Discuss the role of “romanticism” in the life of Dostoevsky's Underground Man.

The most dominant examples of Romanticism in the life of
the Underground Man is evident in his interactions with Liza.  The poet recognizes that
when he projects his sense of self into the world, he does so with a Romantic vision of
the good. The idea of the solitary artist or thinker triumphing over a society that is
deemed either inferior to him or unable to understand him is something that exists
inside him.  To a great extent, the narrator understands that this is nothing more than
a nonsensical sense of Romanticism.  In Part II, he even suggests that Romanticism
creates "fools," but like so much with the Underground Man, we understand his
contradiction and recognize that while he might repel it in one sense, he cannot help
but capitulate it in another.  It is here where he assumes his greatest stance of
Romanticism, as the poet who rescues a prostitute.  The Underground Man is motivated by
a purely Romantic sense of self in his desire to help Liza.  This is the Romanticism
that convinces him that his words are right, he is superior to her, and she is inferior
to him.  This is a strictly Romantic sensibility where he is able to swoop in on his
"steed" and rescue the fair maiden.

Yet, it is in this very
story that the Underground Man is shown to be a fraud.  The prostitute actually comes to
save him, as she does not conform to the expectation and world around her.  She assumes
a morally transcendent quality that is of greater spiritual redemptive quality than
anything the Underground Man can muster.  To this end, he is humiliated and can do
nothing but establish some semblance of power through loveless sex and money, proving
that he is both inferior to her and his Romanticism is nothing more but pure bunk.  It
is for this reason that the ending of the book is one that indicts Romanticism and other
movements that seek to create individuals who emulate modes of thought.  In this, the
Underground Man argues that human emotions become contrived and there is little
sincerity present for everything is reproduced to be akin to what is in books,
suggesting that this becomes the horrific birth-parents of people as opposed to real
human beings.  In this, there is a fairly stinging rebuke of Romanticism, with little
hope of developing anything legitimate to replace it.