Evgeny Bazarov... Anyone who studied in high school knows this name well. For some it evokes a feeling of admiration, for others it evokes a feeling of indignation, but it leaves almost no one indifferent. Interest in the mysterious novel by I. S. Turgenev does not wane even today, however, without understanding the main character of “Fathers and Sons” in particular, it is impossible to grasp the main idea of the great work as a whole.
What is the difficulty in perceiving the image of Bazarov? What episodes of the novel connected with him seem incomprehensible to us? Of course, first of all, the scene of unexpected death, to which the author devotes an entire chapter.
“Where is the mystery here?” the reader will ask. “During the autopsy, I cut my finger and became infected with typhus. That’s why I died. This can happen to anyone.” That's right. Indeed, in life this happens very often, but in a literary work there should be nothing random, incomprehensible, much less inexplicable. Artistic truth does not always coincide with life truth. Is this why it seems to us that the author is deliberately killing his hero and that it would be entirely possible to save his life?
How to explain all this? Is there a solution to the death of Yevgeny Bazarov? To answer these questions, let us first turn to the school textbook by M.G. Kachurin and D.K. Motolskaya. Here's what it says: “And only D.I. Pisarev’s article “Bazarov” helped contemporaries to correctly understand Turgenev’s novel”1. And nothing more. In the section “The Illness and Death of Bazarov” of the new textbook by Yu.V. Lebedev, it is only noted that “with the death of the hero, life was orphaned: happiness is half-happiness, and joy is half-joy”2. The teacher's manual "Studying Russian Literature in the 10th Grade", as well as the literature program, do not clarify this problem
We, like many researchers of the work of I.S. Turgenev, have to refer to D.I. Pisarev. “Not being able to show,” argues the famous critic, “how Bazarov lives and acts, Turgenev showed how he dies. To die the way Bazarov died is the same as performing a great feat... The whole point of the novel lies in the death of Bazarov If he had been cowardly, if he had betrayed himself, his whole character would have been illuminated differently: he would have appeared as an empty boaster, from whom neither fortitude nor determination could be expected in case of need; the whole novel would have turned out to be a slander against the younger generation... Bazarov. I didn’t make a mistake, and the meaning of the novel came out like this: today’s young people get carried away and go to extremes, but the hobbies themselves are reflected in fresh strength and an incorruptible mind; this strength and this mind, without any extraneous aids or influences, will lead young people to the straight path..." 3
As can be seen from the article by D.I. Pisarev, the death scene supposedly shows the spiritual power, the indomitable energy of the hero, who, if he had lived for decades, would have found a place to use his enormous strength. That’s right, but is this the meaning of the whole chapter of the novel “Fathers and Sons” dedicated to the illness and death of the central character? Did Pisarev correctly understand the scene of Bazarov’s death, and therefore “the whole meaning of the novel”4? Didn’t he express the same tendentious thought in “Bazarov” as happened in N.A. Dobrolyubov’s article “When will the real day come?”
Be that as it may, one thing is certain: an incorrect interpretation of the ideological content of the entire work was given way.
After all, it was not without reason that I.S. Turgenev wrote more than once in his letters that “Only two people completely understood Bazarov: Dostoevsky and Botkin”5. Fyodor Mikhailovich’s letter, where he analyzes Turgenev’s novel, has not reached us, but Ivan Sergeevich’s response letter is known: “You captured so completely and subtly what I wanted to express to Bazarov that I only spread my arms out of amazement - and pleasure. Just like you They entered into my soul and felt even what I did not consider necessary to say... May God grant that everyone sees at least part of what you saw!”6
Not only D.I. Pisarev, but also many of his eminent contemporaries did not “see” the main thing in the novel “Fathers and Sons”. “Write me, for God’s sake, a long explanatory letter about Bazarov... Why did Bazarov infect himself and did he do it on purpose or not, and what did you want to say by this?”7 asked A.F. Pisemsky, a well-known writer at that time. We do not know whether I.S. Turgenev responded to this letter. In various contradictory statements about his novel, the author does not reveal the secret of the twenty-seventh chapter.
So what did F.M. Dostoevsky and V.P. Botkin understand? What did they discover in Fathers and Sons that was inaccessible to their contemporaries and subsequent generations? Is it possible to “see at least part of what” Dostoevsky saw?
It seems to us that it is possible, even more, but for this it is necessary to comply with certain conditions. Firstly, the reader should be reminded under what circumstances the novel “Fathers and Sons” appeared.
It is known that in the 50s and 60s of the 19th century there was a demarcation between revolutionary and liberal trends in Russian public life. This process could not help but be reflected in literary circles and in works of art. I.S. Turgenev, one of the main employees of Sovremennik, by the summer of 1861 interrupted and then terminated relations with the magazine and its editor N.A. Nekrasov. The reason was N.A. Dobrolyubov’s article “When Will the Real Day Come?” published in Sovremennik, in which Turgenev’s novel “On the Eve” was interpreted from a revolutionary-democratic position. “I earnestly ask you,” Turgenev addressed Nekrasov in his letter, “not to publish this article: it can’t cause anything but trouble for me, it’s unfair and harsh - I won’t know where to go if it’s published.”8 But Nekrasov did not listen, he nevertheless published the article in his journal, thereby abandoning Turgenev, so as not to lose Dobrolyubov. The true reason for Turgenev’s break with Sovremennik, as well as for Leo Tolstoy, however, was that they did not accept the ideas of the leaders of revolutionary democracy - the idea of social reconstruction of public life through a bloody revolution. “Turgenev,” noted V.I. Lenin, “was drawn to a moderate monarchical and noble constitution; he was disgusted by the peasant democracy of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky”9.
