Demons (Penguin Classics)

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Stepan Trofimovich also has a son from a previous marriage but he has grown up elsewhere without his father's involvement. And the representative for the church, thrilled by the confession and completely without pity for the child, tells the murderer that he will be forgiven, if only he suffers enough to please god. First of all, what kind of a god is that, who encourages suffering, even finds delight and pleasure in it, but completely ignores the victim? What if I told my child that it is acceptable to brutally assault somebody as long as I see that he suffers afterwards - that the crime is actually laudable because it gives me a welcome opportunity to watch my child suffer duly? Where is the educational police to arrest me for such parenting? Dostoevsky, Fyodor (1995). Demons: A Novel in Three Parts. Translated by Larissa Volokhonsky; Richard Pevear. Foreword by Richard Pevear (1sted.). Vintage Classics. ISBN 9780679734512. Instead of belief in God, Stavrogin has rationality, intellect, self-reliance, and egoism, but the spiritual longing and sensual ardour of his childhood, over-stimulated by his teacher Stepan Trofimovich, has never left him. [59] [60] Unfettered by fear or morality, his life has become a self-centred experiment and a heartless quest to overcome the torment of his growing ennui. [61] The most striking manifestation of his dilemma is in the dialogue with Tikhon, where we find him, perhaps for the only time, truthfully communicating his inner state. In this dialogue there is an alternation in his speech between the stern, worldly voice of rational self-possession and the vulnerable, confessional voice of the lost and suffering soul. [62] [63] Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky is the son of Stepan Trofimovich and the principal driving force of the mayhem that ultimately engulfs the town. The father and son are a representation of the aetiological connection Dostoevsky perceived between the liberal idealists of the 1840s and the nihilistic revolutionaries of the 1860s. [33] The character of Pyotr Stepanovich was inspired by the revolutionary Sergey Nechayev, in particular the methods described in his manifesto Catechism of a Revolutionary. [34] In the Catechism revolutionaries are encouraged to "aid the growth of calamity and every evil, which must at last exhaust the patience of the people and force them into a general uprising." [35] Verkhovensky's murder of Shatov in the novel was based on Nechayev's murder of Ivanov. [36]

By the time of the events in the novel Shatov has completely rejected his former convictions and become a passionate defender of Russia's Christian heritage. Shatov's reformed ideas resemble those of the contemporary philosophy Pochvennichestvo (roughly: "return to the soil"), with which Dostoevsky was sympathetic. Like the broader Slavophile movement, Pochvennichestvo asserted the paramount importance of Slavic traditions in Russia, as opposed to cultural influences originating in Western Europe, and particularly emphasized the unique mission of the Russian Orthodox Church. Shatov goes further by describing that mission as universal rather than merely Russian. [39] Generally awkward, gloomy and taciturn, Shatov becomes emotional and loquacious when aroused by an affront to his convictions. [40] In the chapter 'Night' he engages in a heated discussion with Stavrogin about God, Russia and morality. As a younger man Shatov had idolized Stavrogin, but having seen through him and guessed the secret of his marriage, he seeks to tear down the idol in a withering critique. [41] Stavrogin, though affected, is certainly not withered, and answers by drawing attention to the inadequacy of Shatov's own faith, something Shatov himself recognizes. [42] Shatov's relationship with Pyotr Verkhovensky is one of mutual hatred. Verkhovensky conceives the idea of having the group murder him as a traitor to the cause, thereby binding them closer together by the blood they have shed. Of Pyotr Verkhovensky, Dostoevsky said that the character is not a portrait of Nechayev but that "my aroused mind has created by imagination the person, the type, that corresponds to the crime... To my own surprise he half turns out to be a comic figure." [72] Most of the nihilist characters associated with Pyotr Verkhovensky were based on individuals who appeared in the transcripts of the trial of the Nechayevists, which were publicly available and studied by Dostoevsky. The character of Shatov represents a Russian nationalist response to socialist ideas, and was initially based on Nechayev's victim Ivanov, but later on the contemporary slavophile ideas of Danilevsky [43] and to some extent on Dostoevsky's own reformed ideas about Russia. French cleverness …” he babbled suddenly, as though in a fever …“that’s false, it always has been. Why libel French cleverness? It’sThere comes a long-awaited day of the festival. The highlight of the program is a reading of a famous writer Karmazinov his farewell "Merci", and then diatribe of Stepan Trofimovich. He passionately defends Raphael and Shakespeare from nihilists. His is booed and proudly removes from the scene. It becomes known that Lisa Tushino in daylight suddenly moved from her carriage, leaving Mauritius alone, into the Stavrogin’s carriage and drove off to his estate. Highlight of the second part of the festival is "quadrille of literature," ugly, grotesque allegorical action. The governor and his wife are beside themselves with indignation. Here is reported that the district is burning, allegedly set on fire by spies, later became known about murder of Captain Lebyadkin, his sister and the maid. Governor goes to the fire, where the log falls on him. The action of the novel is set in a provincial town in the early autumn. The events are described by the reporter, who is also a participant of the events described. His story begins with the story of Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovenskii, the idealist of the forties, and of his complex platonic relationship with Varvara Petrovna Stavrogin - a provincial noble lady, whose patronage he enjoyed.

