Demons Themes

Pyotr is the leader of a small revolutionary faction in a provincial town outside of Petersburg in 1870s Russia. When Pyotr arrives in town, he quickly proves to be the consummate backroom politician, as he wields a significant amount of power without ever holding office. In town, he jostles for political power and works tirelessly to gain political influence, chiefly through his friendship with the governor’s wife, Yuliya. Pyotr’s ostensible goal is to use…

The revolutionary faction that Pyotr organizes in the town aims to overthrow the established political order and install a new political system in its place that will promote increased equality. Many of the members of the revolutionary faction are genuine adherents of the political ideologies that they promote. That is, they are motivated by a genuine desire to see more equality in the world rather than by their own self-interest, as Pyotr is. However, the…

The novel uses the revolutionary faction, led by Pyotr, to portray the harmful and dangerous impacts of herd mentality. Herd mentality is the phenomenon when individuals conform to the ideas and opinions of a group, often sacrificing their own sense of morality or their own beliefs to do so. That mentality plays a pivotal role in the revolutionary faction’s decision to murder Shatov. The impulse for the murder comes during a revolutionary meeting…

The tension between belief in God and non-belief animates much of the novel. That tension is especially noticeable in the storylines of, and debates between, Shatov, Pyotr, and Stepan. Shatov was once an adherent of the revolutionary socialism advocated by Pyotr. He defected, though, and embraced a distinctly Russian form of Christianity. According to Shatov, religion serves the purpose of uniting the people of a country under common ideas of good and…