An Adulterous Love Affair During the Russian Revolution - Literature Essay Samples

In Boris Pasternaks Doctor Zhivago there is an adulterous love affair between Yurii Andreievich Zhivago and Larisa Feodorovna Guishar that is carried on throughout the novel. Although the affair is essential for the movement of the story, it is not the only significant factor in the plot. World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Civil War all take place in the lifetimes of the two protagonists. Thus, the time and place play a central role in the adulterous relationship, for Yurii and Larisas love affair is driven by the historical context of Doctor Zhivago. Unlike other adulterers and adulteresses, Yurii and Larisa are not condemned for their relationship; instead, their love is perhaps the most positive and hopeful aspect of Pasternaks entire tragic novel. There is a revealing passage towards the end of Doctor Zhivago, wherein Larisa speaks of what is happening to Russia and her people, and this passage encapsulates the entire novel. At this point, Yurii has been separated from his family for a few years, and Larisa has been separated from her husband for just as long. Yurii and Larisa have been engaged in their affair for a considerable amount of time and it appears that their marriages are forever destroyed. With all this in mind, Yurii asks her, But then what spoiled your marriage, if you loved each other so much? In response, Larisa tells Yurii:But its strange that I, an ordinary woman, should explain to you, who are so wise, what is happening to human life in general and to life in Russia and why families get broken up, including yours and mine. Ah, it isnt a matter of individuals, of being alike or different in temperament, of loving or not loving! All customs and traditions, all our way of life, everything to do with home and order, has crumbled into dust in the general upheaval and reorganization of society. The whole human way of life has been destroyed and ruined. All thats left is the naked human soul stripped to the last shred, for w hich nothing has changed because it was always cold and shivering and reaching to its nearest neighbor, as cold and lonely as itself. You and I are like Adam and Eve, the first two people on earth who at the beginning of the world had nothing to cover themselves withand now at the end if it we are just as naked and homeless. And you and I are the last remembrance of all that immeasurable greatness which has been created in the world in all the thousands of years between them and us, and it is in the memory of all those vanished marvels that we live and love and weep and cling to one another. (403)In her response Larisa brings together the fundamental themes and issues of Pasternaks novel, and also provides an explanation for the adultery. The dual aspect of the revolution public and personal is emphasized in this passage and throughout the novel. Accordingly, Larisas explanation begins with the nature of the times war, revolution, and social turmoil and the effect on traditio nal ways of life for all Russians; then she personalizes the effect when she discusses Adam and Eve, and concentrates on Yurii, herself, and their families.The beginning portion of the passage focuses on the turbulent nature of the war and revolution, and the widespread effects of such rampant social restructuring. Larisa begins by saying: Ah, it isnt a matter of individuals, of being alike or different in temperament, of loving or not loving! All customs and traditions, all our way of life, everything to do with home and order, has crumbled into dust in the general upheaval and reorganization of society. The whole human way of life has been destroyed and ruined.This statement summarizes the catastrophic consequences seen throughout Doctor Zhivago. These effects are important because they bring about the moral collapse of society that eventually leads to occurrences like Yurii and Larisas affair. Initially in this passage Larisa is not concerned with individuals; she speaks of so ciety as a cohesive whole, and focuses on the general destructive effects of the Revolution. Yet Larisa is not the only one who has a grasp on the dreadful outcomes of the Russian revolution. Yurii also understands the changes everyone must endure. In a supporting passage, he explains: It was partly the war, the revolution did the rest. The war was an artificial break in life as if life could be put off for a timethe revolution broke outeveryone was revived, reborn, changed, transformed. You might say that everyone has been through two revolutions his own personal revolution as well as the general one. (146) Yuriis description echoes Larisas in that it addresses both the public and the personal.As expressed in Larisas passage, everything has crumbled into dust, and this image of complete destruction and ruin is evident throughout the novel. Yurii and Larisa constantly watch everything around them crumble into dust. In another passage it is explained: years of changes, moves, uncertainties, upheavals; the war, the revolution; scenes of destruction, scenes of death, shelling, blown-up bridges, fires, ruins all this turns suddenly into a huge, empty, meaningless space. (164) It is in the empty, meaningless space, after the complete destruction of their way of life, after they have been revived, reborn, changed, transformed, that Yurii and Larisa find one another. Thus, the war and revolution are a necessary prelude to their tale of adulterous love.Beyond the general life changes and massive destruction the revolution brings about, Larisa specifically mentions the effects on marriage and family in the passage. Furthermore, Larisas primary goal within the passage is to explain why families get broken up because the entire passage is Larisas response to Yuriis question, But then what spoiled your marriage, if you loved each other so much? (403) Larisa focuses on All customs and traditions, all our way of life, everything to do with home and order in her r esponse. Thus, Larisas answer, and Pasternaks