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Part 2, Chapter 2, Section 1
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
Nikolay continues to walk alone in the rain. Eventually, he arrives at the house where Lebyadkin is staying. Lebyadkin invites him inside and says he’s been waiting for him. He also says that Marya is awake in the next room. Nikolay sits with Lebyadkin. Lebyadkin hasn’t had a drink in eight days. He says that Pyotr is treating him badly. Lebyadkin continues to speak, accustomed to his former role as a kind of jester to Nikolay. He talks about poems he wrote for Liza and then recites those poems. Eventually, Nikolay confronts him about lying about Darya stealing money, squandering the money Nikolay has sent, and removing Marya from the convent. He also asks Lebyadkin why he keeps talking about a “disgrace to the family,” and Lebyadkin says that it’s wrong that Nikolay has kept his marriage to Marya a secret.
Lebyadkin’s reaction to Nikolay’s arrival suggests that the two have a history together. Lebyadkin’s comments also clarify what he meant previously when he cryptically mentioned family honor and a disgrace to his family. In his view, Nikolay has mistreated Marya and Marya’s family by refusing to acknowledge his marriage to Marya. Lebyadkin seemed unwilling to disclose that marriage himself, though, apparently out of fear that it would anger Nikolay and because he may have feared that it would cause Nikolay to stop sending money.
Themes
Nikolay says that he plans to make his marriage to Marya public in the coming days. At that point, it will no longer be necessary to send a subsidy to Lebyadkin. Lebyadkin can’t believe it. He says that his sister is a “half-wit” and asks if Nikolay plans to bring her into his mother’s house. Nikolay says he very well may bring her into his mother’s house. He also says that he married Marya during a drunken dinner on a bet. Since it amused him then, why wouldn’t it amuse him now?
Lebyadkin makes it clear that, more than anything, he is concerned about the money Nikolay sends him and about his own well-being rather than his sister. Nikolay’s comments also shed light on Nikolay’s decision to marry Marya, showing that he married her to entertain himself and his friends while drunk, reinforcing the idea Nikolay tends to not take the norms of morality and propriety at all seriously.
Themes
Nikolay then asks Lebyadkin if he has informed “about anything.” Lebyadkin confesses that he told Liputin privileged information. Lebyadkin then recalls how he would pass out revolutionary tracts in Petersburg. Now, he wants to be done with all of that business, but Pyotr is threatening him to force him to do his (Pyotr’s) bidding. Nikolay guesses that Lebyadkin has wanted to travel to Petersburg to inform on Pyotr and others. Lebyadkin feels like he is ruined because he can no longer rely on Nikolay’s payments. Nikolay then says that he needs to go speak to Marya.
Notably, much of the discussion of violence stems from the idea that Lebyadkin might denounce the revolutionary faction to authorities. With that in mind, this passage shows again how Pyotr compels allegiance and loyalty through violence and threats of violence. In that way, Pyotr seems to believe that his revolutionary goals are more important than human life, something that the novel identifies as a dangerously extremist approach.
Themes
