Resumo de The Devils - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

To nip Evil in the bud, to neutralize the chrysalis of the beast that we recognize today under the name of ?totalitarianism? ? that was, in my opinion, the main purpose for which Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote ?The Devils?. To reveal how this Evil comes to life, how it germinates in people?s minds and to lay bare its rotten core, covered up with splendid ideals, watchwords and striving for making the world a better place. For degeneration and contempt for Man may have their roots even in the most high-minded endeavour, whose capacity to turn into its antithesis often escapes romantic revolutionaries? attention. So one has always to be careful, responsive and vigilant. Otherwise, an individual would be for ever threatened by ?mental poverty? and humankind would be doomed to formation of political systems with that very degeneration and contempt as their essential features.
That is the message I learned while reading ?The Devils? ? a book that is worth a try for at least one incontestable reason: its theme, that is, the hard clash between laudable ideals and the brutal way these ideals may be implemented. In a sense, ?The Devils? is an inverted image of situation portrayed in another Dostoyevsky?s novel ? ?Crime and Punishment?. It was that book where the author had attacked excessive individualism as an attitude leading to loneliness and suffering, a personally disorder and, finally, a horrifying crime. In ?The Devils? Dostoyevski criticizes the idea of ?excessive solidarity?, taken for an ?Universal Good? which everything else must be submitted to. In fact, ?The Devils? is an attack on the 19th century socialism. Today, when we are trying to find the answer how those optimistic and filled with humanism ideals could have become the basis of the future horror, this Dostoyevsky?s piece of art is still very topical. It reveals that many radical socialist movements must have hade some flaw from the very start. This defect was hard recognizable, and that is why, even harder to neutralize or cure. The history of the 20th century has proved in a cruel way that those Dostoyevsky?s apprehensions were not, alas, unfounded.
And what is this novel like from a strictly literary point of view? The beginning might seem to be rather slow, sometimes almost ?lethargical?. It is true that the narrator builds up the plot for a relatively long part of the book but that, as I think, does not mean that it is boring. On the contrary, the novel absorbs its reader from the very beginning and suddenly but imperceptibly it becomes a dynamic and, as usual in Dostoyevsky?s writing, ?throb-making? story. There are, which is also almost typical of Dostoyevsky, a number of original characters: people often portrayed on the verge of insanity. And we get all these discussions, disputes and unexpected intrusions of characters, who drop in uninvited, turn the plot upside down and rush out slamming the door and leaving both the others and a reader astounded. This is all well-known from others Dostoyevsky?s books, for instance afore-mentioned ?Crime and Punishment?, but if someone expects a kind of sequel of that famous novel, he or she will be rather disappointed. Narrative in ?The Devils? is completely different , which has an effect on the presentation of the characters . This novel is not as much ?psychological? as ? behavioural?, not in a Hemingway?s manner, of course, but nevertheless in a way a bit surprising as for the author of ?The Meek Girl? or ?White Nights?.
We can often meet an objection that if one wants to understand well ?The Devils?, then he or she should find an edition with annotations. These annotations, however ? the critics say ? are long, numerous and hard to wade. But I found the facts concerning Dostoyevsky?s life and the 19th century Russia to be very interesting and educational. The only annoying discord was the character of Karmazinov ? a caricatured imagery of another great Russian author, Ivan Turgieniev. It was probably a way to pay off old scores and, besides, Karmazinov is a one of the best characters in the novel. But for enthusiasts of both these great writers this thread would be rather unpleasant, though may be interesting.
Is ?The Devils? a book worth reading? I recommend this novel very much and I believe it to be one of the most important of all times. Why? Well, the main reason is that it reminds us the simple but not so often realized truth that spectre of totalitarian enslavement will never fully disappear, as long as free man exists. Although more and more people today are fortunate to live where human and civil rights are respected, we must never forget about this danger of enslavement. For Freedom cannot be bought like an article in a supermarket and we are not even able to fought it out once and for all. We must take care of Freedom, always and incessantly, and cultivate it, even when Freedom is in full bloom. We have to do like this if we do not want to become one day a ? free society of unanimously voting people?. That is Dostoyevsky?s real message and we should be grateful for his warning from the past. And we should drive at conclusions, in spite of the bitter history of Human Kind. It is never too late for learning.

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