The Devils (The Possessed)

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1871

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-5

Part 2, Chapters 1-5

Part 2, Chapters 6-10

Part 3, Chapters 1-4

Part 3, Chapters 5-8

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Destructive Power of Self-Loathing

Devils is a novel about self-loathing, though this theme is expressed in many different ways. Self-loathing is represented as a destructive and often nihilistic force, leading characters to harm themselves and/or others in ways that can affect both individual lives and society at large.

The most strident expression of self-loathing is Stavrogin, who is desperate for the world to see him as he sees himself. Stavrogin does not like himself. He does not like the wealthy and privileged background from which he emerges, leading him to being indifferent to his own mother. He does not like the society that indulges him, leading him to show empathy to marginalized figures like Marya. This sense of loathing toward himself, his background, and the world he inhabits compels him to commit increasingly terrible sins. In his youth, his breeches of social etiquette and his scandalous behavior were constantly excused by those around him. Anything that was not attributed to youthful exuberance was blamed on a medical condition. Stavrogin, however, sees himself differently. While the world can forgive his actions, he cannot. As his behavior becomes increasingly immoral, he craves judgment. He is desperate for the world to see him as he sees himself, forcing him to commit ever more destructive acts in pursuit of society’s judgment.

When this judgment never arrives, Stavrogin’s self-loathing only increases, as does his loathing for the rest of the world. Peter mistakes this loathing as potentially revolutionary and hopes to recruit Stavrogin into his organization as the figurehead of a new Russian society. Peter’s conception of Stavrogin—as a glorious and charismatic figure—could not be further from Stavrogin’s conception of himself. Eventually, Stavrogin is driven to die by suicide. He does so in a meticulous and careful fashion, forcing the coroners to conclude that he was in his right mind at the time. Stavrogin dies to force the world to judge him, welcoming them to loathe him as he loathed himself.

Kirillov is, in many ways, the antithesis of Stavrogin. He lacks Stavrogin’s wealth, charisma, and privilege, but they meet similar fates. Kirillov is an intellectual who—like Stavrogin—feels compelled to die by suicide. Kirillov is an atheist who wants to take the philosophy to its natural conclusion. He feels the need to die because doing so will allow him to become God, annihilating his old self as a ritual of philosophical expression. Kirillov dies by suicide not because he loathes himself for sinning and failing, but because he loathes the limitations of the human experience. Nevertheless, he struggles with the final act. Though he ultimately follows through on his plan, the brief moment of doubt brings about a moment of authentic self-loathing when he does not measure up to his own ambitions.

The most pathetic example of self-loathing is Stepan. At the beginning of the novel, he is an outdated intellectual who has abandoned his son for a comfortable life in the employ of a woman who he loves, but who will never love him back. Stepan is also stealing from his son, and he is terrified that anyone might find out. He knows the pathetic nature of his existence, and, when he is shamed at the literary festival, he feels that he must leave town. He does so on foot, exposing himself to the elements even though he has no experience and no direction. Stepan’s brief journey leads to him contracting a fever. He is responsible for his own death, even if it is not directly a suicide. His self-loathing is alleviated in his final hours, however, when Varvara visits him. While he is not redeemed, he is at least able to enjoy the final moments of his life, suggesting that genuine human connection may be the key to avoiding the destructive effects of self-loathing.

The Link Between Familial and Social Tensions

As well as politics and morality, Devils is concerned with the idea of the family and particularly with the way in which members of different generations act toward one another. These intergenerational, familial tensions are a portrait in miniature of the wider social tensions at play in Russian society.

Early in the novel, Varvara is described as someone who adores her son. This love is not reciprocated. Stavrogin does not love his mother as she loves him. Even when he returns from Switzerland, he barely acknowledges her and does nothing to satiate her concerns about his behavior. To Stavrogin, Varvara is one of the people who indulges his terrible behavior. He cannot respect her because she actively searches for ways to forgive his many sins. At the same time, Varvara will attach herself to any excuse or explanation for her son’s actions, which mean she does not have to condemn him. She willingly believes Peter’s lies about her son’s marriage to Marya, simply because these lies paint her son in a good light.

The disconnect between these two generations is a subtle analogy for the state of the political discourse in Russia at the time. Varvara is part of the older generation who refuse to acknowledge any problems at all in Russian society. As the older generation refuses to condemn social inequality, Varvara refuses to condemn her son. As part of the younger generation, Stavrogin comes to resent the inaction of the older generation and their inability to reflect on the problems they have created. There is a clear separation between the deluded older generation and the increasingly resentful younger generation. As this separation widens, the younger generation becomes increasingly radicalized while the older generation continues to deny any problems exist. Varvara’s excuses for her son’s behavior become more desperate while Stavrogin’s breeches of morality become increasingly extreme. These familial tensions and differences in ideology therefore embody in microcosm the wider social and political issues taking place around them.