Already at the beginning of 1862, the novel “Fathers and Sons” was published. Naturally, it should have reflected I.S. Turgenev’s attitude towards the commoner democrats and the upcoming revolution. Secondly, we must look for the answer not in critical literature, but in the text of the work of art itself, as Dostoevsky and Botkin did.
So, we refuse Pisarev’s explanation of the causes of Eugene’s death, because it is very fragile and does not come from the artistic concept of the novel. In fact, what kind of feat is it to die the way Bazarov died? Many in such a situation die just like that, humanly: this is Fenechka’s mother, and those two from Maryino who died from an equally terrible disease - from cholera. Pisarev argues that the death scene reveals Bazarov’s potential, but then there is no need to kill him: after all, not everyone dies of typhus, and it would be enough to show a severe form of the disease with loss of consciousness, the hero’s confidence in a fatal outcome, and then a gradual recovery.
In the artistic and compositional structure of the novel, the 27th chapter really plays a special role, one might say a key one. “The death of Bazarov,” Turgenev wrote to Sluchevsky, “should, in my opinion, put the last line on his tragic figure”10. Such a tragic ending is predetermined. Bazarov could not help but die, he had to leave the stage. And it is not the author who kills him, but the hero who dooms himself to death.
The few characters in Turgenev's work can be divided mainly into two groups. The first group consists of simple, unidealized people, closely connected with nature, who do not leave the circle of responsibilities and opportunities destined for man, and the second group consists of ideological, “self-deluded” people11, cut off from nature, and therefore the nature of man himself. The first group includes Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov with his son Arkady, the old Bazarovs, Fenechka, Katya, and Anna Sergeevna to some extent. The second group is represented by Evgeny Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich, the only difference between whom is that one of them defends the ideas of revolutionary democrats, and the other - the outdated ideas of the conservative part of the liberal nobles, but both were captured by preconceived principles, theoretical positions that are in no way compatible with the natural aspirations of a normal person. From this point of view, both Evgeny Bazarov and Pavel Kirsanov are “tragic faces”12.
Bazarov’s contagious disease does not begin by chance and not after he cuts his finger, but predetermined and much earlier, long before May 20, 1859, which can be guessed by reading the first chapters of the novel. It is not for nothing that the author, it seems to us, compares this disease with smoking. “What an air here! How wonderful it smells!.. Nowhere in the world does it smell like this!”13 Arkady admires his native nature. But this wonderful air poisons itself, however, it receives the poison from the hands of Bazarov: “Arkady immediately lit a cigarette, spreading around him such a strong and sour smell of seasoned tobacco that Nikolai Petrovich, who had never smoked, involuntarily ... turned his nose away”14. So, representatives of the second group and almost everyone adjacent to it, such as Evdoksia Kukshina, Viktor Sitnikov, smoke tobacco, poison the clean air, the people around them, as well as their body, thereby bringing premature death to themselves and their neighbors. Undoubtedly, this artistic detail here symbolizes any idea, biased and contagious, which, like tobacco, gradually kills its carrier and poisons others with dope. And simple heroes, as a rule, are not addicted to smoking, which means they are not struck by the idea of complete denial and destruction.
To be fair, it is worth noting that Vasily Ivanovich Bazarov also smokes. Is this a coincidence? Hardly. He, too, is partly infected by a proud mind that dominates his heart. Under the influence of his pious wife, he only shows humility for the time being, and after the death of his son, he rebelled against God. “Vasily Ivanovich was seized by a sudden frenzy. “I said that I would complain,” he shouted hoarsely, with a burning, distorted face, shaking his in the air with my fist, as if threatening someone, and I will complain, I will complain!”15
In Evgeny Bazarov, two people fight with each other: a simple, natural man and an ideological man. And so, when the natural, that is, “the broad wave of life that continuously rolls around us and in ourselves”16, breaks out, Bazarov, as it were, gets rid of the contagious disease-idea, recovers for a while, so it seems to him that “a cigar not tasty"17, and he "throws it into the dust of the road"18. This happens to him when he hopelessly fell in love with Odintsova, when he turned from a rationalist to a romantic. Bazarov is not shown smoking before his death. Dying, he recovers, gets rid of the “infection”19, and therefore becomes more natural, humane.
Lines about contagious diseases of people, about the defeat of ideological heroes by various ailments appear every now and then in the novel. They prepare the ground for the emergence and development of Bazarov’s fatal illness: the aristocrat Pavel Petrovich, a man of principle, who put “his whole life on the map of female love”20, suffering from a fit, “wandered from place to place like a poisoned person”21; “residents of the province have managed to get used to cholera visits”22; the ideas of revolutionary democrats act on society like typhus, like cholera, “and this infection has already spread far”23.
Turgenev's cryptography is difficult to decipher; only through careful analysis are seemingly insignificant facts revealed, which nevertheless explain the author's thought. So, for example, Turgenev more than once emphasizes the heavy, painful disposition of both Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich, using only cognate words with a negative meaning to characterize them: “bilious face”24, “was bilious”25, “all yellow and angry”26, “boil of bile”27... You should also pay attention to the following artistic detail: Bazarov, an intelligent man, does not by chance constantly lose at cards. And to whom? Again, representatives of the first group. This suggests that he is losing to them in life, the ideas of nihilism led him to defeat.
“I don’t intend to follow the thread of the novel after Bazarov’s death. When such a person died... is it worth following the fate of people like Arkady, Nikolai Petrovich?..”28 asks Pisarev. And our contemporary, the author of the textbook Yu.V. Lebedev, following Pisarev, delivers a panegyric speech to the nihilist, adopts him on behalf of the people and seriously asserts that “the great people’s love sanctifies Bazarov’s grave”29. And in vain. After all, it is after the death of the revolutionary that events occur, without which the novel would not have ended and the author’s concept would not have been understood. What are these events? Here's what they are.
