Themes in Fathers and Sons

This passage illustrates the central tension of Arkady’s inner life. Part of Arkady wishes to appeal to Bazarov’s rational, utilitarian understanding of the world. It is from this angle that Arkady coldly looks upon the landscape of his childhood, preaching about educational reform. Then his romantic side takes over and “Spring seemed once more to regain possession of her kingdom.” The following paragraph is a rhapsodic vision of the landscape, bursting with soulfulness and vivacity. Arkady cannot deny for long his delight in beauty and nature, values he shares with his father. Throughout the novel, Arkady continues this inner struggle between romanticism and nihilism.

Nikolai has just agreed with Arkady’s observation of the surrounding area, suggesting that Arkady’s having been born in such a place means that he has a connection to the land. Having just fallen into silence after noticing the beauty of the area, Arkady reacts against his father’s suggestion by saying that such a romantic notion has no bearing on the circumstances of one’s birth. Nikolai’s confusion and the stilted conversation that follows shows how the two have grown apart since their last meeting.

In 1861, Tsar Alexander II freed all serfs—a kind of indentured servant—in Russia. Turgenev wrote Fathers and Sons in the immediate aftermath of this decree. Turgenev includes the tension between the ruling classes and the newly freed workings classes in the story—in this case, the tension which arises from Nikolai’s decision not to “have any freed serfs about the place.”

Notice that prior to this line, Arkady rejoiced in the atmosphere around the villa, pointing out the beauty of the sky and the smell of the air. That he abruptly stops and looks towards the tarantass, in which Bazarov is seated, suggests that Arkady’s behavior in this moment would not be acceptable to his friend. This tension between Arkady’s love for traditional country life and Bazarov’s views persists throughout the story.

Again, Paul calls for the young men to experience life beyond the rational categories promoted by Hegelians—also known as Hegelists—and nihilists. In a telling detail, Paul orders a cup of cocoa to punctuate his remark. The pleasures of food and drink evade rational understanding, and yet are crucial to a fully-lived life. Paul does not state this explicitly; he implies it through action.

Hegelists are those who subscribe to the ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German philosopher writing at the turn of the 19th century. Hegel was a seminal philosopher who worked on a number of intellectual areas, including metaphysics, logic, and phenomenology. As a university student, Turgenev studied Hegel’s work extensively. The apparent similarity between Hegelian and Nihilistic philosophy lies in the question of meaning. One of Hegel’s central ideas is that life is inherently meaningless, a fact which is in itself also meaninglessness. In this way, Nihilism evokes shades of Hegel for Paul.

Mais vous avez changé tout cela = [French] “But you have changed all of this.” Speaking in French, Paul discusses the way in which the young generation has caused a shift away from a principle-based life. Paul raises a genuine philosophical problem when he goes on to wonder “how you will contrive to exist in an absolute void, an airless vacuum.” It is by no means a simple philosophical question to answer. It is, in a sense, one of the central questions of the book: in an age that is increasingly secular and non-traditional, where does one locate values?

This remark by Arkady reveals a significant philosophical divide between him and Bazarov. While Arkady carries a fundamental respect for his elders, particularly his father and uncle, Bazarov believes in no cause for such respect. Archetypically speaking, Bazarov thinks it is the son’s role to “summon his father to judgment.” This tension between generations is one of the novel’s central themes, as suggested by the title.

This passage introduces us to Bazarov’s materialist understanding of the world at large and of humankind. To Bazarov, humans are like frogs, organisms to be dissected, diagrammed, and understood. This materialist philosophy holds that reality can be divided into rational categories and that nothing escapes rationality. Poetry, aesthetic appreciation, love, and affection are human experiences which evade rational categorization; Bazarov dismisses all of them.

Bazarov places no value in beauty, humanistic thought, or religious experience. As a result the work of poets—even geniuses such as Goethe—holds no interest for Bazarov. Bazarov cares only for rational approaches to the world, which he conceptualizes as a frog to dissect more and more.