Fathers and Sons: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Nikolai, Arkady, and Bazarov make their way into the house. The old servant, Prokofyich, warmly kisses Arkady and bows to Bazarov. Soon Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, Nikolai’s brother, enters. He is about 45, a man with “aristocratic elegance” who has retained a “youthful shapeliness.” He greets Arkady with a “European handshake,” as well as the Russian style of kissing his nephew three times. He greets Bazarov with the slightest of bows. When the young men go out, Pavel asks Nikolai if “that long-haired creature” is staying with them.

At dinner, there’s little conversation. Nikolai talks about the farm and impending government reforms. Arkady has “a faint feeling of embarrassment” as a man newly returned to his childhood home. He avoids calling his father “papa” and drinks too much wine. After dinner, Bazarov marvels at Pavel’s “foppery” in such a rural setting, calling him “an archaic survival.” He also remarks that Nikolai “wastes his time reading poetry,” although “his heart’s in the right place.” Arkady falls asleep joyful over his homecoming and wishing peace upon his recently deceased childhood nurse, but “for himself he said no prayer.”

The young men are soon asleep, but Nikolai broods late into the night, and Pavel sits before his fire, his thoughts wandering. In another room, meanwhile, a young woman named Fenichka alternately dozes and listens to the breathing of a sleeping infant.