The Devils (novel) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Demons is an 1872 novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Though titled The Possessed in the initial English translation, Dostoyevsky scholars and later translations favour the titles The Devils or Demons.

An extremely political

Politics in fiction

This is a list of fictional stories in which politics features as an important plot element. Passing mentions are omitted from this list.-Written works:*The Republic by Plato*Panchatantra This is a list of fictional stories in which politics features as an important plot element. Passing...

book, Demons is a testimonial of life in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century.

As the revolutionary

Revolutionary

A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...

democrats

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

begin to rise in Russia, different ideologies begin to collide. Dostoyevsky casts a critical eye on both the left-wing idealists, portraying their ideas and ideological foundation as demonic, and the conservative establishment's ineptitude in dealing with those ideas and their social consequences.

This form of intellectual conservativism tied to the Slavophile

Slavophile

Slavophilia was an intellectual movement originating from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its early history. Slavophiles were especially opposed to the influences of Western Europe in Russia. There were also similar movements in...

movement of Dostoyevsky's day, called Pochvennichestvo

Pochvennichestvo

Pochvennichestvo was a late 19th century Russian nativist movement tied in closely with its contemporary ideology, the Slavophile movement...

, is seen to have continued on into its modern manifestation in individuals like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was aRussian and Soviet novelist, dramatist, and historian. Through his often-suppressed writings, he helped to raise global awareness of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly in The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of...

. Dostoyevsky's novels focus on the idea that utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

s and positivist

Positivism

Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....

ideas, in being utilitarian, were unrealistic and unobtainable.

The book has five primary ideological characters: Verkhovensky, Shatov, Stavrogin, Stepan Trofimovich, and Kirilov. Through their philosophies, Dostoyevsky describes the political chaos seen in 19th century Russia.

Alternative titles

The original Russian title uses a relatively rare word besy (singular bes) from old Slavic mythology, which means "demons" or "evil spirits" and could probably be better explained by comparing it to the Romano-Christian "beast", which may evoke similar associations, as in "possessed by the beast" or "possessed by demons". It conveys the idea of the gradual collapse of Russian Orthodoxy and the imperceptible spread of besy, "little beasts", "demons" or "evil spirits" symbolizing the oncoming nihilistic concepts of the first half of the 20th century, which gives the original title frightening connotations.

The title has been an ongoing source of confusion among readers unfamiliar with the work. There are at least three popular translations of the title: The Possessed, The Devils, and Demons. This is largely a result of Constance Garnett

Constance Garnett

Constance Clara Garnett was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature...

's earlier translation that popularized the novel and gained it notoriety as The Possessed among English speakers; however, Dostoyevsky scholars said the original translation was inaccurate. These scholars argued that The Possessed "points in the wrong direction" and interpreted the original Russian title Бесы (Besy; the plural of bies
Bies
Bies or bes was an evil spirit or demon in Slavic mythology. The word is synonymous with chort.After the acceptance of Christianity the bies became identified with the devil, corresponding to the being referred to in Ancient Greek, as either daimon , daimónion or pneuma...

, "an evil spirit") as referring not to those who are "possessed" but rather to those who are doing the possessing as "The Possessors". Some insist that the difference is crucial to a full understanding of the novel:
As a result, newer editions of the novel are, rarely if ever, rendered under Garnett's earliest title "The Possessed". A more precise rendering of the Demons (Бесы) as an event and turning point in Russian history would be "The Possessing" of Russia by the demonic ideas or "evil spirits" reflected in the novel's characters.

Plot introduction

The novel takes place in a provincial Russian setting, primarily on the estates of Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky and Varvara Stavrogina. Stepan Trofimovich's son, Pyotr Verkhovensky, is an aspiring revolutionary conspirator who attempts to organize a knot of revolutionaries in the area. He considers Varvara Stavrogina's son, Nikolai, central to his plot because he thinks Nikolai Stavrogin has no sympathy for mankind whatsoever.

Verkhovensky gathers conspirators like the philosophizing Shigalyov, suicidal Kirillov, and the former military man Virginsky, and he schemes to solidify their loyalty to him and each other by murdering Ivan Shatov, a fellow conspirator. Verkhovensky plans to have Kirillov, who was committed to killing himself, take credit for the murder in his suicide note. Kirillov complies and Verkhovensky murders Shatov, but his scheme falls apart. He escapes, but the remainder of his aspiring revolutionary crew is arrested. In the denouement of the novel, Nikolai Stavrogin kills himself, tortured by his own misdeeds.

