Part 2, Chapter 9, The Underground Man rebukes Liza after she comes to visit him despite caring for her, describing the situation using situational irony:
My eyes gleamed with passion; I pressed her hands tightly. How I hated her and felt drawn to her simultaneously!
The Underground Man understands how his insults have and continue to hurt her, and on the one hand, he wants to make her upset. He has a deep-seated hatred for her, but he continuously returns to her, eventually inviting her to his home and hoping she never appears (although she does). He wants to continue hurting her while staying in her vicinity.
It is ironic, then, when the narrator says that he hates her while feeling drawn "drawn to her." He contradicts himself with his opinions of her. This signals a larger facet of The Underground Man's personality that he ignores: the desire he has to connect with other people despite his simultaneous revulsion towards them. This is also evident in his attempts to get to know Simonov and his friends, even though he simultaneously derides them. He wants to connect with other people while still staying true to his antisocial principles and thinking himself more intelligent than them.
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