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Part 2, Chapter 1, 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
After Pyotr leaves, Varvara goes to check on Nikolay but finds that he is asleep. When Nikolay wakes up, he takes a letter he received several days ago and gets dressed to leave the house. It’s raining heavily outside. Varvara’s butler, who has known Nikolay since he was a child, wishes Nikolay good luck but only insofar as he is doing good deeds. Nikolay has never heard the butler address him like that. Nikolay makes his way through the streets. He arrives at the house where Lebyadkin and Marya once lived. Shatov opens a window in the attic and asks who’s there. Nikolay says it’s him, and Shatov comes down to open the gate. Without saying another word, Nikolay goes into Aleksey’s quarters.
The butler’s statement to Nikolay makes it clear that while Varvara may have been fooled by Pyotr’s story about Nikolay’s benevolence, the butler still thinks that something is amiss with Nikolay. The fact that Nikolay and Shatov don’t speak when Nikolay arrives at his house further suggests that Nikolay may believe that Shatov had a point when he struck Nikolay, considering that if Nikolay believed Shatov had been in the wrong, it’s hard to imagine Nikolay not saying anything the first time the two saw each other in afterward.
Themes