Characters

Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin is the central character of the novel but a highly ambiguous figure and often an observer or secondary participant in the novel's key events compared to the younger Verkhovensky, who drives much of the action and repeatedly attempts to involve Stavrogin in his schemes with limited success. A complex figure, he has many anti-social traits that mark him as a manipulative personality, but he is not ultimately the sociopath he sometimes seems to be in light of the overriding guilt he ultimately succumbs to. In a scene in the first part of the novel this is suggested when he seems ready to be gunned down at a duel without defending himself. His acceptance of his guilt for his multiple sins is also notable in his allowing Shatov, whose wife Stavrogin has had an affair with, to punch him in the face without responding, a seemingly shameful reaction for a nobleman to a former serf (this takes place in perhaps the best scene of a type seen often in Dostoyevsky's work—most of the major characters are gathered together and then all hell breaks loose in a way that is puzzling until the novel later fills in the back story).
Most every character in the novel is attracted to and fascinated by the charismatic Stavrogin, especially the younger Verkhovensky, who envisions him as the figurehead of the revolution he attempts to spark, though Stavrogin shows little interest in these schemes. In an originally censored section (included as the chapter "At Tikhon's" in modern editions), he confesses he has seduced and driven to suicide a girl of only 11 years. In addition, he pays a fugitive criminal to kill his wife and brother in law. The extent to which he fully understands what he has done at the time when he hands over the payment for the murders is unclear, but he quickly realizes what will happen and does nothing. He refuses to repent openly for either his destruction of the young girl he raped and drove to suicide or the murder of his mentally and physically disabled wife, but the guilt ultimately overwhelms him. At the very end of the novel, he commits suicide, collapsing in the face of the guilt he had seemed so successfully to bury previously.
Growing up, Stavrogin was tutored by Stepan Trofimovich. After traveling and studying abroad he returned home and lived with his mother before breaking bad and for a time puzzling locals about whether his aggressively antisocial behavior reflected insanity or thuggishness. He eventually claims (almost certainly lying) that illness caused his bizarre behavior. His ridiculous actions after returning to the town include dragging a man of high social standing by the nose at a local bar, kissing another man's wife at the couple's party, and biting the ear of the governor. His wild antics cause him to be diagnosed with insanity. Therefore, Varvara sends Stavrogin abroad once again in hopes of curing him and also to reestablish her social standing after her son's uncivil conduct. While abroad, he secretly marries the apparently retarded Marya as a sort of joke against his high society roots, and while he shows signs of caring for her, in the end he is complicit in her murder.

Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky is the philosopher and intellectual (though far more so in the image he has created for himself in the novel's provincial backwater than in reality) who is partly to blame for the revolutionary ideas that fuel the destruction that occurs in the book. A recurring theme that his character represents was the "Exaggerated Emotion" of the time. His one famous work was based on the idea of Apocatastasis
Apocatastasis
Apocatastasis is reconstitution, restitution, or restoration to the original or primordial condition.-Etymology and definition:The Liddell and Scott Lexicon entry, gives the following examples of usage:* “τοῦ ἐνδεοῦς” Aristotle MM, 1205a4; into its nature εἰς φύσιν id...

. He served as a father figure to Nikolai Vsevolodovich when Stavrogin was a child. His character may be based on the intellectual Timofey Granovsky
Timofey Granovsky
Timofey Nikolayevich Granovsky was a founder of mediaeval studies in the Russian Empire.Granovsky was born in Oryol, Russia. He studied at the universities of Moscow and Berlin, where he was profoundly influenced by Hegelian ideas of Leopold von Ranke and Friedrich Karl von Savigny...

