Part I of Notes From Underground shows us a character that is contradictory, depressed, overly conscience, and in a way, bipolar in his thoughts. The reader slowly acquires an annoyance toward the Underground Man. You are never sure if he’s revealing his true thoughts, if he’s lying, or if he even has true thoughts. Part II of the story highlights how the Underground Man came to be, and how society can shape and form the ideals of a person.

At the start of Part II, you learn the Underground Man has a passion for reading, and for Russian Romanticism. But there was also an abnormal part to him. He was extremely anti-social, depressed, and he always had a belief that people, like his co-workers, had a negative view toward him. For instance, he saw himself as a visually ugly person, “therefore, every time [he] arrived at work, [he] took pains to behave as independently as possible, so that [he] couldn’t be suspected of any malice…”(658). Why does he have this idea that people innately view him as ugly, or with “a kind of loathing”? We learn that as a child he was an orphan. He was alone and alienated at school because of his status as an orphan. He clearly had no parents so there was not one person to show him any sort of love or proper human interaction. His belief that people will always see him as insufficient stems from his childhood and the way people treated him.

As an adult, people still treat him horrible. He wanted to be accepted by Simonov and his friends, so he decided to go to a farwell dinner. First they teased and laughed at him, Ferfichkin threatened to hit him, then they acted as if he did not exist. Even with that, the Underground Man asked desperately for forgiveness, he craved so much for some sort of human attention, so much to be accepted. But it was all done in vain. He soon realizes that as a child he was inadequate, and as an adult he will remain inadequate.

The prostitute Liza is the Underground Man’s last chance at having a real relationship with someone, she was his last chance at finally being accepted. After being mocked by the Underground Man countless of times, she realizes that his personality is a result of his unhappiness. She realizes this and “suddenly she threw herself at [him], put her arms around his neck, and burst into tears” (705). She hugged him, and he cried his sorrows away. The Underground Man then explains the source of his unhappiness: “They won’t let me… I can’t be… good!”(705). The many times he attempted to have a normal life, to be good, he was rejected, and mocked. But his lack of faith in humanity, derived from past experiences, misconstrued his feelings; he mocked her again, this time being his last time. His anti-social behavior, his depression, the way he believes that everyone loathes him, his over thinking; all of it can now be explained by society’s terrible treatment toward him. This was the last story told to his audience, this is when he officially became the Underground Man.