“Two weddings took place: Arkady with Katya and Nikolai Petrovich with Fenechka”30. Anna Sergeevna also arranged her family life: she also got married. Even Peter, “numb with stupidity and importance,”31 got married and, perhaps, will become a little wiser over time. During Bazarov’s life, during the days of his stay in Maryino, enmity reigned there not only between him and Pavel Petrovich, but also between the Kirsanovs and the peasants, but as soon as Evgeniy died and the imperceptible spread of his infectious disease-idea stopped, as soon as Nikolai Petrovich and Fenechka who were engaged in adultery, got married in church, as soon as the second source of the contagious disease-idea, Pavel Petrovich, left Maryino, the disturbed balance was immediately restored, and the “farm”32, which previously brought only losses, began “to generate quite a significant income”33. These simple, unprincipled people acquire family happiness, pass on their love to some extent to their children, and the thread of life is not broken. And Bazarov? He never managed and did not manage to get married, and did not pass on his spiritual heritage to his children. This means that he and the bazaar industry have no future.
True, there is a terrible episode in the novel where Bazarov communicates with peasant children, perhaps unconsciously instilling in them the theory of destruction, and this scene, all allegorical, is intended primarily for the thinking reader. The yard boys are interested in why the master needs frogs. “But to this,” answered Bazarov, “I’ll spread out the frog and see what’s going on inside it; and since you and I are the same frogs, we’re just walking on our feet, I’ll know what’s going on inside of us.” is being done." - “What do you need this for?” - “And so as not to make a mistake, if you get sick and I have to treat you”34. If you think about it, we're talking about destruction here.
one, lower form of life for the sake of the prosperity of another, higher one. Bazarov's biological and medical experiments are easily projected onto the social plane. He denies everything, “to be more precise, destroys”35 in words for now, and later his followers, professional Bolshevik revolutionaries, will conduct experiments on millions of people: they will destroy some in the name of the lives of others, because people are the same frogs!
The living “dead man”36 Pavel Petrovich also turned out to be lonely, aristocracy led him to a dead end in life. He also has no family, no children, although Fenechka, who has an “undoubted resemblance”37 to Princess Nellie R., could become his wife, but “principles” do not allow this38.
And Nikolai Petrovich, a nobleman like his brother, stands outside the idea, outside the principles, so he married the daughter of a simple official, then, after the death of his wife, he fell in love with the daughter of his housekeeper, Fedosya Nikolaevna, who, without getting married, gave birth to him son.
The ending of the novel shows that fathers and children, not cut off from nature, from God, find human happiness, that temporary conflicts between them disappear and friendship and love grow stronger. “It was very good for everyone,” Turgenev writes about them. “Their affairs are beginning to get better... Nikolai Petrovich has already managed to fall in love with Katya without memory, Fenichka, after her husband and Mitya, adores no one as much as her daughter-in-law.”39. Arkady and Katya named their son Kolya not “in memory of Bazarov”40, but as a sign of respect and love for Nikolai Petrovich.
Arkady has already managed to forget about his former “teacher”41: not he, but his young wife proposes a toast in memory of Bazarov, and then only in a whisper. It is generally accepted that Evgeny himself breaks off relations with Arkady after seeing. how his “student”42 turns into a “family bird”43. “I expected a completely different direction from you,”44 declares Bazarov and continues to reproach him for the fact that Arkady “has not matured”45 into a nihilist revolutionary. Meanwhile, young Kirsanov himself moves away from his teacher, from his views and teachings; it is not without reason that long before the final break he managed to “get bored under the same roof with Bazarov, and was drawn away”46, however, Arkady “still wants to be useful, but already He is not looking for his ideals where he was looking for them before."47. The healthy body of young Kirsanov rejects the disease of bazaarism that had become attached. And Nikolai Petrovich’s nature is not predisposed to it, which cannot be said about Bazarov. He is really genetically designed in such a way that he is inclined to deny and destroy. “I adhere to the negative direction - due to sensation,” he says sincerely to his best student, note, in a calm atmosphere. “I am pleased to deny, my brain is designed that way - and that’s it! Why do I like chemistry? Why do you like apples? - also in the power of sensation. It’s all one. People will never penetrate deeper than this. Not everyone will tell you this, and I won’t tell you this another time.”48
Thus, Bazarov is pushed towards destruction by two forces: the false idea of revolution and the initial inclination towards denial and Napoleonism (even in a card game, according to his father, he follows the “Napoleonic rule”49), and therefore the inclination and desire for unlimited power. It’s not for nothing that Katya compares him to a strong predator. “You can’t want this...Your friend doesn’t want this, but he has it in him,”50 she says to Arkady. The features of a predator are also shown in the scene of declaration of love. A “heavy passion, similar to anger and, perhaps, akin to it…” flares up in Bazarov...51
He “casts a devouring gaze on the woman.”52 This scene takes on greater significance if we compare it with a similar episode, where Arkady also confesses his love, but very shyly, modestly and politely. The beast in Bazarov wakes up during a quarrel with his friend. Satanic pride, the “bottomless abyss of pride”53 of Bazarov, who considers himself a giant and a god, do not allow him to yield to his student in an argument, although Arkady is right in everything. Having exhausted all arguments, the teacher is ready to use “brute Mongolian force”54. His face becomes ominous, his eyes light up like those of a predator.