. Stepan Trofimovich has been married twice, but is a widower during the events of the novel. During his first marriage he and his wife conceived one child, Pyotor Stepanovich, who was given to his aunts to be raised. Stepan takes very little interest in raising his son and instead uses the money set aside for his son in order to repay his own debts. Stepan has constant financial problems. He squanders his money and lacks any entrepreneurial skills. He is able to manage a meager outside income through tutoring younger students and lecturing at local universities, but effectively he has been taken on as the ward of Stavrogin's mother. His writings and occasional speeches argue on the Western side of the Westernerizer/Slavophile debate that dominated intellectual discussion at that time in Russia. He claims, or at least suggests, that this has made government officials concerned that he is a potentially dangerous thinker, forcing him out of academia and into exile in the provinces. In reality, his academic career was a failure after a promising start, and no one of note in the government knows who he is, much less has any concern about his spreading dangerous ideas. Teaching is a profession that he greatly enjoys and values, allowing him to display his intelligence, but it has given him little deference within his community, and he relies on Stavrogin's mother Varvara to support him. Her exasperation with him is constant through most of the novel, but ultimately the reality is that they have enjoyed a long, though completely chaste, love affair. Dostoyevsky uses the framework of Stepan's relationships to weave in the other major characters. Stepan follows in the steps of several other key Dostoyevsky characters (probably the most notable other example being Versilov in The Adolescent
The Raw Youth
The Raw Youth, also published as The Adolescent or An Accidental Family, , is a novel by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, first published in 1875...

) and illuminates one of his key later themes — that the liberal reformers of the 1840s inadvertently birthed the destructive, violent, nihilistic following generation of the 1860s. At the end of the story after the chaos created by his son, he leaves the town, finally deciding to be his own man. He soon falls ill and dies, but Varvara is able to reach him on his deathbed and confirm her love for him as he rejects his Western ideas and embraces God and Mother Russia.

Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky is the son of Stepan and the driver of the mayhem that ultimately engulfs the town. He is the effectively abandoned son of Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky and a representation of the deterioration from idealistic reformer of his father's generation to the nihilistic ruffians that that generation ultimately spawned. He is at the center of a what he describes to his naive and small group of followers as a vast planned conspiracy to overthrow the government and establish socialism of an especially violent sort if Shigalyov's ideas are actually to be carried out. He manages to convince his small group of followers that their part in this scheme will set off a nationwide revolt and claims that he is just one cell leader of a vast conspiracy. In reality, of course, he knows that there is no conspiracy beyond him, but he still hopes that somehow by sparking chaos and murder in his remote province he can set off a national revolt. This far-fetched scheme depends on bringing Stavrogin on board as the figurehead. He recognizes Stavrogin's enormous personal charisma and hopes that if he can make him the figurehead of the chaos he sows locally that he can be the behind-the-scenes force that ultimately drives Stavrogin to head a national revolution. His character is inspired by the revolutionary Sergey Nechayev
Sergey Nechayev
Sergey Gennadiyevich Nyechayev was a Russian revolutionary associated with the Nihilist movement and known for his single-minded pursuit of revolution by any means necessary, including political violence.-Early life in Russia:...

, whose trial for murdering a former follower inspired the depiction of Shatov's murder and Dostoyevsky's broader theme of young radicals turning violently on each other. His arrogance and deceiving ways are largely overlooked by the community, the elders of which are eager to ingratiate themselves with the young radicals, who seem harmlessly fashionable to them but are ultimately actually base criminals. He is never at a loss of words and is very effective in speaking clearly and saying what people want to hear. This aspect of his personality is seen in his ability to downplay the events that have occurred in Part I. All of his actions have significant meaning to his cause, but very few people are aware of his motives at this point. He is able to quickly and effectively establish himself as a regular part of the social setting, winning the devotion of the governor's wife by playing the fool.

Lizaveta Nikolaevna is a vivacious local beauty who becomes engaged to Mavriky Nikolaevitch, but is fatally attracted to Stavrogin.

Shigalyov is a social theorist and member of Pyotr Stepanovich's revolutionary "group of five." He has complicated plans for the future of society that the rest of the small radical cell aren't much interested in, but in a grim foreshadowing of the development of Russian history, he notes casually that millions will need to be murdered to realize the future society whose essence he believes he has logically deduced.

