In a well-considered essay of 350-450 words show how Madame Odintsova contradicts Bazarov’s nihilistic views in Fathers and Sons? Use ample examples from the text to strengthen your argument

 Nihilism is the belief that all values are redundant and that nothing can be known or communicated. Nihilism is Bazarov’s character and we see that he is very pessimistic, condescending, is a grand sceptic. People who are nihilistic to the core would rather believe in nothing, no loyalties, no purpose other than, perhaps, to destroy and God is no go area.

 

Madame Odintsova challenges Bazarov to an argument while they sat and chat. His ‘nihilistic’ temperament is already evident before the argument commences. He says of Madame Odintsov “Because, so far as I can tell, your temperament is one of the cold and lethargic order, whereas argument needs impulsiveness” pg 95. Which is quite narcissistic and premature as she darts back with a witty similar disapproval of his conclusion of her abilities, as she says “How have you contrived so quickly to appraise me?”. This is the first time she contradicts him and asks Katia to confirm how she is both exacting and impatient as well pg 95. “Rectify that body, and moral sickness will soon cease to be”, he says pg 97 but clearly his reasoning doesn’t seem popular as we later learn including his statement about ‘tree trunks’ to Anna sparked by Odintsova.

 

Bazarov says that he agrees “..., that there is no difference between the wise man and the fool, the good and the bad?” pg 96. This statement is contradicting because, we also learn that he is quite fond of Madame Odintsova’s beauty and quite in detail and that what was happening to him on the inside, ‘though unaware’, is something alien and against the very air he breathes of nihilism.  “...that what was taking place in his soul could ever have been possible, he would have denied it with a contemptuous laugh and a cynical imprecation, seeing that, though a great devotee of feminine society and feminine beauty, he looked upon love in the ideal, the “romantic” (to use his own term) aspect as unpardonable folly” pg 106.

 

Yet it is this romanticism that brings the highlight of his contradiction and when he is wounded because Madame Odintsova doesn’t reciprocate, he hides behind his nihilistic views and ultimately dies alone and without love.

 

The historiographer Ronald Hingley also designates Bazarov as “the original Anarchist but at the same time he preserves that “Bazarov is not the comprehensive Nihilist”. He claims the fact that Bazarov fell hopelessly in love with Madame Odintsov makes him a failure at the women problem, as he is more concerned with her appeal than her academic potentials. Bazarov never statuses his atheism outright, nor does he self-identify, as a revolutionary. Infact, despite being labelled by Turgenev as a “man of action”, we never see Bazarov do much of anything other than strike a pose in Hingley’s opinion, and he often sits around the Russian countryside feeling very bored. His emphasis on death and his sentimental love diminish his stature, and for this reason he can’t be a complete Nihilist (Kubala, 2014).