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Part 3, Chapter 6, 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
Pyotr goes home and packs. He has told the Society members that he’s going to go to the country until things die down, but he really intends to go to Petersburg and begin living under a different name. Three days later, a warrant will be issued for his arrest, though Anton isn’t sure whether it’s related to the events in town and Shatov’s murder or to some other business Pyotr is involved in. Anton also doesn’t know if Pyotr is only involved in the group of five in their town or if he might actually be involved in other groups throughout the country.
After the murder, Pyotr plans to abandon the group. Anton’s lack of knowledge regarding Pyotr’s crimes and whether there may in fact be more than one group of five point to the shadowy nature in which Pyotr has operated for the entirety of the novel. He is so adept at lying, and so readily resorts to manipulation, that it becomes almost impossible to know what is true and what is false when it comes to Pyotr.
Themes
Before Pyotr leaves and before the warrant is issued, he goes to see Aleksey. Pyotr instructs Aleksey what to write in his suicide note, but Aleksey says he won’t say a word about Shatov. Pyotr then tells Aleksey that Shatov is dead, and Aleksey and Pyotr get into an argument. Both of them pull their revolvers out, and Aleksey aims his at Pyotr. He says he won’t write that he killed Shatov. Aleksey tells Pyotr to leave, and Pyotr says he won’t go until Aleksey is dead, either by his hand or by Aleksey’s.
Pyotr again shows his ruthlessness. He has just killed Shatov and now threatens Aleksey’s life. There seems to be no price that is too high for Pyotr to pay to try and achieve his aims. Notably, those aims aren’t the socialist policy goals he claims to embrace. Instead, Pyotr aims only to grab power for himself. His willingness to murder to try and achieve those aims shows the extent of his hunger for power.
Themes
Pyotr becomes increasingly convinced that Aleksey won’t go through with the plan. He then asks Aleksey about his philosophy of life and how that relates to his plan to commit suicide. Aleksey says again that by killing himself, he will become God. He says he wants to kill himself to prove his own independence and “terrible freedom.” Eventually, Aleksey tells Pyotr to dictate whatever he wants Aleksey to say, and Aleksey will sign it. Pyotr dictates a note in which Aleksey takes credit for the manifestos and confesses to being an associate of Fedka and murdering Shatov. Aleksey then goes into the other room with his revolver.
Aleksey seems to be torn at this point about his plan to take his own life to prove his ideas about God. Initially, he readily signed off on Pyotr’s plan to use his suicide to benefit the revolutionary faction, but he then pushed back against certain aspects of that plan. Now, Aleksey seems to have swung back in the other direction and says he’ll write whatever Pyotr wants him to. That back and forth provides a window into the unsettled nature of Aleksey’s psyche.
Themes
After about 10 minutes, Pyotr thinks that it’s taking too long. He goes to the door to the next room. When he opens it, Aleksey screams and rushes at him. Pyotr shuts the door and holds it closed. Pyotr waits for a while before going back in. When he does, he sees Aleksey standing against a wall, entirely motionless. He approaches Aleksey with a candle to hold it close to Aleksey’s face and perhaps burn him to see if Aleksey will react. When Pyotr gets close, Aleksey jumps on him and bites Pyotr’s finger. Pyotr strikes Aleksey and runs out of the room. As he’s leaving the house, he hears a gunshot. He waits again before returning to the room. When he goes in, he sees Aleksey’s body on the ground and blood spattered on the wall.
Aleksey’s behavior is unsettling and difficult to interpret. Due to the time that Pyotr waits and Aleksey’s reaction when he sees Pyotr, it seems clear, though, that Aleksey has continued to have doubts about his plan to commit suicide. Instead, the novel suggests that perhaps Aleksey was arrogant in his assumption that he could rewire his own thoughts to support a narrow ideology. With that in mind, the novel suggests that perhaps Aleksey is like Nikolay in the sense that both considered themselves above integral parts of the human experience and then learned that they were in fact subject to the same norms that apply to everyone else.
Themes
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