The novel Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev follows the story of several characters in mid 19th century Russia. The novel touches upon some of the most important themes happening within Russia during this time. In the beginning of the story we are introduced to Nikolai Petrovitch Kirsanov and his servant Piotr. A noble by birth, Nikolai Petrovitch is the son of a Russian general who distinguish himself in the war against Napoleon in 1812. Like his father, he got a commission in the army but shortly after got a leg injury that forced him to leave service. With the leg injury his father sends him to university where he graduates and goes on to marry the daughter of a landlord and had a son named Arkady Nikolayevich Kirsanov. Currently, we
He inquires about how she doing and asks to see the child. We get a small back story about how Nikolai and Fenichka meet. They meet in a remote provincial town where he fell into conversation with the landlady Arina Sa-vishna who he asked if she would come and work for him. She agree and came to work for him until she died. This is when he took Fenichka as his mistress. Later the same day Bazarov introduces himself to her under Arkady protest. After this Bazarov ask Arkady if he comfortable with his father 's relationship with her. He responds that they should both get married. This confuses Bazarov as he cannot believe that his friend still has faith in marriage. Chapters 8-9 have the themes of remembrance and nihilism. Pavel encounter with Fenichka shows that he has some feeling for her because she reminds him of a person from his past. Bazarov continues to ridicule Arkady for believing that his father and Fenichka should get married. Calling his father 's estate rundown. This upset Arkady and we begin to see a division in their friendship when he said "I 'm beginning to agree with my uncle," said Arkady. "You really do have a poor opinion of
Bazarov gives Fenichka a kiss which is observed by Pavel and feels it is his duty to defend his brother 's honor, and he challenges Bazarov to a duel. Pavel is wounded slightly, and Bazarov leaves Marino. Bazarov returns home and contracts typhus from performing an autopsy on a body. Arkady and Katya get married as well as his father and Fenichka. Arkady begins to manage his father estate. There are many themes in the later part of the book. In chapter 15 for the first time see Bazarov in an uncomfortable situation around Madame Odintsova. This shocks Arkady as he never seen his friend act like this before. Continuing in chapter 17 Bazarov begins to develop feelings for Madame Odintsova which he struggles with because it conflicts with his ideology of nihilism. This conflict is notice by Arkady who starts to lose faith in his friend. In chapter 20 Bazarov makes everyone uncomfortable even his parents. Like Nikolai, Vassily Ivanovitch Bazarov has tried to keep up with current events in the field of medicine to impress his son. This does not impress him saying "I 'll say this to console you,"Nowadays we make fun of medicine in general and don 't bow down before anyone." "How can that be? Don 't you want to become a doctor?" "Yes, but one thing doesn 't prevent the other.”(p.93) This shows how out of touch his father is with his sons ideology. This to some extent parallels when Nikolai learns that
On July 16, 1918, the Russian imperial family, the Romanovs, were executed in the basement of the Ipatiev House by the Bolshevik political party. While The Kitchen Boy, by Robert Alexander, follows the point of view of the family’s young kitchen boy during this event, along with a different possible ending to history, it also follows the boy through the poor treatment of the royal family long before they were killed. During their stay in the House of Special Purpose under control of the Bolsheviks, the Romanov family endured physical, psychological, and spiritual mistreatments.
Our aim is to portrait the character of Dmitry Dmitrich Gurov, in the context of the story, extracting those elements that are characteristic of the period in which Chekhov wrote the story. True love is a reason for everything, even deleting the laws of life. People's mistakes and weaknesses are part of life and, without contradictions, the world would not have evolved.... ... middle of paper ...
Dostoyevsky's writing in this book is such that the characters and setting around the main subject, Raskolnikov, are used with powerful consequences. The setting is both symbolic and has a power that affects all whom reside there, most notably Raskolnikov. An effective Structure is also used to show changes to the plot's direction and Raskolnikov's character. To add to this, the author's word choice and imagery are often extremely descriptive, and enhance the impact at every stage of Raskolnikov's changing fortunes and character. All of these features aid in the portrayal of Raskolnikov's downfall and subsequent rise.
“Days of a Russian Noblewoman” is a translated memoir originally written by a Russian noblewoman named Anna Labzina. Anna’s memoir gives a unique perspective of the private life and gender roles of noble families in Russia. Anna sees the male and female gender as similar in nature, but not in morality and religiosity. She sees men as fundamentally different in morality and religiosity because of their capability to be freely dogmatic, outspoken, and libertine. Anna implies throughout her memoir that woman in this society have the capacity to shape and control their lives through exuding a modest, submissive, and virtuous behavior in times of torment. Through her marriage, Labzina discovers that her society is highly male centered.
