Comparison between Bazarov and Ivan - Essay Example

Comparison between Bazarov and Ivan Roll No: Teacher: 12th May 2009 Comparison between Bazarov and Ivan The work, Fathers and Sons written by Ivan Turgenev keeps the character of Bazarov as its protagonist or the central character while The Brothers Karamazov written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky gives importance to the character of Ivan at its core. Both the characters are portrayed differently by both the writers. Bazarov is portrayed as a nihilist who believes in nothing while Ivan is a person who is atheist and believes that there is no God. In their unbelieving, they are somewhat similar. However, Ivan keeps great compassion for humankind and people around him while Bazarov keeps no emotion about everyone but with the passage of time, he transforms to a different person. Bazarov is a nihilist and believes that everything in this world is only true on the basis of basis of scientific proof. He only believes that everything that is old and traditional has no meaning in it until and unless it is proved scientifically. According to the words of Uncle Pavel in chapter 5, Bazarov is a nihilist “who respects nothing”. In responding to his uncle, Arkady, Bazarov’s friend informs his uncle, “A nihilist is a person who does not bow down to any authority, who does not accept any principle on faith, however much that principle may be revered” (Turgenev Chapter 5). The personality of Bazarov that is explicit from this introduction about his being a nihilist shows him as a person who keeps faith in nothing and believes on experimentations and scientific results. Pavel’s idea that Bazarov respects nothing is somehow right as one who shows distrust in everything will have no reverence for it. Therefore, Bazarov is critical about the things and believes around him. Bazarov shows unconcern towards any emotional aspect as he regards the scientific works as incomparable to any vocation in the world. He shows disregard for poetry as he says at one point, “A decent chemist is twenty times more useful than any poet” (Turgenev Chapter 6) He regards art as somewhat time wastage, which shows that he lacks the sensuousness of life. Bazarov is a character that is somehow ironic about everything around him. He believes in nothing. He is himself a doctor and feels that his profession and work is far more effective than the work of a poet. He also shows disregard for many concepts as he says, “Aristocracy, liberalism, progress, principles…….. What a lot of foreign . . . and useless words! To a Russian theyre no good for anything!” (Turgenev Chapter 10) According to Bazarov, aristocracy, liberalism and other concepts are of no meaning as they are not useful in any aspect. He regards all these words as a waste of time. He is not a Russian but considers himself such because of his negligible linkage to Rome. He further explains himself, “We act by virtue of what we recognize as useful……. At present the most useful thing is denial, so we deny” (Turgenev Chapter 10) Hence, according to Bazarov, usefulness of objects and principles is an important aspect that cannot be negated. He feels that he is in benefit by negating the existence and reality of everything. Bazarov informs that Romans do something by recognizing its importance. As related to Romans, he also keeps acceptance for performances that are useful. He even negates any feeling for his country. When Bazarov reaches Arkady’s place, he is not liked by Arkady’s uncle, Pavel while Arkady’s father, Nikolai shows astonishment at his arrival. Later on because of the nihilistic views of Bazarov and Arkady, the older generation feels somewhat at difficulty as they live with their rules and principles and give maximum importance to traditions, which are all negated as of any importance by Bazarov. With the passage of time, Bazarov starts changing as he shows linking for Anna. Anna is shown as a woman who is quite strong and powerful. Bazarov feels as if he is mastered by her and this fact makes him angry with himself. By falling in love with Anna and by accepting his love before her, he acknowledges his deprivation of his nihilistic rules. When he accepts his love before Anna, Anna rejects him and this failure also makes him much more depressed and tense. Bazarov rejects all kinds of emotions including love (Hocutt 3). Initially, he is contemptuous towards Anna because she is separated from his view regarding women. She is intelligent, shows interest in science and she also feels that order should be there in life and without order, no life is possible. Bazarov knows that he will not be able to tempt her in his own way, due to which, he shows a sarcastic attitude towards her initially as he refers to her as a “stale loaf”. He thinks that he has made a fool of himself by loving Anna at the first and then acknowledging his love for her. He is not able to abscond from his nihilistic rules completely but he breaks them to some extent. His changing attitude towards his ideologies is quite clear from many instances, first, when he is with Fenichka and kisses her, secondly, when he supports his father in handling and curing patients and thirdly, when he