The Vice of Good Sight

“I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness – a real thorough-going illness. For man's everyday needs, it would have been quite enough to have the ordinary human consciousness, that is, half or a quarter of the amount which falls to the lot of a cultivated man of our unhappy nineteenth century, especially one who has the fatal ill-luck to inhabit Petersburg, the most theoretical and intentional town on the whole terrestrial globe. It would have been quite enough, for instance, to have the consciousness by which all so-called direct persons and men of action live.”

 

 

To most it would seem that the Underground Man is flip-flopping on his perspective of consciousness. He insinuates that his way of life is “superior”, and then states that it is an illness. I do not see the Underground Man as being volatile in this aspect, however. I understand how he feels; whether or not I can put it into words is a different story.

The Underground Man sees his sensitivity as superior in the sense that he is consciously more aware than others. He has a better grasp of the universe, himself, existence, and –more importantly- their intertwining relationships. For use of an analogy, he has better eyesight than others. In this sense, he is superior. What this heightened vision allows him to see, however, makes it a curse, especially because nobody else can see it too.