theory throughout the novel, is that the institution of marriage and family life is undermined by the necessities of war and revolution. In a different passage that supports Larisas explanation in the main passage, she explains:She had noticed a sharp change around her recently. Before there had been obligations of all kinds, sacred dutiesBut now that the war was lost (and that was the misfortune at the bottom of all the rest) nothing was sacred any moreThere was no one around, neither family nor people whose judgment you respected. (127)The least important misfortune is the lost war, for during the fighting purity is lost. In Larisas life obligations and sacred duties are gone, and family is just not around. The sacred duties to society, to family, to husband and wife, to children have been stripped away by the fighting of the lost war. Amongst the dead soldiers lie the moral values and obligations of a people long defeated. Yur ii and Larisa are just two of the unfortunates who are left devastated by the loss of former obligations and duties, of a long gone sanctity.In the passage Larisa conveys that their families have already been broken up by the Revolution. This idea that the families have been broken up for some time is also revealed in an earlier passage when Larisa tells Yurii, Even if I managed to prove that I was his [Pavels] wife, it wouldnt have done me any good! What do wives matter to them at a time like this? The workers of the world, the remaking of the universe thats something! But a wife, just an individual biped, is of no more importance than a flea or a louse. (301) The most important point is that wives do not matter at a time like this. When the whole world has been turned upside down and shaken up as Yurii and Larisas world has been family and marriage become negligible. The significance is the time period, for while the universe is being remade a wife means nothing, she is just another biped, another being walking on two legs.Also in the passage Larisa begins to explain that the collapse of the sanctity of marriage opens the doorway for new forms of love, of love outside the binds of wedlock. She says, Ah, it isnt a matter of individuals, of being alike or different in temperament, of loving or not loving! Her point is that though she and Yurii have committed adultery, their acts do not negate the love they feel for their other halves. To prove this, Yurii tells Pavel at the very end, had you any idea how much she loved youshe said that you were the embodiment of what a human being should be, a man whose equal she had never metand that if she could go back to the home she had shared with you she would crawl to it from the end of the earth. (462) It is not that Larisa does not love her husband Pavel and it is not that their marriage is spoiled; it is that her love gets lost in the midst of the violent upheaval and rebuilding of the universe. If she knew w here home and Pavel were, there is no doubt Larisa would make it there. The same is true for Yurii and his wife Tonia.In the passage Larisa goes on to say, All thats left is the naked human soul stripped to the last shred, for which nothing has changed because it was always cold and shivering and reaching to its nearest neighbor, as cold and lonely as itself. This builds on the idea that the world has crumbled and all that remains amongst the ashes are forlorn and devastated people. The people have been utterly torn apart and stripped to the last shred, so that the best they can do is reach out to anyone or anything nearby. Yurii and Larisas affair is a perfect example of reaching for the nearest neighbor, as cold and lonely as itself. While the world is slipping from under their feet Yurii and Larisa find love and compassion in one another; and at a time like this love and compassion are hard to come by and certainly not ignored.The concept that Yurii and Larisa are alone in t he world and in need of one another is further developed in the passage when Larisa makes the biblical allusion to Adam and Eve. She says:You and I are like Adam and Eve, the first two people on earth who at the beginning of the world had nothing to cover themselves withand now at the end if it we are just as naked and homeless. And you and I are the last remembrance of all that immeasurable greatness which has been created in the world in all the thousands of years between them and us, and it is in the memory of all those vanished marvels that we live and love and weep and cling to one another.When Larisa compares her relationship with Yurii to the relationship of Adam and Eve there are several powerful implications. Foremost it develops the idea that Yurii and Larisa only have one another to turn to, for Adam and Eve were the only two people on earth and had no choice but each other. Also, God brought Adam and Eve together, and this suggests that a greater force likewise bring s Yurii and Larisa together. Also, it implies that God sanctions Yurii and Larisas relationship, as he did Adam and Eves, even though it is an adulterous affair. The parallel is complete because ultimately Adam and Eve sinned and were forcibly removed from the Garden of Eden, thus ending their perfectly pure existence, and this corresponds to the pain and suffering Yurii and Larisa endure. It is through all the hardships that Yurii and Larisa live and love and weep and cling to one another.Larisas mention of Adam and Eve is not the only biblical allusion in Doctor Zhivago, for Yurii also evokes an image from the Bible when he says, The sea of blood will rise until it reaches every one of us and submerges all who stayed out of the war. The revolution is this flood. (182) The flood is a reference to the flood in the Bible that covered the entire world and destroyed all life. However, in this image it is not a regular flood, but a sea of blood that engulfs absolutely everything an d everyone. This image of the world completely submerged fits accordingly with the images painted throughout the novel of the world crumbling into dust, and there being nothing left. After the