The main conflict of the novel "Fathers and Sons" is a clash of two camps, two completely different philosophies of life. The camp of children is represented by the image of Bazarov. The author makes Pavel Kirsanov his obvious opponent, but the image of Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov, although belonging to the old generation, is opposed to both of the above heroes. Very delicate and delicate by nature, Nikolai Kirsanov treats with love everything beautiful that he sees in life. His habits, feelings, thoughts, all this is directed against the arrogance of his brother and the rude ideology of Bazarov.

Biography of Nikolai Kirsanov - a typical phenomenon of the past

Nikolai Kirsanov in the novel "Fathers and Sons" is a special character. His image embodied all the best from the aristocracy, and it is to him that the author shows his frank sympathy. It appears from the first lines of the work and does not disappear until the end of the whole story.

His appearance is unremarkable: a gray-haired gentleman, about forty years old, slightly hunched and puffy. Such a typical rural landowner of the middle hand. His biography is also typical for his time. A small Kirsanov family lived on the estate, his father was a military general, his mother was engaged in housekeeping. Like his older brother, Pavel, he dreamed of a military career, but it did not work out.

He studied at the University of St. Petersburg, then returned to his parents. After the death of his parents, he married a beautiful girl who became a good wife. They lived in love and harmony, raising their only son. When Arkady was 10 years old, Kirsanov's wife died. He devoted himself entirely to his son and household.
The author endowed Kirsanov with many positive traits: He is well brought up and educated. Kindness and delicacy, sincere affection for those close to him are the most natural feelings. He does not understand how one can do without love, how to live without believing in anything.

Kirsanov Nikolai Petrovich, father of Kirsanov Arkady, loves music, poetry, appreciates everything beautiful in life. Bazarov laughs at these feelings. However, the author does not consider music lessons hero with something ridiculous and worthless. On the contrary, he talks about the usefulness of poetry and music. In Nikolai Petrovich, all the best features of the Russian nobility are embodied, which, sadly, are also a thing of the past. They are replaced by Bazarov's nihilism, his judgments about the meaninglessness of principles and the empty life that the aristocracy leads.

Dreaminess and sentimentality are familiar feelings for Kirsanov. They characterize him positively, unlike Bazarov, who considers the dream to be nonsense and whim. For Kirsanov Sr., these features of his nature are components, this is a familiar state of mind.

The author considers Nikolai Kirsanov one of his favorite characters. On his side are the eternal values ​​of life: family, love, nobility and kindness. Kirsanov's characteristic is a characteristic of a person who lives in harmony with himself. His personality is completely harmonious. This image evokes sympathy not only of the author, but also of the readers of the novel from its beginning to the end of the development of the action.

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Depiction of noble estates in the novel

Manor of N. P. Kirsanov

At the beginning of the novel, the author describes the family nest of Arkady. This is a sad picture: gray and unattractive fields, low bushes, ragged men, rickety roofs. The estate consists of a new master's wooden house painted in gray paint, a farm, a salt water pond, a garden with poorly growing trees, and peasant villages. Best of all, Nikolai Petrovich got accustomed to a gazebo made of lilacs and acacias. (These lilacs and acacias testify to the purity of his soul.) The arbor can be compared with Manilov's "temple of solitary reflection". The peasants are lazy here, the clerk is a big rogue. But Nikolai Petrovich is still trying to do something to improve the economy, and most importantly, he smooths out all the misunderstandings in the house as best he can. Superfluous in this house of Nikolai Petrovich seem to be people with a conflicting character: Pavel Petrovich and Bazarov.

The estate of A. S. Odintsova

The estate fully reflects the character of the hostess. The dark trees of the garden, the alley of trimmed Christmas trees - everything breathes coldness and calculation, strict order. The house stands on a gentle open hill, as if showing impregnability. The architecture is beautiful, it was conceived in the Alexander style, but painted with yellow paint (reminiscent of a prison - restriction of freedom). Even the church looks like a strict mighty warrior. The only place free from strict foundations is a portico overgrown with bushes (Odintsova is afraid of this portico, because she once saw a snake in it). The interior decoration is striking in severity, even the smell in the house - like in a ministerial institution. All lackeys are arrogant and old-fashioned. In the house they live according to the routine once and for all. Odintsova manages the economy well, and her peasants are put on quitrent. Here everything is done according to plan and "rolls like on rails."

Manor of the Bazarovs

The most modest and poor estate. The Bazarovs own a small village and a mansion with six rooms. But this tiny corner is much closer to nature than the estates of Kirsanov and Odintsova. The house is surrounded by a birch grove. It is in the estate of his parents that Yevgeny Bazarov feels insignificant in comparison with the outside world. The men in this village are a little licentious, but kind. Vasily Ivanovich lives not at the expense of income from his village, but at the expense of treating people.

