Notes from Underground

The Underground Man wakes up in a dark room: A clock is chiming two o’clock, the room is cluttered with odds and ends, and the candle is about to burn out. The girl the Underground Man just met, whose name is Liza, is sitting beside him in the darkness, staring at him. She is 20 years old, is from Riga, and has been at the “brothel” for two weeks. She does not tell him why or how she came to work there.

The Underground Man criticizes her way of life. He saw a coffin being carried out of a “brothel’s” basement containing a girl who died of consumption (tuberculosis), and he tells Liza that will be her fate: Sex workers are in debt to the women who run the “brothel,” and Liza’s looks will fade over time, meaning she will be unable to earn enough money to end her bondage. Liza is timid but indifferent to his diatribe. When he says he feels sorry for her, she replies, “No need” (79). The Underground Man says that they are different because, though he defiles himself by visiting “brothels” and engaging in other vices, he is a free man and not a “slave” (81) like she is.