Ivan Shatov is a son of former serf, as well as a former university student and another intellectual who has turned his back on his leftist ideas. He represents the Russian and religiously Russian Orthodox ideas in the Westernizer/Slavophile debate that dominated intellectual discussion in this period in Russian history (Dostoyevsky when he wrote his major works was a devoted Slavophile in this fight, but always gave the other side vigorous representation in his work, often it seemed more so than his own side of the debate, e.g. Ivan versus Alyosha Karamazov). This change of heart is what attracts Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky to plot Shatov's murder. Shatov is based on I.I. Ivanov, a student who was murdered by Sergey Nechayev for speaking out against Nechayev's radical propaganda, an actual event which served as the initial impetus for Dostoyevsky's novel. He was tutored by Stepan and from his childhood was greatly indebted to Varvara. A one time radical socialist, Shatov converts to a Russian idealist. He is married to the governess of his former merchant, but separated. Shatov was a member of Pyotr's revolutionary cell, but tries to leave. Shatov wants to believe in God, but feels he has no faith. He values the idea of God and feels that religion is equal to the Russian identity. Shatov believes that his lifestyle and principles are in conflict with his ideas that allows him to have faith. He admits to the existence of God, but that alone can not give him complete faith. Dostoyevsky places Shatov in a tragic role. As soon as he begins to understand himself and develops a religious conviction, he is murdered. Shatov's murder is made especially devastating since it occurs right after he seems for perhaps the first time in his life to be happy. His murder occurs shortly after his estranged wife suddenly reappears in the town pregnant with Stavrogin's child, and the two start to plan a future again together, with Shatov overjoyed to reunite with his wife and be the father to the illegitimate child.

Varvara Stavrogina is Nikolai's mother and is a rich lady who plays at being leftist. Varvara Petrovna is a wealthy widow with one son, Nikolai. She is regarded as an active participant in local politics and is recognized as a woman with high social standing. She begins to assist Stepan financially and tries to mold him into her own creation. She selects his wardrobe, gives him an allowance, and most importantly allows him to hold weekly meetings with personal friends, which she financially sponsors. Varvara's ability to form this dependent relationship also creates a loyal friend. Stepan respects Varvara's generosity and assistance and is willing to maintain their friendship at any cost. This is done mostly for the sake of Stepan who truly enjoys the conversation and exposure to the social life of the town. During the weekly meetings they discuss issues relating to local current affairs or sometimes simply humankind in general. Varvara is a caustic character often and frequently treats Stepan poorly, though not undeservedly usually as the relationship is portrayed with Varvara supporting Stepan's lazy lifestyle. At the end of the novel, the deep, though platonic, love between Varvara and Stepan is made clear.

Liputin is a known liberal and has a reputation of an atheist. He thrives on the subject of gossip in the meetings held by Stepan, which was the major reason for his attendance. Liputin is also heavily involved within Peter's organization.

Captain Lebyadkin is the drunken former officer whose sister is secretly married to Nikolai. He is practically a stranger to the town, but won the heart of Virginsky's wife and quickly moved into their house. His intelligence is questionable and his convictions even more so. He is a drunkard who beats his sister and has a poor reputation within the community. Stavrogin has him killed by Fedka along with his sister.

Fedka the Convict is a roaming criminal suspected of several thefts and murders in the novel. He was once a serf belonging to Piotr. He is willing to murder for money and the group uses his services. Stavrogin pays him to murder his mentally disabled wife and her brother. At the time of this transaction, Stavrogin is quite worked up and probably does not realize that he has just hired a hit man. Yet he soon clearly recognizes what he has done but allows Fedka to follow through with the killings anyway.

Mavriky Nikolaevich Drozdov is a visiting gentleman and guest of Ms. Stavrogin, and is Lizaveta Nikolaevna's fiancé. He is quiet, sensible, and traditional.

Maria Timofeevna Lebyadkin is Captain Lebyadkin's sister and is married to Nikolai Stavrogin. She is crippled and weak-minded. Stavrogin hires Fedka to murder her, probably inadvertently initially.

Bishop Tikhon is a bishop who, in Dostoyevsky's drafts, was visited by Stavrogin for guidance, and revealed some of the disturbing events of his past. Their interview has little effect on Stavrogin, but provides the reader a better understanding of his background. However, this chapter was not accepted by the censors and Dostoyevsky excised it from the original version, in which Bishop Tikhon is briefly mentioned by Shatov, but does not appear. Most modern editions of Demons include this chapter, called "Stavrogin's Confession" or "At Tikhon's" in an appendix.

