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Part 2, Chapter 1, Section 5
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 Nikolay leaves Aleksey’s apartment, he goes to see Shatov. In Shatov’s attic room, Nikolay sees a revolver. Shatov explains that he bought the gun after striking Nikolay because he was afraid Nikolay would come to kill him. He never bought bullets or gunpowder, though, and eventually realized that he wasn’t in his right mind. Nikolay then discusses why Shatov struck him. He says he knows Shatov didn’t hit him because of Nikolay’s relations with his wife or because of the rumors of Nikolay’s involvement with Darya. Shatov says it had nothing to do with his wife and that Darya told him the rumors about her and Nikolay weren’t true. Nikolay then asks Shatov if he hit him because of Marya, and Shatov says yes. Nikolay says that Shatov knows, then, that he (Nikolay) is lawfully wedded to Marya. Shatov says that he suspected as much.
This passage makes the extent of Nikolay and Pyotr’s lies clear. At Varvara’s, Pyotr told a convincing story about how Marya had come to incorrectly believe that she and Nikolay were married. Now, though, it becomes clear that Marya and Nikolay actually are married, which also makes it clear how readily Pyotr lies to try and get what he wants. Notably, Nikolay went along with that lie and also said that Pyotr was eminently trustworthy to bolster the credibility of that lie, which shows that Nikolay, like Pyotr, will also readily lie in order to try and get what he wants.
Themes
Nikolay says that he and Marya were married in Petersburg four years ago and that he plans to announce the marriage to the town shortly. Shatov says that he hit Nikolay because of Nikolay’s “lie” and his “degradation” and because Nikolay has meant so much to him in his life. Nikolay tells Shatov that he came to speak with him about a different matter. He warns Shatov that someone from “the society” may be coming to try and kill him. Shatov explains that he had once been involved in that Society, and they had asked him to run a printing press and then hand it over to another member of the Society. Shatov had agreed, under the condition that he would leave the Society once he handed over the printing press because he no longer believed in the Society’s principles.
Shatov’s assertion that he struck Nikolay because of Nikolay’s “lie” and “degradation” suggests that Shatov once thought highly of Nikolay, and he has been utterly disappointed by what he sees as Nikolay’s fall from grace. In Shatov’s view, that fall seems to consist in part of Nikolay’s willingness to lie. Shatov also seems to believe that Nikolay’s marriage to Marya is part of that fall as well, not because of who Marya is, but because of how Nikolay has treated Marya by marrying and keeping it a secret, perhaps for reasons that are, in Shatov’s eyes, less than noble.
Themes
Nikolay says that one can’t leave the Society that easily, and they have no intention of parting with Shatov. He explains that Pyotr is the mastermind of the Society and perhaps its only true member. He also says that the Society is convinced that Shatov has either informed on them to the authorities or that he will soon. Nikolay says that he is not technically a member of the Society. He helped them reorganize according to “the new plan.” After that, the Society decided it would be dangerous to release Nikolay from membership, so now he, like Shatov, is condemned to be connected to the Society. Shatov then discusses a long letter he wrote to Nikolay while he (Shatov) was in the U.S. Nikolay says he has to ask Shatov for a favor concerning Marya.
This passage clarifies some of the aspects of the revolutionary faction that seems to be operating in town. First, Pyotr is the leader and, as Nikolay says, perhaps the faction’s only true member. Second, the faction compels allegiance through threats of violence. It’s also notable that Shatov once sympathized with the revolutionary faction’s views but has since left the faction (at least ideologically) and become a Christian. The novel then pits those two ideas against each other: the theism of Shatov versus the atheistic socialism of Pyotr and the revolutionary faction.
Themes
