Notes From Underground Read online

and without muttering in a faint voice. But I was, what is called, PUTTING

  IT ON, to save appearances, though the attack was a genuine one.

  She gave me water, looking at me in bewilderment. At that moment

  Apollon brought in the tea. It suddenly seemed to me that this commonplace,

  prosaic tea was horribly undignified and paltry after all that had

  happened, and I blushed crimson. Liza looked at Apollon with positive

  alarm. He went out without a glance at either of us.

  "Liza, do you despise me?" I asked, looking at her fixedly, trembling

  with impatience to know what she was thinking.

  She was confused, and did not know what to answer.

  "Drink your tea," I said to her angrily. I was angry with myself, but, of

  course, it was she who would have to pay for it. A horrible spite against

  her suddenly surged up in my heart; I believe I could have killed her. To

  revenge myself on her I swore inwardly not to say a word to her all the

  time. "She is the cause of it all," I thought.

  Our silence lasted for five minutes. The tea stood on the table; we did

  not touch it. I had got to the point of purposely refraining from beginning

  in order to embarrass her further; it was awkward for her to begin

  alone. Several times she glanced at me with mournful perplexity. I was

  obstinately silent. I was, of course, myself the chief sufferer, because I

  was fully conscious of the disgusting meanness of my spiteful stupidity,

  and yet at the same time I could not restrain myself.

  "I want to... get away ... from there altogether," she began, to break

  the silence in some way, but, poor girl, that was just what she ought not to

  have spoken about at such a stupid moment to a man so stupid as I was.

  My heart positively ached with pity for her tactless and unnecessary

  straightforwardness. But something hideous at once stifled all compassion

  in me; it even provoked me to greater venom. I did not care what

  happened. Another five minutes passed.

  "Perhaps I am in your way," she began timidly, hardly audibly, and was

  getting up.

  But as soon as I saw this first impulse of wounded dignity I positively

  trembled with spite, and at once burst out.

  "Why have you come to me, tell me that, please?" I began, gasping for

  breath and regardless of logical connection in my words. I longed to have

  it all out at once, at one burst; I did not even trouble how to begin. "Why

  have you come? Answer, answer," I cried, hardly knowing what I was

  doing. "I'll tell you, my good girl, why you have come. You've come

  because I talked sentimental stuff to you then. So now you are soft as

  butter and longing for fine sentiments again. So you may as well know

  that I was laughing at you then. And I am laughing at you now. Why are

  you shuddering? Yes, I was laughing at you! I had been insulted just

  before, at dinner, by the fellows who came that evening before me. I

  came to you, meaning to thrash one of them, an officer; but I didn't

  succeed, I didn't find him; I had to avenge the insult on someone to get

  back my own again; you turned up, I vented my spleen on you and

  laughed at you. I had been humiliated, so I wanted to humiliate; I had

  been treated like a rag, so I wanted to show my power .... That's what it

  was, and you imagined I had come there on purpose to save you. Yes? You

  imagined that? You imagined that?"

  I knew that she would perhaps be muddled and not take it all in exactly,

  but I knew, too, that she would grasp the gist of it, very well indeed. And

  so, indeed, she did. She turned white as a handkerchief, tried to say

  something, and her lips worked painfully; but she sank on a chair as

  though she had been felled by an axe. And all the time afterwards she

  listened to me with her lips parted and her eyes wide open, shuddering

  with awful terror. The cynicism, the cynicism of my words overwhelmed

  her ....

  "Save you!" I went on, jumping up from my chair and running up and

  down the room before her. "Save you from what? But perhaps I am worse

  than you myself. Why didn't you throw it in my teeth when I was giving

  you that sermon: 'But what did you come here yourself for? was it to read

  us a sermon?' Power, power was what I wanted then, sport was what I

  wanted, I wanted to wring out your tears, your humiliation, your

  hysteria--that was what I wanted then! Of course, I couldn't keep it up

  then, because I am a wretched creature, I was frightened, and, the devil

  knows why, gave you my address in my folly. Afterwards, before I got

  home, I was cursing and swearing at you because of that address, I hated

  you already because of the lies I had told you. Because I only like playing

  with words, only dreaming, but, do you know, what I really want is that

  you should all go to hell. That is what I want. I want peace; yes, I'd sell

  the whole world for a farthing, straight off, so long as I was left in peace.

  Is the world to go to pot, or am I to go without my tea? I say that the world

  may go to pot for me so long as I always get my tea. Did you know that, or

  not? Well, anyway, I know that I am a blackguard, a scoundrel, an egoist,

  a sluggard. Here I have been shuddering for the last three days at the

  thought of your coming. And do you know what has worried me particularly

  for these three days? That I posed as such a hero to you, and now

  you would see me in a wretched torn dressing-gown, beggarly, loathsome.