Alexei Nilych Kirillov is an engineer. He is a thorough nihilist, and has decided his own will is the ultimate reality. He means to commit suicide, and Pyotr Stepanovich means to use his suicide to further his revolutionary purposes. He is a "thoroughgoing madman", driven to such a state by his obsession with the belief that man can only stop living in fear of death when he rejects such fear to such an extent that he is willing to kill himself without any care. A man who can do this becomes the true God in Kirillov's view.
In his study of suicide, The Savage God, Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez is an English poet, writer and critic who publishes under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez....

postulates this theory about Kirillov: "Thus Kirillov. . . . kills himself, he says, to show that he is God. But secretly he kills himself because he knows he is not God. Had his ambitions been less, perhaps he would only have attempted the deed or mutilated himself. He conceived of his mortality as a kind of lapse, an error which offended him beyond bearing. So in the end he pulled the trigger in order to shed this mortality like a tatty suit of clothes, but without taking into account that the clothes were, in fact, his own warm body." (1972, pp. 123–24)
Stavrogin, who seems to find most people boring, takes an unusual interest in Kirillov and spends a lot of time talking to him alone in his apartment, more so probably than any other character, to try to understand his ideas. Kirillov appears to spend almost all day in his apartment alone thinking, such that whenever a character needs to talk to him, they can show up at his home and find him there, as in this humorous passage: "Pyotr Stepanovitch went first to Kirillov's. He found him, as usual, alone, and at the moment practicing gymnastics, that is, standing with his legs apart, brandishing his arms above his head in a peculiar way. On the floor lay a ball. The tea stood cold on the table, not cleared since breakfast." Later he states, "I want to put an end to my life, because that's my idea, because I don't want to be afraid of death." Kirillov infers that if one commits suicide, he directly rejects God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

's existence. Kirillov, as a truly absurd character, is a major subject of deliberation in Camus
Camus
-People:* Albert Camus, French author, philosopher and journalist* Charles Étienne Louis Camus, French mathematician* Jean-Pierre Camus, French bishop and writer* Louis-Auguste Camus de Richemont, French military chief and baron d'Empire...

' philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus
The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin O'Brien followed in 1955....

.

Historical origins

Demons is a combination of two separate novels that Dostoyevsky was working on. One was a commentary on the real-life murder in 1869 by the socialist revolutionary group ("People's Vengeance") of one of its own members (Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov). The character Pyotr Verkhovensky is based upon the leader of this revolutionary group, Sergey Nechayev

Sergey Nechayev

Sergey Gennadiyevich Nyechayev was a Russian revolutionary associated with the Nihilist movement and known for his single-minded pursuit of revolution by any means necessary, including political violence.-Early life in Russia:...

, who was found guilty of this murder. Sergey Nechayev was a close confidant of Mikhail Bakunin

Mikhail Bakunin

Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...

, who had direct influence over both Nechayev and the "People's Vengeance". The character Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky is based upon Timofey Granovsky

Timofey Granovsky

Timofey Nikolayevich Granovsky was a founder of mediaeval studies in the Russian Empire.Granovsky was born in Oryol, Russia. He studied at the universities of Moscow and Berlin, where he was profoundly influenced by Hegelian ideas of Leopold von Ranke and Friedrich Karl von Savigny...

. The other novel eventually melded into Demons was originally a religious work. The most immoral character Stavrogin was to be the hero of this novel, and is now commonly viewed as the most important character in Demons.

Censored chapter

The government censor, at the time Dostovesky submitted his book, suppressed the chapter "At Tikhon's", which concerns Stavrogin's confession of having molested a 10 year old girl, causing the girl to commit suicide. The chapter gives insight into the reason that Stavrogin later hangs himself, as his guilt for this transgression and others, including the murder of his wife and brother in law, ultimately catch up with him. Stavrogin is depicted as the embodiment of nihilism

Nihilism

Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...

, being apathetic, lacking empathy, devoid of emotion, but his ultimate suicide makes clear that in the end he had a conscience and was overwhelmed by his guilt. The chapter is generally included in modern editions of the novel and also published separately, translated from Russian to English by S. S. Koteliansky and Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....

and edited by Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...

Ideologies

Demons is often noted for the range of clashing ideologies present in the novel. As in most of Dostoyevsky's other works, certain characters are descriptive of specific philosophies.

Nihilism, embodied by Pyotr Verkhovensky, is an extreme ideology that demands the destruction of the current social order. A description of Verkhovensky's philosophy of political change is posited as "the method of a hundred million heads," referring to the predicted death toll.
Shigalyovism is a philosophy specific to the book and particularly of the character Shigalyov. Very similar to barracks communism
Barracks communism
Barracks communism is the term coined by Karl Marx to refer to a 'crude', authoritarian forced collectivism and communism, where all aspects of life are bureaucratically regimented and communal...