Turgenev does not believe that the Bazarovs can rearrange life and bring relief to the people. It would seem that thoughts about “necessary transformations”55
in Russia they should be concerned first of all with the revolutionary Bazarov. It’s paradoxical, but true: Arkady thinks about them! This means that Bazarov is not worried about the happiness of the people. A completely different thought breaks through the artistic fabric of the work: destruction, that is, a bloody revolution, is needed by the Bazarovs for self-affirmation, to gain unlimited power over the people. Isn’t this what the words of a nihilist speak about, spoken not in a provocative stop, which we observe in an argument with Pavel Petrovich, but again in a calm, frank conversation with his closest friend? “And I hated this last guy, Philip or Sidor,” he says, “for whom I have to bend over backwards and who won’t even say thank you to me... and why should I thank him? Well, he’ll live in a white hut , and a burdock will grow out of me; well, what then?”56 Now it becomes clear why the author conveys thoughts about transformation to Arkady, and not to Bazarov: only people like young Kirsanov, educated, kind, humane, loving and compassionate, will be able to change something in a positive direction, and people affected by all kinds of ideological infection and prone to “fighting”57 can lead society to tragedy if they rise to power. In Bazarov we see the forerunner of the Bolshevik leaders. fathers of nations, etc.
From all that has been said, it follows that there is no need to contrast Bazarov with Pavel Petrovich. They are not antipodes; most likely, Arkady and his teacher, as well as the Kirsanov brothers, are antipodes. True, such a contrast is associated with only one of the meanings of the novel, among which we can distinguish family, social, historical, political, philosophical and religious. In the family meaning, “fathers and sons” are parents and their sons and daughters, for example the old Bazarovs and their only son Evgeniy. In social meaning, “fathers and sons” are the older generation and the younger, who do not always have mutual understanding. In the historical sense, “fathers and sons” are the conservative Russian nobles of the 40s - 60s of the 19th century and the revolutionary commoner democrats, between whom there was an irreconcilable struggle. In the novel they are represented by the antagonists Pavel Petrovich and Evgeniy Vasilyevich. In the philosophical meaning, “fathers and sons” are the old, dying and the new, emerging, and there is a close connection between them, but the old never gives up its place without a fight, and the new, having taken its place, also becomes obsolete over time. In the political sense, “fathers and sons” are the dominant, guiding force in society and the opponents born by it. In the religious meaning, “fathers and sons” are believers, that is, wise, highly moral people, and atheists, blasphemers, prodigal sons, who, however, have the opportunity to return to their Father.
The historical significance of the novel's title lies on the surface and is clear to everyone. Pavel Kirsanov and Evgeny Bazarov are indeed antipodes and antagonists, but for Turgenev another meaning is more important - religious. And here both heroes, to whom the younger Kirsanov temporarily joined, find themselves in the same camp, but Arkady still managed to escape from it. The prodigal sons Paul and Arkady, presumably, returned to their Father with repentance, but the prodigal son Eugene did not return after long wanderings to his Father, did not repent before Him.
Bazarov is skeptical about the people, and his student is Christian, with sympathy; Eugene does not recognize art, the beauty of God's world, but Arkady likes everything beautiful; the teacher actually does not honor his parents, which is a direct violation of the fifth commandment of the Law of God, and the student dotes on his father; the first of them is unhappy in love, because he sees in a woman, first of all, an object of pleasure (it is said: “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” Exodus 20:14), and the second found this happiness because he respects a person in a woman; Bazarov exists and dies, but young Kirsanov lives and prospers.
Do Pavel Petrovich and Bazarov realize the tragedy of their situation? To some extent, for sure, but they can no longer escape the captivity of principles and ideas that run counter to the Orthodox faith. They are their slaves. Therefore, the misanthrope Pavel Petrovich “throws himself onto the sofa and remains motionless, looking at the ceiling almost in despair, and life is hard for him... harder than he himself suspects.”58.
But still, at the end of the novel, he remains alive, perhaps because in Dresden he begins to attend the Russian church and “almost imperceptibly be baptized”59, and Bazarov dies because he blasphemes, answering boldly to his father: “I only look at the sky when I want to sneeze"60. And finally, he consciously refuses communion before his death, and when he was already unconscious and without him, Vasily Ivanovich invited the church minister to unction his son, “one of his eyes opened and, it seemed, at the sight of a priest in vestments, a smoking censer, candles in front of the image, something similar to a shudder of horror was instantly reflected on the dead face."61.
Thus, Turgenev’s work, reflecting the inability of the liberal nobles to positively change anything in the life of society, as well as the emergence in the historical arena of a new force, revolutionary democrats, at the same time, through Christian comprehension, puts forward the most important social and philosophical problem - the problem of transforming existing orders . The revolutionary path is unacceptable. It leads everyone to a dead end, brings them closer to tragedy, and leads to death. The novel is also directed against any idea that runs counter to the Orthodox faith, to the nature of man himself. The more he violates the natural course of his aspirations and desires, prescribed by the commandments of Christ, the more he “breaks himself”62, that is, he sins, the faster he approaches the discord of the soul, the self-destruction as a person.
Bazarov's death is a natural result of the duality of a person, the result of suppression of the spiritual principle with the help of a proud mind. Each of us must live without inventing theories that are incompatible with Christian teaching, without complicating our stay on earth with sins, but, on the contrary, simplifying it and following the Holy Scriptures. These are the peasants who understood this in their souls and therefore did not accept Bazarov, and his parents, according to Herzen, “completely alive and living”63. They are created this way, they want to live this way, but their son is different, he has different sensations, he is built differently. The formation of his personality was influenced by three factors: firstly, nature, that is, he is the same person, the same “romantic”64, like many other mortals; secondly, a theory, idea, knowledge, or the forbidden “knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:17), with the help of which he wants to curb and remake the nature given by the Lord; thirdly, a special heredity that determined him such a “disposition”65 - the desire to criticize, deny and rule.
His nature strives for nature, for beauty, for love, for God, and false knowledge and theory interfere with this, moreover, the third factor - a kind of heredity - acquired, perhaps, from his grandfather, who “plowed the land”66, contributes to the second factor, and sometimes he contradicts it under the influence of nature, that is, Bazarov sometimes does not believe himself, his thoughts. He criticizes himself, doubts himself not as a person, but as a nihilist, a revolutionary, infected with the “trichinae”67 of destruction.
