Immunity to Nihilism in Turgenev's "fathers and Sons"

Immunity to Nihilism in Turgenev's Fathers and Sons

Whenever reform or revolution is possible, it is because a new, progressive ideal has been quickly and widely perpetuated among the people of a particular nation. It is often a country's youth population that most readily accepts such new ideals, since they, being in the process of education and the development of their personal beliefs, tend to be malleable to new ideas and standards, and ready for change and development. The older generation is thus an opponent to change, or at least, not passionately motivated towards any revolution, being older and accustomed to certain ways of life. Ivan Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons, presents this very dichotomy; he places two generations face to face, and forces them to encounter Bazarov, a very influential character with revolutionary ideas. Perhaps the most interesting result of this is seeing which characters, or which members of a generation, are won over by his ideas and join his side. By the end of the novel, one notes that, just as in the beginning, Bazarov remains the only true nihilist; none of the people with whom he has come into contact have been moved deeply enough by his teachings to join him as a nihilist.

Evgeny Vasilevich Bazarov claims that he is a nihilist, a person who believes in no principles, but rather in logic and science. As a nihilist, he saw that somehow society was wrong, and the only way to correct that was to reject commonly accepted views and belief systems, to reject the government, religion and social standards, in order to be able to start anew and build a more ideal society. On page 40, he is referred to as a `denouncer', for example. Superficially, this was easy to accept for young, idealist...

... middle of paper ...

...t in favour of the married life. Although at first, he even went as far as believing himself to be a nihilist, the deep instillation of the values of his father's generation (i.e.: romanticism, arts, love; everything rejected by Bazarov) leaves him immune to Bazarov's nihilism, as well.

Though throughout the novel, the only consistent nihilist is Bazarov, a reader notes how both the generation of the fathers and the generation of the sons are affected by his influence and by nihilistic views. With examination, one can attribute the profundity of

this influence to the age and education of the characters; youth being more susceptible to nihilistic ideals than its comfortably settled, traditional elder counterpart. However, every character who came into contact with Bazarov acknowledged and felt a certain respect for his nihilism, proof of its wide influence.