asks Anna to come to him in his deathbed. The change that is brought in Bazarov is because of the women with whom he meets in his life. Anna plays a greater part in transforming his personality to a great extent. When he is shown going towards his parents with Arkady after Anna’s place, he only leads three days with his parents, which are quite distasteful for his parents as they expected his long stay with them. Bazarov becomes uneasy because of his parents smothering attitude or he thinks their attitude that way. His parents love him to a great extent, which they also show. Before meeting Anna, Bazarov considers love as an irrational force and attempts to deny love at all (Poquette 1). After meeting her, his foundations are shattered largely due to which, he is able to know the power that women keep. Previously, he only feels that women are somewhat inferior to men and also weak. However, with his experiences, he comes to know that women are quite strong and powerful. He sees not only Anna as a strong woman but also regards Katya, Arkady’s beloved as a strong woman. Poquette (2003) informs that Turgenev intended to portray women as “powerful matriarchs” in his novel Fathers and Sons (4). Bazarov who was unable to give reverence and due regard to any emotion ended in loving Anna, a woman, who transformed his personality and made him to reconsider his nihilistic views and his negation of emotional existence. When Bazarov informs Anna that he loves her, he considers himself a fool as he says, “I love you like a fool, like a madman.” (Turgene Chapter 18) When he expressed his love to her, he was unable to face her as he thought that Anna was more powerful than he was. Bazarov thinks that he is manipulated by Anna and this feeling has caused bitterness in him (Poquette 4). Anna has no feeling for him and this consideration has made him more bitter towards Anna but later on, he controlled over himself and returned to his usual bearing. After informing Anna about his love, he returned first to Arkady’s house and then to his parents. He helped his father in curing patients and when he was performing an autopsy on a patient with typhus, he injured himself and got the disease himself. Typhus took his life and his last moments, he asked Anna to be there, which revealed that his love for Anna was true. Like Bazarov, the character of Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov was also depicted as cynical towards existence of God and existence as a whole. He is quite different from Bazarov but still, they can be considered similar to some extent such as they lack belief, Bazarov believes in nothing and Ivan is an atheist. However, the differences are more prominent than the similarities. Ivan is the middle brother in his family. He has two more brothers, Dmitri and Alyosha. Smerdyakov is also their brother but he is illegitimate child of their father. Ivan is disappointed with his father and feels that his father has no role in their bringing up. Due to his belief in his father’s absent role as a father, he also feels doubtful about the existence of God. He thinks when so much cruelty, injustice and evil is present in the world then the presence of God is questionable. For him, with God’s presence, the presence of evils and injustice would have been impossible and if it is all here, then there is no God at all. Ivan is portrayed by Dostoyevsky as a person who is intellectually strong and shows liking for reading and intellectual development. Ivan is also concerned about humanity as he gives deep consideration to the problems that humanity faces. In addition, he feels compassion for the sufferers and weak people. Ivan like Bazarov is also depicted as a proud man who feels that his work and presence on earth is appreciative. However, he is skeptical about his father. Ivan’s father, Fyodor, shows no concern to his sons and takes no part in their development and raise. Ivan shows disgust for Roman Catholicism, as he believes that a religion that is based on miracles is a false religion. Ivan not only distrusts the existence of God but also himself. He is unable to know the meaning of his existence. Ivan feels disgusted towards his father who has given no consideration to his sons. Ivan has a great influence over Smerdyakov, as he sermonizes Smerdyakov with his philosophies. Smerdyakov feels that whatever Ivan says is right and acceptable. Ivan is detached from society on the basis of his beliefs about humanity, God and morality. Ivan not only dislikes his father but his brother Dmitri because he thinks that they are somewhat alike. Dmitri and his father, both fall in love with the same woman, Grushenka. Dmitri is engaged to Katerina while he is attracted to Grushenka. He spends a lot of money for Grushenka and also elopes with her. In his elopement, he is arrested for his father’s murder. Ivan considers the father and son alike due to which, he says, “Viper will eat viper, and it would serve them both right!” (Dostoyevsky, Book 3 Chapter 9) It is Ivan’s feeling that Dmitri and his father, both are equals and will inevitably harm each other and this harm will do good to them as they deserve this. Ivan shows no disgust for his brother, Alyosha. He