, Shigalyovism demands that ninety percent of society be reduced to a condition of inhuman slavery so the other actually useful ten percent of society is free to make progress. Dostoyevsky advances this bizarre doctrine, not with the intention of proposing a viable philosophy, but rather an inane one, that lends weight to his portrayal of Shigalyov and his fellow conspirators as radical "demons", themselves more caricatures than accurate reflections of revolutionaries.
Conservatism is embodied by the provincial governor Andrei Antonovich Von Lembke, and is shown to be incapable of dealing with subversive extremism. Indeed, the elites of the provincial community initially find the radicals fashionable and charming, arranging at their request the literary banquet from which the fiasco of the planned revolution begins.

Existentialism

Dostoyevsky as a "spiritual realist" based his novels on the premise of the "life of ideas". In Demons, Dostoyevsky applies this theory not so much to the human condition and human suffering but rather to human political reality in general. Dostovesky's analysis is not to deal or honestly reflect the human condition (as in his other "existentialist" novels) but rather to portray the reality of power, mankind's desire to manifest its will and obtain power. Dostoyevsky defines evil here as the passion for power and control, showing that reason and logic are a ruse to justify rebellion against existence. The heart of nihilism is the belief that existence is meaningless and should be destroyed and that this idea is even more "irrational" in its reasoning and justification than the ideas it opposes. Nihilism, in its claims to overthrow the old order, which it calls irrational and unjust, is hypocritical, because the new order shows itself to be even more irrational and unjust in its ideas and the implementation of those ideas. Dostoyevsky takes a Russian Orthodox stance on ideas as demons: that it is the "isms" of mankind that, as demonic possessors of man, lead him away from God. The demons are ideas, such as: idealism

Idealism

In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...

, rationalism

Rationalism

In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...

, empiricism

Empiricism

Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,...

, materialism

Materialism

In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...

, utilitarianism

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall "happiness", by whatever means necessary. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can...

, positivism

Positivism

, socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

, anarchism

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

, nihilism

Nihilism

and ultimately atheism

Atheism

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

. Getting man to relinquish these ideas is to have mankind embrace the asceticism

Asceticism

Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...

of Russian Orthodoxy. This is in direct opposition to the Nietzschean perspective that treated religion as tyrannical and as the basis for mankind's suffering.

"It was not you who ate the idea, but the idea that ate you."

Pyotr Verkhovensky

Similarly, Dostoyevsky's skepticism and outright admiration of unbelief within "Demons" reverse our concepts of sin and virtue in spite of the tenderness with which he surrounds his saints in the novel.

Camus also wrote a stage adaptation of the novel.

Adaptations

1913, play produced by the Moscow Art Theater.
1959, French play of the same name written by Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...

.
1967, French film La Chinoise
La Chinoise
La Chinoise is a 1967 French political film directed by Jean-Luc Godard about young revolutionaries in Paris.-Plot summary:La Chinoise is a loose adaptation, if not parody, of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1872 novel, The Possessed...

adapted by Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....

.
1969, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

mini-series "The Possessed" adapted by Lennox Phillips starring Keith Bell
Keith Bell
Keith Radcliffe Bell was a rugby union player who represented Australia.Bell, a prop, was born in Goondiwindi, Queensland and claimed 1 international rugby cap for Australia.-References:...

; also broadcast on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

television in 1972.

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1984, French drama "La femme publique
La femme publique
The Public Woman is a 1984 French drama film inspired by Dostoevsky's novel The Devils and directed by Andrzej Żuławski, starring Valérie Kaprisky, Lambert Wilson and Francis Huster as the lead actors. The film had a total of 1,302,425 admissions in France where it was the 28th highest grossing...

" (The Public Woman) is a film inspired by the novel.
1988, Les Possédés adapted by Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...

.
2008, I demoni di San Pietroburgo by Giuliano Montaldo
Giuliano Montaldo
Giuliano Montaldo is an Italian film director.While he was still a young student, Montaldo was recruited by the director Carlo Lizzani for the role of leading actor in the film Achtung! Banditi!...

.
2009, American play of the same name written by Alphonse Fourier.
2009, American play entitled Village of K___ written by Clint Sheffer for the Bruised Orange Theater Company.
2009, "...the itsy bitsy spider..." adapted by Alexandre Marine
Alexandre Marine
Alexandre Marine is a Russian-born actor-director-playwright currently based in Montreal.. On April 23, 1993 he was recognized by the Russian government as a Distinguished Artist of the Russian Federation....

for Studio Six Theatre Company.

External links

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