Similarly, Peter’s resentment of Stepan is evident from his first entrance into the novel. Stepan has not seen his son for decades and Peter resents the way in which his father abandoned him after the death of his mother. He does not frame his resentment in emotional terms, however. When Peter criticizes his father, he chooses a more personal mode of attack: He shames his father for being an outdated intellectual and mocks him for being a pathetic man. Stepan has no retort in this situation, partly due to his own guilt for the way in which he treated Peter. He abandoned Peter and he stole from Peter, so he feels that Peter’s criticism is justified.

Peter’s treatment of his father is a foreshadowing of the hollowness of his radicalism. Peter uses political language to justify his selfish actions. In the same way, he uses broad, personal mockery to revenge his deeply-held grievances against his father. He is terrified of showing emotion or actually exposing his pain and weakness to Stepan, so he satisfies himself with cruel mockery. Whereas Stavrogin’s treatment of Varvara echoes a broader social attitude, Peter uses broad social attitudes to mask his personal vendetta against his father.

Toward the end of the novel, the most tragic intergenerational relationship is introduced. Shatov’s estranged wife returns home and gives birth to a son. Shatov, already disillusioned with society and the revolution, suddenly finds that his life has a purpose. He is murdered hours later, and his wife and child die of exposure. The tragic nature of this sudden revelation hint at the problems ahead for any revolution. The baby is a member of the next generation, not the current or past generations. The baby is born into a world where disillusioned men did not build anything of lasting value, while Peter and his revolutionaries have nothing constructive to give the world, only chaos. The baby’s tragic death is a warning to the future: not to trust in the hollow radicalism of men like Peter and to address these intergenerational and social tensions before it is too late.

The Hollowness of Radicalism

Devils is a novel in which political radicals take over a small town and cause chaos. In spite of their impact on the town itself, the radical ideas espoused by people like Peter are not always sincere. In fact, Peter’s radicalism is inherently hollow and self-serving. While he is an educated man who can talk on an intellectual level about socialism, nihilism, and atheism, he lacks any conviction whatsoever. Peter’s radicalism serves as Dostoevsky’s warning about the dangers of trusting in extremist ideology to effect social and political change.

Peter casts himself in the role of a revolutionary because he wants to help himself, rather than out of any desire to help the working class. Indeed, he murders most of the working-class people he meets. While other men obsess over the finer details of a post-revolutionary society, Peter does not care. In his mind, the society after the revolution will be as authoritarian and as rigid as it is now, only with him and Stavrogin in the most important positions. His true aim for the revolution is to gain Stavrogin’s trust. Even when Stavrogin dismisses him, Peter pursues his radical cause out of his love for Stavrogin. He uses revolutionary activities such as riots and arson to cover up the crimes he orchestrates in Stavrogin’s name, such as the murder of Marya. The revolution is a means to an emotional end for Peter, even if he will never admit to it. He does not believe in any cause other than Stavrogin. His radicalism is as hollow as his morality, serving no other purpose than to justify his selfish and cynical actions.

Peter’s hollow radicalism is also evident in the structure and the actions of the revolutionary society that he puts together. Though there is evidently a long and storied past with men like Shatov and Kirillov, the small group of five people that Peter assembles in the town are notably inconsequential. Shigalyov is an intellectual who bores others, while Liputin is a conman whose only desire is to mock the wealthy. They are not even the group who start riots or set fires; that activity is left to others, while the group’s only notable accomplishment is a vicious murder for which they immediately feel guilty and for which they are immediately arrested.

The group talks extensively about the revolution but, other than Shigalyov’s fantastical views for a future society, none of them have any interest in pursuing actual revolutionary activity when required. They are more comfortable printing pamphlets and mocking rich people than actually carrying out a revolution. Their radicalism is hollow because it is purely aesthetic, and it is dangerous because it leads them to commit murder even when they sense it is wrong to do so. Any time an opportunity to drink heavily and joke arrives, they leap upon it. Any time a moment for actual revolution arrives, they panic and squabble with one another. Even when Liputin figures out that Peter’s grandiose tales about the size and scale of the organization are false, he cannot bring himself to do anything other than follow orders. The members know that they are pathetic, and they know that their radicalism is hollow. However, they would prefer to live as fake revolutionaries than not as revolutionaries at all, until their disgraced ends at the novel’s close expose how empty and dangerous their ideology really is.