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Part 2, Chapter 2, Section 2
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
Marya is asleep when Nikolay goes into her room. When she wakes up, she is in the throes of terror. Nikolay asks her what’s wrong, but she continues to be terrified. Nikolay tries to soothe her. Eventually, she settles down. Nikolay tells her that he plans to announce their marriage. Marya says she is worried that she won’t be fit for the type of high society that Nikolay lives in. Nikolay asks Marya if she wants to return to the convent, and she says she doesn’t.
Marya’s fear about not fitting in with the high society that Nikolay is a part of reinforces the strict divisions between people of different socioeconomic classes in the novel. In Marya and Nikolay’s case, that division leads to marital anxiety, though the novel also suggests that it can contribute to the kind of political unrest that Pyotr represents.
Themes
Nikolay then proposes a plan where he and Marya would go live in the mountains of Switzerland together. Marya says that the plan is ridiculous. She asks Nikolay what he has done with her “prince” and “hawk.” She accuses Nikolay of being an impostor who now seems more like a “shopkeeper” and an “owl.” Nikolay grows frustrated and doesn’t know what Marya is talking about. Marya says that she saw the knife in Nikolay’s pocket as soon as he came into the room. Nikolay says that Marya is being controlled by her dreams. He gets up to leave, and Marya shouts after him as he goes.
Marya’s comments cast Nikolay in a certain light. In Marya’s view, Nikolay was once unimpeachably strong-willed, but he has now lapsed into a sappy imitation of the person she once knew. Notably, that assessment seems to come when Nikolay proposes a plan to take her away from his world, implying perhaps that Marya hoped that Nikolay would, as he has done previously, defend her by showing how little he cares about what other people think.
Themes
