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Part 1, Chapter 3, Section 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Demons, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Politics and Self-Interest
Ideology and Extremism
Morality and Nihilism
Herd Mentality
Atheism vs. Belief in God
Summary
Analysis
For some reason that Anton doesn’t understand, Stepan says, “I’m done for,” when he sees Liputin. Liputin brings with him a man who has lived abroad for the past four years, an engineer named Aleksey Kirillov. Aleksey says he knows Stepan’s son Pyotr, Nikolay, Liza, and Praskovya. Liputin says that Aleksey is preparing a paper on high rates of suicide in Russia. Aleksey becomes annoyed and says that he’s not writing a paper and that he talked with Liputin about the issue in confidence. Liputin seems to enjoy pushing Aleksey’s buttons. Aleksey also says that he is living in the same house as Shatov, though Shatov lives in the attic while he lives in a shed on the property and Lebyadkin lives downstairs from Shatov. Liputin and Aleksey prepare to leave, and Anton continues to wonder why Stepan seemed afraid of Liputin when he arrived.
This passage further introduces some of the characters who will become central to the later action of the novel, including Aleksey. It also further introduces Liputin. Aleksey’s rejoinder to Liputin—that he told him about his essay on rising suicide rates in confidence—suggests both that Aleksey may be looking into the question and that he is not comfortable talking about it with people he does not know well. Aleksey also reveals that he, Shatov, and Lebyadkin all live on the same property, an arrangement that will have significant implications in the novel going forward.
Themes