  I told you just now that I was not ashamed of my poverty; so you

  may as well know that I am ashamed of it; I am more ashamed of it than

  of anything, more afraid of it than of being found out if I were a thief,

  because I am as vain as though I had been skinned and the very air

  blowing on me hurt. Surely by now you must realise that I shall never

  forgive you for having found me in this wretched dressing-gown, just as I

  was flying at Apollon like a spiteful cur. The saviour, the former hero, was

  flying like a mangy, unkempt sheep-dog at his lackey, and the lackey was

  jeering at him! And I shall never forgive you for the tears I could not help

  shedding before you just now, like some silly woman put to shame! And

  for what I am confessing to you now, I shall never forgive you either!

  Yes--you must answer for it all because you turned up like this, because I

  am a blackguard, because I am the nastiest, stupidest, absurdest and most

  envious of all the worms on earth, who are not a bit better than I am, but,

  the devil knows why, are never put to confusion; while I shall always be

  insulted by every louse, that is my doom! And what is it to me that you

  don't understand a word of this! And what do I care, what do I care about

  you, and whether you go to ruin there or not? Do you understand? How I

  shall hate you now after saying this, for having been here and listening.

  Why, it's not once in a lifetime a man speaks out like this, and then it is in

  hysterics! ... What more do you want? Why do you still stand confronting

  me, after all this? Why are you worrying me? Why don't you go?"

  But at this point a strange thing happened. I was so accustomed to think

  and ima
gine everything from books, and to picture everything in the

  world to myself just as I had made it up in my dreams beforehand, that I

  could not all at once take in this strange circumstance. What happened

  was this: Liza, insulted and crushed by me, understood a great deal more

  than I imagined. She understood from all this what a woman understands

  first of all, if she feels genuine love, that is, that I was myself unhappy.

  The frightened and wounded expression on her face was followed first

  by a look of sorrowful perplexity. When I began calling myself a scoundrel

  and a blackguard and my tears flowed (the tirade was accompanied

  throughout by tears) her whole face worked convulsively. She was on the

  point of getting up and stopping me; when I finished she took no notice of

  my shouting: "Why are you here, why don't you go away?" but realised

  only that it must have been very bitter to me to say all this. Besides, she

  was so crushed, poor girl; she considered herself infinitely beneath me;

  how could she feel anger or resentment? She suddenly leapt up from her

  chair with an irresistible impulse and held out her hands, yearning

  towards me, though still timid and not daring to stir .... At this point

  there was a revulsion in my heart too. Then she suddenly rushed to me,

  threw her arms round me and burst into tears. I, too, could not restrain

  myself, and sobbed as I never had before.

  "They won't let me ... I can't be good!" I managed to articulate; then

  I went to the sofa, fell on it face downwards, and sobbed on it for a quarter

  of an hour in genuine hysterics. She came close to me, put her arms

  round me and stayed motionless in that position. But the trouble was that

  the hysterics could not go on for ever, and (I am writing the loathsome

  truth) lying face downwards on the sofa with my face thrust into my nasty

  leather pillow, I began by degrees to be aware of a far-away, involuntary

  but irresistible feeling that it would be awkward now for me to raise my

  head and look Liza straight in the face. Why was I ashamed? I don't

  know, but I was ashamed. The thought, too, came into my overwrought

  brain that our parts now were completely changed, that she was now the

  heroine, while I was just a crushed and humiliated creature as she had

  been before me that night--four days before .... And all this came into

  my mind during the minutes I was lying on my face on the sofa.

  My God! surely I was not envious of her then.

  I don't know, to this day I cannot decide, and at the time, of course, I

  was still less able to understand what I was feeling than now. I cannot get

  on without domineering and tyrannising over someone, but ... there is

  no explaining anything by reasoning and so it is useless to reason.

  I conquered myself, however, and raised my head; I had to do so

  sooner or later ... and I am convinced to this day that it was just because

  I was ashamed to look at her that another feeling was suddenly kindled

  and flamed up in my heart ... a feeling of mastery and possession. My

  eyes gleamed with passion, and I gripped her hands tightly. How I hated

  her and how I was drawn to her at that minute! The one feeling intensified

  the other. It was almost like an act of vengeance. At first there was a

  look of amazement, even of terror on her face, but only for one instant.

  She warmly and rapturously embraced me.

  X

  A quarter of an hour later I was rushing up and down the room in

  frenzied impatience, from minute to minute I went up to the screen and

  peeped through the crack at Liza. She was sitting on the ground with her

  head leaning against the bed, and must have been crying. But she did not

  go away, and that irritated me. This time she understood it all. I had

  insulted her finally, but ... there's no need to describe it. She realised

  that my outburst of passion had been simply revenge, a fresh humiliation,

  and that to my earlier, almost causeless hatred was added now a

  PERSONAL HATRED, born of envy .... Though I do not maintain positively

  that she understood all this distinctly; but she certainly did fully understand

  that I was a despicable man, and what was worse, incapable of

  loving her.

  I know I shall be told that this is incredible--but it is incredible to be

  as spiteful and stupid as I was; it may be added that it was strange I should

  not love her, or at any rate, appreciate her love. Why is it strange? In the

  first place, by then I was incapable of love, for I repeat, with me loving

  meant tyrannising and showing my moral superiority. I have never in my

  life been able to imagine any other sort of love, and have nowadays come

  to the point of sometimes thinking that love really consists in the right--

  freely given by the beloved object--to tyrannise over her.

