Person
Ivan's Devil
Also known as the visitor, the unexpected visitor, poor relation, fallen angel, Satan, a simple devil, an impostor, a paltry, trivial devil.
Ivan's Devil is the visitor who appears on the sofa in Ivan's room during his nightmare. He looks like a shabby gentleman of good society fallen into dependence, not a theatrical monster, and speaks with irritating politeness. Ivan calls him a hallucination, the incarnation of his own nastiest and stupidest thoughts, but cannot stop arguing with him.
XI-IX. The Devil. Ivan’s Nightmare
On the night before the trial the visitor settles on Ivan's sofa as a shabby, polite gentleman who maddeningly agrees that he may be only a hallucination yet refuses to disappear. He taunts Ivan with a mocking legend of a thinker condemned after death to walk a quadrillion kilometres before the gates of paradise will open.
XI-X. “It Was He Who Said That”
After Alyosha arrives with news of Smerdyakov's suicide, Ivan insists the visitor had just been there and had vanished when Alyosha came.
XI-X. “It Was He Who Said That”
Ivan describes him as a paltry, trivial devil who voices his basest thoughts about conscience, pride, and the confession he means to make.
XII-V. A Sudden Catastrophe
In court, Ivan names the devil as his only possible witness, reducing the confession he came to make to a scene the court can treat as delirium.
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