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
At dinner, Bazarov looks forbidding and withdrawn. After the meal, he approaches Anna to apologize, saying that she must be very angry with him. Anna denies this, though she is grieved. Bazarov tells her that he must leave tomorrow; he could only stay if there were some hope of her loving him. Anna doesn’t answer; “I am afraid of this man,” she thinks. Bazarov says goodbye and withdraws to his room for the rest of the day.
Bazarov and Anna are at an impasse; Bazarov’s rejected advance has only brought to the surface the underlying confusion both of them feel, refusing to admit the reality of their love and thus unable to classify what they feel.
Themes
Later that day, Sitnikov unexpectedly arrives. “The young apostle of progress” had decided “with characteristic impudence” to visit Anna, even though he barely knows her and has not been invited. He is flustered and awkward. However, his presence helps moderate the emotions in the house, and things feel more normal.
Sitnikov’s uninvited, unannounced arrival is quite a social faux pas; again, he wants to be a convention-rejecting radical, but he can’t quite pull it off. But he provides a convenient interruption, breaking the tension in the household.
Themes
That night in their room, Arkady asks Bazarov why he is so melancholy. Bazarov tells Arkady he’s leaving for his father’s house tomorrow. After a few moments, Arkady decides he will leave tomorrow as well, for his own home. He feels heartache, though, not wanting to break from their accustomed routine and unsure why either of them is leaving. He sheds a tear, thinking of Anna and knowing he’ll miss Katya, too.
Arkady again shows himself to be the more sensitive of the two. Despite his vocal agreement with Bazarov, he is responsive to his environment and has become rooted in life at Nikolskoye. Even though he still believes himself to be in love with Anna, he’s also warmed to Katya.
Themes
When Arkady expresses regret at Sitnikov’s unwelcome arrival, Bazarov says Arkady is a fool. “Louts” like Sitnikov, he says, are essential; “it is not for the gods to have to bake bricks!” At those words, Arkady realizes “the fathomless depths of Bazarov’s conceit.”
The gulf between the two men has widened during their stay at Anna’s. That distance allows Arkady to recognize how arrogant Bazarov actually is, as Bazarov mocks the lowly types, like Sitnikov, who, he implies, do the heavy lifting that radical thinkers like himself don’t have time for.
Themes
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The next morning after breakfast, the two friends and Sitnikov all take their leave of Madame Odintsov. Sitnikov begs Arkady to ride in his barouche, but at the last moment, Arkady tells Bazarov he wants to come along with him to his parents’. Sitnikov looks on in shock and later tells his friends in town what “nasty, stuck-up” fellows the two of them are. Meanwhile, Arkady warmly presses Bazarov’s hand; Bazarov looks gaunt and underslept. Bazarov says he’ll be fine; they’ve both behaved like fools, but now they’re throwing off “trifling” feminine society and will recover.
Despite their argument, Arkady still expresses kindness to Bazarov, though Bazarov arguably doesn’t deserve such warmth. Bazarov is still tormented by his feelings for Anna but he persists in believing that he can just shake off something so “trivial.” Ironically, despite the physical evidence of his own weary condition, he continues to believe that romantic feelings are a trick of the mind.
Themes
They journey 16 miles to Bazarov’s family home. There’s a little village and a small house with a thatched roof. Two peasants, swearing at each other, stand outside a cottage. Bazarov sees his father standing in front of the house.
The environment at Bazarov’s family home—a humble village complete with cursing peasants—contrasts sharply with the gentility of Nikolskoye and suggests that the friends’ commitments, to their beliefs and to one another, will be further tested in this new atmosphere.
Themes
