The Underground Man

Thought is what drives the underground man. He thinks about every single thing that he takes part in. Int he first part of Notes from the Underground the Underground Man discusses the differences between active men and men of acute consciousness. The underground man decides that he is a many of acute consciousness. This fits his following actions to a t. The first time where the underground man over thinks things is when he has a run in with the police officer. He gets pushed out of the way, and after that he feels like the police officer didn't even realize he was standing there. Then he started thinking that everyone hates him, and that he wants people to realize him. All of these inward feelings brew until he decides to take revenge against the officer. Also, revenge was a topic that was discussed in part 1.

Another moment where he over thought about what was happening was when he went to the dinner. First off, everyone was late, so he was convinced all of the waiters were thinking he was an odd man for being there alone, waiting on all of the other guests. Then, when the other guests finally arrived, he spent half of the dinner passing around the dining room because everyone was ignoring him. If he was an active man, he would have just gotten up and left, but instead he sat there thinking about everything he thought the other guests were thinking about. It ended up getting him extremely upset. After everyone left dinner, and he decided to join them at the brothel, he spent the whole carriage ride playing out what was going to happen next. He went through all of the possibilities.

These actions that took place fall into exactly what he was talking about in part 1. He really isn't an active man, but a man who over thinks things instead.