“She Read the Immortal Chronicle with Extreme Attention”: Shakespeare in Dostoevsky’s Novel Demons

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Author: Caterina Corbella
Information about the author:

PhD in Philolgy, Associate Researcher, Research Centre “Dostoevsky and World Culture,” А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5996-0127

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Funding Sources:

The research was carried out at IWL RAS with a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 25-18-00009: “Characters’ Writings, Languages, and Readings in Dostoevsky’s Mature Works (1859–1881).”
For citation:

Corbella, Caterina. “‘She Read the Immortal Chronicle with Ex-

treme Attention’: Shakespeare in Dostoevsky’s Novel Demons.” Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 4 (32), 2025, pp. 58–78. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2025-4-58-78
Received: 30 Oct. 2025
Approved after reviewing: 28 Nov. 2025
Published: 25 Dec. 2025
Issue: 2025 no. 4 (32)
Department: HERMENEUTICS. SLOW READING
Pages: 58-78
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2025-4-58-78
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/TGZAOB
UDK: 821.16.1.0+821.111.0+82.0
BBK: 83.3(2Рос=Рус)+ 83.3(4Вел)+83
Publication Type: Research Article
Keywords: Demons, Henry IV, Henriad, Hamlet, Shakespeare and Dostoevsky, Prince Hal, Stavrogin.
Abstract: The article is devoted to the Shakespearean subtext in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Demons. Based on the direct references to Shakespeare’s plays in the book, the study clarifies and deepens the understanding of the significance of these allusions for the novel’s design. The research focuses on the plays Henry IV (Parts One and Two) and briefly touches on Hamlet, leaving discussion of Othello for future study. It is shown how comparison with Shakespeare’s characters contributes to the creation of an aura of “princely” expectations surrounding the figure of Stavrogin and, consequently, how this comparison plays an important role in the novel’s key motif of the “impostor.” The dialogue between Nikolay Stavrogin and Maria Lebiadkina is connected to Drosdova’s words, “there was no Englishman,” on the basis of this common motif. A parallel is proposed between the death of the King in Part Two of Henry IV and that of Stepan Trofimovich in Demons: these deaths are viewed as moments of the restoration of order, and to achieve this effect the authors use a similar technique—the insignificant place where the characters die becomes a prototype of the Heavenly Jerusalem thanks to its name. Stepan Trofimovich and Liza Tushina are singled out as the main readers of Shakespeare in the novel. Possible paths for exploring connections with Hamlet are briefly considered: like Harry, he represents an image of “the prince who is to come” in dark times. The hypothesis is put forward that the relation between Hamlet and Stavrogin in the text should be read “upside down,” the image of the former reduced and distorted in the one of the latter.

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