Tradition and Progress
At the beginning of Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev’s controversial novel examining the tensions underlying 19th-century Russia, the stage is set for an explosive inter-generational conflict. This will be between Arkady and his mentor Bazarov, who are youthful “nihilists,” and Arkady’s father and uncle, tradition-minded gentry who see themselves as educated and progressive. While the novel was controversial just for entertaining nihilist ideas (which Turgenev’s characters define as a rejection of…
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Nature vs. Materialism
Arkady Kirsanov’s nihilist mentor, Yevgeny Bazarov, holds that “Nature is not a temple, but a workshop.” As Bazarov and Arkady wrestle with questions regarding the nature of human life, Bazarov consistently views nature as a mechanistic force—something that can be understood through formulas and controlled through scientific methods. This view has implications for his view of human beings and society, which are, to him, just expressions of mechanical nature. But by portraying…
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Love vs. Nihilism
In Fathers and Sons, Bazarov says, “A decent chemist is twenty times more useful than any poet.” Bazarov’s scientific and nihilistic worldview doesn’t leave any room for the romantic as a genuine or useful phenomenon. His protégé, Arkady, agrees with him at first, but over the course of the novel, the young men’s interactions with the sisters Anna and Katya Sergeyevna begin to challenge their outlooks on love, and they respond differently, with…
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Generational Conflict
At the beginning of Fathers and Sons, both Arkady and Bazarov are reunited with their parents after years away, and both struggle to come to terms with the contrast between their university-educated, cutting-edge outlook on life and the more traditional ways still embraced by their families of origin. While Arkady initially feels superior and thinks it’s up to him to transform his father Nikolai’s way of life, by the end he’s assimilated back into…
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