Notes From Underground MCQs

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Author: Nasir Iqbal | Assistant Professor of English Literature

Notes From Underground MCQs
Updated on: November 1, 2025
Estimated Reading Time: 18 min

Notes From Underground MCQs

1. What is the narrator’s initial description of himself?

A. A healthy and successful man
B. A sick and wicked man
C. A wise and educated man
D. A lazy but honest worker

B. A sick and wicked man.
The narrator immediately introduces himself as a sick man, a wicked man, and an unattractive man.

2. Why does the narrator refuse to seek medical treatment?

A. He cannot afford the doctors
B. He trusts folk remedies instead
C. Out of wickedness or spite
D. He believes medicine is useless

C. Out of wickedness or spite.
He states clearly that he refuses treatment purely out of a sense of personal wickedness.

3. How long has the narrator been living in his current manner?

A. Ten years
B. His entire adult life
C. About twenty years
D. Since his retirement

C. About twenty years.
The narrator, now forty, states he has been living in this manner for about twenty years.

4. What was the narrator’s profession before he resigned?

A. A collegiate assessor
B. A teacher
C. A military officer
D. A writer

A. A collegiate assessor.
He identifies his former official rank in the civil service as a collegiate assessor.
5. What was the narrator’s immediate reason for resigning his post?

A. He disliked the work
B. He was fired for rudeness
C. He inherited six thousand roubles
D. His liver pain worsened

C. He inherited six thousand roubles.
A distant relation left him six thousand roubles, allowing him to resign at once.

6. Why did the narrator sometimes gnash his teeth at petitioners at work?

A. He sought bribes
B. He took pleasure in upsetting them
C. He was often hungry
D. He was afraid of them

B. He took pleasure in upsetting them.
He found “inexhaustible delight” in managing to upset the petitioners at his desk.

7. What kind of man does the narrator believe an intelligent person of the nineteenth century must be?

A. A limited being
B. A wicked man
C. A characterless being
D. An honest man

C. A characterless being.
He asserts that an intelligent man is morally obliged to be primarily a characterless being.

8. What is the significance of Petersburg to the narrator?

A. It is the cheapest city
B. It is the most beautiful city
C. It is the most intentional city
D. It is where his family lives

C. It is the most intentional city.
He calls Petersburg the most “abstract and intentional city on the entire globe”.

9. What state does the narrator repeatedly wish he could achieve?

A. Becoming an insect
B. Becoming a hero
C. Becoming an honest man
D. Becoming a scoundrel

A. Becoming an insect.
He states that he wanted many times to become an insect but was never worthy of the transformation.
10. What does the narrator consider to be a “real, thorough sickness”?

A. Liver trouble
B. Too much consciousness
C. Inability to take bribes
D. Being overly honest

B. Too much consciousness.
He swears that being overly conscious (or any consciousness at all) is a real sickness.

11. What is the feeling the narrator experiences when consciously humiliated?

A. Self-hatred
B. Serious pleasure
C. Pure resignation
D. Moral outrage

B. Serious pleasure.
The extreme bitterness of humiliation finally turns into a decided, serious, and shameful pleasure.

12. The narrator likens himself to what animal when faced with his “antithesis,” the normal man?

A. A bull
B. A mouse
C. A tiger
D. A sparrow

B. A mouse.
The highly conscious man from a retort regards himself, with all his awareness, as a mouse.

13. The normal man who avenges himself views his revenge as:

A. Wickedness
B. A game
C. Justice
D. Futility

C. Justice.
L’homme de la nature et de la verite, with innate stupidity, regards his revenge quite simply as justice.

14. What common mathematical certainty does the narrator despise?

A. Two times three is six
B. Ten times ten is a hundred
C. Two times two is four
D. The laws of algebra

C. Two times two is four.
The narrator refers to the fact that two times two is four as an obnoxious thing, representing inescapable natural laws.
15. What does the narrator suggest can also contain pleasure, alongside humiliation?

A. Wealth
B. Toothache
C. Solitude
D. Honesty

B. Toothache.
When questioned, the narrator insists that there is also a crafty, suffering pleasure in a toothache.

16. How does the narrator characterize the moans of an educated man suffering from a toothache?

A. Simple and honest
B. Coarse, like a peasant’s
C. Crafty and wicked
D. Tenderhearted and humble

C. Crafty and wicked.
The moans of the cívilized man are described as bad, nastily wicked, full of conscious sensuality.

17. What does the narrator call the direct, lawful result of consciousness?

A. Spite
B. Inertia
C. Ambition
D. Self-respect

B. Inertia.
He emphatically repeats that the lawful, immediate fruit of consciousness is inertia, or sitting still.

18. What quality does the narrator value in ingenuous people that allows them to act?

A. They understand all causes
B. They are easily set at ease
C. They have great patience
D. They lack vanity

B. They are easily set at ease.
Their narrow-mindedness allows them to find an indisputable basis for acting and thus feel at ease.

