Demons

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

‘I wrote to a man in Europe and he sent me a hundred roubles.’

…Nikolay got him back into Russia

his wife had had an affair with Nikolay Stavrogin for some time in Paris, about two years earlier, that is, when Shatov was in America

‘I still haven’t paid him back.’

THAT'S who hes obliged to: Nikolay, for getting him back to America; doesn't matter if he slept with his wife. Was this why Pyotr was negotiating with Nikolay over Shatov? Because initially, Nikolay has power over him, and Pyotr wants the benefit of Shatov having potential for a printing press If this is Shatov's case, then Kirillov must be in a similar position

I don’t understand how people can be bored. Sorrow isn’t boredom. I’m happy.’

I myself have heard how she shouts at him: “Lebyadkin, bring me some water”, and then bursts out laughing. The only difference is that he doesn’t run to fetch her water, but beats her for it.

She’s an extraordinary dreamer; for eight hours on end, for an entire day she remains sitting where she is.

‘The same thing keeps coming out: a road, an evil man, someone’s perfidiousness, a deathbed, a letter from somewhere or other, unexpected news — it’s all a bunch of lies, I think.

And every earthly sorrow and every earthly joy is a joy for us; and when you have watered the earth beneath you with your own tears to the depth of half an arshin, then you will at once take delight in everything.

Good quote. I guess Mlle Lebyadkina is a holy fool. Nikolay preys on the vulnerable and breaks them: Matryosha, Marya Timofeyevna.

the sun goes down altogether, and all the light suddenly goes out. And that’s when I begin to feel very sad, that’s when my memory suddenly comes back, I’m afraid of the dark, Shatushka. And what I weep for most is my little baby…’

what I weep for most is that I gave birth to it and I don’t know who my husband was.’

What in the fuck did Nikolay manage to do to her

my brother is shouting: “I’m not at fault, someone else is to blame and I’m suffering for it!”

Of course Lebyadkin thinks that it's Nikolays fault for dishonouring his sister and then giving him his estate, which he thinks as his sister being sold

Shatov, the Devil with manifestos, eh?’

Oh right that's the word for it. Pyotr wants him for the manifestos

‘Sla-a-ave! Serf, and your sister’s a slave and a serf… a thief!’ ‘And you sold your sister.’

‘Listen, Shatov, what am I supposed to conclude from all this now?’

Literally the readers rn LMAO

Varvara Petrovna paused, and suddenly a strange, unusual being, a woman with a paper rose in her hair, squeezed between the people and fell on her knees before her.

Certainly Mlle Lebyadkina knows that she is Nikolay's mother

‘No, I’m not Lebyadkina.’ ‘Then is your brother perhaps Lebyadkin?’ ‘My brother is Lebyadkin.’

'I'm not Lebyadkina' - does she regard herself as Stavrogina?

‘If you don’t take me, Auntie, then I’ll run behind your carriage and scream,’

Why does every woman (and man tbh) who likes Nikolay have smth wrong in the head

Varvara Petrovna’s authority soared.

Both Stavrogins have amazing authority but in opposite realms

‘What! You’re crippled!’ cried Varvara Petrovna, as if thoroughly alarmed, and turned pale. (Everyone noticed it at the time, but didn’t understand it.)

Probably because she has heard rumours of Nikolay and a crippled sister of Lebyadkin's

CHAPTER 5

If I remember correctly, this is where our superstars show up so im VERY excited :3

It was now clear to her that everyone knew something, yet everyone was afraid of something and was dodging her questions, wanting to hide something from her.

NO DOUBT to do with Nikolay and the rumours of her being dishonoured by him and then givingg Lebyadkin his whole estate kind of in exchange for his sister

things had almost reached the point of a complete rupture between the two houses,

Chaos really follows our two superstars everywhere; it's even a prelude to their coming.

Why have you involved my daughter in your scandal,

Varvara's scandal about her son

‘Why, there it is, the whole truth’s sitting right there!’ Praskovya Ivanovna suddenly pointed at Marya Timofeyevna

How can my man possibly call a treasure like this by such a serf-girl’s name as Dasha!’

‘That must be the same money that I took it on myself to hand over to this Mr Lebyadkin, her brother, at the request of Nikolay Vsevolodovich, when we were still in Switzerland.’

the expression on Lizaveta Nikolayevna’s face ever since Darya Pavlovna had come in: her eyes were flashing with hatred and contempt, which were utterly unconcealed.

some scoundrel assures me that Nikolay Vsevolodovich has lost his mind and that I must fear some crippled woman, who “is fated to play an extraordinary role in my life”.