Around Verkhovenskii grouped a local liberal-minded youth. He is enough intelligent and shrewd. He was the teacher of many heroes of the novel. First beautiful, now he dropped, is playing cards, and indulges in champagne. Bishop Tikhon is a monk and spiritual adviser recommended to Stavrogin by Shatov. He only appears in the censored chapter, but he has importance as the person to whom Stavrogin makes his most detailed and candid confession. He is perhaps the only character to truly understand Stavrogin's spiritual and psychological state. [50] He describes the confession as coming from "the need of a heart that has been mortally wounded" and advises Stavrogin to submit his life to an Elder. [51] Dostoevsky's model for the character of Bishop Tikhon was the 18th century monk and writer Tikhon of Zadonsk. [52] There always are some fashionable ideas and human beings, who can’t think indepedably, prefer to follow this fashion blindly and those people are eventually used by the others… They just become cat’s paw.

CHAPTER V. ON THE EVE OF THE FETE

sign of the cross on his pillow that he might not die in the night.… Je m’en souviens. Enfin, no artistic feeling whatever, not a sign of Men made of paper! It all comes from flunkeyism of thought. There's hatred in it, too. They'd be the first to be terribly unhappy if Russia could be suddenly reformed, even to suit their own ideas, and became extraordinarily prosperous and happy. They'd have no one to hate then, no one to curse, nothing to find fault with. There is nothing in it but an immense animal hatred for Russia which has eaten into their organism… If you want a free ebook, you can get the Garnett translation online because it’s in the public domain. There are also lots of cheap reprints. Este hecho ordena las ideas de Dostoievski para darle vidas a cuatro de los personajes más malvados, perversos y peligrosos que podamos encontrar en sus novelas. Y, ¿por qué digo esto? Básicamente, porque en sus otras novelas, encontramos tal vez un solo personaje que posee estas características. Podríamos citar al Príncipe Valkosvski de la novela Humillados y Ofendidos, en menor medida al pintoresco Fomá Fomich de Stepanchikovo, el problemático padre adoptivo de Arcadio Dolgoruki en El Adolescente y en cierto modo a Parfión Rogozhin en El Idiota. Si usted supiera, Sónechka, cuánto cuesta ser escritor, es decir, ¡cargar con la suerte del escritor! Mire usted: yo estoy seguro de que si dispusiese para escribir una novela, de dos a tres años —lujo que pueden permitirse Turguéniev, Gonchárov y Tolstoi— me saldría una obra de la que se hablaría aún pasado un siglo.”