Fathers and Sons: Chapter 18 Summary & Analysis

The next morning Anna invites Bazarov to her sitting-room. She asks him about the title of a chemistry textbook he’d recommended. Bazarov rattles off some titles and authors, but Anna quickly interjects. She really wants to resume their conversation from last night, when Bazarov left so suddenly. She recalls that they’d been discussing happiness. Why, she wonders, does she never feel that she can possess happiness—only fleeting hints of an abstract happiness? Bazarov says that such thoughts never enter his head. Anna presses him, “[W]hat is the goal you are aiming for […] In short, who are you?”

Bazarov says that he is simply a student of natural science, a country doctor in the making. Anna impatiently dismisses this; Bazarov must have more ambition, but he is putting her off because he lacks confidence in her. Bazarov argues that there is too much of a gulf between the two of them, and, anyway, it’s pointless to speculate about the future. Anna keeps questioning him, sure that they’re meant to become good friends and that Bazarov will overcome his “reserve” sooner or later.

His back to Anna, Bazarov finally admits that he loves her “madly, idiotically.” He presses his face against the window, trembling with an unhappy struggle. Anna feels both afraid and sorry for him and finally says, “Yevgeny Vassilyich,” with tenderness in her voice. He turns, throws “a devouring look” at her, and draws her to himself. But a moment later, Anna frees herself in alarm, telling Bazarov, “You have misunderstood me.” Bazarov leaves the room.

A half hour later, Bazarov sends a note, asking whether he should leave at once or stay until tomorrow. Anna replies that there’s no reason for him to leave; they have simply misunderstood one another. But she thinks, “I did not understand myself either.” She spends the rest of the day pacing in her room, struggling with her feelings, until finally she decides, “A quiet life is better than anything else in the world.” She still feels sad and guilty, however, and in her life she sees “only chaos without shape.”