That's why she was terrified when seeing that Marya was crippled

Marya the Unknown, my sister, who was born Lebyadkina, but whom we shall call Marya the Unknown for the time being,

Marya Stavrogina. But Marya the Unknown is apt for the time being because she is shrouded in obscurity though she is central to the scandal.

The only thing I don’t understand is why she can only take something from me, but under no circumstances from others.

Because she was correct in calling you Auntie. You are the mother of her husband

Stepan Trofimovich was also trembling, but, on the contrary, because he was always inclined to understand too much.

‘This tiny little word “why” has been spread throughout the entire universe from the very first day of creation, madam, and all of nature at every moment cries out to its creator: “Why?” And for seven thousand years now it has received no answer.

Good quote but he's so full of bullshit lmao

‘In this world a roach did dwell,12

The whole ting wiith poetry aand Lebyadkin strikes me as the liteerary revot of Russzia poets and writers. There is as much revollution in the pen ad in the sword

‘Nikolay Vsevolodovich has been pleased to arrive this moment and is on his way here, ma’am,’

WOOOOOOO NIKOLAYYYYYY I LOVE YOUUUUU

not Nikolay Vsevolodovich at all, but a young man who was an unknown to everyone.

WOOOOOOO PALAKPAKAN ITS PETRUSHA I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AAAAAAA

You somehow began to imagine that his tongue must be of some special shape, unusually long and thin somehow, terribly red and extraordinarily sharp, its tip in constant and spontaneous movement.

The Wise Serpent is him (snake tongue)

his face really did ‘look like a mask’, as some of the evil-tongued ladies of our circle put it.

The possessed!

Or perhaps he now had the gleam of some new idea in his eyes?

It is because of this. Idk what idea that is though bc I never understood Stavrogin

‘You shouldn’t be here,’ Nikolay Vsevolodovich said to her in an affectionate, melodious voice, and an uncharacteristic tenderness glowed in his eyes.

I'm not even there but i feel drawn to Nikolay; like a sort of hypnotism. Dostoyevsky and the tannslator are some amazing writers to have the reader feel this way.

It was a truly dreadful Sodom;17 I shall omit giving you a picture of this life in the corners, a life to which, out of mere eccentricity, Nikolay Vsevolodovich was also devoted at that time.

this was a new experiment on the part of a jaded man whose purpose was to find out how far he could take a crazy crippled woman.

He did it to Matryosha too. He pushes innocents to insanity

Pyotr Stepanovich, and what a pity it is that you’re… that is, not that you’re not a woman,

HAHAHAHA dw he definitely understands Nikolay's allure

every respect, who is profoundly lacking in any understanding of you, who is prepared to torment you at the first opportunity, and suddenly to incarnate such a man, despite everything, into some ideal, into one’s own dream, fastening all one’s hopes on him, bowing before him, loving him your entire life, without having the slightest idea what for, perhaps precisely because he is unworthy of it…

That's what Pyotr did to Nikolay abroad. "I made you up myself abroad!"

Mr Lebyadkin, instantly imagined

From here Pyotr clears up some rumours Liputin put to us.

‘You yourself know, Pyotr Stepanovich, that there’s nothing I can say.’

This behaviour is interesting cuz I feel like if Lebyadkin was ashamed, he wouldn't behave this way. It seems to me that Lebyadkin is afraid

‘Pyotr Stepanovich, I’m only now beginning to wake up!’ ‘Hmm. And am I the one who woke you?’ ‘Yes, you’re the one who woke me, Pyotr Stepanovich, and I’ve been asleep for four years with a storm cloud hanging over me.

Very specific language. Coming from Lebyadkin, it probably means something. It's prolly good to remember this whole debacle

like a rabbit facing a boa constrictor.

Now the narrator has compared both our superstars to serpents. Serpents are often used to signify the devil

But as soon as I remembered that Pyotr Stepanovich was still with you, then all my worries disappeared.’

This was wholesome to say lmao

I’m very grateful to Pyotr Stepanovich for being hasty.’ (Here he exchanged a fleeting glance with him.)

Guys they're flirting oh em gee

Note that in his capacity as a realist he cannot tell a lie, and that truth is dearer to him than success… except of course for those special cases where success is dearer than the truth.’

I will note this! (Petya characterisation)