The attitude of the heroes of the novel "Fathers and Sons" to the people
An important distinguishing feature of Turgenev as a novelist was his ability to sensitively guess the problems and contradictions that had matured in Russian society. This fully applies to the novel "Fathers and Sons" (1861). The action of the novel begins on May 20, 1859. Turgenev, with the help of artistic details and pictures, such as the exact date, the sale of the forest for money, the peasants' refusal to pay dues, the poverty of the "meager land", creates a convincing way of life that preceded the reform of 1861.
Poverty and poverty appear before the eyes of Arkady, passing through his native places. The picture of the "meager region" is supplemented by a description of the changes that are taking place in the relations between landowners and peasants. Among the heroes of the novel, we find the image of the "improved servant" - the freed Peter. However, the trust in the former courtyards has been undermined, the traditional environment of the village landowner has been largely violated. Nikolai Petrovich resorts to civilian workers, refusing the labor of serfs. Until the end of the novel, he maintains an arrogant attitude towards the peasants.
Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons" poses the problem of the path of the Russian intelligentsia to the people. The dispute about the people plays an extremely important role on the pages of the work. The open clash between Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich is predetermined by the fact that the characters differ not only in age, but also in social status. Kirsanov is proud of his own aristocracy, with contempt for the "plebeian" manners of Bazarov.
Kirsanov is sure that Bazarov insults the Russian people, although the views of the heroes completely coincide on one important point: the Russian people are patriarchal, they cannot live without faith.
So what is the fundamental difference between the views on the Russian people of Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich? Kirsanov admires the patriarchal backwardness of the Russian peasant, advocates only minor changes in public life. Bazarov, on the other hand, condemns ignorance, the excessive obedience of the people, and denies the very foundations of the feudal system. The weak side of Bazarov's political views lies in ignorance of what will be built on the ruins of the old world.
In his dispute with Pavel Petrovich, Bazarov claims: “My grandfather plowed the land. Ask any of your peasants, in which of us - in you or in me - he would rather recognize a compatriot. You don't even know how to talk to him." Eugene believes that he is close to the people. Is it so? In Maryino, "the servants ... became attached to him, although he teased them: they felt that he was still his brother, not a master." In the village, the parents of Bazarov have exactly the “master” in the eyes of the serfs. The peasants are not able to understand Bazarov's occupations, although they accept him well as a doctor, appreciate the humanity of the hero. Turgenev realistically shows the intellectual distance separating the young nihilist from the peasants. The tragedy of mutual misunderstanding is depicted by Turgenev with all the power of artistic (sometimes satirical) talent. In fact, Bazarov is almost as far from the people as Pavel Petrovich, who eventually settled in Dresden, does not read anything Russian, but keeps a silver ashtray in the form of a peasant's bast shoes on his desk.
Bazarov's attitude to the people and to the future of Russia is quite complex. He confesses to Arkady: “And I hated this last peasant, Philip or Sidor, for whom I have to climb out of my skin and who won’t even thank me ... And why should I thank him? Well, he will live in a white hut, and burdock will grow out of me, well, and then? Bazarov understands his tragic loneliness, his "inopportuneness." At the same time, Bazarov’s death testifies to the extraordinary nature of this person, because, as Pisarev said, “to die the way Bazarov died is the same as doing a great feat.”
Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons" and in our time sounds quite topical. In fact, the dispute about the Russian people has now splashed out on the pages of many newspapers and magazines. Today, Turgenev's novel with particular force awakens in the reader the desire to avoid all lies, often covered by talk about "high principles", to fight for a genuine renewal of society.
Russian nobility in the novel "Fathers and children children".
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was a great playwright, an amazing publicist and a great prose writer. One of his best works - the novel "Fathers and Sons" - he wrote in 1860-1861, that is, during the period of the peasant reform. A fierce struggle divided Russian society into 2 irreconcilable camps: on the one side there were revolutionary democrats who believed that Russia needed a radical change in the state system, on the other - conservatives and liberals, in whose opinion the foundations of Russian life should have remained unchanged: landowners - with their land holdings, the peasants - in one way or another depending on their masters. The novel reflects the ideological struggle between the liberal nobility and revolutionary democracy, and the author sympathizes with the latter. “My whole story is directed against the nobility, as an advanced class,” wrote I.S. Turgenev in a letter to K. Sluchevsky. The characteristic types of nobles of this period are represented in the Kirsanov family. “Look into the faces of Nikolai Petrovich, Pavel Petrovich, Arkady. Weakness and lethargy or narrowness. Aesthetic feeling forced me to take precisely good representatives of the nobility in order to prove my theme all the more correctly: if cream is bad, what about milk? The author chooses far from the worst representatives of conservatism and liberalism in order to emphasize even more clearly that the discussion will go on to fight not with bad people, but with obsolete social views and phenomena.
