How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
She looked at me, at the books, and dropped her handkerchief. I rushed headlong, slipped on the cursed parquet, almost smashed my nose, nevertheless kept my balance and picked up the handkerchief. Heavens, what a handkerchief! […] She thanked me and just barely smiled, so that her sugary lips scarcely moved, and after that she left. (2.1)
Poprishchin is so desperate for some attention from Sophie that he makes himself act and look totally ridiculous. Sophie takes advantage of it to get a good laugh at his expense.
Quote #5
At home I lay in bed most of the time. Then I copied out some very nice verses: "I was gone from her an hour, / Yet to me it seemed a year; Life itself turned me sour, / And the future dark and drear." Must be Pushkin's writing. (2.1)
These verses are totally sappy, not "very nice." On top of that, they belong not to the great Pushkin, but to a second rate writer. That makes Poprishchin look pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?
Quote #6
Furious with the section chief. When I came to the office, he called me over and started talking to me like this: "Well, pray tell me, what are you up to?" "What am I up to? Why, nothing," I replied. "Well, think a little better! You're over forty—it's time you got smart. What are you dreaming of? Do you think I don't know all your pranks? You're dangling after the director's daughter! Well, take a look at yourself, only think, what are you? You're a zero, nothing more. You haven't got a kopeck to your name. Just look at yourself in the mirror, how can you even think of it!" (3.1)
In case we had any doubts about what Poprishchin looks like in the eyes of his superiors, here we get to find out directly. According to the section chief, nothing could be more foolish than Poprishchin's thinking he has a chance with Sophie.