  Even in my underground dreams I did not imagine love except as a

  struggle. I began it always with hatred and ended it with moral subjugation,

  and afterwards I never knew what to do with the subjugated object.

  And what is there to wonder at in that, since I had succeeded in so

  corrupting myself, since I was so out of touch with "real life," as to have

  actually thought of reproaching her, and putting her to shame for having

  come to me to hear "fine sentiments"; and did not even guess that she had

  come not to hear fine sentiments, but to love me, because to a woman all

  reformation, all salvation from any sort of ruin, and all moral renewal is

  included in love and can only show itself in that form.

  I did not hate her so much, however, when I was running about the

  room and peeping through the crack in the screen. I was only insufferably

  oppressed by her being here. I wanted her to disappear. I wanted

  "peace," to be left alone in my underground world. Real life oppressed

  me with its novelty so much that I could hardly breathe.

  But several minutes passed and she still remained, without stirring, as

  though she were unconscious. I had the shamelessness to tap softly at the

  screen as though to remind her .... She started, sprang up, and flew to

  seek her kerchief, her hat, her coat, as though making her escape from

  me .... Two minutes later she came from behind the screen and looked

  with heavy eyes at me. I gave a spiteful grin, which was forced, however,

  to KEEP UP APPEARANCES, and I turned away from her eyes.

  "Good-bye," she said, going towards the door.

  I ran up to her, seized her hand, opened it, thrust something in it and

  closed it again. Then I turned at once and dashed away in haste to the

  other corner of the room to avoid seeing, anyway ....

  I did mean a moment since to tell a lie--to write that I did this

  accidentally, not knowing what I was doing through foolishness, through

  losing my head. But I don't want to lie, and so I will say straight out that I

  opened her hand and put the money in it ... from spite. It came into my

  head to do this while I was running up and down the room and she was

  sitting behind the screen. But this I can say for certain: though I did that

  cruel thing purposely, it was not an impulse from the heart, but came

  from my evil brain. Thi
s cruelty was so affected, so purposely made up,

  so completely a product of the brain, of books, that I could not even keep

  it up a minute--first I dashed away to avoid seeing her, and then in

  shame and despair rushed after Liza. I opened the door in the passage and

  began listening.

  "Liza! Liza!" I cried on the stairs, but in a low voice, not boldly.

  There was no answer, but I fancied I heard her footsteps, lower down

  on the stairs.

  "Liza!" I cried, more loudly.

  No answer. But at that minute I heard the stiff outer glass door open

  heavily with a creak and slam violently; the sound echoed up the stairs.

  She had gone. I went back to my room in hesitation. I felt horribly

  oppressed.

  I stood still at the table, beside the chair on which she had sat and

  looked aimlessly before me. A minute passed, suddenly I started; straight

  before me on the table I saw .... In short, I saw a crumpled blue five-

  rouble note, the one I had thrust into her hand a minute before. It was the

  same note; it could be no other, there was no other in the flat. So she had

  managed to fling it from her hand on the table at the moment when I had

  dashed into the further corner.

  Well! I might have expected that she would do that. Might I have

  expected it? No, I was such an egoist, I was so lacking in respect for my

  fellow-creatures that I could not even imagine she would do so. I could

  not endure it. A minute later I flew like a madman to dress, flinging on

  what I could at random and ran headlong after her. She could not have

  got two hundred paces away when I ran out into the street.

  It was a still night and the snow was coming down in masses and falling

  almost perpendicularly, covering the pavement and the empty street as

  though with a pillow. There was no one in the street, no sound was to be

  heard. The street lamps gave a disconsolate and useless glimmer. I ran

  two hundred paces to the cross-roads and stopped short.

  Where had she gone? And why was I running after her?

  Why? To fall down before her, to sob with remorse, to kiss her feet, to

  entreat her forgiveness! I longed for that, my whole breast was being rent

  to pieces, and never, never shall I recall that minute with indifference.

  But--what for? I thought. Should I not begin to hate her, perhaps, even

  tomorrow, just because I had kissed her feet today? Should I give her

  happiness? Had I not recognised that day, for the hundredth time, what I

  was worth? Should I not torture her?

  I stood in the snow, gazing into the troubled darkness and pondered this.

  "And will it not be better?" I mused fantastically, afterwards at home,

  stifling the living pang of my heart with fantastic dreams. "Will it not

  be better that she should keep the resentment of the insult for ever?

  Resentment--why, it is purification; it is a most stinging and painful

  consciousness! Tomorrow I should have defiled her soul and have exhausted

  her heart, while now the feeling of insult will never die in her heart,

  and however loathsome the filth awaiting her--the feeling of insult will

  elevate and purify her ... by hatred ... h'm! ... perhaps, too, by

  forgiveness .... Will all that make things easier for her though? ..."

  And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question:

  which is better--cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?

  So I dreamed as I sat at home that evening, almost dead with the pain

  in my soul. Never had I endured such suffering and remorse, yet could

  there have been the faintest doubt when I ran out from my lodging that I

  should turn back half-way? I never met Liza again and I have heard

  nothing of her. I will add, too, that I remained for a long time afterwards