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Part 2, Chapter 1, Section 4
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
In Aleksey’s apartment, Nikolay shows Aleksey the letter he took from Varvara’s house. He explains that the letter is from a man named Gaganov, who is the son of the man whose nose Nikolay pulled years ago. Gaganov hasn’t forgotten the incident and is enraged, even though Nikolay apologized, and the man accepted Nikolay’s apology. But Gaganov has been hurling insults at Nikolay and writing menacing letters to him. Nikolay wants the matter settled. He asks Aleksey if he’ll go to see Gaganov to try and find a solution. Nikolay says he’ll agree to apologize again if Gaganov agrees to stop harassing Nikolay. Aleksey says Gaganov won’t go along with those terms. Nikolay says he doesn’t expect Gaganov to.
This interaction between Nikolay and Aleksey suggests that maybe Nikolay has, in some ways, changed since the last time he was in town. That last time, Nikolay wantonly pulled the man in question’s nose and also bit the ear of the governor at the time. Now, Nikolay has apologized for his past actions and is prepared to apologize again if it would help. In other words, Nikolay doesn’t seem to be defensive about the past. Instead, he seems to be willing to acknowledge past mistakes and hopes to move on from there.
Themes
If Gaganov doesn’t accept those terms, Nikolay tells Aleksey, then he plans to challenge Gaganov to a duel. He asks Aleksey to be his second, and Aleksey says he will. Nikolay then asks Aleksey if he still plans to commit suicide. Aleksey says he does, but he doesn’t know when he will do it. Nikolay and Aleksey then discuss their perspectives on life. Nikolay asks Aleksey if he loves life, and Aleksey says he does. Nikolay doesn’t understand why someone who loves life would commit suicide, and Aleksey says the two have nothing to do with one another. He then says that everything in the world is good, and people only do wrong because they do not know they are good. Nikolay refers to that line of thinking as “old philosophical commonplaces.” Before Nikolay leaves, he reminds Aleksey to go see Gaganov the next morning.
Nikolay’s statement that Aleksey’s view that everything in the world is good is an example of “old philosophical commonplaces” is an assertion that Aleksey’s worldview stems from Christianity and that such sentiments are outdated. That is, Nikolay takes the idea that everything in the world is good as similar to the Christian idea that the world is ruled by an omnipotent and all-benevolent God, and that “sinners” do wrong because they do not know about God. In Nikolay’s view, though, those ideas have lost their relevance, which suggests that he is looking for a new view of the world that will supplant what he sees as those “old philosophical commonplaces.”
Themes