Pavel Petrovich is an intelligent and strong-willed person with certain personal virtues: he is honest, noble in his own way, faithful to the convictions learned in his youth. But at the same time, Pavel Kirsanov does not accept what is happening in the surrounding life. The firm principles that this man adheres to are in conflict with life: they are dead. Pavel Petrovich calls himself a person "who loves progress", but by this word he means admiration for everything English. Having gone abroad, he "knows more with the British", does not read anything Russian, although he has a silver ashtray in the form of a bast shoes on his table, which in fact exhausts his "connection with the people." This man has everything in the past, he has not yet grown old, but he already takes his death for granted during his lifetime ...
Outwardly, his brother is directly opposite to Pavel Petrovich. He is kind, gentle, sentimental. Unlike the idle Pavel, Nikolai tries to take care of the household, but at the same time shows complete helplessness. His "household creaked like an unlubricated wheel, cracked like home-made furniture of raw wood." Nikolai Petrovich cannot understand what is the reason for his failures. He also does not understand why Bazarov called him a "retired man." “It seems,” he says to his brother, “I am doing everything to keep up with the times: I arranged for peasants, started a farm ... I read, I study, in general I try to become up to date with modern requirements, - and they say that my song is sung. Why, brother, I myself begin to think that it is definitely sung.
Despite all the efforts of Nikolai Petrovich to be modern, his whole figure evokes in the reader a feeling of something outdated. This is facilitated by the author's description of his appearance: “chubby; sits with legs bent under him. His good-natured, patriarchal appearance contrasts sharply with the picture of peasant need: "... the peasants met all shabby, in bad nags ..."
The Kirsanov brothers are people of the finally established type. Life has passed them by, and they are not able to change anything; they obediently, albeit with impotent despair, submit to the will of circumstances.
Arkady pretends to be a follower of Bazarov, whom he revered at the university. But in fact, he is only an imitator, that is, a person is not independent. That is repeatedly emphasized in the novel. The ostentatious desire to keep up with the times makes him repeat Bazarov’s thoughts that are completely alien to him; the feelings and views of his father and uncle are much closer to him. In his native estate, Arkady gradually moves away from Eugene. Acquaintance with Katya Lokteva finally alienates the two friends. Subsequently, the younger Kirsanov becomes a more practical master than his father, but his master's well-being means spiritual death.
The nobles Kirsanov are opposed to the nihilist Yevgeny Bazarov. He is the force that can break the old life. Exposing social antagonism in the disputes between Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich, Turgenev shows that the relations between generations here are wider and more complicated than the confrontation of social groups. In the verbal battle between Kirsanov and Bazarov, the inconsistency of the noble foundations is exposed, but there is a certain rightness in the position of the “fathers”, who defend their views in disputes with young people.
Pavel Petrovich is wrong when he clings to his class privileges, to his speculative idea of the life of the people. But perhaps he is right in defending what should remain unshakable in human society. Bazarov does not notice that Pavel Petrovich's conservatism is not always and not in everything self-serving, that there is some truth in his reasoning about the house, about the principles born of certain cultural and historical experience. In disputes, everyone resorts to the use of "opposite common places." Kirsanov talks about the need to follow authorities and believe in them, insists on the need to follow principles, while Bazarov rejects all this. There is a lot of caustic truth in Bazarov's ridicule of noble forms of progress. It's funny when the nobility's claims to progressiveness are limited to the acquisition of English washstands. Pavel Petrovich argues that life with its ready-made, historically established forms can be smarter than any person, more powerful than an individual, but this trust needs to be checked for compliance with an ever-renewing life. The emphatically aristocratic manners of Pavel Kirsanov are rather caused by inner weakness, a secret consciousness of his inferiority. The efforts of the father and son of the Kirsanovs, who are trying to prevent the escalating conflict, only increase the drama of the situation.
Using the example of several bright characters, Turgenev managed to describe the entire noble world and show its problem of that time. In the middle of the 19th century, it stood at a crossroads, not knowing how to develop further, and Ivan Sergeevich very colorfully described this state.
