Dostoevsky: Demons discussion

1. Yulia sends Pyotr to cheer up her husband Andrei Antonovich von Lembke
2. Pyotr ingratiates with Lembke by reading his novel
3. Pyotr suggests Shatov is a nihilist, Stavrogin is a counter-agent
4. Lembke doubts Pyotr; Blum plans to search Stepan for tracts
5. Pyotr visits Karmanizov and tells him the revolution is coming next May
6. Pyotor reveals plans for Kirillov's suicide, invites him and Shatov to a meeting
7. Stavrogin reveals his marriage to Mavriky, who warns him off Liza

Interesting point about Mavriky's/Drozdov's offer for Stavrogin to marry Liza:

In chapter 1 of Rene Girard's Resurrection from the Underground, he describes how Dostoevsky himself was for a time infatuated with a married woman, Maria Dmitrievna. Her husband died, but then she became infatuated with another man, a writer named Vergunov. Dostoevsky decided to be strategically magnanimous by encouraging her relationship with the other man. He even took pains to help support Vergunov's career. Eventually Maria Dmitrievna lost interest in Vergunov and accepted Dostoevsky's proposal. However, once his rival was removed from the equation Dostoevsky lost his passion for the relationship, and their marriage was an unhappy one.
Later Dostoevsky used this model of love triangles, rivals and strange unifications/alliances in works such as The Insulted and the Injured, where two different characters in a love triangle push or encourage their beloved to marry another. I'm not sure whether the characters are depicted as conscientiously using that supposedly noble gesture to gain the affection of their loved one, or if the effect is presented as being surprising or ironic.

Rene Girard uses these examples to highlight the importance of rivals and doubles in Dostoevsky's work, as well as the writer's multiplication of obsessional situations in that stage of his career.

The interchange between Stavrogin and Mavricky/Drozdov does not quite seem to suggest a strategic plan by Mavricky to regain Liza's interest though.