BAZAROV – A HERO OF “MIXED” SOCIAL ORIGIN

Abstract

This article describes the study of Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons and the character of Yevgeny Bazarov. Despite extensive research on the novel, some significant issues remain unresolved. In the preparatory materials for the novel, Bazarov’s genealogy was outlined even more explicitly: “the son of a doctor, who was himself the son of a priest.” Why did Turgenev give his protagonist precisely this social background? This choice is deeply significant: it reflects a typical biographical pattern of many doctors in the 19th century. The medical profession was considered unworthy of a nobleman. As a rule, in the 1850s, children of clergy became doctors. However, the background of Bazarov’s father and his son’s attitude toward it are not as straightforward as they might seem. Researchers have established that when speaking about himself, Bazarov ironically uses the aristocratic term lekar (“physician”), whereas other characters in the novel refer to this profession as doktor (“doctor”). This provides grounds to suspect Bazarov of a sense of social inferiority, which, as Turgenev subtly hints, compels the character to continuously return to this topic and react sensitively to it in conversations with the Kirsanov noblemen.