Fathers And Sons

As Bazarov drinks tea, Nikolai asks him where he went. Bazarov describes the area and a nest of snipe he found, suggesting Arkady might hunt there—Bazarov himself does not hunt. Pavel asks Bazarov about his study of physics with “secret irritation” at the younger man’s “free and easy manner” (21). When Pavel presses Bazarov on his beliefs, Bazarov says he rejects experts: “why should I acknowledge them, and what am I to believe in? They tell me what it’s all about, I agree, and that’s that” (21).

Pavel changes the topic to the question of the Germans, who have become a nation of middling scientists, a step down from their former age of literary icons like Goethe and Schiller. Bazarov argues that science is “more useful” than poetry, which further outrages Pavel (21). However, when Pavel protests, Bazarov asserts that science is also a charade. Completely unhinged, Pavel demands to know what other aspects of “conventions accepted in human society” younger man disregards (22). Bazarov asks if this is an “interrogation” and before he can answer, Nikolai changes the subject (22).

To diffuse the tension, Nikolai expresses hope that Bazarov’s scientific knowledge may be of use on the family estate. Pavel laments, not entirely sincerely, that country life has made him out of touch with the latest intellectual trends—to the young people, he is an “‘old fogy’” (22). The older men leave to see to estate matters.

When Arkady upbraids his friend for his poor behavior, Bazarov scoffs, “am I supposed to pander to them, these provincial aristocrats?” (22), and argues that it is Pavel’s own fault for choosing a quieter life outside the capital. Arkady argues that his uncle is “more deserving of compassion than mockery” (23).

Arkady tells Bazarov about Pavel. Pavel was an attractive young man, “self-assured, somewhat sarcastic, and amusingly acrimonious” (23). Popular and sociable where his brother was more introverted, Pavel had only a smattering of education, but “At the age of twenty eight he had already attained the rank of captain. A brilliant career lay ahead of him” (23).

At a ball, Pavel met Princess R, an unhappily married, sociable coquette by day, and a haunted and deeply spiritual woman by night. These nights would be followed by more social whirl, as she would “throw herself into anything that could afford her the least bit of pleasure” (24). They fell in love, but her love was inconstant, as she “wrote letters to a man she hardly knew” rather than to her new beloved. Pavel called her his sphinx after a ring he had given her in this shape, and he “almost lost his mind” during periods when she paid him less attention (24). She left Russia to escape him, but he followed, “first pursuing her, then deliberately losing sight of her. He was ashamed, indignant at his own weakness” (25). They renewed their passion briefly in Switzerland, but soon realized “the flame had flared up for the last time and gone out forever” (25). Pavel Petrovich returned to Russia and found life there unsatisfying. A decade went by, and he learned that the princess had died in a fit of mental illness.

While the Kirsanov brothers were distant when Nikolai was happily married, they drew closer after the women in their lives died. Pavel resigned himself to the “troubled, twilight phase of life” and moved in with his brother (26). He never left the countryside, though was respected and esteemed in the neighborhood for his excellent manners and for his wild romantic past.

Arkady concludes his tale and tells Bazarov “it’s a sin to despise” his kind and generous uncle (27). Bazarov insists that a man who has ruined his life over a woman is “no longer a man, not even a male of the species” and he dismisses the idea that liberal newspapers and occasional kindness to a peasant should allow anyone to think himself “a worthwhile person” (27). When Arkady posits that his uncle is a product of his upbringing, Bazarov counters that it is up to each man to influence himself rather than be influenced by the outside world. He claims that this is how he lives his life.