65 pages • 2 hours read
Ivan TurgenevFathers And Sons
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1862A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 21-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 21 Summary
The next morning, Arkady finds Vassily in the garden. The older man reports that he is gardening to sustain the family after a morning of seeing to neighborly health complaints. He refers to himself as a “plebeian” and apologizes for the lack of “luxury” in their surroundings (98). Arkady, exasperated, insists there is nothing to apologize to him for. Arkady delights Vassily by calling Bazarov “one of the most remarkable men I’ve ever met” (99). Vassily retorts, “I idolize my son” (99). He and Arkady discuss Bazarov’s future fame.
Bazarov joins them, and his father asks for his advice with a jaundiced patient. As he and Arkady lie in a haystack, Bazarov reminisces about his childhood, recalling that his family has lived here for decades—his grandfather, a Napoleonic war veteran, built the house. Bazarov loves his parents, and even envies the way they their respective spheres occupy them, unlike Bazarov himself who is preoccupied with his own existence and its meaninglessness: “the tiny space I occupy is so insignificant compared to the rest of space […] my life is so insignificant compared to eternity” (102). Arkady tries to temper Bazarov’s anger as it relates to his recent encounter with Anna (102). In response, Bazarov declares, “no woman’s going to destroy me!” (102).
Bazarov contemplates that ennui can plague even a comfortable existence. To Arkady this means that life must be a search for meaning, but Bazarov disagrees, arguing that it is too easy to become preoccupied with small matters. Thinking of Anna, he snaps that a “real man […] should either be obeyed or despised” (103). Bazarov “feels hatred for the poorest peasant” in contrast to Arkady’s idealist vision of peasants living in luxury (103). To Bazarov, moral principles are only the animalistic pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain—principles “I find it pleasant to negate” (103).
Bazarov annoys Arkady further by attributing false lines to Pushkin and asserting that Pushkin served in the military, which he did not. As they lie in the haystack, “some hostile feeling invaded the hearts of both young men” (104). When Arkady waxes poetic about a falling leaf, Bazarov angrily and demands Arkady stop, which Arkady calls, “despotism” (104). Bazarov says Arkady is just like his idiot uncle Pavel, and that most people fail to see family as they truly are. Arkady wishes to end the quarrel, while Bazarov is interested in fighting, even physically, and his “face appeared so malicious, his twisted grin and gleaming eyes contained such an earnest threat, that Arkady felt an instinctive fear” (105). The narrator comments that “no friendship can survive such confrontations for very long” (105).
Vassily compares their youth and vigor to that of the mythical twin heroes Castor and Pollux. Bazarov teases his father for his affinity for the classics. Vassily sheepishly informs his son that they have had a church service to celebrate his homecoming, and that the village priest is staying for dinner. He blames most of this on his wife, though the narrator points out Bazarov’s father is “no less devout” (106). Bazarov jokes that the priest better not eat Bazarov’s dinner in addition to his own. But, when Vassily says that the priest is liberal and even plays cards, the younger Bazarov rudely asks if Vassily become a gambler again. Shaken, Vassily rebukes his son.
The dinner is relatively successful, as Bazarov’s parents procure fine beef and mushrooms, and the priest puts everyone at ease. He wins at cards, and only mars the evening with his distasteful habit of killing flies that land on him. Later, Bazarov announces to Arkady that his parents’ home is too boring and lacks privacy; he will leave the next day for Marino (108). Arkady upbraids Bazarov somewhat for this, informing his friend he underrates his mother’s intelligence and the emotional blow he will inflict. Bazarov puts off telling his parents as long as possible, and his father says, “it’s a little short after three years” for him to leave so soon, but makes no other protest (109). The narrator notes that the elder Bazarov has spared no expense on food and drink for his son, doing his best to make home more enticing and appealing.
When the two friends depart, Bazarov’s father appears drawn. He lectures his wife against displaying tears of any kind. After Bazarov leaves, his father laments. Bazarov’s mother consoles Vassily that their son is like a “falcon, he comes and goes whenever he likes” while the two of them are “mushrooms […] they sit side by side and never budge” (110). The two embrace.
Chapter 22 Summary
As Arkady and Bazarov ride, Arkady impulsively decides to turn the coach back toward Anna’s, which they both acknowledge is a “stupid idea” (111). Anna seems annoyed to see them, so they tell her they are only making a brief stop. Arkady realizes he is especially happy to see Katya again. On the ride to Marino, Bazarov silently “looked off to one side, with a kind of embittered intensity” (111).
