In the 19th century novel Fathers and Sons, author Ivan Turgenev compliments the theme of the generation gap by portraying two divergent paradigms of nihilism and the author’s personal ideology, romanticism. Yevgeny Bazarov’s is used as a representative of nihilism thus epitomizing one side of the spectrum; meanwhile Nikolai Kirsanov serves as a token for romanticism. Both characters experience key tests through character interaction in the novel and thus strive to test their own perspective. Through
the societal norms. This trend can be witnessed through many examples such as Alexander Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” and “Diary of a Superfluous Man” by Ivan Turgenev. The characters described by these authors reflects the lifestyles of such a man, and seems to imitate the lives of the men who wrote these stories, as the real life Pushkin and Turgenev were both to be described as superfluous men. Alexander Pushkin can best be described as an idle aristocrat, a man whom excelled at being superfluous
with feminism, whereas Turgenev discusses nihilism. However, both novels were written in the 19th century and dealt with local issues, where the implications beyond their respective societies were disregarded. Hence, these two texts both play an important role in their respective societies. However, these two texts are harbingers for two contrasting revolutions, where A Doll’s House and Fathers and Sons feature enlightened and darkened protagonists respectively. While both Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and
It is important to keep in mind that Turgenev was an outsider belonging to the Romanticism age, he was not a nihilist. He was attempting to capture their value, their philosophy, and to depict who they are. The hero of the novel, Bazarov was the son of a poor doctor, he worked and put himself
Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons follows two young nihilists finding their place in the Russian society after having just graduated in St. Petersburg, while Russia is in an unstable political situation with a desire to move towards a free-market economy and away from the feudalistic economy. Turgenev uses the multiple opposing views embodied by various characters to portray the political unrest in Russia after the Crimean War. Through the use of figurative language, natural symbolism and transitional
Ivan Turgenev is one of the greatest Russian writers of the nineteenth century. In his pieces, Turgenev shows deep concern for the tangible problems of Russia at that particular time, such as the evolution of peasants and intellectuals, the women question and the hierarchy of Russian population. In his masterpiece Fathers and Sons, Turgenev emphasizes the enormous difference between subsequent generations by describing their distinctive philosophical views and life ideologies. The protagonists of
A sportsman sketches, by Ivan Turgenev, tells several short stories about himself traveling around Russia. In some of these short stories, he writes about the treatment of the serfs. In the short story called The Agent, Turgenev tells us about an acquaintance of his named Arkady Pavlitch Pyenotchkin. A landowner and retired officer of the Guards, Arkady like many nobles of the time spends his life looking after his estate. In the treatment of his peasants he considers himself harsh but just, believing
Fyodor Dostoevsky, depicts a poverty stricken young man who discovers a revolutionary theory of the mind of a criminal. Despite his psychological insight, Raskolnikov is alienated from society, and eventually forced to test his theory upon himself. Ivan Turgenev’s Bazarov, in Fathers and Sons (1862), pioneers the anarchistic philosophy of nihilism, depending entirely on science and reason, but ends up falling passionately in love and then cast out, through death, from the rigidity of thought he held
is told that he has the ability to do whatever he wants. As he grows older, however, he will realize this is not true. Though one may exert all, he is still bound to fail at reaching certain aims. Fyodor Dostoevsky, in Crime and Punishment, Ivan Turgenev, in Fathers and Sons, and Yevgeny Zamyatin, in WE, tap into this universal theme. Each of the aforementioned authors uses the motto represented in a quote from Crime and Punishment, "...the destruction of the present for the sake of the better
and Sons is a novel written by Russian author Ivan Turgenev and originally published in 1862. Emerging in tsarist Russia during the realism period of literature, Turgenev examines the subject of changing generations in his novel. In Fathers and Sons the new generation is represented by the characters Arkady Nikolaevich Kirsanov and Evgeny Vasilich Bazarov, recent university graduates and self-proclaimed nihilists. Nihilism, a term popularized by Turgenev himself, is a broad philosophical school of