Disintegration, premature death awaits everyone, who tries to remake themselves and others according to their own will, and not the Lord’s, who tries to break out of what nature, that is, God, has given us - everyone, including human communities and humanity itself. This is the “meaning of the novel”68 “Fathers and Sons” - a brilliant foresight of the consequences of the revolutionary events of the 20th century in Russia and at the same time a threatening warning to revolutionaries of all stripes.
“To die the way Bazarov died is the same as having accomplished a great feat,” noted D.I. Pisarev. Can you agree with this statement? Of course you can. Let's try to prove the veracity of the words of the famous critic.
Why did Bazarov die? The main character cut his finger while opening the corpse of a typhoid man, and besides, Evgeniy was able to cauterize the wound four hours after the autopsy. Quite a long period of time... It is obvious that blood poisoning has occurred.
And Bazarov understood this very well. The Nihilist asked his father for a hellstone, showing very little hope of his salvation. But he was sure that he was infected. The hero's own remarks confirm my words. Bazarov says: “...and now, for real, the hellish stone is not needed. If I got infected, it’s too late now.”
It is worth comparing the reactions of father and son. Father, Vasily Ivanovich, understood all the terrible consequences of infection, but he did not want to accept the thought of Evgeniy’s inevitable death, trying to console himself with all sorts of hopes. For example, Vasily Ivanovich said to Bazarov: “God be with you! You have a cold...” When Evgeniy showed his father the red spots, Vasily Ivanovich replied: “...But still, we will cure you! "
As for Bazarov himself, the situation is completely different. Evgeniy understood that sooner or later he would die. Unlike Vasily Ivanovich, the main character did not console himself with empty hopes and illusions and tried not to console his loved ones. So, for example, he told his father: “Old man... my business is crappy. I am infected, and in a few days you will bury me.” Analyzing these words of Bazarov, one can notice that Evgeny had no fear of death, he was ready to die, to give up his life, there was no excitement in him. The proof of my words are the following remarks of the hero: “Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow my brain... will resign,” “... I won’t wag my tail.” Dying, Bazarov remained true to himself and his convictions. For example, he agreed to receive communion, but only in a state of unconsciousness, when he would not be able to answer for his actions. Bazarov said: “...after all, even the unconscious are given communion.”
Bazarov was not afraid to die. But Evgeny was annoyed that he would die very early, without having done anything useful for Russia, for the people, for the public good. The hero said: “I didn’t expect to die so soon; This is an accident, very, to tell the truth, unpleasant...” He very much regretted that he had never been able to use all his powers for their intended purpose. “The strength, the strength... is still here, but we have to die,” said Bazarov. The hero had many plans for the future, but, alas, these plans will never come true... Evgeniy said with pity: “And I also thought: I’ll screw up a lot of things, I won’t die, no matter what!” There is a task, because I am a giant...”
Thus, I was able to prove that Bazarov’s death is a feat.
Updated: 2018-01-31
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Trial by death. Bazarov will also have to go through this last test in parallel with his antagonist. Despite the successful outcome of the duel, Pavel Petrovich died spiritually long ago. Parting with Fenechka severed the last thread that tied him to life: “Illuminated by bright daylight, his beautiful, emaciated head lay on a white pillow, like the head of a dead man... Yes, he was a dead man.” His opponent also passes away.
There are surprisingly persistent references in the novel to an epidemic that spares no one and from which there is no escape. We learn that Fenechka’s mother, Arina, “died of cholera.” Immediately after Arkady and Bazarov arrived at the Kirsanov estate, “the best days of the year arrived,” “the weather was beautiful.” “True, cholera threatened from afar again,” the author says meaningfully, “but the residents of the ***…province managed to get used to its visits.” This time cholera “pulled out” two peasants from Maryino. The landowner himself was in danger - “Pavel Petrovich suffered a rather severe seizure.” And again the news does not amaze, does not frighten, does not alarm Bazarov. The only thing that hurts him as a doctor is the refusal to help: “Why didn’t he send for him?” Even when his own father wants to tell “a curious episode of the plague in Bessarabia,” Bazarov decisively interrupts the old man. The hero behaves as if cholera poses no danger to him alone. Meanwhile, epidemics have always been considered not only the greatest of earthly misfortunes, but also an expression of God's will. The favorite fable of Turgenev’s favorite fabulist Krylov begins with the words: “The fiercest scourge of heaven, nature’s horror - pestilence rages in the forests.” But Bazarov is convinced that he is building his own destiny.
“Every person has his own destiny! - the writer thought. - Just as clouds are first composed of the vapors of the earth, rise from its depths, then separate, become alienated from it and finally bring grace or death to it, so a cloud is formed around each of us.<…>a type of element that then has a destructive or salutary effect on us<…>. To put it simply: everyone makes their own destiny and it makes everyone...” Bazarov understood that he was created for the “bitter, tart, bovine” life of a public figure, perhaps a revolutionary agitator. He accepted this as his calling: “I want to tinker with people, even scold them, and tinker with them,” “Give us others!” We need to break others!” But what to do now, when previous ideas have been rightly questioned, and science has not answered all the questions? What to teach, where to call?
In “Rudin”, the insightful Lezhnev noticed which idol most likely “acts on young people”: “Give them conclusions, results, even if they are incorrect, but results!<…>Try to tell the youth that you cannot give them the full truth because you do not have it yourself.<…>, young people won’t even listen to you...>. It is necessary that you yourself<…>believed that you had the truth...” And Bazarov no longer believes. He tried to find the truth in a conversation with the man, but nothing happened. Too condescendingly, lordly and arrogantly, the nihilist turns to the people with a request to “explain their views on life.” And the man plays along with the master, appearing to be a stupid, submissive idiot. It turns out that it’s not worth sacrificing your life for this. Only in a conversation with a friend does the peasant relieve his soul, discussing the “clown of a pea”: “It is known, master; does he really understand?