She adored him, and it was unthinkable to say to her that it was bound to have an end some day; besides, she would not have believed it.” (Chekhov, 270). This shows she has completely embraced the illegitimate love affair with Gurov, despite knowing the consequences it brings to her. It also shows that even though she is scared, she is not ashamed or disgusted at herself anymore and she believes that she is doing is acceptable. The love is considered immoral because she is married to another man, but moral because it is true love she has for Gurov.
Rich, beautiful, and married to a successful man, Anna should be the height of happiness. And she is, until meeting the handsome Vronsky who steals her heart, though she won’t admit it. Even when he professes his love to her, she can only respond with, “’If you love me as you say,’ she said, ‘then let me be at peace’” (Tolstoy 166). Whispers have been going around about the two of them, and this request from Anna shows that she’s truly making an effort to hide her feelings and have the perfect life. With the risk of unpleasantness from both society and her husband, becoming a man’s mistress is out of the question. However, for a single night, Anna pushes aside her hesitations to be with Vronsky, which later results in Ana becoming pregnant. Now facing the realization that she is going to have a child not of her husband, Anna decides to come clean with Karenin, “I love him, I’m his mistress, I can’t bear it, I’m afraid-I hate you…You can do whatever you like with me” (Tolstoy 254). With the truth finally out, and the lovers listening to their hearts, perhaps everyone could have a happy ending. Except that Anna soon becomes afraid that she is losing Vronsky’s love, and becomes frantic. The crushing blow for Anna was knowing it wouldn’t get better. She risked it all, her husband, her child, her status, and her way of life for a man she thought cherished her above all else. To believe
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment begins with Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov living in poverty and isolation in St. Petersburg. The reader soon learns that he was, until somewhat recently, a successful student at the local university. His character at that point was not uncommon. However, the environment of the grim and individualistic city eventually encourages Raskolnikov’s undeveloped detachment and sense of superiority to its current state of desperation. This state is worsening when Raskolnikov visits an old pawnbroker to sell a watch. During the visit, the reader slowly realizes that Raskolnikov plans to murder the woman with his superiority as a justification. After the Raskolnikov commits the murder, the novel deeply explores his psychology, yet it also touches on countless other topics including nihilism, the idea of a “superman,” and the value of human life. In this way, the greatness of Crime and Punishment comes not just from its examination of the main topic of the psychology of isolation and murder, but the variety topics which naturally arise in the discussion.
Chekhov reminds the readers that Anna is young compared to Gurov. Chekhov’s novel states, “As he went to bed he reminded himself that only a short time ago she had been a schoolgirl, like his own daughter” (3). The images of Anna being a schoolgirl not too long ago, when Gurov has a daughter of similar age, brings the sense of abnormality between the relationship of Gurov and Anna. It’s hard to imagine such a huge difference in lovers especially in the strict culture of Russia in the late 19th century where these occasions were unthought-of. The uncomforting thought of the difference in age goes back to differ the meanings of love and romance in the novel because against all odds and differences, Anna and Gurov hide away from these obvious facts. The thought of love in this culture is between a man and woman of similar age. According to Chekhov’s novel, “He was sick of his children, sick of the bank, felt not the slightest desire to go anywhere or talk about anything” (9). Chekhov’s description of sickness reveals that Gurov has a huge moment of denial, denial of family and denial of age. This denial of age, helps Gurov cope with the oddities of their relationship, the oddities of the love they had with the characteristics of a romance. Gurov was trying to change the definition of their relationship on his own mental terms. While Gurov was trying to bring out a spontaneous, younger
Pozdnychev has just spent several years in prison for the murder of his unfaithful wife, as we find out early in the story. His tale is a sordid one, as he relates his past life, before his wedding, the meeting of his wife, their marriage, their dreadful relationship up to the murder itself and the tribunal. What is interesting in his story remains the unique perception he has on love, on marriage, and on society in general.
