Abstract
“In contrast to Goethe, he [Dostoyevski] saw in the demonic the fundamentally inhuman and destructive trend of a society which has turned away from God and therefore, eventually, must turn against itself. He discovered a new element: Stawrogin is not simply a single bad man. Rather he becomes the focal point of evil itself, a center of polarization around which everything mean and bad, dirty and base, gathers and from which it gains its horrible strength. As the saint represents the power of good in a fallen world saved from perdition by his mere presence, the demonic corrupts everything that is under its fascinating attractiveness.”
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