Character Analysis: Zverkov

Other characters in the book:

In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, much of the attention naturally falls on the unnamed narrator, the Underground Man. Yet the power of the novella lies equally in its secondary characters, who serve as foils that highlight the narrator’s inner contradictions. Among these figures, Zverkov, a former schoolmate of the Underground Man, plays a particularly significant role. Though he appears only in Part II of the narrative, his presence is essential: he embodies social success, superficial charm, and the values of conformity and mediocrity that the Underground Man despises but also envies. Zverkov becomes a touchstone for the narrator’s insecurities, an externalization of his resentments, and a symbol of the kind of man who thrives in a society from which the Underground Man feels excluded.

Zverkov enters the story when the Underground Man learns from Simonov that a farewell dinner is being held in his honor. Zverkov is leaving Petersburg to take up a military appointment, and his friends, Simonov, Ferfichkin, and Trudolyubov, organize a celebration in his honor. The Underground Man, despite not being invited, insists on joining the event. This decision sets up one of the most humiliating episodes of his life.

At the dinner, Zverkov becomes the central figure around whom the social dynamic revolves. He commands attention with ease, telling stories, charming the others, and effortlessly embodying the role of the group’s leader. The Underground Man, by contrast, finds himself marginalized, struggling to participate in the conversation, and eventually lapsing into awkward silences and bitter outbursts.

Later, when the group plans to visit a brothel after the dinner, Zverkov again takes center stage, symbolizing vitality, confidence, and worldly success. The Underground Man’s clumsy attempt to challenge or insult him fails utterly, reinforcing his sense of isolation. Thus, Zverkov’s narrative function is to intensify the protagonist’s humiliation and to dramatize the social gulf between the successful, well-adjusted man of action and the alienated, hyperconscious intellectual.

For the Underground Man, Zverkov becomes a projection screen for ressentiment, that complex mixture of envy, hatred, and frustrated desire described later by Nietzsche. Unable to match Zverkov’s social ease, the Underground Man retreats into spite and philosophical self-justification. This psychological dynamic underscores one of Dostoevsky’s central concerns: how alienation breeds resentment and how resentment poisons human relationships.

Zverkov symbolizes the “man of action” whom the Underground Man contrasts with himself. Whereas the narrator is paralyzed by self-consciousness and endless reflection, Zverkov acts, speaks, and commands without hesitation. His confidence demonstrates the vitality that the Underground Man both envies and detests.

Despite his charm, Zverkov is portrayed as shallow and ordinary. He thrives not because of extraordinary intelligence or moral worth, but because he embodies the conventional values of society: success, sociability, and physical presence. Symbolically, he represents the mediocrity that society rewards, a mediocrity that the Underground Man finds intolerable.

Zverkov also symbolizes the collective norms and hierarchies of society. His dominance at the dinner illustrates how groups naturally gravitate toward charismatic leaders and marginalize outsiders. For the Underground Man, Zverkov represents the entire social mechanism that excludes him, a system in which confidence and conformity matter more than truth or depth.

The relationship between Zverkov and the Underground Man is one-sided but revealing. Zverkov himself displays only mild condescension toward the narrator. He is indifferent, mainly, treating him as an awkward acquaintance unworthy of serious attention. The narrator, however, obsesses over Zverkov. He views him as an enemy, a rival, and a symbol of everything he hates.

Dostoevsky uses Zverkov to critique the superficiality of worldly success. Zverkov’s charm and confidence win him admiration, but these traits are not necessarily tied to moral depth or intellectual worth. The novella raises questions about whether the qualities that society rewards, such as charisma, sociability, and conformity, are truly valuable or whether they conceal mediocrity.

Zverkov embodies the type of man who fits easily into society. His very existence highlights the Underground Man’s alienation. By contrasting Zverkov’s ease with the narrator’s paralysis, Dostoevsky underscores the existential plight of those who cannot conform to social norms.

Philosophically, Zverkov illustrates the destructive power of resentment. The Underground Man’s inability to accept Zverkov as either an equal or an irrelevance traps him in cycles of envy and self-loathing. Zverkov himself is not a villain; he is ordinary, perhaps even banal, but the narrator’s fixation turns him into an enemy. This reveals how alienation transforms mediocrity into torment and indifference into insult.

When viewed alongside Simonov and Liza, Zverkov’s role becomes clearer. Simonov represents social indifference, Liza embodies compassion and the possibility of redemption, and Zverkov personifies social dominance and worldly success. Each exposes a different facet of the Underground Man’s alienation. Simonov reminds him of his irrelevance, Liza offers him a chance at genuine connection, and Zverkov embodies the worldly triumph he can never achieve. Together, they create a constellation of contrasts that define the narrator’s existential predicament.

Zverkov is one of the most important secondary characters in Notes from Underground. Narratively, he provides the occasion for the disastrous dinner that dramatizes the Underground Man’s social failure. Psychologically, he represents the confident, sociable man of action who torments the narrator with envy and resentment. Symbolically, he stands for the superficial success and mediocrity that society rewards, in contrast to the narrator’s tortured individuality.

Ultimately, Zverkov’s significance lies in what he reveals about the Underground Man. His effortless dominance highlights the narrator’s paralysis, his indifference exposes the narrator’s hunger for recognition, and his mediocrity reveals the futility of resentment. By contrasting these two figures, Dostoevsky highlights the tragedy of alienation in modern life: the outsider cannot find peace either by rejecting society or by competing with it. Zverkov’s shallow success may not be admirable, but it underscores the painful truth that society often belongs to men like him, not to the tormented thinkers hidden underground.