Fyodor Dostoevsky's remarkable insight into the psychology of man is seen here in the development of Raskolnikov's dream on the beating of a horse by drunken peasants. The dream is significant on several planes, most notably in the parallel of events in the dream with Raskolnikov's plan to murder the old pawnbroker. It also serves as perhaps the most direct example of the inseparable tie between events of the author's life with the psychological evolution of his protagonists, as well as lesser characters, through the criminal minds of Raskolnikov, Rogozhin, Stavrogin, and Smerdyakov, and into the familial relationships of The Brother's Karamazov.2
Dmitri’s father, Ivan, died when Dmitri was still very young and Dmitri’s mother, Maria, was left to support her large family. Maria needed money to support all her children, so she took over managing her family’s glass factory in Aremziansk. The family had to pack up and move. Maria favored Dmitri because he was the youngest child and started saving money to put him through college when he was still quite young. As a child, Dmitri spent many hours in his mother’s factory talking to the workers.
Turgenov’s Fathers and Sons has several characters who hold strong views of the world. Pavel believes that Russia needs structure from such things as institution, religion, and class hierarchy. Madame Odintsov views the world as simple so long as she keeps it systematic and free from interference. This essay will focus on perhaps the most interesting and complex character in Fathers and Sons: Bazarov. Vladimir Nabakov writes that "Turgenov takes his creature [B] out of a self-imposed pattern and places him in the the normal world of chance." By examining Bazarov this essay will make this statement more clear to the reader. Using nihilism as a starting point we shall look at Bazarov’s views and interpretations of science, government and institution. Next we will turn to the issue relationships. Finally we examine Bazarov’s death and the stunning truths it reveals. These issues combined with the theme of nihilism will prove that chance, or fate is a strong force which cannot easily be negated. Nihilism as a concept is used throughout Fathers and Sons. To gain a better understanding of the ideas behind this term let’s look at what Bazarov says on the subject. "We base our conduct on what we recognize as useful... the most useful thing we can do is to repudiate – and so we repudiate" (123). The base concept of nihilism is to deny or negate, and as we learn later in the same paragraph, to negate everything. With this ‘destruction’ of everything from science to art there is no building for nihilists, as Bazarov says "That is not our affair" (126). Nihilists view the current structure of society as concerned with such trivialties as ‘art’ and ‘parliamentism’ while ignoring real life issues such as food, freedom, and equally. Nihilists are aware of these social woes and hence mentally deny to recognize any of the present authority or institutions which only serve to perpetuate a myth. Bazarov agrees with the statement that nihilism "confine[s] [oneself] to abuse" (126). "... I don’t believe in anything: and what is science—science in the abstract? There are sciences as there are trades and professions, but abstract science just doesn’t exist" (98). For Bazarov anything that is not tangible and concrete doesn’t exist. Psychology, quantum mechanics, neurochemistry would be scoffed at by Bazarov. It seems peculiar that Bazarov would say, "... nowadays we laugh at medicine in general, and worship no one," (197) while at the same time he pursues a career as a doctor.
Raskolinkov’s beliefs transform from the beginning of the novel to the ending. His theory was never complete and to test his theory he commits the murder of an evil soul. The irony of this novel is Raskolinkov who though he was an extraordinary men, have the will to commit murder but not the power to live with the crime on his hands.
First, the characters understand that their relationship is based on future aspirations and second, they have historical relationship disappointments. This third insight into the psychology of love supports the fact that many relationships and marriages often fail because of unrealistic expectations. Psychology research SHOWS that individual expectations for relationships actually sows the seeds of discontent. People are expected to provide not only provide safety, security and support, but also facilitate personal growth and freedom. Even though they come from an older period in history, Anna and Dmitri are stereotypical people who have unhappy pasts and hopeful futures. They are thrown into an intense relationship with limited mutual understanding. Chekhov’s limited dialogue and straightforward narrative leaves plenty of cognitive room for readers to ruminate about their own experiences and how they relate to the
Anton Chekhov?s classic play the bear revolves around two protagonists, Mrs. Popov and Grigory Stepanovich Smirnov. Mrs. Popov is a landowner and widow, who after seven months ago is still mourning her husband?s death and decided to isolate herself from the out side world and mourn until the day she dies. Grigory Sepanovich Smirnov is also a landowner, who lends money to Mr. Nikolai Popov before he died and he demands the debts be paid at once because his creditors after him. Smirnov insists, makes light of Popov?s mourning, and refuses to leave her house. Popov and Smirnov angrily fight with one another. Then Smirnov challenges Popov to a gunfight for insulting him and Popov brings out her husand?s pistols. At this point Smirnov realizes that he has fallen in love with Popov. At the end of the play, they end up in love and kiss each other.