At Tikhon’s is one of the most integral chapters to the whole entire message of the narrative of Demons, which is interesting because it was originally struck from the book by the editor. This was due in part to the contents of this section, which depicts the brutal actions of Nikolai Stavrogin as he rapes a little girl and pushes her to commit suicide. While Stavrogin’s actions may seem unsuitable to a general audience, the inclusion of this chapter in the novel is crucial to understanding the major themes of the novel and through the characterization of Stavrogin. In this chapter Stavrogin reveals to Tikhon his crime through a three page essay which he plans to publish to the world in the future. In this essay, Stavrogin reveals the reasoning for why he commits this deed, and all of the terrible deeds that he committed throughout the events of the novel. “Every extremely shameful, immeasurably humiliating, mean, and, above all, ridiculous position I have happened to get into in my life has always aroused in me, along with boundless wrath, and unbelievable pleasure. Exactly the same as in moments of crime, or in moments threatening my life. If I was stealing something, I would feel, while commiting the theft, intoxication from the awareness of the depth of my meanness” (Dostoevsky 693). Stavrogin reveals the origins of his nihilist viewpoint, he claims to take pleasure in the terrible things that he does because of the terrible ways that it makes him and other people experience. As a nihilist, Stavrogin doesn’t believe in a meaning to existence, and has lost all moral grounding which drives characters such as Pyotr or Stepan. He is not driven by any ideal, and that makes him the most morally dangerous character in the story. He claims that he does these terrible things because it brings him great enjoyment to do things in which others deem to be unspeakable acts. This explains the reasoning behind his secret marriage to Marya Timofeevna Ledyadikn. Stavrogin says “Once, looking at the lame Marya Timofeevna Ledyadkin, who was something of a servant in those corners, not yet crazy then, but simply an ecstatic idiot, and secretly madly in love with me (as our boys spied out), I suddenly to marry her. The thought of Stavrogin marrying such at last tickled my nerves” (Dostoevsky 701). Usually it would not be social acceptable for a man of Stavrogin’s social standing to marry a lower-born servant like Marya, but he does so anyways, not because he genuinely loves her but because it would be seen as socially unacceptable. Rape is one of the most social unnacceptable and denounced crimes in most societies, so the idea of exposing himself to the world for this crime would bring Stavrogin immense pleasure as it is one of the most unacceptable things a man can do. Stavrogin is driven by the displeasure of others, and this is partly the reason that he decides to go to Tikhon who is a religious monk, He expects Tikhon to look at him in disgust, but is displeased to find out that Tikhon still offers him remorse and redemption through religion. When reading this section, Eichmann’s idea of the banality of evil came to mind. Stavrogin is not an ideal character for the banality of evil argument. He is not so much possessed by the idea of nihilism as he is the embodiment of nihilism. He doesn’t commit these acts because he is influenced by other people’s ideologies, like Pyotr influences his inner circle, but he is influenced by the absence of ideology. This makes him one of the most dangerous characters in the novel because of his moral ambiguity.
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