What remains is work. Helping my father with a tiny estate consisting of several peasant souls. One can imagine how small and insignificant all this must seem to him. Bazarov makes a mistake, also small and insignificant - he forgets to cauterize the cut on his finger. A wound received from dissecting the decomposing corpse of a man. “A democrat to the core,” Bazarov intervened in the lives of the people boldly and self-confidently<…>, which turned against the “doctor” himself. So can we say that Bazarov’s death was accidental?
“To die the way Bazarov died is the same as having accomplished a great feat,” noted D.I. Pisarev. One cannot but agree with this observation. The death of Evgeny Bazarov, in his bed, surrounded by his relatives, is no less majestic and symbolic than the death of Rudin on the barricade. With complete human composure, briefly as a doctor, the hero states: “...My case is crappy. I’m infected, and in a few days you’ll be burying me...” I had to become convinced of my human vulnerability: “Yes, go and try to deny death. She denies you, and that’s it!” “It’s all the same: I won’t wag my tail,” declares Bazarov. Although “no one cares about this,” the hero cannot afford to sink - while “he has not yet lost his memory<…>; he was still struggling.”
The proximity of death for him does not mean abandoning his cherished ideas. Such as the atheistic rejection of God's existence. When the religious Vasily Ivanovich, “down on his knees,” begs his son to make confession and be cleansed of sins, he outwardly carefree replies: “There’s no need to rush yet...” He is afraid of offending his father with a direct refusal and only asks to postpone the ceremony: “After all, even the unconscious are given communion … I’ll wait.” “When he was unctioned,” says Turgenev, “when the holy myrrh touched his chest, one of his eyes opened and, it seemed, at the sight of the priest<…>, censer, candles<…>something similar to a shudder of horror was instantly reflected on the dead face.”
It seems like a paradox, but death in many ways frees Bazarov and encourages him to no longer hide his real feelings. He can now simply and calmly express his love for his parents: “Who is crying there? …Mother? Will she feed anyone now with her amazing borscht?..” Teasing affectionately, he asks the grief-stricken Vasily Ivanovich to be a philosopher in these circumstances. Now you can not hide your love for Anna Sergeevna, ask her to come and take his last breath. It turns out that you can let simple human feelings into your life, but at the same time not “fall apart”, but become spiritually stronger.
The dying Bazarov utters romantic words with which he expresses true feelings: “Blow on the dying lamp and let it go out...” For the hero, this is an expression of only love experiences. But the author sees more in these words. It is worth recalling that such a comparison came to Rudin’s lips on the verge of death: “...It’s all over, and there is no oil in the lamp, and the lamp itself is broken, and the wick is about to finish smoking...” In Turgenev, a tragically cut short life is likened to a lamp, like in the old poem:
Burned like a midnight lamp before the shrine of goodness.
As Bazarov passes away, he is hurt by the thought of his uselessness and uselessness: “I thought: I won’t die, no matter what! There is a task, because I am a giant!”, “Russia needs me... no, apparently I don’t!.. A shoemaker is needed, a tailor is needed, a butcher...” Likening him to Rudin, Turgenev recalls their common literary “ancestor,” the same selfless wanderer Don- Quixote. In his speech “Hamlet and Don Quixote” (1860), the author lists the “generic traits” of Don Quixote: “Don Quixote is an enthusiast, a servant of the idea, and therefore is surrounded by its radiance,” “He lives entirely outside himself, for his brothers, to exterminate evil, to counteract forces hostile to humanity.” It is easy to see that these qualities form the basis of Bazarov’s character. According to the largest, “quixotic” account, his life was not lived in vain. Let Don Quixotes seem funny. It is precisely this kind of people, according to the writer, who move humanity forward: “If they are gone, let the book of history close forever: there will be nothing to read in it.”
Death of Bazarov
The main character of I. S. Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” - Evgeny Vasilyevich Bazarov - dies at the end of the work. Bazarov is the son of a poor district doctor, continuing the work of his father. Eugene’s position in life is that he denies everything: views on life, feelings of love, painting, literature and other forms of art. Bazarov is a nihilist.
At the beginning of the novel, there is a conflict between Bazarov and the Kirsanov brothers, between the nihilist and the aristocrats. Bazarov's views differ sharply from the beliefs of the Kirsanov brothers. In disputes with Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, Bazarov wins. Therefore, there is a gap for ideological reasons.
Evgeniy meets Anna Sergeevna Odintsova, an intelligent, beautiful, calm, but unhappy woman. Bazarov falls in love, and, having fallen in love, he understands that love no longer appears to him as “physiology,” but as a real, sincere feeling. The hero sees that Odintsova highly values her own calmness and measured order of life. The decision to part with Anna Sergeevna leaves a heavy mark on Bazarov’s soul. Unrequited love.
The “imaginary” followers of Bazarov include Sitnikov and Kukshina. Unlike them, for whom denial is just a mask that allows them to hide their inner vulgarity and inconsistency, Bazarov, with confidence in his abilities, defends views close to him. Vulgarity and insignificance.
Bazarov, having arrived to his parents, notices that he is getting bored with them: Bazarov cannot talk to either his father or his mother the way he talks to Arkady, or even argue the way he argues with Pavel Petrovich, so he decides to leave. But soon he comes back, where he helps his father treat sick peasants. People of different generations, different development.
Bazarov likes to work, for him work is satisfaction and self-esteem, so he is close to the people. Bazarov is loved by children, servants and men, because they see him as a simple and intelligent person. The people are their understanding.
Turgenev considers his hero doomed. Bazarov has two reasons: loneliness in society and internal conflict. The author shows how Bazarov remains lonely.
