Classical art is so called because the value of each work included in its foundation is time-tested. Shakespeare’s tragedies, da Vinci’s paintings, Schnittke’s music, Rodin’s sculptures can be enumerated for a long time, because the list of humanity’s achievements created during its existence and development is really long and rich. And representatives of Russian culture can be proud that their great compatriot, Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, is one of the first places of honor among recognized authors of world and Russian classical literature.
The creator of the Russian novel
Yes exactly. Of course, before Turgenev, there were many talented novelists in Russian literature. The "Encyclopedia of Russian Life" in poems, written by Pushkin, the
psychological portrait of an entire generation, created by Lermontov in his "Hero ...", and many other wonderful works gave food to the mind and heart of a Russian person, educated, developed, explained, contributed to the formation of spiritually mature personalities, patriots of their homeland. But it was Turgenev who brought the Russian novel to the open spaces of world literature, introduced foreign readers to the originality of our culture, life, and history. The brevity, extraordinary expressiveness of the language, the tension of the plot, the reflection of the most important socio-political moments in the life of society, the ideological struggle characteristic of Russian reality, the deepest psychologism and the amazing skill of a true artist - these are the distinguishing features of Turgenev the novelist and his best creations. Thanks to Ivan Sergeyevich, foreign audiences and critics learned about this amazing phenomenon - “Russian literature”, “Russian novel”. The author’s most important and beloved brainchild was Fathers and Sons. The meaning of the work reflected not only the complexity of family, social, civil and human relations in general, but also Turgenev's point of view on these issues.
Why fathers and children
The author’s position in the novel is not directly indicated. But it is quite easy to determine if you carefully look at the composition of the work, analyze the language of the characters, the system of images, identify the role of individual elements, such as landscape, in the novel. This, incidentally, is very interesting precisely “Fathers and Sons”. The meaning of the work is already in the title, and the main artistic device of the opposition, or antithesis, can be traced throughout the novel.
So why fathers and why children? Because the family is a small section from the whole of society, and in it, like in a mirror, those complex, sometimes dramatic collisions are reflected that shake and fever the public consciousness. By the time the conception and the writing of the novel were born, life, according to the critic Belinsky, “ran into the depth and breadth” in a huge number of its elements. This variety of forms allows us to see and understand the “Fathers and Sons”. The meaning of the work is revealed in the intergenerational conflict, in the views on politics, religion, science, art, the social world order and world order. The class conflict, aggravated by the tough confrontation of social forces and problems, is no less bright. The attentive reader, moving from chapter to chapter, more clearly understands the metaphorical title of “Fathers and Sons”. The meaning of the work is not only to show the continuity and separation of generations (the universal aspect), but also to reveal the opposition of established views and opinions and new ones that are replacing the old.
Family Thought
Let us first analyze the “family thought” in the novel. It is worth noting that the theme of the family is generally characteristic of Turgenev. The writer lived all his independent life “on the edge of another's nest”, and he had rather complicated relations with his mother. Therefore, probably, Ivan Sergeyevich cherished the warmth of the hearth, the harmony of the relationship between older and younger generations. The work “Fathers and Sons” affirms those eternal values, without which, in fact, progress cannot move forward. This is shown by the example of the Kirsanov family. Arkady, a representative of the young and advanced generation, although under the influence of Bazarov, is still closely connected with his relatives. Even upon arrival in the fatherland, he exclaims that here the air is sweeter and more expensive and closer than in the capital. Making an excursion into the past of his heroes, Turgenev says that Kirsanov the father constantly tried to get closer to his son, to share his interests, live what Arkady lives in, meet his friends, tried to understand the new generation that is replacing his peers. The work "Fathers and Sons", as already mentioned, is an antithesis novel. But, although Bazarov is a staunch opponent of the whole past, the “fathers” including, although he is outwardly rude to his father and mother and openly ridicules and despises the “old Kirsanovs,” the feeling of kinship is not alien to him. Thus,
family traditions and bonds are sacred to Turgenev. Welcoming the new time, the writer believes that it is impossible to completely cross out the achievements of past eras, including the
continuity of generations.
