The dialectic conflict in Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons

Abstract

This essay analyzes dialectic conflict as a formal and a thematic element in Ivan Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Sons (1862). The Russian novelist’s thought is characterized by critics as dialectic, always concerned with the two perspectives on a question. The essay seeks to demonstrate how such a vision is manifested in the relationship between the main characters of the novel. It was concluded that the characters are divided between those of closed perspective and those of open perspective, and that the novel favors the latter.