19. If the narrator were lazy, what career would he choose for himself?

A. A statesman
B. A writer of confessions
C. A lazybones and a glutton
D. A judge of fine wine

C. A lazybones and a glutton.
He would choose to be a lazybones and a glutton, sympathizing with “everything beautiful and lofty”.
20. What do the sages and lovers of mánkind constantly omit in their calculations of human profit?

A. The highest salary
B. The most profitable profit
C. Economic freedom
D. Universal peace

B. The most profitable profit.
The systems omit the trickiest profit that constantly shatters all classifications and systems.

21. What, according to the narrator, is often dearer to man than his “very best profit”?

A. Prosperity
B. Independent wanting or caprice
C. The opinion of others
D. Reason and logic

B. Independent wanting or caprice.
Man values his own free and voluntary wanting, or caprice, above reason and profit.

22. What does the narrator compare man to if his wants are mathematically predictable?

A. A stone wall
B. A piano key or a sprig
C. An enraged bull
D. A contented fool

B. A piano key or a sprig.
If free will is reduced to a formula, man becomes a mechanical component, a piano key or sprig.

23. Which part of man’s whole capacity for living does reason satisfy?

A. The whole capacity
B. The non-reasoning capacity
C. One-twentieth part
D. The spiritual part

C. One-twentieth part.
The narrator states reason is only a small part, about one-twentieth of man’s entire capacity for living.

24. What definition of man does the narrator jokingly suggest is the best?

A. A being that is sensible
B. A being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful
C. A being capable of love
D. A being capable of destruction

B. A being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful.
He thinks the best definition is: a being that goes on two legs and is monstrously ungrateful.
25. What is the only thing the narrator insists cannot be said about world history?

A. That it is majestic
B. That it is colorful
C. That it is monotonous
D. That it is sensible

D. That it is sensible.
History includes fighting and chaos; the only thing you cannot say about it is that it is sensible.

26. Why does man sometimes love destruction and chaos?

A. He instinctively fears achieving the goal
B. He is inherently evil
C. It is dictated by reason
D. He is imitating animals

A. He instinctively fears achieving the goal.
He suggests man fears reaching the final goal (like ants) and only likes the process of creation.

27. What does the narrator believe is higher than “two times two”?

A. Well-being
B. Consciousness
C. Logic
D. Suffering

B. Consciousness.
Consciousness is infinitely higher than two times two because it allows for self-flagellation and life.

28. The narrator rejects the Crystal Palace in favor of what alternative?

A. A chicken coop
B. His desires
C. An ant hill
D. A stone wall

B. His desires.
He refuses to accept a compromise if his desires call for a mansion, even if the mansion is a bluff.

29. What type of “literary” punishment does the narrator feel he is undergoing while writing his notes?

A. Memoir
B. Corrective punishment
C. Philosophical treatise
D. An empty flourish

B. Corrective punishment.
He states that writing his story feels less like literature and more like corrective punishment.
30. The narrator claims that modern man has grown so unaccustomed to “living life” that he finds it to be like:

A. Labor or service
B. A grand adventure
C. A dream
D. A mathematical problem

A. Labor or service.
He says we regard real “living life” almost as labor or service, preferring life from a book.

31. At the start of Part Two, how old is the narrator?

A. Twenty-four years old
B. Twenty years old
C. Forty years old
D. Thirty years old

A. Twenty-four years old.
He specifies that he was twenty-four years old at the time of these events.

32. What common social anxiety did the narrator suffer from severely?

A. Fear of being robbed
B. Fear of being laughed at
C. Fear of heights
D. Fear of his superiors

B. Fear of being laughed at.
He states he was afraid “to the point of illness of being ridiculous”.

33. How does the narrator characterize the average “decent man” of his time?

A. Must be a hero
B. Must be a coward and a slave
C. Must be a characterless being
D. Must be wealthy

B. Must be a coward and a slave.
He is deeply convinced that every decent man of his time must be a coward and a slave.

34. What did the narrator envy about the gentleman chucked out the tavern window?

A. His expensive clothes
B. His willingness to fight
C. His six-foot-tallness
D. His loathing for others

B. His willingness to fight.
He went into the tavern hoping to have a fight and get thrown out, envying the active event.
35. What action of the officer in the tavern did the narrator find most unforgivable?

A. Slapping him
B. Spitting on him
C. Not noticing him
D. Stealing his money

C. Not noticing him.
He could have forgiven a beating, but not the officer moving him and simply not noticing him.

36. Why did the narrator hesitate to challenge the officer right away?

A. Lack of physical strength
B. Lack of money
C. Lack of moral courage
D. He was too drunk

C. Lack of moral courage.
He had physical courage but feared being derided by the crowd for talking about honor in “literary language”.