When they reach Marino, all the inhabitants greet them warmly. The estate struggles continue, as some workers depart. A blind woman accidentally burns down a barn in an attempt to “fumigate her cow,” blaming the “newfangled cheeses and dairy products” Nikolai is attempting to produce (112). Serfs steal wood, and their overseer only pretends to do his job, beating peasants at random when his employer is nearby but otherwise dosing. Peasant families break down, workers demand “exorbitant raises,” and the estate mortgage is due. Nikolai laments that “it’s impossible to accomplish anything without punishment,” but that it offends his sensibilities to call the police (113).
Arkady does his best to listen sympathetically, but finds himself preoccupied with Anna and Katya. He presses his father to find some letters his own mother had written to Anna’s mother, as the two were friends years before. Nikolai digs them up in the family archive, and Arkady takes off with the “a secret desire to try his luck” (114). Soon he and Katya catch sight of one another. She blushes and Arkady feels “delighted to see her, as if she were family” (114). Anna greets Arkady “affectionately” and when he tries to tell her he has brought the letters, she interrupts, saying, “You’ve brought yourself, that’s best of all” (114).
Chapter 23 Summary
Bazarov thinks he knows exactly why Arkady is going to Anna’s. He throws himself into his experiments and only occasionally skirmishes with Pavel. Pavel becomes preoccupied with observing Bazarov in his laboratory, “from time to time permitting himself to ask a discreet question” (115). He discusses science during dinner, but Nikolai remains convinced the antipathy between them is undiminished, as Pavel refuses to send for Bazarov when he is ill.
Bazarov spends more of his time talking to Fenechka, who “behaved more naturally with him than with Nikolai,” perhaps because of his “lack of aristocratic vestiges” (116). Fenechka avoids him in Nikolai’s presence, but Pavel’s constant attention “gives [her] the chills” (116). Bazarov is playful with Fenechka, who “grew more attractive with every passing day” (116).
One day, Bazarov finds her picking flowers, nervous the summer heat is making her ill. He takes her pulse, and tells her “you’ll live a hundred years” (117). They discuss whether it is good to be old or young. Bazarov gets her to read one of his scientific texts because when she reads “the top of your nose wiggles very sweetly” (118). He flirts more, telling her he likes when she laughs. When she thanks him for his care for her child, he reminds her that she owes him “payment” (118). She assumes he means money, but he demands a rose from the arbor instead. As she hands it to him, she starts, afraid Pavel is following her. She explains that she is fears him. When she bends down to smell the rose, Bazarov kisses her against her will. She pushes him away, but “so weakly he was able to renew and prolong his kiss” (119). At this moment, Pavel announces himself with a dry cough, confronting Bazarov. Fenechka remonstrates with Bazarov, saying “that was wrong, Evgeny Vasilich” (119). Bazarov “recalled another recent scene and felt both guilty and contemptuously annoyed” (119). When Pavel returns to the house, he does not tell Nikolai what happened.
Chapters 21-23 Analysis
Falling in love with Anna has had the paradoxical result of turning Bazarov into a complete misanthrope. In order to convince himself that he is over the emasculation of having emotions, Bazarov acts out the darkest version of nihilism possible, reveling in his sense of deep alienation from everything and everyone. His ostensible belief in nothing justifies his feelings that he has the right to express any opinion, no matter how offensive: contempt for the upper classes, hatred of the peasantry, anger at women, and a deep annoyance with Arkady, whose admiration for Bazarov now gives way to fear. Bazarov abandons his parents, ignoring Vassily’s effort and expense to give Bazarov material comforts, and his great grief at being unable to keep his son’s interest.
The true monstrousness of Turgenev’s Byronic hero comes out through his treatment of Fenechka. Eager to reassert his masculine dominance over women, Bazarov makes the most of the power imbalance between him and the half-servant half-mistress of the house, sexually assaulting her in the garden of the Marino estate. For all his talk of treating the peasants as equals, Bazarov feels no qualms at placating his wounded ego by exploiting a woman in a vulnerable position. It is important to note, however, that the scene reads somewhat differently to a modern reader than it would have to Turgenev’s contemporaries, who would have been more incensed at Bazarov’s implied disrespect to Nikolai than at any actual injury to Fenechka herself.