Bazarov's death was the result of a small cut he received while opening the body of a peasant who had died of typhus. Evgeny is waiting to meet the woman he loves in order to once again confess his love to her, and he also becomes softer with his parents, deep down in his soul, probably still understanding that they have always occupied a significant place in his life and deserve a much more attentive and sincere attitude. Before death, he is strong, calm and calm. The death of the hero gave him time to evaluate what he had done and realize his life. His nihilism turned out to be incomprehensible, since he himself is now denied by both life and death. We feel not pity for Bazarov, but respect, and at the same time we remember that before us is an ordinary person with his fears and weaknesses.
Bazarov is a romantic at heart, but he believes that romanticism has no place in his life now. But still, fate made a revolution in Evgeny’s life, and Bazarov begins to understand what he once rejected. Turgenev sees him as an unrealized poet, capable of the strongest feelings, possessing fortitude.
DI. Pisarev claims that “It’s still bad for the Bazarovs to live in the world, even though they sing and whistle. No activity, no love, and therefore no pleasure.” The critic also argues that one must live “while one can live, eat dry bread when there is no roast beef, be with women when one cannot love a woman, and generally not dream about orange trees and palm trees when there are snowdrifts and cold tundra underfoot.”
Bazarov's death is symbolic: medicine and natural sciences, on which Bazarov so relied, turned out to be insufficient for life. But from the author's point of view, death is natural. Turgenev defines the figure of Bazarov as tragic and “doomed to death.” The author loved Bazarov and repeatedly said that he was “clever” and a “hero.” Turgenev wanted the reader to fall in love with Bazarov with his rudeness, heartlessness, and ruthless dryness.
He regrets his unspent strength, his unfulfilled task. Bazarov devoted his entire life to the desire to benefit the country and science. We imagine him as an intelligent, reasonable, but deep down, sensitive, attentive and kind person.
According to his moral convictions, Pavel Petrovich challenges Bazarov to a duel. Feeling awkward and realizing that he is compromising his principles, Bazarov agrees to shoot with Kirsanov Sr. Bazarov slightly wounds the enemy and himself gives him first aid. Pavel Petrovich behaves well, even makes fun of himself, but at the same time both he and Bazarov are embarrassed. Nikolai Petrovich, from whom the true reason for the duel was hidden, also behaves in the most noble way, finding justification for the actions of both opponents.
“Nihilism,” according to Turgenev, challenges the eternal values of the spirit and the natural foundations of life. This is seen as the tragic guilt of the hero, the reason for his inevitable death.
Evgeny Bazarov can in no way be called an “extra person.” Unlike Onegin and Pechorin, he is not bored, but works a lot. Before us is a very active person, he has “immense strength in his soul.” One job is not enough for him. In order to really live, and not drag out a miserable existence, like Onegin and Pechorin, such a person needs a philosophy of life, its goal. And he has it.
The worldviews of the two political trends of nobles-liberals and revolutionary democrats. The plot of the novel is built on the opposition of the most active representatives of these trends, the commoner Bazarov and the nobleman Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov. According to Bazarov, aristocrats are not capable of action; they are of no use. Bazarov rejects liberalism, denies the ability of the nobility to lead Russia to the future.
The reader understands that Bazarov has no one to convey what little, but the most precious thing he has is his beliefs. He has no near and dear person, and therefore no future. He does not imagine himself as a district doctor, but he also cannot be reborn, become like Arkady. There is no place for him in Russia, and, perhaps, abroad too. Bazarov dies, and with him his genius, his wonderful, strong character, his ideas and beliefs die. But true life is endless, the flowers on Eugene’s grave confirm this. Life is endless, but only true...
Turgenev could have shown how Bazarov would gradually abandon his views; he did not do this, but simply “dead” his main character. Bazarov dies from blood poisoning and before his death he recognizes himself as an unnecessary person for Russia. Bazarov is still alone, and therefore doomed, but his fortitude, courage, perseverance, and perseverance in achieving his goal make him a hero.
Bazarov does not need anyone, he is alone in this world, but does not feel his loneliness at all. Pisarev wrote about this: “Bazarov alone, by himself, stands at the cold height of sober thought, and this loneliness does not bother him, he is completely absorbed in himself and work.”
In the face of death, even the strongest people begin to deceive themselves and entertain unrealistic hopes. But Bazarov boldly looks into the eyes of inevitability and is not afraid of it. He only regrets that his life was useless, because he did not bring any benefit to his homeland. And this thought gives him a lot of suffering before his death: “Russia needs me... No, apparently, I don’t. And who is needed? I need a shoemaker, I need a tailor, I need a butcher..."
Let us remember the words of Bazarov: “When I meet a person who would not give up in front of me, then I will change my opinion about myself.” There is a cult of power. “Hairy,” - this is what Pavel Petrovich said about Arkady’s friend. He is clearly offended by the appearance of a nihilist: long hair, a robe with tassels, red unkempt hands. Of course, Bazarov is a working man who does not have time to take care of his appearance. This seems to be the case. Well, what if this is “deliberate shocking of good taste”? And if this is a challenge: I dress and do my hair the way I want. Then it is bad, immodest. The disease of swagger, irony towards the interlocutor, disrespect...
Speaking purely from a human perspective, Bazarov is wrong. At his friend’s house he was greeted cordially, although Pavel Petrovich did not shake hands. But Bazarov does not stand on ceremony and immediately enters into a heated argument. His judgment is uncompromising. “Why would I recognize authorities?”; “A decent chemist is twenty times more useful than a poet”; he reduces high art to “the art of making money.” Later it would go to Pushkin, Schubert, and Raphael. Even Arkady remarked to a friend about his uncle: “You insulted him.” But the nihilist did not understand, did not apologize, did not doubt that he behaved too impudently, but condemned: “He imagines himself to be a practical person!” what kind of relationship is this between a man and a woman...
