welcome to our discussion on dr. zhivago
despite winning the nobel prize in literature, the book was not published in russia until 1988. in addition, boris pasternak feared reprisals from the russian government (who had incarcerated his mistress and threatened to forbid his return if he ever collected his nobel prize). was it banned just because of a perhaps unflattering picture of the russian revolution?
aside from the collection of poetry at the end of the book, the prose itself is rife with poetic language.
p. 137 zhivago's visit to the commissar is described as occurring on a "stage" with "stars." this reflects a metaphorical system (life is a stage) that is also found in shakespeare: "all the world's a stage." here, however, there is a sense of absurdity since the stage does not reflect real life at all. what is to be concluded about the setting from the author's use of this metaphor?
pasternak also has a propensity to impregnate sentences with added dimensions of meaning by using similes as well as "as if" and "seems" comparisons.
"...their resinous needles were as waterproof as oilcloth" (p. 360)
the "houses flash by like the pages of a book, not as when you turn them over one by one with your forefinger but as when you hold your thumb on the edge of the book and let them all swish past at once." (p. 304)
"...the gusts of wind seemed to carry on their singing" (p. 3)
"she carries water...as lightly and effortlessly as if she were reading." (p. 295)
i find this to be rather delightful as a reader, with each comparison giving me a better understanding of the depth and complexity of characters and events. this, in turn, makes the story more believable. others, however, may point out that flowery language can actually serve as an obstacle to clarity of meaning. did anyone else notice or react to this? i also wonder if this is just a function of russian pragmatics...
on p. 359, the narrator celebrates women for chopping trees and building roads and "achieving prodigies of resourcefulness." yet as an individual, lara points out to zhivago, "you were given wings to fly above the clouds, but i'm a woman, mine are given me to...shelter the young" (p. 435). what can be inferred about the individual and communal roles of women in the novel... is mary right that russian literature tends to have female characters that swoon and die young? at least in this case, she outlives zhivago...
on p. 280 zhivago specifically recounts readings of tolstoy's _war and peace_, pushkin's _evengii onegin_, and russian translations of stendahl, dickens, and kleist. a few pages later, he relates to the creative exploits of faust. how have these authors influenced the life of zhivago, and assumedly, the author?
i have read tolstoy, and while i am not an expert on russian history, i noticed that both books portray a rather bleak picture of day-to-day wartime affairs. this makes me wonder how they relate to current conflicts that are ongoing in the world. i also noticed in both a sense that characters and their actions were in some way causally connected to things beyond their control. so lastly, is dr. zhivago a product of circumstance?
cheers
