In Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, women play very important and influential roles in the plot. Anna attracts Arkady and Bazarov, who are both trying to remain true to their nihilistic beliefs, which attempt to deny love "an irrational force. Bazarov's strong feelings for Anna end up shaking the very core of his being. Eventually, however, he tries again at love: he steals a kiss from Fenechka, which ends up leading to the duel with Pavel. In the meantime, Katya wins over Arkady. Women are at the centre of just about every major plot point in the book. But what does Turgenev think about women in general? The author makes several contradictory statements, via his characters, about how women are viewed. After all, however, he indicates that women are a necessary force, and a saving and nurturing influence on men.
At the beginning of Fathers and Sons Turgenev introduces four men, all of whom are strong Russian males. Arkady comes home from school a graduate, and brings his friend Bazarov, a nihilist with very powerful views. Almost at once, this younger generation of men conflicts with the older generation; Arkady's father; Nikolai, a liberal landowner; and Arkady's uncle Pavel, a retired military officer. Pavel does not like Bazarov from the start, calling him an "unkempt creature" after his first meeting with the younger man. This tension escalates when the younger men start expressing their radical views. Arkady informs his father and uncle that nihilists regard "everything from the critical point of view," and in the conversations between the two generations the young men criticize many the older generation's ideologies. Bazarov, backed by Arkady, denounces all irrational' pursuits including art, claiming, "a good chemist is twenty times as useful as any poet." For their part, the older generation says that "If we listen to you, we shall find ourselves outside humanity, outside its laws.