I have just woken up and am now smacking my dried mouth with respect to my now forgotten sleep. Before I entered the darkness of sleep, I flipped the last page of Zamyatin's dystopian masterpiece, "We," written between 1920-1921 during a revolutionary stage of Russia's modern history.
The book's writing aesthetics reflect this messy chaotic era with a fun-house mirror of epic proportions; often, while reading, you will find yourself re-reading some parts over and over as you realize that something happened behind your eyes, or something you thought was a dream was real (in the book, of course).
The reasoning is clearly because it is written as journal entries, and our own writings need not follow the strict, elegant conventions of typical writings; often too, the entries are written under a pressured haste or directly after a highly affecting incident has occurred.
The love triangle
Early in the book, we are introduced to the protagonist D-503's long time sexual companion, O-90. Though individual sexual companions are not meant to be appreciated more than any others (as they are assigned by the Benefactor, a. k. a. OneState's dictator), there is a clear mutual affection between the two; so much so that D-503 finds himself jealous when he sees her with his friend R-13, a poet who, in their world, is equally entitled to O-90 as D-503. Still, in spite of acknowledging this and to great inner torment, D-503 wants O for himself.
This all changes when he meet I-330. This woman changes his life and begins to control him from the first correspondence early in the book. Anything I tell D to do is done, and he is often pictured on the floor grasping her legs with intense devotion.
Still, it's clear I has other things in her life and D isn't the apple of her eye. Later in the book, it becomes clear that she saw a functional use out of D (due to his role of heading the construction of a rocket ship) and perhaps used him all throughout.
Dual villains
Interestingly, though I-330 is a leader of the revolution against the Benefactor and the rulers of the city, her role is somewhat villainous, and she "corrupts" D-503 in ways that lead to his ultimate demise near the end of the book.
I-330 represents a archetypal femme fatale whereas O-90 represents a more egalitarian lover for D-503; both are revolutionary in their views against their rulers, but O is far more innocent and less complicated, whereas I pushes and tugs at D to the point where his writings show a clear devolution into a mental crisis.
Just the same, the Benefactor is a far more clear villain: he is the absolute ruler of a society which is oppressive to disorder and creativity. Though at the same time, for D-503, he is the source of stability and happiness in his life. Compared to the rulers of Oceania (1984), the Benefactor is less cruel to those who ultimately side with him. When interogating D-503, D isn't punished and even seems to leave freely. On the other hand, I-330 is tortured with the "gas chamber" and likely killed, due to her revolutionary views.
D-503 doesn't adopt these novel views willingly, and even seems resolved at the fact that he has had his imagination removed (the end of the novel). This ends with D finding the happiness and stability he desires, at the cost of his imagination, though the repurcussions for this loss aren't clear. The books ends with a description of the struggle between the city administrators and the revolutionary animal-people (alongside rebel Numbers).