Demons

Favourite Quotes

“Man has does nothing but invent God, so as to live without killing himself” - p. 617

“To recognize there is no God, and not to recognize at the same that you have become God, is an absurdity, otherwise you must necessarily kill yourself.” - p. 619 (said by Kirillov)

Summary

• Pyotr, an atheist and socialist, is trying to start a violent revolution. Hates his father Stepan.
  • Fate at the end of the book: runs away to Petersburg
• Nikolai Stavrogin, a conflicted man, believes in God but at the same time doesn’t. A man full of demons. Molested a 11 year old girl who was frequently abused by her mother. The girl eventually hung herself while Stavrogin knew and heard it all in the other room, and did nothing about it.
  • Fate at the end of the book: hung himself
• Stepan Trofimovich, a retired professor. Represents the old generation. Lives with Varvara. Can’t stand up for himself.
  • Fate at the end of the book: on his death bed he announces faith in God. Dies of sickness
• Kirillov, an atheist and nihilist. Part of Pyotr’s revolution. Wants to kill himself to serve the cause, as well as to prove to everyone that humans have complete free will. Speaks negatively of God.
  • Fate at the end of the book: writes a death note where he claims to have killed Shatov. Shoots himself.
• Liputin, Lyamshin, Erkel, Tolkachenko, Shigalyov, Virginsky, are all part of Pyotr’s group of socialists. They help him murder Shatov.
  • Fate at the end of the book: all are arrested after Lyamshin tells the authorities of their crimes.
• Captain Lebyadkin and his sister Marya, are murdered and their house is burned down by Fedka the convict.

Characters

• Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky = 50 years old ex-professor. Has had 2 previous marriages, but currently single (not sure if widowed or divorced). An atheist part of an atheist/liberal group/circle. Lives with Varvara. Was hired by Varvara to tutor her son Nikolai
• Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina = a wealthy woman, widow of Lieutenant General Stavrogin, and friend to Stepan Trofimovich, although a strange friendship. Varvara tries to mold Stepan into her own creation. She financially supports him.
  • “He (Stepan) was something like a sort of dream of hers…” p. 15
• Ivan Pavlovich Shatov = 27/28 years old. A former pupil of Stepan’s. The son of a former serf of Varvara’s. His sister still works for Varvara and Varavara loves her, but doesn’t really like Shatov cause of his ungratefulness. He’s divorced, but remarried. Overall a lone-wolf. Seems content with poverty? Visits Stepan to borrow books regularly.
• Nikolai Stavrogin = son of Varvara. Former student of Stepan. He is a young man, probably late 20s. He is very unhinged (ex: he grabbed an old man by the nose and walked him around, he kissed a married woman on her lips in front of her husband at a party and said to the husband “don’t be angry”).
  • Seems like he becomes better as the book goes on. He refuses to kill a man in a dual, etc
  • pg 291-292 find out he’s romantically involved with Darya in secret
• Lizaveta Nikolaevna Tushina (Liza) = a young woman. Daughter of Varvara’s friend Praskovya. Former student of Stepan. Later is romantically involved with Nikolai. Varvara cares for her deeply
  • Asks Shatov if he wants to become her co-editor for her book. He refuses
• Praskovya = an old woman. Mother of Liza. Former classmate of Varvara. She has beef with Varvara.
• Darya Pavlovich (Dasha) = Shatov’s sister. Former student of Stepan. Very loyal to Varvara. Varvara is trying to marry her to Stepan
  • pg 291-292 find out she’s romantically involved with Nikolai in secret
• Pyotr Stepanovich = Stepan’s son. In his 20s. His father was absent most his life
  • Very cruel towards his father. Isn’t scared to insult him to his face.
  • Seems to be cruel to others as well, and a show-off
• Alexei Nilych Kirillov = An engineer who was introduced to Stepan by Liputin. He’s friends with Pyotr Stepanovich and lives with Shatov. About 27 years old. An atheist & nihilist. Not officially part of Stepan’s group, but believes in the cause, and willing to die for it
• Captain Lebyadkin = bro-in-law of Nikolai (his sister married Nikolai). He bought Nikolai’s estate. Receiving money from Nikolai to take ‘care’ of Marya (in reality he treats her harshly)
• Marya Lebyadkina = wife of Nikolai. Gets abused by her brother Captain Lebyadkin
  • She’s a very jolly woman when her brother is not around. Once her brother comes, she becomes depressed. Page 176
• Mavriky Nikolaevich = Husband of Lizaveta.
• Andrei Antonovich Von Lembke = governor of a province. Struggles to stand up for himself. Insecure. Pyotr Stepanovich picks on him a lot
• Yulia Mikhailovna = married to Von Lembke. Much older than her husband. She enjoys the company of the younger generation because she likes the novel ideas going around in her times.
• Semyon Yegorovich Karmazinov = a nihilist. Speaks to Pyotr. Not much else I know about him.
• Lyamshin = part of Pyotr group of socialists/atheists
• Liputin = part of Pyotr group of socialists/atheists
• Tolkachenko = part of Pyotr group of socialists/atheists
• Erkel = part of Pyotr group of socialists/atheists
• Shigalyov = part of Pyotr group of socialists/atheists
• Virginsky = part of Pyotr group of socialists/atheists