New and old
The meaning of the novel “Fathers and Sons” is wider and deeper than the above question. Yes, indeed, the younger generation, with its inherent maximalism, often considers itself smarter, more progressive, more talented, more capable of significant actions and useful for the country than those whose century is nearing sunset. Alas, but by and large it is. Both Nikolai Petrovich and Petr Petrovich Kirsanovs, people who are educated and thinking modernly, nevertheless, in many respects lagged behind the century irresistibly flying forward. It is difficult for them to understand new scientific thoughts, technological advances, political ideas and hard to accept in their everyday life. But does this mean that the past should be completely destroyed, forgotten, abandoned, “cleared”, as Bazarov puts it? And then what to build on a new place, on an empty one? The nihilist Eugene cannot draw a detailed picture - apparently, he himself does not know, does not imagine it. And the author himself rightly saw the meaning of the novel “Fathers and Sons” not only in criticizing the ugliness of Russian reality, a rotten system of social, and often human relations, but also to prove that one cannot completely abandon the past. Human civilizations succeeded one another, and each was based on the achievements of the previous one.
The ideological and aesthetic design of the novel
What else is the Fathers and Sons novel about? Turgenev's work was written in 3 stages. The first dates from 1860-1861, when the main text was created, the plot and the figurative system were formed. The second refers to the fall of 1861 - the beginning of the winter of 1862. At this time, the writer actively revises the text, introduces subject and compositional amendments, expands the range of issues covered in accordance with the political changes in the country. And finally, in the period from February to September 1862, the final changes and the first publication in the "Russian Herald" of the work "Fathers and Sons". The problems of the novel are a vivid picture of the upsurge of the movement of raznochintsy, revolutionary democrats; showing a new, just-born type of nihilist public figure, questioning all the foundations of the Russian state. On 238 pages of a turgenev’s gingerbread handwriting, the life story of a rebel Bazarov, a criticism of the immorality of nihilism, a conflict between liberal conservatives and revolutionary progressives, the disclosure of philosophical, spiritual, religious, ethical and aesthetic, moral and moral conflicts was found.
What did the author want to say and what did he say?
It is impossible to understand what the meaning of the novel “Fathers and Sons” is without revealing the image of the protagonist - the nihilist Evgeny Bazarov. The author himself noted that he saw a strong, vicious, wild and indomitable figure, an honest one who had come out of the people, but doomed to perish, because the time of the bazaars had not yet arrived. He admitted that he does not know whether he loves or hates the image he created. After all, the writer sought first and foremost to criticize the nobility as the once advanced, and now obsolete, conservative class, which impeded the economic and political development of the country. But Bazarov came to the fore, and it was precisely about this hero that polemics developed in Russian criticism. Some considered the main character an evil caricature, a pamphlet for the younger generation. Others, seizing the Turgenev word “nihilist”, began to call them all kinds of atrocities, political unrest, produced by students. And the name of Bazarov became synonymous with one of the names of the devil - Asmodeus. Still others, seizing revolutionary ideas, elevated Yevgeny Vasilyevich to the rank of their spiritual leader. Turgenev did not share the ideas of either one, the second, or the third. This was one of the reasons for the ideological split between the writer and the Sovremennik staff.
The victory of life over ideology
Yes, Ivan Sergeyevich, with all his sincere sympathy for the nobility and compassion for Bazarov, he condemned one and the other. In the novel, he proved that life is more complex and diverse than all ideologies, political disputes, and it cannot be laid in any
Procrustean bed. Nature, love, sincere affection, the reviving and ennobling power of art, patriotism will triumph over any "passionate, sinful, rebellious heart." And to this day, the fate of the heroes of the work interests and excites us, gives rise to disputes, encourages us to try to understand as deeply as possible, and teach everyone to be a Man. And this is the main feature of the great classical works.