continues to put his philosophical knowledge on his illegitimate brother, Smerdyakov, due to which, near the end, he murders his father. Ivan thinks that everything is permitted in life. Smerdyakov in his justification for killing his father quotes Ivan’s words, “Everything is permitted…” (Dostoyevsky, Book 11 Chapter 8) Smerdyakov has no future of his own, as he is an illicit child who has neither a background nor a future. By acting upon Ivan’s philosophy that everything is permissible, he commits his father’s murder, as he thinks him as the reason for bringing him this downfall and this disrespected existence. After listening to Smerdyakov’s justification, Ivan considers himself guilty and has a mental breakdown due to which, he dies. The mental breakdown of Ivan is because of his felt guilt that he has participated in his father’s murder because of his philosophies. Initially, Ivan thinks that he is not guilty because his father had already died. He thought his father as already dead because he backed away from his duties as a father and he equaled his father’s doing to the doings of God due to which, he rejected the existence of both (Esdale 3). Ivan thought that the sufferings in this world are because of God’s negligence of humanity and humankind as whole. Later on, because of being moralistic, Ivan considered his hand in his father’s murder due to which he had a mental breakdown. Paffenroth (2004) informs that in The Brothers Karamazov, all the brothers wanted their father to be dead while one of them commenced the act in reality (17). It is not only one brother’s act to kill the father but all of them wanted to annihilate their father in actuality. Therefore, not only Ivan but also everyone is guilty. Ivan is wholly a moralistic character as he shows deep concern for humanity and shows disgust with the idea about human suffering. He rejects the very idea of punishment and forgiveness (Paffenroth 20). To him, punishment and forgiveness are nothing in relation to the sufferings of humankind on earth. He has seen many incidents of cruelty and injustice, which are quite unacceptable to him. Until the end, Ivan is able to acknowledge faith in universal guilt (Paffenroth 24). He feels that humans can be guilty as he considers himself guilty for his father’s death. Ivan has his own world and keeps reserved in it. He talks with people on the basis of their being intellectual or nonintellectual. He remains quiet most of the time and only talks when he has to express his notions regarding the world, humanity and God. After Smerdyakov’s murdering of his father, Ivan realizes that his theory that anything is permissible, is not right and it can lead to a drastic happening. Ivan is himself not a doer but a thinker. He restrains from any act that is immoral and unlawful. However, he preaches that anything is permissible but does not believe in this notion largely, as it is not him who kills his father but his illegitimate brother. Ivan has individualistic ideas similar as Bazarov. However, they learn with leading life about the realities of life. Both of the characters died at the end and their deaths were immediate. Their characters transformed a bit but all their lives, they were involved in comprehending their existence and reality of the world. Bazarov tried to find realities through scientific explorations and investigations while Ivan searched for reality in readings and the world. One was a performer while other was a philosopher. Bazarov was a doer while Ivan was a philosopher. The characters of Bazarov and Ivan are quite contrasting; one is in search of human reason as a philosopher while other finds refuge in scientific investigations. For Bazarov, nothing is true while for Ivan, something is true. Bazarov gives no importance to emotions and feelings and ends up giving them the most importance. Ivan is sympathetic towards humanity and for him, emotions and feelings are quite significant, until the end, he has some faith. Both the characters reject and accept with the passage of time and with their learned experiences. Works Cited Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. Garnett, Constance (tr.). New York: W.W. Norton, 1976. Esdale, Logan. The Brothers Karamazov. Novels for Students, The Gale Group, 2000. Hocutt, Daniel L. Tracing Byron’s Influence on the creation and development of the Nihilist Bazarov in Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. Retrieved on 11th May 2009 from http://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~dhocutt/bazarov/text.htm Paffenroth, Kim. In Praise of Wisdom. Literary and Theological Reflections on Faith and Reason. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004. Also Available at http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=l83yOzw0nnEC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=Character+of+Ivan+in+THE+BROTHERS+KARAMAZOV&source=bl&ots=8urJ-HX16D&sig=nJZeexLKgpEDB-9OaWCk3_1XSmM&hl=en&ei=bmUJSpWYDdOUkAWA_7WuCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#PPA7,M1 Poquette, Ryan D. Fathers and Sons. Novels for Students, The Gale Group, 2003. Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons. Montana: Kessinger Publishing, 2005. Read More