History Literature / Demons

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Karmazinov is widely seen as a caricature on fellow writer, Creator/IvanTurgenev. (Though somewhat confusingly, it is indicated at least once that the ''actual'' Turgenev exists in the novel's universe as well.) Various other characters are at least partially based on real-life figures as well. Verkhovensky was inspired by the revolutionary Sergei Nechaev, Stavrogin is based on an acquaintance of Dostoevsky's named Nikolai Speshnev, Stepan Trofimovich is a CompositeCharacter based on several liberal intellectuals, etc.

-->''"I was also struck by his face: his hair was somehow too black, his light eyes were somehow too calm and clear, his complexion was somehow too delicate and white, his color somehow too bright and clean, his teeth like pearls, his lips like coral--the very image of beauty, it would seem, and at the same time repulsive, as it were. [[UncannyValley People said his face resembled a mask...]]"''

* TheSociopath: Stepan Verkhovensky definitely qualifies. Stavrogin probably does too, though he at least recognizes it in himself and on some level wishes he was different.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Pyotr Verkhovensky, whose family name is formed from "verkhovenstvo", which means "supremacy" in Russian.

* DirtyCommies: A pre-Soviet/Cold War example and probably a TropeCodifier. Dostoevsky's characters hit just about every negative stereotype which would come to be associated with the radical left in the next century.

* TheInformant: The radicals live in constant fear of informants and spies, whether from the tsarist government or their own ranks. [[spoiler: Shatov is eventually murdered on the false pretense that he is one of these.]]

* KarmaHoudini: Petr Stepanovic, SmugSnake and ManipulativeBastard, causes the death and/or the ruin of the great majority of the other characters, both the positive and the negative ones, either directly or indirectly; by the end of the book, he is the only one who gets away from the massacre unscathed, happy and successful.

* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: Anton Lavrentyevich.

* IllGirl: Marya Lebyadkina, the demented and physically handicapped young wife of Stavrogin.

* DoggedNiceGuy:
** Poor Mavriky is just about the only character who genuinely seems to want to do right by everyone else. He suffers for it.
** The narrator seems like a pretty decent guy too (and is definitely dogged), even if he can be a bit cranky.

* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: The novel argues that violence is a tool of binding revolutionaries together in a single unit, since everyone is equally dehumanized and guilty, and moulded on the path to discipline. The revolutionaries in the book are so obsessed with this form of discipline that they never think of actual political ideology. So they become corrupt and abusive, led by Pyotr Verkhovensky, their ideologist who preaches about the necessity of wiping out millions of people for the victory of the revolution and finally kills one of his own cell members at the suspicion that he could be TheMole. Likewise, the original ideologist of the group, Nikolai Stavrogin who they all believe to be a ByronicHero is in fact a self-destructive nihilist reeling from guilt at the time he raped a little girl. What is even worse, the leader of this group has a prototype from real life -- Sergey Nechaev, one of the most infamous Russian terrorists of that time.

* AccompliceByInaction: "Fedka the convict" bugs Nikolai Stavrogin for some money, and Stavrogin eventually complies. Afterwards, Stavrogin realizes why Fedka was asking for the money--in a very indirect way, Fedka was offering to kill Stavrogin's wife and brother-in-law in exchange for cash. Realizing this, Stavrogin leaps into action and... does nothing, until his wife and brother-in-law die at Fedka's hand. He outright says, the morning after, that even if he isn't legally guilty of the murders, he considers himself morally guilty.

* {{Doorstopper}}: Like most of Dostoevsky's novel. This one comes in at around 700 pages in most editions.

* MoodWhiplash: The [[spoiler: murder of Shatov and death of Marya Ignateevna and her newborn child]] immediately after they couple is reunited and have started planning their future together.

* CharacterFilibuster: This being a Dostoevsky novel, many characters discourse on their respective political, religious, and artistic views. There's even a minor character named "Filibusterov"!
* CharityBall: Yulia Mikhailovna throws one as a pretense to show off her social and cultural connections. It goes disastrously, thanks in part to it's being deliberately sabotaged by the radicals.

Set in a small provincial town, the ''Demons'' concerns a group of revolutionaries led by Pyotr Verkhovensky who plan to usher a revolution of some sort but explode as a series of personal connections between them weakens discipline, driving Verkhoevensky to seek aid from Nikolai Stavrogin, a dissolute liberal nobleman and purported ProdigalHero who he sees as the charismatic leader who could bind the cause and heal disputes. However, Stavrogin is himself highly schismatic and divided, reeling from secret trauma and is reluctant to take the role Verkhoevensky tasks for him.

* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: About half the main cast has been wiped out by the end of the book, most of them in the last few chapters. Lebyadkin and Marya Timofeevna are murdered by Fedka, Fedka himself is killed mysteriously outside of town, Lizaveta is beaten to death by a mob who blame her for the Lebyadkins' deaths, Shatov is murdered by the fivesome, Kirillov shoots himself and takes the fall for Shatov's murder, Stepan Trofimovich dies of an illness after striking out on his own, Marya Ignateevna and her newborn child die after after hunting for Shatov in the cold, and Stavrogin hangs himself.]] It's [[{{Understatement}} a bit]] [[DownerEnding of a downer.]]
* AuthorTract: In Dostoevsky's own words, the book was originally conceived as a "novel-tract" about what he perceived as a growing ideological problem in Russia.

* TheConfidant: Darya Shatova acts as one for Nikolai Stavrogin.

* NiceGuy: Few and far between in this novel, but the minor character Mavriky Nikolaevich stands out as a sincerely decent and self-sacrificing man who suffers for his kindness. The narrator also doesn’t seem so bad, though he is a bit cranky at times.

* ThePowerOfLove: Becomes a theme towards the end of the book, with the reuniting of Shatov and Marya Ignateevna and then that of Stepan Trofimovich and Varvara Petrovna. These are pretty much the only truly sweet and hopeful spots amid the book's overwhelming darkness.

* StrawAtheist: As usual with Dostoevsky, both PlayedStraight and {{Subverted}} at various times. Pretty much all of the main characters are atheists or at least struggle with the concept of faith, but they all express their disbelief in different ways. Some are portrayed as fools, but others are quite eloquent and sympathetic.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are something like 50 named characters in the novel, with new ones being introduced almost till the very end.

* ManipulativeBastard: Verkhovensky is the absolute definition of this trope.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Karmazinov is widely seen as a caricature on fellow writer, Creator/IvanTurgenev. (Though somewhat confusingly, it is indicated at least once that the ''actual'' Turgenev exists in the novel's universe as well.)

* GenreShift: The first third of the novel is basically a social [[{{Satire}} satire]] about the clueless intelligentsia of a nondescript small town. The middle section starts to get more serious, but still retains a strong satirical bent. In the last third the book veers towards full-blown [[{{Tragedy}} tragedy]], complete with a [[EverybodyDiesEnding massive death toll.]]

* {{Neologism}}: The narrator coins the term "Shigalyovism" (''"Shigalyovschina"'', in Russian), describing the ideology of a minor character. A member of the town's secret cadre of nihilists, who range from laughable idiots to terrifying psychopaths, Shigalyov argues that it is legitimate to subject 90% of humanity to abject slavery in order that the remaining 10% may enjoy a utopian paradise. The term came into common usage in Russia during the Stalinist era.