Repetition

Returning to the same word, the same phrase, or the same construction, at the start of verses or of successive sentences (anaphora) or throughout the text, to give rhythm, emphasis, or insistence.

In Demons

That he ended up becoming a son to her, a creature of hers, even, you could say, an invention of hers [...] She invented him, and she was the first to believe in the invention she made.

The root of "invented" and "invention" returns in the same sentence and binds cause to effect: whoever invents a person first believes in what they invented. The insistence on the word gives weight to the gesture of creating someone.

Part One: The Father of the Demons, the chronicler, on Varvara Petrovna and Stepan Trofimovich

His hair was too black, his clear eyes too calm and too limpid, his complexion too delicate and too white, his vivid, pure flush too much, teeth like pearls, lips like coral: he looked like a beauty in a painting and, at the same time, somehow repulsive. People said his face resembled a mask.

Part One: The Father of the Demons, the chronicler, on Nikolai Stavrogin

But mark, mark, madam, the cockroach does not complain!

Part One: The Slap, Captain Lebyadkin

I believe in Russia, I believe in its Orthodoxy... I believe in the body of Christ... I believe that the new coming will happen in Russia... I believe...

Part Two: The Night of the Creditors, Shatov

The essence of the Russian revolutionary idea lies entirely in the denial of honor. [...] For the Russian, honor is only one more burden. And it has always been a burden, throughout its entire history. It is by the open "right to dishonor" that he can be dragged along most quickly.

Part Two: The Waiting Town, Karmazinov

Starting from unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism.

Part Two: Shigalyov's System, Shigalyov

I propose not a filthy trick, but paradise, an earthly paradise, and there can be no other on earth.

Part Two: Shigalyov's System, Shigalyov

In sinning, every man has already sinned against everyone, and every man is guilty, in some way, of the sin of others. An isolated sin does not exist.

With Tikhon: The Suppressed Confession, Tikhon

Listen, Father Tikhon: I want to forgive myself, and this is my main goal, my whole goal! [...] I know that only then will the vision disappear. That is why I seek a suffering without measure, I seek it myself. Do not be frightened. If you believe that you can forgive yourself and attain that forgiveness in this world, then you believe in everything!

With Tikhon: The Suppressed Confession, Stavrogin and Tikhon

I thought at that moment: which of us is lower? He, who embraces me to humiliate me at once, or I, who despise him, and his face, and at once kiss him, though I could have turned my face away... ugh!

Part Two: The Town in Disorder, Stepan Trofimovich

The mystery of the appearance of a new being, a great mystery, inexplicable, Arina Prokhorovna, and what a pity that you do not understand it! [...] There were two, and suddenly a third being, a new spirit, whole and complete, as does not come from human hands; a new thought and a new love, it is even frightening... And there is nothing higher in the world!

Part Three: The Last Decision, Shatov

If the laws of nature did not spare even Him, did not spare even his own miracle, but forced Him too to live amid lies and die for a lie, then, it follows, the whole planet is a lie and stands on a lie and a stupid mockery. It follows that the very laws of the planet are a lie and the devil's vaudeville. Why live, then, answer me, if you are a man?

Part Three: The Last Decision, Kirillov

These demons that come out of the sick man and enter the swine are all the sores, all the miasmas, all the filth, all the demons and little demons that have piled up over the centuries, over the centuries, in our great and beloved sick man, in our Russia.

Part Three: The Last Wandering, Stepan Trofimovich

I know I should kill myself, sweep myself from the earth like a vile insect; but I am afraid of suicide, because I fear showing magnanimity. I know that this would still be a deception, the last deception.

Part Three: The Last Wandering, Stavrogin, in a letter to Darya Pavlovna