In Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago there is an adulterous love story between Yurii Andreievich Zhivago and Larisa Feodorovna Guishar that continues throughout the novel. Although the story is essential to the development of the story, it is not the only significant factor in the plot. The First World War, the Russian Revolution and the Civil War all take place in the lives of the two protagonists. Therefore, time and place play a central role in the adulterous relationship, as the love story between Yurii and Larisa 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 Pasternak's entire tragic novel. There is a revealing passage near the end of Doctor Zhivago, in which Larisa talks about what is happening to Russia and its 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 relationship for a long time and it seems that their marriages are destroyed forever. With all this in mind, Yurii asks her, "So what ruined your marriage if you loved each other so much?" In response, Larisa tells Yurii: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "But it is strange that I, an ordinary woman, have to explain to you, who are so wise, what is happening to human life in general and to life in Russia and why families break up, including yours and mine. Ah, it's not a question of individuals, of being similar or different in temperament, of loving or not loving All customs and traditions, all our lifestyles, everything to do with home and order, has crumbled into dust in the general upheaval and reorganization of society. The entire human way of life has been destroyed and ruined. All that remains is the human soul naked and stripped to the last shred, for which it is not nothing changed he was always cold and trembling and extended to his nearest neighbor, cold and lonely like him. You and I are like Adam and Eve, the first two men on earth who at the beginning of the world had nothing to cover themselves with. -and now in the end if this is the case we are just as naked and homeless. And you and I are the last memory of all that immeasurable greatness that was created in the world in all the thousands of years between them and us, and it is in the memory of all those vanished wonders that we live, love, cry and (403) In her response Larisa brings together the fundamental themes and issues of Pasternak's 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, Larisa's explanation begins with the nature of the times - war, revolution and social unrest - and the effect on the traditional lifestyles of all Russians, then personalizes the effect when talking about Adam and Eve, and focuses about Yurii, herself, and their families. The opening part of the passage focuses on the turbulent nature of war and revolution, and the widespread effects of such rampant social restructuring. "Ah, it's not a question of individuals, of being similar or different in temperament, of loving or not loving! All the habits and customs, our entire way of life, everything that has to do with home and order , has crumbled into dust in the general upheaval and reorganization of society. The entire human way of life has been destroyed and ruined." This statement sums up the catastrophic consequences seen in DoctorZhivago. These effects are important because they bring about the moral collapse of society which ultimately leads to events like the relationship between Yurii and Larisa. Initially in this passage Larisa is not concerned with "individuals"; talks about society as a cohesive whole and focuses on the overall destructive effects of the Revolution. Yet Larisa is not the only one to understand the terrible results of the Russian revolution. Yurii also understands the changes everyone must endure. In a supporting passage, he explains: "Part of it was the war, the revolution did the rest. The war was an artificial pause in life---as if life could be postponed for a while... revolution broke out. ..everyone was revived, reborn, changed, transformed. One could say that everyone went through two revolutions: their own personal revolution and the general one." (146) Yurii's description echoes Larisa's in that it addresses both the public and the personal. As expressed in Larisa's 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, displacements, uncertainties, upheavals; war, revolution; scenes of destruction, scenes of death, bombings, blown up bridges, fires, ruins --- all of this suddenly transforms into a huge, empty and meaningless space." (164) It is in the "empty and meaningless space", after the complete destruction of their way of life, after they have been "revived, reborn, changed, transformed", that Yurii and Larissa find each other. Therefore, war and revolution are a necessary prelude to their story of adulterous love. Beyond the general life changes and massive destruction the revolution causes, Larisa specifically mentions the effects on marriage and family in the passage. Furthermore, Larisa's main goal within the passage is to explain "why families divide" because the entire passage is Larisa's response to Yurii's question: "But then what ruined your marriage, if you loved each other that much?" (403) Larisa focuses in her response on “All manners and customs, our entire way of life, everything that has to do with home and order.” Thus, Larisa's response, and Pasternak's 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 Larisa's explanation in the main passage, she explains: "Recently she had noticed a sharp change around her. Before there were obligations of all kinds, sacred duties... But now that the war was lost (and that was the bad luck behind everything else) nothing was sacred anymore... There was no one around anymore, no family members or people whose judgment you respected." (127)The least important "disgrace" is the lost war, because during the fight purity is lost. In Larisa's life the "obligations" and "sacred duties" have disappeared and the family is simply not there. Sacred duties – to society, to family, to husband and wife, to children – have been stripped away in the struggle for the lost war. Among the dead soldiers are the moral values ​​and obligations of a long-defeated people. Yurii and Larisa are just two of the unfortunate people who are devastated by the loss of previous obligations and duties, of a sacredness that has now disappeared. In the passage Larisa communicates that their families have already been divided by the Revolution. This idea that families have been separated for some time is also revealed in an earlier passage when Larisa says to Yurii, "Even if I could prove that I was the wifeof his [Pavel's], it wouldn't have done me any good! What importance do wives have for them at a time like this? The workers of the world, the remaking of the universe... that's something! But a wife, simply a two-legged individual, 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 – as Yurii and Larisa's world has been – family and