A review by schmidtmark56
Stavrogin's Confession & the Plan of the Life of a Great Sinner by Fyodor Dostoevsky

4.0

It's a shame that this chapter was removed from Demons, because it helps make Nikolai seem like a more real character, and his suicide makes much more sense. Without this chapter, you just hear rumors of his evil, but you never really get to experience it. In this chapter, the evil certainly is vile, but it is worded in such a way that you can very easily miss the subtle explanation of what happened. It's mentioned so indirectly that a child wouldn't understand what happened, and I'm somewhat surprised that this chapter "had" to be removed. The discussion with the monk was also very interesting, and showed that Stavrogin wasn't as heartless as one might think, nor really was he mad. He was burning with guilt for his evil, and he finally wanted to be found out. It's as if he was tired of getting away with things. This also helps explain why he wanted to make public the marriage to the crippled girl. He wanted to destroy his own life. He was crying out for help, for someone to notice him and chastise him. He knew he needed punishment, and since he never received any, he punished himself.