At the center of Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons", written on the eve of the reform of 1861, is the problem of the relationship between generations. It is considered both from the point of view of the socio-historical conflict of generations of "fathers"-liberals and "children"-nihilists, and the eternal conflict of fathers and children within the family. From the position of the first conflict, the image of Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov is considered, and the image of Nikolai Petrovich is included in the second. This determines the difference in their role and significance in the novel, as well as the difference in the characters and destinies of the two brothers.

Kirsanov.

At first it seems that there is a lot in common between them: they both belong to the stratum of the noble intelligentsia, are well educated, brought up in the best traditions of noble culture, both are thinking and sensitive people. Nikolai Petrovich is more poetic, passionate about music, while Pavel Petrovich is somewhat dry, strict in manners, and even in the countryside dresses like a "dandy of London." But in general, both of them represent, in the words of Turgenev, the "cream" of noble society. At the same time, each of the Kirsanov brothers experienced a lot: Pavel Petrovich had a romantic, all-consuming love for the mysterious Countess R., and Nikolai Petrovich cannot forget his beloved wife, mother of Arkady. By the time the novel began, each of them was destined to survive the loss of a beloved woman, and both of them had already crossed the forty-year milestone. True, Nikolai Petrovich is trying to create a new family with a young woman, Fenechka, and is anxiously awaiting how Arkady will perceive the birth of his younger brother. Pavel Petrovich has never been married, he keeps the memory of the countess, although he is also secretly in love with Fenechka.

The Kirsanov brothers are perceived by young heroes - Arkady and Bazarov - as representatives of the generation of fathers, almost old people who are living out their lives. At the same time, both brothers do not agree with such an assessment of their capabilities: they are still full of strength and ready to defend their positions. But in how they do it, the difference in their characters and capabilities affects. Pavel Petrovich, faced with the nihilist Bazarov, is ready to rush into battle and wages an uncompromising struggle for the "principles" so dear to him. Literally everything in Bazarov irritates him - the manner of dressing, speaking, behaving, but the merciless Bazarov denial of everything that is so dear to Kirsanov Sr. is especially hateful to him. This confrontation first turns into an ideological dispute, and then leads to a duel. But the fates of Pavel Petrovich and Bazarov are similar: both are doomed to a lonely, bobyl life, which ends with a break with everything that was dear to them. Bazarov dies, and Pavel Petrovich, who has become like a dead man, lives out his life in England, away from his family and friends.

Nikolai Petrovich, on the contrary, is much softer in his attitude towards the younger generation, he is even ready to agree with them on something and tries to understand what excites the youth, what they aspire to. The son of Nikolai Petrovich Arkady, who arrived from St. Petersburg, is at first under the great influence of his friend Bazarov and is somewhat harsh towards his father and uncle. But Nikolai Petrovich is trying not to aggravate the conflict, but on the contrary, to find a way to mutual understanding. And such a position gives its beneficial results. At the end of the novel, we see how Arkady, who got rid of the "illness" of nihilism and married Katya, gets along well with his father Nikolai Petrovich, his new wife Fenechka and his younger brother under the roof of his father's house in Maryino. The son successfully continues his father's business of organizing a farm. So the baton from one generation naturally passes to another - this is the norm of life, consecrated by tradition and eternal, enduring values.

When I.S. Turgenev wrote the work "Fathers and Sons", he said that he was embarrassed by the following fact: "In not a single work of our literature did I even meet a hint of what seemed to me everywhere." The merit of the writer lies in the fact that he was the first in Russia to raise this topic in literature and for the first time tried to create the image of a "new man", a representative of raznochintsy.

According to Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, aristocrats are the driving force of social development. Their ideal is a constitutional monarchy, and the path to the ideal is liberal reforms, publicity, and progress. Pavel Petrovich considers nihilists to be powerless "cynics", impudent "he thinks that they do not respect the people and traditions, but he consoles himself with the fact that there are few of them. He is touched by the patriarchal nature of the Russian people, not understanding it in essence. Considering himself a liberal, he Nevertheless, when talking to a man, he sniffs English tobacco, which is a very important feature that characterizes him as a person.

Nikolai Petrovich was a very cowardly person, for which he received the nickname cowards in childhood. The divergence in the views of the main characters lies in their biography. Pavel Petrovich is the son of a general, a brilliant officer who spent all his mental strength in pursuit of his beloved woman. When she died, he left the world, left his career and settled with his brother in order to live out his life. He is trying to make a change in his estate and economy, considers himself a liberal only because serfs are not beaten with a whip on their estate, but he is unable to understand the demands new era, views younger generation deeply alien to him.

Pavel Petrovich treats his brother, Fenechka, very nobly, he is very honest, constant in love, he understands art. Nikolai Petrovich, his brother, is a very sensitive person, he is benevolent, soft-hearted, fond of music, but his life is monotonous and boring.

The clash of the "current century" with the past century "displayed in his wonderful comedy" Woe from Wit "A.S. Griboedov, this topic is revealed in all its sharpness in Ostrovsky's drama" Thunderstorm ", we meet its echoes in Pushkin and many other Russian classics. Being people looking to the future, writers, as a rule, stand on the side of the new generation.