Part 2 Chapter 2-Part 2 Chapter 3
Part 2 Chapter 2: Dreaming is the only method the UM now finds to escape his life of "debauchery" and enter the world of the "beautiful and sublime." He says that he dreamt for three months straight, and this dreaming was quite satisfying and even intoxicating, he admits. He explains that he would go from considering himself to be a hero (in his dreams), to believing himself to be nothing but dirt, shifting from dominating over others to being dominated by them. In these fantasies, he finds a love for humanity, and soon he wants to exhibit this love in the real world. So growing restless of this dream-life, he decides to enter society, meaning he plans to visit an old schoolmate named Simonov.
Part 2 Chapter 3: Visiting Simonov at his apartment, the UM also encounters two of his other former classmates-Ferfichkin and Trudolyubov. Apparently the men are discussing the party for their friend, Zverkov, for the following evening. The men completely ignore the UM as he enters, contributing to his notion that he is nothing but an "ordinary house fly." Finally after all the preparations have been made, the UM invites himself to their gathering, much to their chagrin.
That night he has horrible dreams about his childhood school experiences, where he is alienated from his classmates-by conscious choice of course. These dreams set up an important contrast to the previous "beautiful and sublime" dreams he had been having over the previous three months. Though he had imagined that mankind would embrace him and show him the love he found in his dreams, his overly acute conscious realizes that such fantasies will not be found in the real world, that society will not show him the love he desires.
Finally he leaves for the dinner, still possessing his perpetual thoughts of self-loathing and anguish.
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