The Theme in the Work
In Demons guilt is a problem of address. There are too many crimes and too few authors: the fire at Zarechye, the death of the Lebyadkins, the shot at Shatov, the hand that knocks down Lizaveta Nikolaevna, and in each one responsibility divides until it fits no single name. The novel gives this division two forms. The first is the one said in passing, as an accusation: "other people's sins," the phrase with which Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky refuses the marriage and which his son reads aloud before everyone. The second is the one Tikhon tells Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin as a thesis: every man is guilty, in some way, of another's sin. Between the two lies what the scene shows, and it is less theological: people who knew and did not prevent, people who did and then cried out, people who asked for proof of the burden and did not receive it.
In Part One, Chapter III, Stepan's disgust with the week of waiting is summed up in a phrase the chronicler had been expecting for days.
Не могу же я жениться на «чужих грехах»!, I cannot, after all, marry "other people's sins"!
In Part Two, Chapter II, Marya Timofeyevna Lebyadkina tells Stavrogin that for five years she has feared having a great guilt before him, without knowing what it is, and, seeing him ashamed of her, accuses him of being an impostor.
Как увидала я твое низкое лицо, когда упала, а ты меня подхватил, — точно червь ко мне в сердце заполз: не он, думаю, не он! Не постыдился бы сокол мой меня никогда пред светской барышней, when I saw your base face, the moment I fell and you caught me, it was as if a worm crept into my heart: it is not him, I thought, it is not him! My falcon would never have been ashamed of me before a society young lady!
In Part Two, Chapter III, on the way back from the duel, Alexei Kirillov tells Stavrogin what seems visible in him.
Я думал, вы сами ищете бремени, I thought you yourself were looking for a burden.
Несите бремя. А то нет заслуги, carry the burden. Otherwise there is no merit.
In Part Three, Chapter III, Lizaveta Nikolaevna Tushina demands of Stavrogin, before God, that he say whether he is guilty, and he answers her and not the way out Pyotr had offered him.
Я не убивал и был против, но я знал, что они будут убиты, и не остановил убийц, I did not kill, and I was against it, but I knew they would be killed, and I did not stop the murderers.
Shortly after, in the crowd around the Lebyadkins' house, the same Lizaveta Nikolaevna falls under a hand the chronicler does not identify.
Вдруг я увидел, что над ее головой, сзади, поднялась и опустилась чья-то рука; Лиза упала, suddenly I saw that, from behind, over her head, someone's hand rose and came down; Liza fell.
In Part Three, Chapter VI, the group that killed Shatov comes apart in the body before it comes apart in reason.
Это не то, не то! Нет, это совсем не то!, it isn't that, it isn't that! No, it isn't that at all!
In Part Three, Chapter VII, in the crisis at dawn, fallen at the feet of Sofya Matveyevna, Stepan names the vice the book had attributed to him from the first page.
Главное в том, что я сам себе верю, когда лгу. Всего труднее в жизни жить и не лгать… и… и собственной лжи не верить, да, да, вот это именно, the main thing is that I believe myself when I lie. The hardest thing in life is to live and not lie... and... and not to believe one's own lie, yes, yes, that is exactly it.
Days later, at his bedside, he repeats to Varvara Petrovna the whole confession.
J’ai menti toute ma vie, всю, всю жизнь!, I have lied all my life, all, all my life! And, further on, to everyone:да здравствует Великая Мысль! Вечная, безмерная Мысль, long live the Great Thought! The eternal, the boundless Thought!
In Part Three, Chapter VIII, Stavrogin's letter to Darya Pavlovna says he ought to kill himself and does not do so for fear of appearing magnanimous.
Я знаю, что мне надо бы убить себя, смести себя с земли как подлое насекомое; но я боюсь самоубийства, ибо боюсь показать великодушие. Я знаю, что это будет еще обман, — последний обман, I know I ought to kill myself, sweep myself off 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.
In "With Tikhon", Tikhon answers the request for forgiveness by giving it back, and places one man's guilt on the account of all.
Согрешив, каждый человек уже против всех согрешил и каждый человек хоть чем-нибудь в чужом грехе виноват. Греха единичного нет, in sinning, every man has already sinned against everyone, and every man is in some way guilty of another's sin. There is no sin that stands alone.
