Themes
Love against the oath
The Nihilist oath asks its members 'to strangle whatever nature is in me; neither to love nor to be loved'. Vera takes it over Dmitri's note in the prologue and holds to it as a rule of life, yet in Act I she confesses to herself that she might have loved Alexis. Michael uses that love against her in Act III to shame her into drawing the lots. In the last act she begins to recite the oath with the dagger in her hand and cannot finish it: 'Oh, I am a woman!' The play sets a vow against feeling, and feeling wins.
Liberty and revenge
The Nihilists fight for freedom, but their creed is 'To annihilate' and their duty 'To obey'. Alexis hopes for 'one revolution at least which is not bred in crime', while Michael answers that the curing of Russia 'must be done by the knife'. The same movement that frees the prisoners in chains turns on the prince who has actually begun to free them, condemning him simply because he wears a crown. Vera's speech to Liberty as a 'crucified mother' in Act III shows how close her devotion comes to a religion of blood.
Tyranny and fear
The old Czar is the most frightened man in the play. He will not let a new ambassador kiss his hand for fear of poison, bans swords from his presence and sees a Judas in every minister. In Act II he explains himself: 'I was ruled by terror myself, how else should I rule now?' His answer to fear is more terror, martial law and a 'war to their annihilation' against his own people. The play shows repression breeding the very conspiracy it means to crush, and the Czar is shot at the moment he proclaims it.
The cynic at court
Prince Paul Maraloffski treats politics as a dinner party. He compares diplomacy to making a salad, calls experience 'the name men give to their mistakes', and cares more about a spoiled dinner than a murdered Emperor. When Alexis banishes him he simply changes sides, joining the Nihilists because 'As I cannot be Prime Minister, I must be a Nihilist.' His wit is the liveliest thing in the play, and it is also its sharpest criticism of a court where nothing, not even a hanging, is taken seriously.
Crowns and reform
Alexis inherits the crown he has sworn to oppose and tries to use it for the people: he recalls the exiles from Siberia, promises a parliament and banishes the corrupt ministers. The old courtiers expect nothing to change, since 'Reforms in Russia are very tragic, but they always end in a farce.' The Nihilists fear the opposite, that a good king will steal their Republic, and Michael wants him dead before he can throw 'some sop of reform to the people'. The crown itself, in Alexis's soliloquy, is a 'gaudy bauble' worth less than love.
Fathers and children
The play is full of broken families. Peter Sabouroff shrugs off his neighbours' suffering until his own son passes in chains, and he dies of a broken heart after Vera leaves him. The Czar fears his heir, saying there is 'always something about an heir to a crown unwholesome to his father', and dies calling his son a murderer. The Nihilist oath deliberately sets 'father against son'. Against all this Alexis dreams of ruling 'by love, as a father rules his children', and of bringing Dmitri home.