Demons

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

c’ était comme un pet...

I'm gonna call Petrusha petit idiot from now on HAHAHA

‘Are you serious that he made the sign of the cross on his pillow?’ the engineer suddenly inquired with obvious curiosity.

HAHAHAHA because that's s far from the Pyotr he knows

However, do tell me where you’re staying.’ ‘In Bogoyavlenskaya Street, in Filippov’s house.’ ‘Ah, that’s the same place that Shatov lives,’

Oh gosh (Remember!)

‘I don’t have the slightest knowledge of the Russian people either and… I have absolutely no time to study them!’

1.1.9: It's impossible to love hat you don't know and they had no knowledge of the Russian people. And he who has no people has no God either.

‘Mr Kirillov has already begun his study and is writing a most interesting article on the reasons for the increase in incidents of suicide in Russia,

So Kirillov does know his nation

rejects the principle of morality altogether, and is holding to the latest principle of general destruction in the name of ultimately good purposes.

Characterisation of Kirillov

There’s only one thing that causes me difficulty: you want to build our bridge, and at the same time you announce that you stand for the principle of universal destruction.

why was Stepan Trofimovich so afraid of Liputin, and why did he exclaim ‘I’m done for’ when he heard him coming?

Remember

did you say Lebyadkin? But didn’t there used to be a Lebyadkin living here…’ ‘The very same, our Lebyadkin, you remember, at Virginsky’s?’ ‘But wasn’t he caught with counterfeit banknotes?’ ‘Well, here he is, back with us, almost three weeks now, and under the most peculiar circumstances.’

She was supposedly seduced by someone, lost her virtue, and for that our Mr Lebyadkin has supposedly been receiving compensation from the seducer every year for many years now, in recompense for the insult to his honour,

Her seducer is Nikolay Vsyevolodovich

One of these acts concerned you personally.

1.2.2

“And didn’t you observe over the years,” I say, “a certain, I say, deviation in his ideas, or a peculiar turn of thought, or a certain,” I say, “so to speak insanity, as it were?” In a word, I repeated the question that Varvara Petrovna herself asked. Just imagine: Aleksey Nilych suddenly begins thinking and wrinkles his brow, just like he’s doing now. “Yes,” he says, “at times something has seemed strange to me.” Note, moreover, that if something could seem strange to Aleksey Nilych, of all people, then what might really be going on in point of fact, eh?’

They're talking about Nikolay. Stavrogin seems insane to Kirillov

I’m a spy, yet I don’t know — but Aleksey Nilych knows all there is to know and keeps quiet about it.’

Probably something to remember later on

Any little berry is worth the picking, so long as it’s there when he’s in a particular mood.

Characterisation of Stavrogin by Liputin's pov. And good to remember in light of Matryosha

Some person brimming with generosity will turn up, and His Excellency will proceed to force him to cover up another man’s sins with his own good name.

Foreshadowing? Btw 'His Excellency' is Stavrogin

‘I simply cannot get married to “another man’s sins”!’

Stepan thinks that the 'modest orphan' was Dasha and that she's pregnant with Stavrogin's child and that Varvara wants to 'marry [him] off' (his own words) to her to cover up her son's sins. I think Stepan is right

he himself had invented everything long before Liputin, and Liputin had only confirmed his suspicions and had poured oil on the fire.

THAT'S why he was so agitated over Liputin showing up

I found out later how they were transported; but how well he lied to me then, Mavriky Nikolayevich, it was almost better than the truth!

Clever wording. May be characteristic of Stepan

The poor girl was suffering a great deal, and everything became clear later on.

Liza characterisation

everything was in a state of chaos, agitation, restlessness.

More characterisation of Liza

‘One life has passed, a second has begun, then the second one has passed, and a third has begun — and so on, until it’s all over. It clips all the ends off, as if with scissors.

That's literally the structure of the novel and the revolution

I flushed.

Mr. Govorov is a cutie patootie

‘I like tea,’ he said, ‘at night.33 A lot of it. I walk and I drink it till dawn.

Dostoyevsky modelld Kirillov after himself when he was a nihilist and revolutionst

There will be a new man, happy and proud. Whoever doesn’t care whether he lives or doesn’t live, he will be the new man. Whoever conquers pain and fear, he himself will be God. And that other God will no longer be.’

This is their theology. it makes sense that Kirillov was made the martyr of the revolution. He wanted to fulfill their theory of the man-God through his suicide but in the end he was afraid of dying.

