Parallels with Raskolnikov

          Throughout the actual story, after Dostoyevsky’s lengthy and somewhat rambling intro, the character he describes seems closer and closer to the character Raskolnikov, the main character in Crime and Punishment. One of the major similarities of the two characters is the whole sequence of events that The Underground Man goes through in his preparation to bump into the officer. This whole scene makes the character, and the author, seem absolutely and completely insane, to the point where the classification of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder cannot even begin to describe their actions. The man holds a grudge for almost two entire years, and not just on and off, he holds this grudge every day he walks by the officer, just because the officer did not beat the living daylights out of him at the pub. Not only does he hold a grudge for two years, the man spends a large portion of his money, borrows some other money from one of his superiors and buys two separate coats, and then plans out an entire routine. JUST TO BUMP INTO SOMEONE! Now if this isn’t some sort of criticism of the social construct, than I don’t know what is. Worst of all, this is almost a mirror image of Raskolnikov, except that Raskolnikov planned a murder instead of a collision of shoulders in the middle of the street.