It's been a hundred years since Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written, and now we're back in the present-day world of the Underground Man. The Underground Man is still trying to convince himself that he's not a "brat" . He's just trying to get over the fact that he was once a brat, and that his "happy endings" aren't "embarrassment." He tells us that he doesn't understand what's going on, and he'll figure out when the end is coming.