Fathers and sons is a sad novel. The wasting of a life; of an existence gone awry, all great ideas strewn to dust in the case of Bazarov, the compromise, the decisiveness in love and marriage, the reflective, unperturbed existence in the case of Kirsanov. These are the major themes of the novel. The novel seems to herald the Russian revolution and Bazarov is the figure who could usher in this intellectual revolution. However he needs a little more compassion and belief. Both the youngsters seem to represent two polarities.
In Bazarov we find a touch of Nietzsche. He is ruthless and unsympathetic, has no time for weaklings. He does not believe in love or affection and puts on a tone of mockery and cynicism in his conversation. He is a nihilist who believes firmly in destruction, destroying the institutions and ideas which support them. He does not respect his feelings towards Odintsova and therefore hates his own weakness. Bazarov is the doer. He believes in work and immerses himself in his experiments. Bazarov denies even religion. His inability to respect or love his parents who are quite simple at heart, not out of any absence of love, but more out of negation of such feelings born out of his erudition, is indicative of his rootlessness. Odintsova is the counterpart of Bazarov in this. She too denies attachments but is less troubled because of her strict, regimented style of life. Kirsanov ‘settles’ down and leads a serene life. His soft, tranquil poise is a contrast to the tumult in Bazarov’s heart.
Yet it is a life wasted, since Bazarov callously infects himself with typhus, when he attends to an autopsy on behalf of the town doctor. In the closing lines Turgenev describes the life of all the characters he has introduced to us. Bazarov’s parents are there too, old and heartbroken. They cannot leave the side of their son’s grave which is very close to the memory of their son. Inside, there rests a rebellious soul, in eternal repose. The fir branch and the upturned stake seem to speak to us about the immutability of time, of the great law of nature to which we are all bound. Fathers and Sons is the first great Russian novel and projects Russia at the crossroads; the Western influence that was knocking down ideas and beliefs, the traditional faith in God and spirituality and the simple liberal view about life, in short Fathers and Sons. Themes and ideas apart Fathers and Sons is the quintessential Russian novel holding in it somewhere the seed for the later works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and others.