[2] Like Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata, written around the same time, "The Devil" deals with the consequences of sexual emotion.
Eugene accepts the inheritance and buys off his brother's portion, thinking that he can sell off large tracts of land while making improvements to the rest.
He inquires around the village, and the watchman introduces Eugene to a local peasant named Stepanida whose husband lives away in the city.
Liza later suffers a harmful fall while pregnant, and Eugene takes her for a rest cure to Crimea for two months on doctor's orders.
When his family finds him dead of a revolver shot, they cannot understand why he killed himself since, although he was evidently tormented, he did not confide in his closest relatives.