Analysis

Notes and Quotes

Faith

• ‘those who have no people, have no God!… all those who cease to understand their people and lose their connection with them, at once, in the same measure, also lose the faith of their fathers, and become either atheists or indifferent.’ p. 38
• “God is the pain of the fear of death. He who overcomes pain and fear will himself become God. Then there will be a new life, a new man, everything new…” p. 115
• ‘to start a rebellion in Russia one must inevitably begin with atheism.’ p. 226
• interesting discussion on God being an attribute of nations, p. 250-251
  • FIND FULL QUOTE
• “Man has does nothing but invent God, so as to live without killing himself” p. 617
• “To recognize there is no God, and not to recognize at the same that you have become God, is an absurdity, otherwise you must necessarily kill yourself.” p. 619 (said by Kirillov)
  • “God” is essentially the representation of your will. If you believe in God, you do not have true free according to Kirillov. But what if you have no God? Whose will are you following? Well, your own, or at least you should be following your own, which essentially means you’ve become God
• “The whole law of human existence consists in nothing other than a man’s always being able to bow before the immeasurably great. If people are deprived of the immeasurably great, they will not live and will die in despair.” p. 664

Socialism

• “why is it that all these desperate socialists and communists are at the same time such incredible misers, acquirers, property-lovers, so much so that the more socialist a man is, the further he goes, the more he loves property.” p. 77
• pg 314: discussion on order vs chaos in society, very relevant to the communist revolution that will happen a few decades later
  • FIND FULL QUOTE
• “starting from unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism.” p. 402
  • Shigalyov talking about his idea of a new social system
• end of pg 405, talking about killing 100 million people for the good of society. This is being said by the lame teacher, who is a socialist
  • FIND FULL QUOITE

Happiness

• ”When all mankind attains happiness, time will be no more, because there’s no need… Time isn’t an object, it’s an idea. It will die out in the mind.” p. 236-237

• “Man is unhappy because he doesn’t know he’s happy.” p. 237
  • CONTEXT NEEDED

• ”I do not wish you much happiness - it would bore you; I do not wish you trouble either; but, following the people’s philosophy, I will simply repeat: ‘Live more’ and try somehow not to be too bored” p. 491

Other

• ‘inscrutable even to this day are the depths of the feminine heart.’ p. 18
  • well ain’t that the truth!
• “If the burden is light for me because of my nature, then maybe the burden is heavier for you because of your nature.” p. 290

Undecided

• “It must be true that the whole second half of a man’s life is most often made up only of habits accumulated during the first half.” p. 263
• “So much wealth and so little joy” p. 274
  • CONTEXT NEEDED
• Nikolai’s ‘demon’ is his secret marriage with Marya. He paid another ‘demon’ (Fedka) to kill her - p. 293
• “stupidity, like the loftiest genius, is equally useful in the destinies of mankind” p. 485
  • CONTEXT NEEDED
• pg 670 explanation on why the Pyotr’s group did the things they did
  • FIND FULL QUOTE

Ideology Ideology

• pg 607 - WOW. The manipulating power of ideology. This is being said by Pyotr Stepanovich
  • context: Pyotr and his crew of socialists just murdered Shatov.

Love

• “Love is higher than being, love is the crown of being, and is it possible for being not to bow before it?” p. 663

Main Idea of the Book

• Socialism vs Religion is a central theme
• the importance of God is really stressed

Reflections

I need to read this book again. Feel like there’s a lot to unpack here.