Stavrogin, who wants to be guilty alone and hated by all, then says what his aim is.
Слушайте, отец Тихон: я хочу простить сам себе, и вот моя главная цель, вся моя цель![...]Я знаю, что только тогда исчезнет видение. Вот почему я и ищу страдания безмерного, сам ищу его. Не пугайте же меня. — Если веруете, что можете простить сами себе и сего прощения себе в сем мире достигнуть, то вы во всё веруете!, 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 suffering without measure, I seek it myself. Do not frighten me. If you believe that you can forgive yourselves and attain that forgiveness in this world, then you believe in everything!
And Tikhon names the risk he did not measure.
Их смеху, their laughter.
The guilt of the book moves in two opposite directions. The characters want it individual, because solitary guilt is carried or hidden: Stavrogin wants to be the only guilty one and the most hated, Kirillov demands that he carry the burden, Stepan declares himself a scoundrel in private. The facts spread it out: the question put by Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky, the house rented by Stavrogin, the wrong hour of the fire, the hand of "someone." Tikhon's solution, that sin is never only the sin of the one who commits it, seems to close the account, and Stavrogin refuses it, because it would take from him what makes him who he is. The novel lets him refuse, and the heaviest fact of the ending is that the only one of the main characters who leaves the stage without paying anything, Pyotr, is the one who never stood before a forgiveness to accept or refuse.
Who Embodies It
Stavrogin carries the guilt of the one who knows and does not prevent: he knew about the Lebyadkins, and the ideas he gave to Kirillov and Shatov come back to his door as demands. Stepan carries the guilt of pose, that of someone who confused vanity with suffering for the country, and he confesses it to Sofya Matveyevna. Virginsky, with the five, carries the guilt that collapses into the body: after the shot, he cries that it is not it. Kirillov treats the burden as proof of merit: whoever offers himself to the test must carry the weight. Tikhon is shared guilt, and includes himself among the guilty.
Where It Appears
- Part One, Chapter III: Stepan Trofimovich says he cannot marry "other people's sins," suspecting that Varvara Petrovna is giving him Darya Pavlovna to cover the young woman's involvement with Nicolas.
- Part One, Chapter V: Pyotr Stepanovich reads aloud the letter in which the father says he marries because of other people's sins, and Varvara Petrovna orders Stepan to leave the house.
- Part Two, Chapter II: Marya Timofeyevna tells Stavrogin that for five years she has feared having a great guilt before him, without knowing what it is, and accuses him of being an impostor.
- Part Two, Chapter III: Kirillov tells Stavrogin that he seeks burdens and that, without carrying them, there is no merit.
- Part Three, Chapter III: Stavrogin tells Lizaveta Nikolaevna that he did not kill and was against it, but knew the Lebyadkins would be killed and did not stop the murderers.
- Part Three, Chapter VI: Virginsky cries that it is not it after the shot and the stones, and Lyamshin squeals like an animal while Pyotr talks of free pride.
- Part Three, Chapter VII: Stepan Trofimovich confesses to Sofya Matveyevna that he has lied his whole life and that the hardest thing is to live without believing one's own lie.
- Part Three, Chapter VIII: Stavrogin writes that he ought to kill himself but fears suicide as the last deception, and leaves a note saying that no one is to blame.
- With Tikhon: Tikhon tells Stavrogin that every man is guilty in some way of another's sin, and that the risk he did not measure is the laughter of readers.
Where the Readings Diverge
Two readings contest the guilt of the book. In Tikhon's, no one sins alone, and the novel would be a treatise on solidarity in evil: Stepan fathered the sons, Stavrogin gave the ideas, Pyotr used them, and the town gave way. In the other, guilt dissolves on purpose, and Pyotr's organization exists so that no one decides a crime alone, so that the division Tikhon calls communion is the mechanism of the murder.
The scene of Shatov shows both at once. The five who hold the body divide the act, as Tikhon would say, all guilty of everything, and they cry out afterward as if they feel exactly that. Pyotr divides the act as the organization requires, and speaks of free duty. The difference lies in who feels the weight: the novel gives guilt to those who still have a body and takes it away from those who have only method. Between communion and mechanism, the text points to what happens after the shot.