The narrator's madness is multifaceted to say the least. Considerably a more archetypal symptom of madness are instances of meticulous attention to seemingly irrelevant details throughout the narrator's writing. Also a common portrayal of madness is Poprishchin's constant obsession over Sophia, to the point of being consumed by his need to be noticed by her, possibly expediting his plunge into a deeper insanity. If I were to observe Poprishchin, I probably wouldn't classify him as typically "mad". Although he undeniably exists in his own separate reality, his writing depicts him as more emotionally stable and sedated than a stereotypical insane person.