The Devils...ending

[Classic_Reader]

Warning!  Major spoiler ahead, I guess...

Stavrogin writes a longing letter to Liza.  Liza and Stavrogin's mother prepare to travel to live with him when they are suddenly told he has arrived home unannounced in the day.  After a confused and frantic search, he is discovered dead in the attic where he has apparently hanged himself.

Huh?

Although I understood most of the book and the characters in the book, Stavrogin was a huge mystery to me.  He seemed, as I believe it was even said, to be indifferent.  Everyone thought him a leaders, but he appeared to deny it and shun them all.  Though he had obviously committed many "sins", toward the end of the book, it seemed as if he was truly responsible for little, except perhaps indirectly by the influence of his past ideas upon those around him.  Or was he?

Was his suicide a final, unreasonable jab or a attempt to force others to hate him for his former indiscretions?

I noted in another thread, the comparison of Stavrogin with the vampires of gothic literature.  I, however, would say that Kirillov reminded me more of a vampire, especially of the final scenes before his suicide where Pyotor looks for him in the dark room and sees him out of the corner of his eyes.  I will never forget the descriptions of those last scenes between Kirillov and Pyotor.  Eerie....

Other scenes I will never forget are the arrival of Shatov's wife, his resulting happiness, and his subsequent murder.  Pyotor's uncaring coldness and the fear and remorsefulness of some of the members of his small group were also quite chilling.

Anyway, I found the book very interesting, if dark and rather depressing, but  any clarifications of the ending would be much appreciated.

[Mogwai]

I've got to read this book again.  I remember having my jaw dropped to the floor the last 200 pages.  Simply riveting literature!  

And yes, the vampire comparison is very valid.  However, I don't have answers to your questions since the details of the ending aren't quite fresh in my mind.  I know someone else here can help, though...

[Worm]

I think this is a very difficult question.

Stavrogin is a central character in the novel.
Pyotor's vision is based on him, so if Stavrogin didn't exist, Pyotor probably wouldn't have done all the things he did.

I have read the novel about a year ago, so it's not fresh in my mind.
But as i remember, Stavrogin killed himself because his mind had become too complex.  Sounds stupid, i know.  The whole thing with the girl, all the people that loved him, his moral complexity .. suffocated him, and made him kill himself.  He did not want to live anymore.  I'm entirely not sure of this view.
I also see a parallel between Kirilov's suicide and Stavrogin's.   Maybe they both had the same idea about it, namely, as a sort of act to make oneself a God, to deny and shun away the whole world.
Maybe he hated himself soo much, and hated what he was turned into, that he hanged himself.

... in the end, i admit, that i don't know.  Why he did it, and what sort of man he was, are mysteries, and the novel revolves around presenting him ... and the discussion is for the readers.

[Rosie]

I just finished The Devils. I was really shocked by how many characters he killed - hardly any of the principle characters survived!

Stavrogin's suicide didn't make much sense to me ... Is it possible he just discovered Shatov's murder? In his letter to Dasha he asked her to come and live with him, but he did not mention Shatov. As Dasha was Shatov's sister, that seems very strange to me, particularly as he didn't want Shatov to be killed and would probably either have felt angry or guilty or both. If he had just found out about Shatov, maybe he realised that he couldn't then ask Dasha to come and live with him, having been partly responsible for her brother's death, and maybe that led to his suicide.

This is just the first possibility that occured to me so sorry if it doesn't make a lot of sense.

By the way, I'm new here and this is my first post, so hi everyone

[jushoff]

I thought Stavrogin's suicide made more sense after reading "At Tichon's". It seems like Tichon even predicts Stav. to blame himself for something so that he doesn't have to repent. And he blames himself for Liza's death, and possibly for Shatov's. He was aware Pyotr's intentions.

I just finished it for the second time last night. This time around it made much more sense and it was easier for me to keep all the characters straight. I think "Night" was my favorite chapter.

By the way... I know I can't spell russian names very well.