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Part 2, Chapter 3, 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 returns home. Varvara is out. Nikolay tells her butler, Aleksey Yegorych, to stop her if she tries to come and see him. Nikolay then goes to his room. Moments later, Darya enters. She says she has been thinking that she and Nikolay should break off their relationship because Varvara is growing increasingly suspicious. She says that she’ll still come to him when “the end comes.” She then asks if Nikolay will announce his marriage to Marya today. Nikolay says he won’t announce it today, tomorrow, and maybe not the day after either. Darya says that she knows she’ll be the one to end up with Nikolay, and she’s waiting for that day. She says if it never comes, perhaps she’ll become a nurse with the Sisters of Mercy.
Darya’s interaction with Nikolay seems to show that she does in fact have some kind of romantic involvement with him. That involvement seems to have begun when Nikolay was traveling with Liza’s family in Switzerland, which seems to prove that Stepan and Varvara’s suspicions were correct. Notably, the novel seems to identify Nikolay’s affairs and infidelities as evidence of his impropriety and a manifestation of his beliefs that the rules and norms that govern others don’t apply to him.
Themes
Nikolay says that yesterday, Fedka approached him and offered to kill Lebyadkin and Marya and leave no trace. He asked for a three rouble advance but made it clear that it would cost 1,500 roubles total. Darya says that “they” are using Fedka to ensnare Nikolay in their web. He says, “Let them!” He tells Darya that he gave Fedka all the money in his wallet, and now Fedka may be convinced that that was an advance to pay for the murder of Marya and Lebyadkin. Nikolay asks Darya if she would still come to him if he did get involved in Fedka’s scheme. Darya doesn’t answer and leaves. Nikolay then tells himself that she would still come to him if he gets involved with Fedka.
Nikolay sheds light on the conversations that he and Fedka previously had. While Fedka cryptically hinted at a plot that Pyotr put him up to in exchange for money and a passport, Nikolay makes it clear that that plot would entail a murder-for-hire scheme in which Fedka would kill Lebyadkin and Marya. As Darya notes, Pyotr seems to have instigated that plot in an attempt to get evidence of Nikolay committing a crime that he could later use to blackmail and manipulate Nikolay.
Themes
