The Destructive Power of Idealization
Piskarev sets off on an inexorable path of self-destruction because the dark-haired woman he follows does not turn out to meet his idealization of her. The discovery that his idealized illusion of her is devastatingly inaccurate is not really because she turns out to be a prostitute. That lifestyle is the ultimate opposition of reality to any state of idealized femininity, but the truth is that there is no way the mystery woman could ever have lived up to expectations. Nobody ever does and so you either learn to live with disappointment or you let it destroy you.
Appearances can be Deceiving
This theme is central to the story in that it is not just explored through the two parallel narratives of men chasing after women based on their looks, but also in the structure of the story itself. The story opens with a love letter to Nevsky Prospect, a boulevard in St. Petersburg popular with people from all stations of life not because of what is there, but because of what may happen when one goes there. The description is filled with the optimism of potential and the underlying promise of adventure. The story draws to a close with another section of descriptive prose about Nevsky Prospect. We are now told that the devil comes at night to fire up the street’s lamps and, furthermore, that it is a place that cannot be trusted for nothing is what it seems. But since the first descriptive section treats Nevsky Prospect as a microcosm of the world at large, the story is really suggesting that this advice be taken no matter where one goes.
The Demon Woman
The two women whom the two men follow each enact a powerful effect over the men: one to tragic effect and the other to a more comic effect. What is really important here is that neither man actually engages in a relationship of any sort with the woman. Indeed, the tragedy is stimulated by a complex and profound relationship that exists entirely within the mind—often at the mercy of opium—of the fragile imagination of the artist. As for the soldier, his obsession with the unexpectedly devoted wife that his mystery blonde turns out to be is based entirely upon his narcissistic disbelief that anyone of a lower rank and stature than his could possibly choose to reject him. In a story where the overarching theme is that appearances are deceiving and nothing is what it seems, the great irony is this is story located firmly within the tradition of woman possession demonic power over man and so it is not the different manifestations of immaturity that causes the artist to kill himself and the soldier to get beaten. It is the will of the demon women.