auditory, and olfactory elements from the text. Both Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai Gogol make use of language that is richly descriptive of the story’s surroundings. This type of language is used to describe characters, landscapes, as well as structures and places. As a result of this, another level of complexity is added to the plot and the author has the ability to reveal certain aspects of the plot. An example of this is found in The Knocking when Turgenev describes a part of the rising in action, where
The comparison between Pechorin and Bazarov Fathers and Children, a very intelligent novel written by Ivan Turgenev, presents the conflicts between the generations. Generation gap is common in our daily life, for different growing up environment generates distinctive cognitions. However, when Turgenev adds in the specific social background of the times, when old romantic idealists meet with a young nihilist, the conflict sublimates and becomes more intense. Among all of the characters in the story
Anton Chekhov’s short story The Lady with the Dog focuses on a temporary affair between two married lovers. This short story illustrates the abnormal things that normal people will do when they get put in certain environments. This short story was written in the late 1890’s, but demonstrates deep insight into how people behave and react when they are exposed to different social dynamics and different social environments. The field of social psychology didn’t formally start until the 1950’s, but
The Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky stands at the very summit of Russian literature. No 19th-century writer had greater psychological insight or philosophical depth. None speaks more immediately and passionately to the mood and tone of the present century. This essay will discuss how Dostoyevsky's intent to portray a 'truly beautiful soul' manifests itself in the novel The Idiot, and access Dostoyevsky's success or failure in achieving his intention. Dostoyevsky confesses in
Dostoevsky’s theme of ordinary and extraordinary people is the basis of his work of literature, Crime and Punishment, which derives from his own life experiences. Crime and Punishment, is the story of a Russian man named Rodion Raskolnikov. Raskolnikov is an impoverished St. Petersburg habitant student who, “determined to overreach his humanity and assert his untrammeled individual will commit two acts of murder and theft” (Dostoevsky). To try to amend his actions, he uses the money he steals from
A Satire for the Ages Satirical fiction, although unique and one of a kind in its nature, has continued to be an enthralling and captivating subject out of the plethora of themes that exist throughout literature history and thrive to this day. While the many forms of humor that appear throughout a novel, from comical, ironic characters to witty, exaggerated plots, are often considered tame and childish themes, authors, skillful and clever alike, are able to utilize such forms of humor and transform
Pushkin's The Queen of Spades French connoisseurs already know Pushkin's The Queen of Spades in Mérimée's translation. It might appear impertinent to offer now a new version, and I do not doubt that the earlier one will appear more elegant than this one, which has no merit other than its scrupulous exactness. That is its justification. A preoccupation with explaining and rounding off induced Mérimée to blunt somewhat the crystalline peaks of the tale. We have resisted adding anything to
Anton Chekhov said “In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential.” (Chekhov) These particulars are not always given to the reader with a description, the author may put clues about the personality of a character through describing other things pertaining to the character. An example of this is, how the use of literary devices to describe a character’s home may give the reader insight into the character’s personality. In both the poem Dead Souls written by Nikolai
Realism is exactly what it sounds like. It is attention to detail, and an effort to replicate the true reality in a way that authors had never done before. There is the belief that the story’s function is simply to report what happens, without comment or judgment. In the 19th century, Gustave Flaubert and Fyodor Dostoevsky, for example, the reader gets a sense of being there in the moment, as a fly on the wall catching a 360 degree angle of each unfolding details. In “A Simple Heart”, Flaubert has
Turgenev and Dostoyevsky Upon first meeting Turgenev in 1845, Dostoyevsky wrote to his elder brother Michael saying that "A few days ago the poet Turgenev returned from Paris and right away showed me such friendship and affection that Belinsky is persuaded he is in love with me. But what a man he is, brother! I almost fell in love with him myself. He is a poet, a man of talent, an aristocrat, handsome, wealthy, intelligent, cultured, twenty-five years old; I doubt that nature has refused him