great flood in the Bible the world had to be rebuilt and restructured, so the revolution is truly playing the role of a great flood. The biblical inclusions evoke powerful images of a primordial world, and work to justify Yurii and Larisas coming together in a time of utter devastation.In her passage Larisa ends with sayingit is in the memory of all those vanished marvels that we live and love and weep and cling to one another. The final image is people clinging to one another. A scene that illustrates Yurii and Larisas desperate need for one another their clinging to one another is when Yurii is ill in Larisas apartment. He does not know where his wife and children are, he has been through an arduous ordeal for a couple years, and he lays there cold, sick, delusional, and utterly alone in the world. Then from all the external madness, Larisa comes back to her apartment, Suddenly he realized that he was not deliriousthat sitting beside him, leaning over him, her hair mingling with his and her tears falling with his own, was Lara. He fainted with joy. (394) Pasternak accentuates the bliss and beauty in their relationship, not the infidelity or impropriety. It is at moments like this when Yurii and Larisa truly need each other. The image of Larisa leaning over Yurii evokes true love and compassion, for she brings him life. It goes on to say:He [Yurii] had complained that Heaven had cast him off, but now the whole breadth of heaven leaned low over his bedtheir love was great. Most people experience love without becoming aware of the extraordinary nature of this emotion. But to them and this made them exceptional the moments when passion visited their doomed human existence like a breath of eternity were moments of revelation, of continually new discoveries ab out themselves and life. (395)Yurii and Larisa hold on to each other as the only form of humanity they can find in a completely disillusioned world. This scene perfectly portrays Larisas image of the naked human soul clinging to its nearest neighbor.The point Larisa makes in her explanation to Yurii is the same point Pasternak continually emphasizes throughout the novel that the adultery in Doctor Zhivago is completely driven by the circumstances of the time and place of the story. Most importantly, the world that Yurii and Larisa live in has abandoned morality and propriety for mere survival. Though some love affairs may arise out of bourgeois boredom, this is not the motivation for Yurii and Larisa. The situation is not that Yurii and Larisa are bored with their lives and spouses and so they turn elsewhere for the sake of diversion and pleasure. It is more a sense of holding on to one another while everything around them is violently falling apart. It is amazing that surround ed by so much depravation the two are still able to experience love in any form. Their love is a product of their time, and so it stands apart from other forms of adulterous love that are driven by a different motivation than historical context. Yurii and Larisa are not condemned for their relationship mainly because they are not so much drawn to each other, as thrown together.BibliographyPasternak, Boris. Doctor Zhivago. Pantheon Books: New York, 1958.The period confirmed the ancient proverb, Man is a wolf to man. Traveler turned off the road at the sight of traveler, stranger meeting stranger killed for fear of being killed. There were isolated cases of cannibalism. The laws of human civilization were suspended. The jungle law was in force. Man dreamed the prehistoric dreams of the cave dweller. (378)She was still a child, but even then, the alertness, the watchfulness, the restlessness of those days it was all there, you could read it all in her face, her eyes. All the th emes of the century all the tears and the insults and the hopes, the whole accumulation of resentment and pride were written in her face and bearing, which expressed both girlish shyness and self-assured grace. She was a living indictment of the ageIts predestination. Something nature endowed her with, something to which she had a birthright. (461)Larisas reaction to what happens with Komarovsky:She sat before her reflection in the mirror, and saw nothing. Then, folding her arms, she put them on the dressing table and buried her head in them. If her mother learned about it she would kill her. She would kill her then she would kill herselfnow she was what was it called? A fallen womanand tomorrow she would go to school and sit side by side with those other girls who were like children compared with her. (45)Theres something broken in me, theres something broken in my whole life. I discovered life much too early, I was made to discover it, and I was made to see it from the very worst side a cheap, distorted version of it through the eyes of a self-assured, elderly parasite, who took advantage of everything and allowed himself whatever he fancied. (398)The Rowan TreeOn the edge of the taiga just outside the camp Yurii sees a Rowan Tree, Here a splendid, solitary, rust-colored rowan tree had alone kept its leaves. Growing on a mound that rose above the low, squelchy, hummocky, it reached into the sky holding up the flat round shields of its hard crimson berries against the leaden, late-autumn sky. (353)He sees the tree and remembers, Laras strong white arms and imagines the tree is Lara. (375)And Russia too had been a marriageable girl in those days, courted by real men, men who would stand up for her, not to be compared with this rabble nowadays. Now everything had lost its glamour. (310)Her favorite color was a violet mauve, the color of church vestments on certain solemn days, the color of lilac in the bud, the color of her best velvet dress and of he r set of crystal wine glasses. It was the color of Russia too, in her pre-Revolutionary virginity. (311) GaluzinaBut where is reality in Russia today? As I see it, reality has been so terrorized that it is hiding. (224) YuriiAnd everyone wants to live. This is a transitional period, when there is still a gap between theory and practice. (260)