37. What type of coat collar did the narrator purchase for his planned confrontation?

A. Raccoon
B. Beaver
C. Wolf fur
D. Quilted cotton

B. Beaver.
He sold his old raccoon collar to buy a more respectable German beaver collar.

38. Where did the narrator often go to deliberately experience torments and humiliation?

A. His old office
B. Nevsky Prospect
C. A cheap tavern
D. The local cemetery

B. Nevsky Prospect.
He regularly strolled on the sunny side of Nevsky Prospect to feel humiliation and spite.

39. What was the result of the narrator’s confrontation with the officer on Nevsky Prospect?

A. The officer apologized
B. They bumped solidly shoulder-to-shoulder
C. The narrator yielded at the last moment
D. The narrator was thrown in the street

B. They bumped solidly shoulder-to-shoulder.
He closed his eyes and bumped into the officer, preserving his dignity and achieving his purpose.
40. When dreaming of “everything beautiful and lofty,” what specific role was incomprehensible to the narrator?

A. The secondary role
B. The heroic role
C. The villainous role
D. The loving role

A. The secondary role.
He found the idea of a secondary role incomprehensible, preferring either “hero or mud”.

41. Which of the following literary figures is mentioned in the narrator’s fantasies of triumph?

A. Shakespeare
B. Buckle
C. Manfred
D. Homer

C. Manfred.
He dreams of confessing his disgraces, which contain something “manfredian” or noble.

42. How did the narrator’s schoolmates typically treat him?

A. With spiteful and merciless derision
B. With profound respect
C. With cautious politeness
D. With friendly indifference

A. With spiteful and merciless derision.
He was met with merciless derision because he was unlike any of them.

43. Who was the Russian-German schoolmate described as a “mean, impudent little fanfaron”?

A. Simonov
B. Zverkov
C. Trudolyubov
D. Ferfichkin

D. Ferfichkin.
Ferfichkin, his enemy even in the lower grades, is described using this insulting term.

44. Why did the narrator struggle to choose a primary cause for action or revenge?

A. He was too lazy
B. His consciousness dragged in still more primary causes
C. He believed revenge was inherently evil
D. He was afraid of being arrested

B. His consciousness dragged in still more primary causes.
Thinking meant that every primary cause immediately dragged with it another, more primary one, ad infinitum.
45. The dinner had been ordered for six, but the narrator arrived at five, which was perceived as:

A. Punctual
B. Terribly funny and embarrassing
C. Politically shrewd
D. Dignified

B. Terribly funny and embarrassing.
Zverkov and Ferfichkin laughed, finding the narrator’s early and long wait terribly funny.

46. What was the name of the girl the narrator meets at the “fashion shop”?

A. Olympia
B. Cleopatra
C. Liza
D. Sonya

C. Liza.
The narrator curtly asks her name, and she replies softly that it is Liza.

Such a lovely name!

47. Why was the narrator especially intent on preaching to Liza about her life?

A. He felt true love for her
B. He wanted to expound his “little ideas”
C. He wanted to marry her
D. He recognized her from Riga

B. He wanted to expound his “little ideas”.
Something lit up inside him, and he suddenly thirsted to expound his cherished, long-held “little ideas”.

48. What did Liza show the narrator to prove that she was respected?

A. A family heirloom
B. A letter from a medical student
C. A hidden savings account
D. A picture of her parents

B. A letter from a medical student.
She proudly gave him a grandiloquent, respectful letter of declaration from a student.

49. What physical object did the narrator, out of malice, place into Liza’s hand before she left?

A. A coin
B. His address
C. A five-rouble bill
D. A wedding ring

C. A five-rouble bill.
He opened her hand and put a crumpled blue five-rouble bill inside, an act of intentional cruelty.
50. What question did the narrator muse over after Liza departed?

A. Is it better to be loved or feared?
B. Cheap happiness or lofty suffering?
C. Can he ever escape the underground?
D. Should he fight Zverkov or not?

B. Cheap happiness or lofty suffering?
He wondered if her insult was a purification that led to lofty suffering, or if cheap happiness was preferable.

Brief Overview

Notes from Underground is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, published in 1864. It is a foundational work of existential literature, presented as the first-person “confession” of an unnamed narrator.

The story centers on the tortured thoughts of a retired civil servant living in isolation in St. Petersburg.

The narrator, who is 40 years old, views his own intense self-awareness, or consciousness, as a crippling sickness. He is a misanthrope who vehemently argues against the laws of reason and scientific certainty. He asserts that he prefers his own free will and irrational desires over logic, often finding a perverse pleasure in his own suffering.

The second part recounts events from his life at age 24. Seeking to assert his superiority, he attends a farewell dinner for a hated schoolmate, Zverkov. He is completely humiliated by his peers. In revenge, he follows them to a brothel.

There, he meets Liza, a young próstitute. The narrator delivers a dramatic, emotional speech about her inevitable misery, presenting himself as her potential savior. He gives her his address, but when Liza later visits his miserable apartment, he is exposed as petty and cowardly.

Ashamed, he brutally confesses to Liza that his previous compassion was simply an outlet for his own malice. When Liza responds with genuine pity, he rejects her love.

He cruelly forces a five-rouble bill into her hand, motivated by a need for “domination.” Liza refuses the money and leaves him alone in his isolation. The narrator concludes that he chooses “lofty suffering” over “cheap happiness.”

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