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Part 2, Chapter 6, 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
Pyotr goes from Karmazinov’s to see Aleksey. At Aleksey’s lodging, Pyotr discusses Aleksey’s plan to take his own life. Pyotr says that at one point, Aleksey had promised to take his own life in a way that would help the Society. Aleksey has since left the Society, but Pyotr wants to ensure that the group will still be able to use Aleksey’s suicide for their own purposes. Pyotr tells Aleksey that in his suicide note, he will need to take credit for the manifestos. Aleksey agrees to do so. Pyotr then asks Aleksey to go to Virginsky’s birthday party—which will provide cover for a meeting of the Society—and pose as a government inspector who is a member of the Society. Aleksey agrees to do that as well.
Pyotr continues to show the behind-the-scenes maneuvering he is involved in to try and ensure that the revolutionary faction is able to operate undetected and, ultimately, is able to succeed in its mission of overthrowing the established political system. Pyotr’s maneuvering involves gaining influence with people in power like Yuliya and Andrey but also using people like Aleksey to achieve the goals of the revolution, even though Aleksey seems otherwise uninvolved in the revolutionary faction.
Themes
Pyotr and Aleksey then discuss Fedka. Aleksey has been seeing Fedka every night. Pyotr worries that those conversations will turn Fedka into a Christian. Aleksey tells Pyotr that Fedka is already a Christian, and that won’t stop him from committing the murder in the future. Neither Pyotr nor Aleksey say who will be murdered. Pyotr leaves and goes to talk to Shatov. While talking with Shatov, Pyotr discloses that he sent the poem that appeared in the manifestos to Shatov and asked Shatov to publish it, but Shatov refused to do so. Pyotr says that Shatov has come under suspicion in the Society, though Pyotr has tried to clear his name. Pyotr urges Shatov to come to the Society meeting on Virginsky’s birthday or else he’ll face persecution from the Society and will be hanged once the revolution is successful.
This passage hints at the extent of Pyotr’s manipulations and the way he uses a web of lies to get different people to do what he wants them to. In this case, this conversation makes it clear that Shatov did not in fact write the poem in the manifestos (as Pyotr told Andrey) and instead, Shatov refused to print the poem, which Pyotr sent him. Pyotr then says he is trying to clear Shatov’s name in the revolutionary faction. Pyotr says that, though, to make it possible to threaten Shatov with violence and death, which shows again the threats that Pyotr and the revolutionary faction seem to regularly use to compel allegiance and discourage defection.
Themes