marriage become negligible. The meaning is the time period, because while the universe is being remade, a wife means nothing, she is just another "biped", another being who walks on two legs. Also in the passage Larisa begins to explain that collapse of the sanctity of marriage opens the door to new forms of love, of love outside the bonds of marriage. He says: "Ah, it is not a question of individuals, of being similar or different in temperament, of loving or not loving!" that although she and Yurii have committed adultery, their acts do not negate the love they feel for their other half To prove this, Yurii says to Pavel at the very end, “…you had any idea how much he loved you…ha said that you were the embodiment of what a human being should be, a man whose equal he had never had?" met... and that if he could return to the home he had shared with you, he would crawl there from the ends of the earth ." (462) It's not that Larissa doesn't love her husband Paolo and it's not that their marriage is ruined; it's that his love is lost in the midst of the violent upheaval and reconstruction of the universe. If she knew where "home" and Pavel were, there is no doubt that Larisa would have made it. The same goes for Yurii and his wife Tonia. In the song Larisa continues by saying: "All that remains is the naked human soul, stripped to the last shred, for which nothing has changed because it was always cold and trembling and reaching out towards its closest neighbor, cold and lonely as him." This is based on the idea that the world has collapsed and all that remains in the ashes are abandoned and devastated people. People have been completely torn apart and "stripped to the last shred", so that the best they can do is reach out to anyone or anything nearby. The relationship between Yurii and Larisa is a perfect example of reaching out to the "closest neighbor, cold and lonely like him." As the world slips from beneath their feet, Yurii and Larisa find love and compassion in each other; and in “a time like this” love and compassion are hard to find and certainly not ignored. The concept that Yurii and Larisa are alone in the world and need each other is further developed in the passage where Larisa makes the biblical allusion to Adam and Eve. He says: You and I are like Adam and Eve, the first two men on earth who at the beginning of the world had nothing to cover themselves with---and now at the end we are just as naked and homeless. And you and I are the last memory of all that immeasurable greatness that was created in the world in all the thousands of years between them and us, and it is in the memory of all those vanished wonders that we live, love, cry and cling to the 'to each other." When Larisa compares her relationship with Yurii to the relationship between Adam and Eve there are several powerful implications. First, the idea develops that Yurii and Larisa can only turn to each other, since Adam and Eve were the only two people on earth and they had no choice but to each other. Furthermore, God brought Adam and Eve together, and this suggests that a greater force equally unites Yurii and Larisa God sanctions the relationship between Yurii and Larisa, as he did That of Adam and Eve, even if it is an adulterous relationship. The parallel is complete because in the end Adam and Eve sinned and were removed with theforce from the Garden of Eden, thus ending their perfectly pure existence, and this corresponds to Yurii and Larisa's pain and suffering. support. It is through all the difficulties that Yurii and Larisa "live, love each other, cry and cling to each other." Larisa's mention of Adam and Eve is not the only biblical allusion in Doctor Zhivago, as Yurii also evokes an image from the Bible when she says says, "The sea of ​​blood will rise until it reaches each of us and submerges all who they were left out of the war. revolution is this flood." (182) The "flood" is a reference to the biblical flood that covered the entire world and destroyed all life. However, in this image it is not a regular flood. but of a "sea of ​​blood" that swallows absolutely everything and everyone. This image of the world completely submerged consequently fits the images painted throughout the novel of the world crumbling into dust and nothing left. After the great flood of the Bible, the world had to be rebuilt and renovated, so the revolution is indeed playing the role of a great flood. The biblical inclusions evoke powerful images of a primordial world and work to justify Yurii and Larisa's meeting in a time of utter devastation. In her passage Larisa ends by saying. "... it is in the memory of all those lost wonders that we live, love, cry and cling to each other." The final image is that of people "clinging to each other". One scene that illustrates Yurii and Larisa's desperate need for each other – their "clinging to each other" – is when Yurii is sick in Larisa's apartment. He doesn't know where his wife and children are, he's been through an ordeal for a couple of years and lies there cold, sick, delirious and completely alone in the world. Then, from all the external madness, Larisa returns to her apartment, ... "Suddenly she realized that she was not delirious... that sitting next to him, leaning over him, her hair mixed with his and his tears fell with hers, it was Lara. He fainted with joy." (394) Pasternak accentuates the bliss and beauty of their relationship, not the infidelity or impropriety. It's times like this that Yurii and Larisa really need each other. The image of Larisa leaning over Yurii evokes true love and compassion, because she gives him life. It goes on to say, "He [Yurii] had lamented that Heaven had rejected him, but now the whole breadth of heaven bent over his bed... their love was great. Most people experience l 'love without realizing the extraordinary But for them - and this made them exceptional - the moments in which passion visited their condemned human existence like a breath of eternity were moments of revelation, of continually new discoveries about themselves and life. (395)Yurii and Larisa hold each other as the only form of humanity they can find in a completely disillusioned world. This scene perfectly portrays Larisa's image of the "naked human soul" clinging to her. nearest neighbor." The point that Larisa makes in her explanation to Yurii is the same point that Pasternak continually makes throughout the novel: that the adultery in Doctor Zhivago is completely motivated by the circumstances of the time and place of the story. More importantly, the world Yurii and Larisa live in has abandoned morality and righteousness for mere survival. While some love stories may arise from bourgeois boredom, this is not the motivation for Yurii and Larissa. The situation is not that Yurii and Larisa are bored with their lives and their spouses and therefore turn elsewhere for the sake of fun and pleasure. It's more the feeling of holding each other close." (260)