The Underground Man, humiliated by this treatment, spent two years following the officer and gathering information about him, finally deciding to avenge himself by refusing to yield when the officer walked straight at him. This officer had a tendency to walk straight towards people, expecting them to move aside and not noticing them. Once, when the Underground Man walked into a tavern, a six-foot tall officer moved him aside and passed by without noticing him. He attempts to dominate everyone he meets, imagining duels with them when he fails and despising them whenever he succeeds.
The Underground Man lives mostly in books and dreams, and is incapable of handling reality. In Part II, the narrator recalls his youth and shows that his failure to relate to others is a result of his overly extensive education and culture. Through his narrative in Part I, he shows the despair of a man who accepts the deterministic ideas of the radicals of the 1860s but finds that emotions and hidden urges are stronger than reason. Though he rails against reason, he rationalizes everything. Though he is poor, he has an extremely high opinion of himself, despising others for not recognizing his moral superiority to them. He is a solitary being, unable to make lasting acquaintances with others.
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