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Part 2, Chapter 2, 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
Nikolay leaves the house and walks in the rain with his umbrella. He keeps thinking about what Marya said about a knife. When Nikolay reaches the bridge, he finds Fedka waiting for him. In a rage, Nikolay grabs Fedka and slams him against the bridge. He takes off his scarf, intending to use it to tie Fedka’s hands, but then he stops and lets Fedka go. Fedka takes out a knife. Nikolay tells him to put it away, and Fedka does.
After seeing Marya, when Nikolay sees Fedka again, his initial reaction is to resort to the same anger he felt when he and Fedka parted. However, something stops Nikolay from acting on that anger, suggesting that his recent unsettling interaction with Marya has changed his views in some way.
Themes
Nikolay asks Fedka if it’s true that he recently robbed a church. Fedka says he did, and he’s dismayed that he barely got any money from the robbery. Nikolay asks Fedka if he killed the church watchman, too. Fedka says that the watchman had been his accomplice in the robbery. Afterward, they started fighting, and Fedka killed him. Fedka says that he once saw money spilling from Lebyadkin’s pockets when he was drunk. He learned that the money came from Nikolay, and now he thinks that Nikolay might be his financial meal ticket. He asks Nikolay again to spare three roubles. Nikolay takes a stack of 50 roubles from his pocket. He lets rouble after rouble float away in the wind and land in the mud and puddles. Fedka gets on his hands and knees and searches for bills as Nikolay walks away.
This passage makes it clear that Fedka is willing to commit murder, and that he doesn’t need much of a reason to do so. In this case, he killed a man who had, until soon before, been his accomplice. After hearing that story, instead of denying Fedka money, Nikolay empties his wallet at Fedka’s feet. That is, instead of being further repelled by Fedka after he hears him confess to murdering another man, Nikolay seems willing to entertain the cryptic plot that Fedka had previously hinted at.
Themes
