Notes from Underground
The characterization of the narrator has been compared to the underground man of "Notes from Underground", and of the pawnbrokers in "Crime and Punishment" and "The Idiot" that seek to empower themselves through the accumulation of wealth. The characterization of the narrator and his wife's suicide are meant as a criticism of what Dostoyevsky refers to as "kosnost" or spiritual stagnation that results from material pursuits.