In the novel "Fathers and Sons", in addition to the main problem - the problem of fathers and children, an important issue is also raised about the life of the pre-reform village, about the fate of the Russian peasantry. The fact is that I.S. Turgenev begins his novel with a specific date: "May 20, 1859 ...", which indicates that the action takes place on the eve of the abolition of serfdom. At the very beginning of the story, the author presents a gloomy picture of the rural environs with their fading nature and way of life: "Villages, with low huts under dark, often half-swept roofs." “The places they passed through could not be called picturesque. The fields, all the fields stretched to the very sky, now rising, then falling again; in some places one could see small forests and, dotted with sparse and low "bushes, ravines curled, reminding the eye of their own image on the old plans of Catherine's time ... As if on purpose, the peasants met all shabby, in bad nags; willows with peeled bark and broken branches; emaciated, rough, as if gnawed, cows greedily plucked the grass in the ditches ... "Everything shows that the economy of the peasants is declining and is riddled with poverty: "crooked threshing sheds", "empty threshing floors", "weakened animals, as if torn out of someone's formidable, deadly claws..." this land, it does not strike either contentment or hard work. It is impossible, it is impossible for it to remain like this, transformations are necessary. "The paintings speak eloquently of unbearable poverty, hunger, the ruin of the peasants. Brief description The village is so impressive that no special comments are required. The author tries to show the similarity in that both nature, and the village, and the Russian peasant peasant himself have reached the last stage of poverty and ruin, and neither their former strength, nor beauty, nor wealth is left of them. A friend of Arkady Bazarov also notes that the Kirsanovs' economy leaves much to be desired: “... the cattle are bad and the horses are broken. The buildings also played up, and the workers look like inveterate sloths ... "And, speaking folk wisdom, the hero comes to the conclusion that" the Russian peasant will devour God. In general, it is through the perception of Bazarov that Turgenev presents the reader with the Russian village and the essence of a simple people. Throughout the novel, the author refers to this topic, which we learn from Bazarov's conversations and disputes. The hero is proud of the fact that one hundred "grandfather plowed the land", and by this he shows his closeness to the common people. And it is he - like no one else - who understands that the people "do not need for nothing" useless words like "liberalism", "progress" and the like, which Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov loves to talk about so much. At the same time, Bazarov condemns such traits characteristic of the Russian people as religiosity and superstition. Pavel Petrovich indignantly argues with Bazarov, arguing that the Russian people are not what Bazarov imagines him to be, they are patriarchal and cannot live without faith. Bazarov accuses Kirsanov of not being able to speak with the common people, and he, in turn, accuses Bazarov of both talking to the people and despising him at the same time. And Bazarov again rises to the occasion: he admits that he despises, despises, because the grossest "superstition strangles" the peasant essence, that "a peasant is glad to rob himself just to get drunk dope in a tavern." This is the sad result of all that has been said, and, unfortunately, Bazarov turns out to be right. Bazarov’s thoughts, his pain for the entire Russian people, turn out to be much deeper than the thoughts and feelings felt for the peasantry by Arkady, for whom the bright future of Russia lies in the fact that “the last peasant will have the same room” as the white hut of the elder Philip. For Bazarov, the "white hut" is far from a solution to all peasant problems and is not evidence of the people's prosperity. The hero bitterly realizes that the troubles of the people will not end soon, but he no less than others dreams that a bright and free time will come when a simple Russian peasant will be able to breathe in fresh air and work calmly for his own good.
Getting to know the hero The main motives of the story. The action of the novel "Fathers and Sons" begins in late spring. The date is exhaustively accurate - May 20, 1859. On this day, Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov, despite the fact that "the sun was burning", went to the nearest inn. "A gentleman of about forty years old" is preparing to meet his son. By the time we get to know him, my father's impatience has reached an extreme limit. The servant, obviously, was tired of "condescendingly answering": "No way, sir, I can't see" the expected crew. Yes, and how not to rejoice! Arkady did well in the final exams at the university and came out as a "candidate" (the highest rank; weaker ones received a diploma with the inscription "valid student").
But Arkady did not come alone, but with Evgeny Bazarov, a "good friend", a student at the Medical Academy. He is to become the main character; in the village house of the Kirsanovs to represent and speak on behalf of their generation.
