Part One: The father of the demons
That he ended up becoming for her a son, a creature of hers, even, one might say, an invention of hers [...] She invented him, and she was the first to believe in the invention she made.
Explanation and analysis
In the first chapter, the chronicler, a townsman and the professor's confidant, tells the life of Stepan Trofimovich: a man of civic pose who never wrote the promised work and for more than twenty years has lived supported by Varvara Petrovna Stavrogina. After describing the letters he sends her even though they live in the same house, and the little box in which she keeps them apart, the chronicler tries to understand what holds her to him. The sentence comes as an answer.
The chronicler dismantles the explanation Stepan himself gives, that she keeps him out of vanity or out of envy of his talent. She made him hers: he became a creature of hers, almost an invention, and she was the first to believe in what she invented. That is why she spends twenty-two years guarding his reputation from every speck of dust, and in return sometimes demands servility. Whoever invents a person needs the invention to stand, because doubting it would be doubting oneself. The book will repeat the gesture on a larger scale, with other people invented by those who look at them, and will show what happens when the invention stops obeying.
The text leaves two readings. Beneath the frequent hatred, the chronicler sees an unbearable love, that of someone who cannot let go of what they made. But the sentence also describes a possession: what she loves is the creature who obeys her idea, not the man.
The "superior liberalism" and the "superior liberal," that is, the liberal with no aim at all, are only possible in Russia.
Explanation and analysis
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One cannot love what one does not know, and they understood nothing of the Russian people [...] And whoever has no people has no God.
Explanation and analysis
His hair was too black, his light eyes too calm and too clear, his complexion too delicate and too white, his flush too bright and too pure, teeth like pearls, lips like coral: he looked like a handsome figure in a painting and, at the same time, somehow repulsive. People said his face looked like a mask.
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I am selfish, so be selfish too. I do not force you; everything depends on your will, whatever you say will be done.
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Why is it that all these desperate socialists and communists are at the same time incredible misers, hoarders, owners of property, to such a degree that the more socialist one is, the further one has gone, the stronger a property owner one becomes...
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Part One: The threads come together
I cannot, after all, marry "other people's sins"!
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He does not exist, but he exists. In the stone there is no pain, but in the fear of the stone there is pain. God is the pain of the fear of death. Whoever conquers the pain and the fear, that very one will become God.
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That's how it is, she said: the Mother of God is the great mother, the moist earth, and in this there is great joy for man. And every anguish of the earth and every tear of the earth is joy for us.
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And what makes me cry the most is this: that I gave birth to him and I do not know the husband.
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What! You are lame!
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Part One: The slap
Think of yourself as a young girl, and I, even though I am your most devoted friend, am still an outsider to you: I am not a husband, nor a father, nor a fiancé.
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But mark you, madam, the cockroach does not complain!
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Pyotr Stepanovich is the universal conciliator; that is his role, his illness, his hobbyhorse [...] as a realist, he cannot lie, and truth is dearer to him than success... except, of course, in the particular cases where success is dearer than truth.
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The most repulsive and the most frightening there could be.
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Part Two: The night of the creditors
Man is unhappy because he does not know that he is happy; that is the only reason.
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He will come, and his name is Man-God.
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The people is the body of God.
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"I believe in Russia, I believe in her Orthodoxy… I believe in the body of Christ… I believe that the second coming will take place in Russia… I believe…"
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When I saw your downcast face, at the moment I fell and you caught me, it was as if a worm had entered my heart: it is not him, I thought, it is not him! My falcon would never be ashamed of me in front of a society young lady!
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I thought you yourself were looking for the burden.
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Part Two: The waiting town
But how can anyone be surprised that Stavrogin fought with Gaganov and did not answer the student? He could not challenge to a duel a former serf of his!
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After all, you are an intelligent man and, of course, you do not believe on your own account, but you understand very well that you need faith to brutalize the people. The truth is more honest than a lie.
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A flush of indignation rose to her cheeks; she took off her round hat and gloves, fell to her knees before the icon, straight onto the dirty sidewalk, and made three devout prostrations to the ground.
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My God, how many borrowed words! Lessons learned by heart! And they have already put their uniform on you! You too are in the joy, you too are in the sun; chère, chère, for what mess of lentils did you sell your freedom to them!
Explanation and analysis
The whole essence of the Russian revolutionary idea lies in the denial of honor. [...] For the Russian, honor is merely one more burden. And it has always been a burden, throughout his whole history. It is through the open "right to dishonor" that he can most quickly be dragged along.
