As we continue to read through Dostoevsky’s novel Demons, we start to see a growing bitterness Pyotr develops towards Nikolai because of his popularity and influence. Pyotr is greatly influenced by Nikolai’s ideologies and willingly acts upon them becoming the face of a radical movement. But even still, Nikolai manages to take the spotlight despite having no active involvement in the movement. Therefore, we can draw parallels between Pyotr and Nikolai’s relationship to how Father Iov interacts with father Anatoli in the film Ostrov.
“Pytor Stepanovich ran off, grinning. Generally, as far as I recall, he was somehow especially angry at that time and even allowed himself extremely impatient escapades with almost everyone. Strangely, everyone somehow forgave him. Generally, the opinion became that he should be looked upon somehow specially. I will observe that he was extremely angry about Nikolai Vsevolodovich’s duel. It caught him off guard; he even turned green when he was told. Perhaps his vanity suffered here: he learned of it only the next day, when everybody knew.” (Dostoevsky, 302)
This is the point in the novel where Pyotr starts to grow jealous and distant from Nikolai. Previously, Pyotr looked up to Nikolai and was his sole influence in starting this radical movement in their small town. Pyotr stepped up and even became the face of the movement exclaiming his ideologies trying to influence the masses. This did make him popular, but Nikolai’s popularity surpasses this. After Nikolai’s duel, he gained immense popularity once again amongst the people in town. After this incident, Pyotr became angry and bitter towards Nikolai, thinking that he is not deserving of this popularity when he has no active role in the movement he is leading. Pyotr is the one leading and should be viewed as such.
This is a direct parallel to how Father Iov views Father Anatoli in the film Ostrov. In the film, Anatoli portrays himself as an old man with a few screws loose but at the same time, he is a devout Chirstian and is very popular with people who come to visit him from mainland Russia. People believe him to be a spiritual healer and he takes it upon himself to fulfill this role due to his past sin of being forced to kill his captain. But similar to how Pyotr feels about Nikolai, Iov has these same feelings towards Anatoli. Iov has also devoted his life to Christianity but thinks himself to be more disciplined and has a more conventional approach to faith whereas Anatoli is seen as a crazy old man but he possesses spiritual powers which gain him popularity. You can see where this jealousy can grow when Iov does everything he can to be the most faithful and devout, but Anatoli pulls pranks and constantly sees people from the mainland.
An interesting note about both Nikolai and Anatoli is that they are both viewed by others and mentally unwell, yet they both have immense popularity with the public. They are both seen as visionaries even though they might not want to be viewed as such.
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