Bazarov's undeniable dominance in the novel is given to us at first to be recognized as a measure of influence on his friend. The next chapter, describing the way back, will show this. The road home, to the estate, which the guest will have to do - in a tarantass, father and son Kirsanov - in a carriage, is ahead.
The content of the third chapter is not exhausted by this. Two motives begin to sound here, as in a piece of music, defining the tone of the narration. Recall the date of the meeting. Exactly one year and nine months remain before the manifesto on the emancipation of the peasants (the so-called "position of February 19, 1861") was published. It was followed by radical changes in the army, courts ... The reforms marked the beginning of the reign of Alexander II. In the eyes of contemporaries, the sixties of the nineteenth century were "an era of great reforms", long expected. These reforms have long been desired by the writer who wrote The Hunter's Notes, which gave the title of the preceding novel "On the Eve".
At the beginning of Fathers and Sons, we have before us the spectacle of peasant poverty familiar from Rudin: “... Villages with low huts under dark, often up to half swept roofs ( apparently, in a hungry winter, cattle had to feed straw from the roofs- O.T.), and crooked threshing sheds with walls woven from brushwood and yawning gates near the empty humens ... The peasants were all shabby, on bad nags ... ”In describing peasant poverty, the author makes a new note sound. The picture of a spring day (which, as you know, feeds the year) is complemented by peasant carts. The men “rolled very fast” - “it must be assumed that they were going to the city. To the pub." Serfs cannot change the established order. They do not want to work under the existing situation, they do not trust their masters.
"Fathers and Sons" shows that by the end of the fifties, the changes, in fact, had already begun - "things moved forward." The new is increasingly making its way. The spirit of the times changes relationships, both personal and general. Arkady, a loving son, feels “indulgent tenderness” towards his father, “mixed with a feeling of some kind of secret superiority.” For his part, Nikolai Petrovich is seized with embarrassment, which is inappropriate for the head of the family. A venerable widower, he asks his son not to condemn his new affection, Fenechka. During the short trip home, Arkady will have to listen to a lot of news. The manager has changed, the servants are new. The old devoted servants quietly leave (Nikolai Petrovich reports the death of Nanny Yegorovna). Their place is taken by such as the valet Peter - "a man of the latest, improved generation." We have already seen his smart attire, we have witnessed free communication with the master. And Nikolai Petrovich considers it necessary to clarify that the valet has already been released and serves at will. Yes, people! Both the house and the estate, where they will move in now, are also only recently built. They are so unusual for the local residents that the estate bears three names at once: “Maryino, Novaya Slobodka, also, or, according to the peasant name, Bobily Khutor.” Time calls for even greater changes. "Not<…>, this region is not rich<…>; it’s impossible, it’s impossible for him to stay like this, transformations are necessary<…>, but how to fulfill them, how to proceed? - Arkady thought from the first minutes in his homeland.
In parallel, another theme begins to sound. So thought Arkady<…>and while he was thinking, spring took its toll, ”the omniscient author notes. While people are intensively changing their lives, an eternal miracle is happening in the world - the revival of nature. It affects a person outside the stuffy city, and with special force - on his native side. “Everything around was golden green, everything was wide and softly agitated and glossy under the quiet breath of a warm breeze, everything was trees, bushes and grasses ...” After a long separation, Arkady is full of delight: “What air is here!<…>Indeed, it seems to me that nowhere in the world smells so much as in these parts! Yes, and the sky is here ... "Nikolai Petrovich is wholeheartedly ready to confirm the mystical power of his homeland:" Of course<…>, you were born here, everything should seem to you something special here ... ”But Arkady suddenly interrupts his father familiarly, as if he didn’t start the conversation himself:“ Well, dad, it doesn’t matter where a person is born. Before changing the tone and topic of the conversation so abruptly, Arkady, says the author's remark, "cast an indirect glance back." Behind them, we remember, is Bazarov. Obviously, the younger Kirsanov is afraid of his negative reaction. And he fears, we will see, not without reason.
Art belongs to the category of the eternal. It is inextricably linked with nature. A few minutes later, Arkady, finally overcome by the beauty of a spring day, exclaims: “But what a wonderful day today!” His father picks him up, remembering Pushkin's lines. They come in especially handy: “How sad your appearance is to me ...” Inspiredly quoting Nikolai Petrovich, Arkady, who listens “not without sympathy”, this time Bazarov interrupts. He turns to a friend with a prosaic request: "... Send me a match, there is nothing to light a pipe with." Both friends light up and puff puffs of “seasoned tobacco” into the magical spring air.
