Notions of order and chaos - An Introduction

 

An Introduction

 

Perhaps there is a little bit of Evgenii Barazov residing in all of us. He sits there obscurely, deep in the core of our very hearts, waiting. He does not push or incite violence and destruction; he knows it will come. With a smile of transcendent knowledge on his omniscient face he will watch as our lives slowly turn into what he has predicted: pure chaos.

This is what we find the most interesting about Turgenev’s nihilistic protagonist of Fathers and Sons, for in all our heart of hearts we know Barazov very well could be right. He is a self-proclaimed radical, an egoist, fresh from a three-year stint at university, where it seems he grew even more deep-rooted in his fundamentalist beliefs. His friend and second protagonist of the story, Arkadii Petrovich, idolizes him, and considers all words that escape Barazov’s lips as the word of God—that is, if there was a God in Barazov’s world, of course. Arkadii and Barazov visit the farm of the former’s father and uncle—colloquially named, “Poverty Farm”—after a long trip from the bustle and intellectual freedom of Petersburg.[1] Instantly, a rift begins to emerge when Pavel Petrovich, Arkadii’s aristocratic, refined uncle, clashes with Barazov on the very principles of modern society. Barazov promotes chaos and the destruction of authority, as per the doctrine (although this term is critical to nihilistic belief) of nihilism; whereas Pavel stands with the rest of the timid and scared of Russia’s nobles, for—although Pavel is anything but a timorous character—his feet lay firmly on the land of old Russia, where principles and precepts are paramount to a successful, albeit hierarchical, society. Eventually Barazov and Arkadii venture out into the outskirts of the farm, into the town that exemplifies the downfalls of ‘old Russia’. Peasant drunks litter the streets, and destitution is ubiquitous; the only real intelligence is found in the mind of two women—of which Barazov normally considers being too emotional to really think about the nature of life and existence. One of those women is Anna Odintsov, the very destructive force behind Barazov’s entire being. This is because Barazov falls in love with the sophisticated, scholarly woman, and it is with this realization that Barazov’s confidence concerning his values come into question.

Meanwhile, Arkadii has unknowingly fallen into the mysterious depths of ardour for Anna’s younger sister, the shy and eloquent Katia. He is heartbroken at leaving the Odintsov estate, where the two friends had resided for little more than two weeks before Anna had redundantly rejected Barazov at his weakest moment: his confession of love towards her. Barazov plays a straight face throughout the ordeal, leaving immediately for their final stop at his parents’ house. Barazov had not seen his family in many years, yet shows much reluctance in visiting them. Again, we see in Barazov’s parents the duality between the old generation and the new: his father is an old army surgeon, who ‘keeps up with the times’, as it were, and tries his best to wholeheartedly accept his son’s radical views; Barazov’s mother is the antithesis, as a wholly superstitious woman who belongs more in imperial Russia than at the break of the Tsarist wave, when times are changing more rapidly than a woman of her character would even begin to believe. Barazov gets bored, however, and once again departs after only three days, leaving his loving parents heartbroken.

Frustrated at his life but accepting things as the way they ‘ought to be’, Barazov splits roads from Arkadii, becoming too pretentious for even his very own admirer; whether this is because Arkadii has grown out of the radicalism of youth, or because Barazov’s beliefs have surpassed the limit of Arkadii’s knowledge, is left to speculation by the author. After separating, Barazov returns once again, to the delight of his parents, back home. The problem, however, is that life for Barazov has digressed into pointlessness: he seems to find nothing in life that pleasures him more than his studies, as a future doctor—ironically enough, it is his only passion remaining that leads to his downfall. Barazov comes across a man dying of typhus, and receives permission to dissect the corpse as an ‘experiment’. He nicks his thumb with a bloodied scalpel as a result, and falls victim to the merciless disease. Barazov takes his death at face value, seeing it as nothing more than the extinguishment of another being, and like a candle falling victim to a pitiless breeze, Barazov dies by the side of his forever-devoted parents. It is at this dismal note that the novel ends, and we are left like an observer of a painting: in the darkness, a father and a mother of two different eras mourn the death of a son representing the impertinent change of a deteriorating Russia, and as we observe the diming candlelight in the background, we know that life at that moment will forever be changed for those of the majestic and forlorn Russian nation. Indeed, then, Barazov is essentially a part of all humanity: the internal sense of materialistic indifference that is always at arms with the transcendental, numinous essence of the mind.

A multitude of themes permeate the novel devoted to the examination of consistency and change; to this day it is impossible to tell whether Turgenev sided with the radical youthfulness and vigour of Barazov, or the anodyne and iniquitous complacency of Pavel’s static existence. Nonetheless, Turgenev’s novel is an excellent analysis of Russian society during this tumultuous time. The most obvious of these themes, as they will be called, is the generational divide between the younger, immoderately inclined cohort, and the older, aristocratically based gentry. More philosophical, another of the themes deals with the virtues of materialism and the more aesthetically positivist views of humanity. Most importantly, however, is the permeating theme of nihilism, dealing specifically with various beliefs on the governance of humankind. Finally, though, after all this speculation and trivial discussion, comes the crux of this very novel: since nihilistic theory is the elemental core inside all of values being discussed, how, then, would nihilism work in any given society? This, ladies and gentlemen, is the crisis of nihilism that this novel, in its entire prowess, is trying to seal away into the cave of resolved enigmas.

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[1] Turgenev (1862), p. 14

Reviews

[Zymotic]

i smell sex and candy here, mhmmm....
and who's that lounging in my chair, mhmmm....
and who's that casting devious stares in my direction?
mama this surely is a dream.... yea...
yea mama this surely is a dream...

- love chellsea