Explanation and analysis
Part Two: Shigalyov's system
Even if I do not fully believe, still I will not say that God should be shot [...] one jumps out of bed at night, in one's socks alone, and begins to make the sign of the cross before the icon so that God will send faith, because even then I could not be at peace: is there a God or isn't there?
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Starting from unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism.
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I propose not a villainy, but paradise, earthly paradise, and there can be no other on earth.
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If each of us knew of a political murder in preparation, would he inform, foreseeing all the consequences, or would he stay at home waiting to see what happens?
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I invented him abroad, looking at you yourself. If I had not looked at you from a corner, nothing would ever have come into my head!..
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With Tikhon: The suppressed confession
In sinning, every man has already sinned against everyone, and every man is guilty, in some way, of the sins of others. An isolated sin does not exist.
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Their laughter.
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Listen, Father Tikhon: I want to forgive myself, and this is my main aim, my whole aim! [...] I know that only then will the vision disappear. That is why I seek a suffering beyond measure, I seek it myself. Do not frighten me. If you believe that you can forgive yourself and attain that forgiveness in this world, then you believe in everything!
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I see... I see as in reality [...] that you, poor lost young man, have never been so close to the most terrible crime as at this moment!
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Part Two: The town in disorder
I had that done just now, as soon as they left, murmured Stepan Trofimovich, looking at me slyly, quand on a de ces choses-là dans sa chambre et qu'on vient vous arrêter, that carries weight, and they will have to report that they saw it.
Explanation and analysis
I thought in that instant: which of us is lower? He, who embraces me in order to humiliate me at the same time, or I, who despise him, and his face, and at the same time kiss it, though I could have turned my face away... ugh!
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Nikolai Vsevolodovich, some captain [...] will not stop writing indecent letters to me [...] If he really is your relative, forbid him to offend me and free me from these annoyances.
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Yes, I have the misfortune of being related to that man. I am the husband of his sister, born Lebyadkina, and it has been nearly five years.
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Part Three: The party and the fire
Humanity can still live without the English, it can live without Germany, without the Russian man it is more than possible, without science it can, without bread it can, only without beauty is it impossible, for there would be absolutely nothing to do in the world.
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The fire is in people's minds, not on the roofs of the houses.
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It always seemed to me that you would take me to some place where a huge and wicked spider lives, the size of a man, and that we would spend our whole lives there looking at it and being afraid of it.
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I did not kill, and I was against it, but I knew they would be killed and I did not stop the murderers.
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What is needed here is one magnificent will, idol-like, despotic, resting on something that is not accidental and lies outside... Then the quintets will tuck in the tail of obedience and, with servility, will be useful when the occasion arises.
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Part Three: The last decision
They felt that they had suddenly fallen, like flies, into the web of an enormous spider; they grew irritated, but trembled with fear.
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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, finished, such 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!
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I am obliged to shoot myself, because the fullest point of my self-will is to kill myself.
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If the laws of nature did not spare even This One, did not spare even his own miracle, but also obliged him to live amid lies and to die for a lie, then, that is to say, the whole planet is a lie, and rests on a lie and on a stupid mockery. That is to say, the very laws of the planet are a lie and the devil's vaudeville. Why live, answer me, if you are a man?
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Only we will remain, we who have destined ourselves in advance to receive power: the clever ones we will join to us; the fools, we will ride. You should not be ashamed of this. The generation must be re-educated to make it worthy of freedom.
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Part Three: The last wandering
These demons that come out of the sick man and enter the pigs are all the sores, all the miasmas, all the filth, all the demons and little demons that have accumulated over the centuries, centuries upon centuries, in our great and beloved sick man, our Russia.
Explanation and analysis
The main thing is that I myself believe in myself when I lie. The hardest thing in life is to live and not to lie... and... and not to believe one's own lie, yes, yes, that is exactly it.
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My immortality is necessary for this reason alone: God will not wish to commit an injustice and extinguish entirely the fire of love that was once kindled for him in my heart. And what is dearer than love? Love is higher than being, love is the crown of being, and how could being not be subject to it? If I loved him and rejoiced in my love, is it possible that he would extinguish me and my joy and reduce us to zero? If there is a God, I too am immortal! Voilà ma profession de foi.
Explanation and analysis
I know that I ought to kill myself, to 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.
Explanation and analysis
Our doctors, after the autopsy, completely and insistently rejected the hypothesis of madness.