I am a sick man….I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don't consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it, though. Of course, I can't explain who it is I am mortifying in this case by my spite: […] I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else . But still, if I don't consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well—let it get worse!

I have been going on like that for a long time—twenty years. Now I am forty. I used to be in the government service, but am no longer. I was a spiteful official. I was rude and took pleasure in being so.

Basic set-up:

The narrator of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, Notes from Underground, is one twisted dude. In the excerpt above, he's beginning to share his story—and we can tell from the moment he opens his mouth that this is one complicated guy.

The Underground Man isn't someone important: he's spent most of his life working as a minor clerk in a government office, and he doesn't even get a name in the novel. By focusing on this kind of guy, Dostoevsky's novel gives importance to the life of a regular person.

But what's especially important about this novel is the way in which Dostoevsky develops character. The Underground Man's twisted psychology is what drives this entire novel. Everything that happens is a result of this character's thoughts and feelings, and of the way in which he acts on them.

The Underground Man describes himself as "sick" and "spiteful." He refuses to see a doctor about his medical condition from "spite." He's "superstitious," too, even though he's educated. This guy is clearly a little off his rocker—and that's the point. Dostoevsky wants us to take this guy seriously and figure out why he actually feels that way. Is it society? Is it a spiritual condition? What happened?

Unlike many 19th-century Realist novels, Notes from Underground is written in the first person. In this case, the first-person narrative voice serves Dostoevsky's purposes because it allows us to really see how complicated this Underground Man is. He's contradictory, he's angry, he's sad, and we get all of that through hearing him speak directly to us.