God is the pain of the fear of death. Whoever conquers pain and fear will himself become God.

Kirillov explains more theology of their revolution here. Though I disagree with what he says, this is a VERY important quote of the book because this is the essence of their revolution.

Whoever kills himself only for the purpose of killing fear will immediately become God.’

With this theology, no wonder Pyotr wanted to replace God with Nikolay (to lead the revolution with Nikolay). And Nikolay killed himself without fear; without insanity.

why do you speak such incorrect Russian?

His ideas are so Western he forgot his nation and speaks incorrect Russian lol

‘Of course, he’s deranged,’ I decided to myself.

Or even, dare I say, possessed!

Do you know that he wants to risk proposing to her? Seriously, seriously!’

Lebyadkin's in love w Liza… and Liza will later fall in love w Nikolay

just a few days ago Nikolay Vsevolodovich sold him his entire estate, along with his two hundred serfs,

Nikolay sold everyting to his wife's brother

Why is Praskovya so keen on Nicolas’s being out of his mind?

Lebyadkin’s sister (whom I’d never seen) could in fact have once been one of Nicolas’s victims during the enigmatic period of his life,

Well yea he married her and she went mad

Oh, how I have loved her! Twenty years, all these twenty years, and she never understood me!’

That's why he's so submissive to her and honestly a bit afraid of her. That's why he will allow himself to get married to cover up her son's sins.

‘Now he alone and only he, my poor boy, will save me, and — oh, why doesn’t he come! Oh my son, oh my Petrusha…

In other words, only Petrusha can redeem him from his matrimony to another man's sins

It was just Nikolay Vsevolodovich being mischievous.’

That's one pov from high society (and society is very important in this novel)

The collaborator would of course become co-publisher of the book.

Ah the fact that Shatov is the publisher of this very Russian book and has power over the society's press will probably relevant to our revolutionists later

Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky spoke about you to me in Switzerland,’

Afterwards she says Nikolay also talked about Shatov well. Our revolutionists love him now that i remember that Pyotr liked Shatov, it'll be intriguing to see what drove him to kill him. And Shatov naturally has beef with Nikolay bc of Dasha

To the Perfection of the Tushina Girl.

This was Lebyadkin

Can the sun be angry at the infusorian,4 if said being composes something for it out of a drop of water, where there are a great many like him, if you look through a microscope?

Quote and may be useful to remember for his philosophy

courtesy of a misanthrope whom you despise.

Wy does he say she hates Nikolay?

while we were still in Switzerland, you were expressly the one that Pyotr Stepanovich identified as able to set up a printing shop

OH. so, long ago Pyotr already wanted to use Shatov's potential usefulness. even now Pyotr is still manipulating the situation even though he's not even here yet

‘I will not be a collaborator, I have no time…’

He probably realised what Pyotr was doing

they all maintained a silence, talking instead about something entirely different.

That's for all of the characters of Part I. There ignoring the issues of the main demons and are instead dancing around it

He looked as if he were anticipating the destruction of the world, not at some time in the future, according to prophecies that might not even come to pass, but as a fixed and definite thing, the day after tomorrow, let’s say, precisely at 10.25 in the morning. However, on that occasion we hardly uttered a word to

Charaterisation of Shigalyov. Later, Pyotr and Nikolay do make a big deal out of him so it'll be good to remember him

If Liputin had in fact ever dreamed that a phalanstery could be established in our province, then this man certainly knew the day and the hour it would happen.

Saying 'phalanstery' is very specific.

A stupid silence remained unbroken for three full minutes.

This whole scene was so funny

Shigalyov, still standing in the doorway, said to Shatov, who was showing him out: ‘Remember that you’re obliged to give an account.’ ‘To hell with your accounts, and I’m not obliged to any devil,’ said Shatov

'I'm not obliged to any devil' is also VERY specific. Is it Nikolay because of Dasha or is it Pyotr because of the printing press?

‘Paper men. It’s all the result of a lackeyism of thought,’ 5 Shatov calmly observed,

He's a mess but he's the only sane one here lol

in this case there are no tears unseen by the world behind the laughter that the world can see!

An inverse of what Shatov sees as Russian patriotism

Stepan Trofimovich was right when he said that I’m lying under a stone, crushed but not squashed, and that I’m just writhing; he made an apt comparison.’