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Demons · Part One

The threads come together

The Meaning of LifeGuiltTruth and LiesGod and the Divine

Summary of the part

These two chapters make the novel move. Each speaks of what it does not know firsthand and attributes to another what it lacks: Stepan Trofimovich fears that his bride will bring Nikolai's "other people's sins," Liputin carries news he has not verified, Kirillov defends a theory of pain and fear that he is willing to expose only to a stranger, Lizaveta Nikolaevna looks for a cause on which to spend money and energy, Shatov keeps a name and a debt, and Marya Timofeyevna speaks of a son who may never have existed. At every end stands Nikolai Stavrogin, absent, who appears only in other people's sentences. The effect is that of threads being tied together: the money sent from Switzerland, Darya Pavlovna's marriage, the lame woman, the printing press, Varvara Petrovna's question about her son's sanity. The chapters close with the lame woman kneeling before Varvara Petrovna, and with the astonishment of Varvara Petrovna herself, who only then realizes that the woman limps.

Chapter III: The Fiancé and Other People's Sins

The Meaning of LifeGuiltGod and the Divine

Chapter summary

A week passes and the engagement of Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky still has no form. The chronicler spends these days beside his friend, as the closest confidant, and what weighs most on Stepan is shame: he goes out only at nightfall, supposes the whole town already knows, and is ashamed even before the chronicler, so that the more he opens up, the more he grows irritated with whoever listens. He does not know whether he is engaged, has not seen the bride, does not even know whether anything serious is involved in all this. Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina refuses to receive him; to one of his first letters she replies asking him to spare her any contact for a while, because she is busy, and promises to return the following letters unopened. Behind everything lies a worry he confesses neither to the chronicler, who is younger and indignant and has already guessed it and judges it unworthy of him. Until Sunday, the wait fills with threads. The chronicler sees Karmazinov, the famous writer whom Varvara Petrovna wants to receive with all possible luxury, and who makes her forget the professor. Liputin arrives with the engineer Kirillov and, as he leaves, releases the news that poisons Stepan: Varvara Petrovna asked him whether her son Nikolai is sane or mad, Captain Lebyadkin lashes his sick sister, and Nikolai is said to have sent from Switzerland, through Darya, a sum of which she kept part. Stepan, who already feared this, concludes that they want to marry him to Darya to cover up a liaison between her and Nikolai, and says aloud what he feels: he cannot marry other people's sins. Minutes later Liza, whom he had not seen for twelve years, meets him in the street, embraces him without reserve, and goes to his house to ask him to bring her Shatov for a project of hers, the only consolation of the week. In the evening the chronicler hears from Kirillov the theory of suicide and fear, and is accosted by the drunken captain, who recites verses for Liza. Stepan receives from Varvara Petrovna the note that sets, for Sunday at noon, the definitive answer.

Analysis

When the chronicler asks why she would be angry now, since he has done what she asked, Stepan answers with a rare subtlety for him: had he refused, she would have been furious, but less than now that he has accepted. Two readings are possible: his docility irritates her because it takes away what she has to fight against, or because it shows her that he accepts being handed over to another without resistance. One way or the other, he realizes that his consent has not appeased her.

He does not go to see the Drozdovs, who are expecting him, and he speaks of Lizaveta Nikolaevna Tushina with an enthusiasm the chronicler does not understand: he imagines that near her he will find relief from all his torments and will resolve the most serious doubts. The chronicler himself, who sees her riding a horse, sidesaddle, with a handsome officer who passes for a relative, would like to be introduced, and only Stepan could do it. A circular informs the town that the professor is busy with a backlog of correspondence for Varvara Petrovna. Only Liputin escapes the notice, and the chronicler, who fears him, runs into him in the street: Liputin asks nothing and pours out the town's news, the governor's wife and her new conversations, the opposition forming at the club. That night, on learning that the two had crossed paths, Stepan asks an absurd question, whether Liputin knows or not, and concludes that he knows everything and something more, that no one else knows it, and that perhaps they will only find out when it is too late.

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Chapter IV: The Lame Woman

FamilyGod and the Divine

Chapter summary

The next day, at noon, Ivan Shatov does not need to be coaxed and goes to the house of Lizaveta Nikolaevna Tushina; the chronicler comes along, for his first visit. In the large drawing room Liza, her mother and Mavriky Nikolaevich are arguing over a waltz. Praskovia Ivanovna, ill, with swollen legs, searches everywhere for "the professor," wants to know whether there was an Englishman in town four years ago, and concludes that if there was no Harry, there was no Englishman: only Nicolas caroused. She calls her little dog Zemirka, who hides under the divan, and leaves in anger. Liza leads Shatov to the sofa and leaves the chronicler talking with Mavriky Nikolaevich.

Liza has a project: an annual book that gathers and classifies the facts published in Russian newspapers, by months and days, to paint the moral life of the Russian people in that year, without bias, with impartiality alone. She explains it hurriedly and without clarity, and Shatov, eyes on the floor, objects that choosing facts is already giving them a direction, and little by little he becomes interested, his eyes shining. She offers a partnership in equal shares: he the plan and the labor, she the idea and the money; she says that Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky spoke to her of him in Switzerland, and Shatov glances at her and lowers his eyes. When she adds that Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin also spoke to her a great deal of him, Shatov blushes. She hands him a bundle of marked newspapers and asks where he lives; he says in Filippov's house, and Liza asks about Captain Lebyadkin, who lives nearby. Shatov remains a minute without answering, the bundle in the air, and says, almost in a whisper, that for this sort of thing she should choose someone else. Liza flares up: what things is he talking about? She asks Mavriky for the letter of the day before, and the chronicler reads it aloud. It consists of verses and a prose piece by the captain, who calls Liza "Elisaveta Tushina" and sings of her hair in the wind, and a humiliated letter in which he calls himself an infusoria before the sun, claims that the idea of marriage would seem ridiculous, but that he will soon have the two hundred souls through a misanthrope whom she must despise, and offers to reveal a great deal, "with documents," even in Siberia.

Analysis

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Reading of the part

Analysis

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