In Chapter X of the novel, during a dialogue with Pavel Petrovich, Bazarov managed to speak out on all the fundamental issues of life. This dialogue deserves special attention. Bazarov claims that the social system is terrible, and one cannot but agree with this. Further: There is no God as the highest criterion of truth, which means do what you want, everything is permitted! But not everyone will agree with this.
There is a feeling that Turgenev himself was at a loss while exploring the character of the nihilist. Under the pressure of Bazarov’s strength and firmness and confidence, the writer became somewhat embarrassed and began to think: “Or maybe this is necessary? Or maybe I’m an old man who has ceased to understand the laws of progress?” Turgenev clearly sympathizes with his hero, and treats the nobles condescendingly, and sometimes even satirically.
But a subjective view of the characters is one thing, the objective thought of the entire work is another matter. What is it about? About the tragedy. The tragedies of Bazarov, who, in his thirst for “doing things for a long time”, in his enthusiasm for his god-science, trampled upon universal human values. And these values are love for another person, the commandment “thou shalt not kill” (fought in a duel), love for parents, leniency in friendship. He is cynical in his attitude towards women, mocks Sitnikov and Kukshina, narrow-minded people, greedy for fashion, miserable, but still people. Eugene excluded from his life high thoughts and feelings about the “roots” that feed us, about God. He says: "I look at the sky when I want to sneeze!"
The novel “Fathers and Sons” by I.S. Turgenev ends with the death of the main character. Understanding the reasons why the author completes his work in this way is possible through an analysis of the episode “Bazarov’s death.” “Fathers and Sons” is a novel in which the death of the main character is certainly not accidental. Perhaps such an ending speaks to the inconsistency of this character’s beliefs. So, let's try to figure it out.
Who is Bazarov?
Analysis of the episode of Bazarov's death is impossible without understanding what this character is like. Thanks to what is told about Eugene in the novel, we imagine an intelligent, self-confident, cynical young man who denies generally accepted moral principles and ideals. He considers love to be “physiology”; in his opinion, a person should not depend on anyone.
Subsequently, however, Turgenev reveals to us in his hero such qualities as sensitivity, kindness, and the ability to have deep feelings.
Bazarov is a nihilist, that is, a person who denies all generally accepted values, including that he does not share the enthusiasm of amateurs. In his opinion, only that which brings practical benefit is significant. He considers everything beautiful to be meaningless. Evgeniy’s main meaning is “work for the benefit of society.” His task is “to live for the great purpose of renewing the world.”
Attitude towards others
An analysis of the episode of Bazarov’s death in Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” cannot be carried out without understanding how the main character’s relationships with the people who made up his social circle were built. It should be noted that Bazarov treated others with contempt; he put others lower than himself. This was manifested, for example, in the things he told Arkady about himself and his relatives. Affection, sympathy, tenderness - Evgeniy considers all these feelings unacceptable.
Lyubov Bazarova
Analysis of the episode of Bazarov's death requires mentioning that for all his disdain for sublime feelings, he, ironically, falls in love. His love is unusually deep, as evidenced by his explanation with Anna Sergeevna Odintsova. Realizing that he is capable of such a feeling, Bazarov ceases to treat it as physiology. He begins to consider the existence of love possible. Such a change of views could not pass without a trace for Eugene, who lived by the ideas of nihilism. His old life is destroyed.
Bazarov's declaration of love is not just words, it is an admission of his own defeat. Eugene's nihilistic theories are shattered.
Turgenev considers it inappropriate to end the novel with a change in the views of the main character, but decides to end the work with his death.
Is Bazarov's death an accident?
So, in the finale of the novel, the main event is the death of Bazarov. Analysis of the episode requires remembering the reason why, according to the text of the work, the main character dies.
His life becomes impossible due to an unfortunate accident - a small cut that Bazarov received during the autopsy of the body of a peasant who died of typhus. Ironically, he, a doctor doing a useful job, cannot do anything to save his life. Knowing that he would die gave the protagonist time to evaluate his achievements. Bazarov, knowing about the inevitability of his death, is calm and strong, although, of course, being a young and energetic man, he regrets that he has so little time left to live.
Bazarov's attitude towards death and himself
Analysis of the episode of Bazarov's death is impossible without a deeper understanding of how the hero relates to the proximity of his end and death in general.
No person can calmly realize that the end of his life is approaching. Evgeniy, being a person who is certainly strong and self-confident, is no exception. He regrets that he did not complete his main task. He understands the power of death and speaks of the approaching final minutes with bitter irony: “Yes, go ahead, try to deny death. It denies you, and that’s it!”
So, Bazarov’s death is approaching. Analysis of the episode, which is one of the key ones in the novel, requires an understanding of how the character of the main character has changed. Evgeniy becomes kinder and more sentimental. He wants to meet his beloved, once again tell about his feelings. Bazarov treats his parents more gently than before, now understanding their importance.
Analysis of the episode of Bazarov's death shows how lonely the main character of the work is. He does not have a close person to whom he could convey his beliefs, therefore, his views have no future.
Understanding True Values
In the face of death they change. There comes an understanding of what is really important in life.
Analysis of the episode “Bazarov’s death” based on the novel by I. S. Turgenev requires an understanding of what values the main character now considers true.
The most important thing for him now is his parents, their love for him, as well as his feelings for Odintsova. He wants to say goodbye to her, and Anna, not afraid of becoming infected, comes to Evgeniy. Bazarov shares his innermost thoughts with her. He comes to the understanding that Russia does not need him at all, she needs those who do ordinary work every day.
It is harder for Bazarov to come to terms with his death than for any other person, because he is an atheist and does not believe in life after death.
Turgenev ends his novel with the death of Bazarov. The principles by which the hero lived are destroyed. Bazarov did not have stronger, new ideals. Turgenev notes that it was the deep commitment to nihilism that destroyed the main character, which forced him to abandon the universal values that allow him to live in this world.