Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fathers and Sons, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Tradition and Progress
Nature vs. Materialism
Love vs. Nihilism
Generational Conflict
Summary
Analysis
The two friends set off for a town which is under the jurisdiction of a young governor, “both progressive and despotic.” This governor has caused such feuds that the Petersburg authorities have sent down Kolyazin to investigate. Kolyazin is about forty, a rising statesman, and a progressive. He is vain but good-natured, often taken advantage of but sly in his personal dealings. He welcomes Arkady warmly and encourages him to attend the ball the governor is giving in his honor. He promises to introduce Arkady to some local ladies.
Turgenev briefly worked in the civil service himself and seems to pay special attention to the personalities he observed there. Members of the gentry often made many of their personal connections through such links to governmental figures.
Themes
With some effort, Arkady persuades Bazarov to attend the ball. On their way back from introducing themselves to the governor, they’re intercepted by a young man, Sitnikov, who’s dressed in a Slavophil style. Sitnikov introduces himself to Arkady as Bazarov’s “disciple,” although Bazarov seems less keen. Sitnikov is elegant and pleasant but has a shrill, uneasy laugh. He tells Bazarov that he must get to know a local woman, Madame Kukshin, who is “advanced” and separated from her husband. Bazarov is reluctant, but when Sitnikov promises there will be champagne, the three set off together.
Slavophilia was the belief that traditional Russian styles and practices were best for Russia, not Westernizing ones. Such a belief makes a somewhat awkward fit with Sitnikov’s claim to be a nihilist disciple. Madame Kukshin’s separation from her husband does fit with a nihilist view of marriage.
Themes