By the end of the chapter, the carriages of the heroes have only just “stopped in front of the porch,” but much is already clear to the reader. He guessed that Nikolai Petrovich’s hopes of “getting close” with his son and “living well” without worries and conflicts would hardly come true. It becomes clear that disagreements are possible in the future. And not for personal reasons. The author outlines a sharp conflict between the new and the eternal. Bazarov, and after him Arkady, for some reason, prefer not to notice this eternal. Their new views, with their sharpness, resemble the "strong" smell of tobacco and make the representatives of the older generation "turn their noses away" - "involuntarily."
Sep 24 2015
In the novel "Fathers and Sons", in addition to the main problem - the problem of fathers and children, an important issue is also raised about the life of the pre-reform village, about the fate of the Russian peasantry. The fact is that I. S. Turgenev begins his own with a specific date: "May 20, 1859 ...", which indicates that the action takes place on the eve of the abolition of serfdom. At the very beginning of the story, the author presents a gloomy picture of the rural environs with their fading nature and way of life: "Villages, with low huts under dark, often half-swept roofs." “The places they passed through could not be called picturesque. The fields, all the fields stretched to the very sky, now rising, then falling again; in some places one could see small forests and, dotted with sparse and low "bushes, ravines curled, reminding the eye of their own image on the ancient plans of Catherine's time ...
As if on purpose, the peasants met all shabby, on bad nags; like beggars in tatters stood wayside willows with peeled bark and broken branches; emaciated, rough, as if gnawed, cows greedily plucked the grass in the ditches ... "It is clear that the economy of the peasants is declining and riddled with poverty:" crooked threshing sheds "," empty threshing floors "," exhausted animals, as if torn out by all so ch. ru 2001 2005 from someone's formidable, deadly claws ... " And Turgenev's hero, Arkady, was amazed and preoccupied with what he saw, "his heart was shrinking a little," and he thought: "This land is not rich, it does not strike either contentment or hard work. It’s impossible, it’s impossible for him to stay like this, transformations are necessary. ” The pictures eloquently speak of unbearable need, hunger, the ruin of the peasants. The short description of the village is so impressive that no special comments are needed.
The author tries to show the similarity in that both nature, and the village, and the Russian peasant peasant himself have reached the last stage of poverty and ruin, and neither their former strength, nor beauty, nor wealth is left of them. A friend of Arkady Bazarov also notes that the Kirsanovs' economy leaves much to be desired: “... the cattle are bad and the horses are broken. The buildings also played up, and the workers look like notorious sloths ... "And, speaking folk wisdom, the hero comes to the conclusion that" the Russian peasant will devour God.
In general, it is through the perception of Bazarov that Turgenev presents the reader with the Russian village and the essence of a simple people. Throughout the novel, he refers to this topic, which we learn from Bazarov's conversations and disputes. The hero is proud of the fact that one hundred "grandfather plowed the land", and by this he shows his closeness to the common people. And it is he - like no one else - who understands that the people "do not need for nothing" useless words like "liberalism", "progress" and the like, which Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov loves to talk about so much. At the same time, Bazarov condemns such traits characteristic of the Russian people as religiosity and superstition. Pavel Petrovich indignantly argues with Bazarov, arguing that the Russian people are not what Bazarov imagines him to be, they are patriarchal and cannot live without faith. Bazarov accuses Kirsanov of not being able to speak with the common people, and he, in turn, accuses Bazarov of both talking to the people and despising him at the same time.
And Bazarov again rises to the occasion: he admits that he despises, despises, because the grossest "superstition strangles" the peasant essence, that "a peasant is glad to rob himself just to get drunk dope in a tavern." This is the sad result of all that has been said, and, unfortunately, Bazarov turns out to be right. Bazarov’s thoughts, his pain for the entire Russian people, turn out to be much deeper than the thoughts and feelings felt for the peasantry by Arkady, for whom the bright future of Russia lies in the fact that “the last peasant will have the same room” as the white hut of the elder Philip. For Bazarov, the "white hut" is far from a solution to all peasant problems and is not evidence of the people's prosperity. The hero bitterly realizes that the troubles of the people will not end soon, but he no less than others dreams that a bright and free time will come when a simple Russian peasant will be able to breathe in fresh air and work calmly for his own good.