Doctor Zhivago Symbolism, Themes, & Poetry

1. Doctor ZhivagoSymbolism, Themes, & Poetry Sirohi, ShrutiIBD-IISelaQui World School Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number: 002150-009

2. Literature as both Socially Influenced and Influential “Art reflects its society and works a social character through to its reality in experience. But also, art creates, by new perceptions and responses, elements which the society, as such, is not able to realize…” Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number: 002150-009

3. Devastated by War • 1905 and 1917 • Revolutionary Ideals • Lenin • Trotsky • Stalin • Bolsheviks Russia in the Early 1900’s 1917- Bolshevik Revolution 1930’s- Pasternak persecuted The October Revolution overthrew the Tsarist regime in 1917, replacing it with a socialist government…the period was a time of instability Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number: 002150-009

4. Symbolism is Pasternak’s Instrument… …TO mirror the human qualities of CHANGElife, death, resurrection, and rebirth during the turmoil of 20th century Russia The novel is set between 1901 & 1943, a period of intense turbulence involving the buildup of political unrest, economic instability, and social conflict This volatile atmosphere inspired many great Russian works including Tolstoy’s War and Peace, a major influence on Pasternak’s literary career Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number: 002150-009

5. A symbol of the illusions that enter the fabric of both the ordinary bourgeois existence and the “intrinsically creative spirit.” Signals the end of bourgeois Russia and the collapse of the idealistic “followers of Blok” (like Zhivago) Portends the triumph of the apocalyyptic-nihlistic element in Russian life The Wild Duck“This is the last judgment on earth, my good Sir…a time for creatures from the Apocalypse with swords, for winged beasts and not for fully sympathetic and loyal doctors…”-Strelnikov • Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number 002150-009

6. Weather Storm at funeral Spring at Zhivagos Death Symbolize change as life goes on– alludes to Christ’s resurrection in spring. Images of weather in Zhivago’s life also mirror social aspects of Russia and its Revolutionary Age Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number: 002150-009

7. Examples • Realization of Zhivago’s love for Lara • Railroad stations on his way to Moscow • Diary sessions • Winter Night poem Shadows Represent foreshadowing of change or “revolution” • Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number 002150-009

8. Trains Symbolize the loss associated with change… 4 instances of trains bringing misfortune and Compare this to the Russian revolution of 1917 Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number: 002150-009

9. Train Instances 1)A train carries Zhivagos father to his death; 2)the sudden appearance of a military train in the night brings Pasha's thoughts into focus and precipitates his decision to go to the front. 3)Later Pasha, now turned Strel'nikov, will ride an armored train like an iron beast of the Apocalypse, fighting desperately for freedom, happiness, and Lara. 4)The train which carries Zhivago and his family to the Urals gradually comes to resemble a Mythological barge of destiny, containing, in miniature, the history of the Soviet Revolution, written in the individual human stories of the passengers. The individual and human failure of the Revolution then becomes evident in the graveyards of trains which Zhivago traverses on his return from the guerillas. Shruti Sirohi

10. Biblical Allusions “Holy Week” “The Wedding” These poems are related by the image of sleep preceding an outburst of life, and in both of them sleep is a metaphor of the eternal cycle of death and resurrection. The resurrection, however, does not come as a rebirth of an individual but as the giving away of oneself to the surrounding reality. Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number: 002150-009

11. Doctor Zhivago is not a novel but rather a “kind of autobiography” of the poet’s inner life, in which the hero is “not an active agent but a window…” • Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number 002150-009

12. Poems and their Significance Bad Roads in Spring Winter Night Symbolizes Zhivago’s capture by the guerillas Poem show this as unavoidable and necessary…shows that the war affected all parts of individual lives including their personal lives Symbolic nightingale’s song= signal Snowflakes (accumulation of incidents) Crossing of fates Crucifixion of love Shadows in the candle of human life • Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number 002150-009

13. Conclusion Man is "devoted to the solution of the enigma of death, so that death itself may eventually be overcome. " A trial of this nature is by no means limited by a search through the arts and letters but engages the whole man. "This is, " writes Pasternak, "why people write symphonies, and why they discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves" (p. 19). Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number 002150-009

14. THE END Thank-you! Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number 002150-009

15. Bibliography Jackson, Robert L. "The Symbol of the Wild Duck in Dr. Zhivago."Comparative Literature 15.1 (1963): 39-45. Pasternak, Boris, and John Bayley. Doctor Zhivago. New York: Pantheon, 1997. Rogers, Thomas F. "The Implications of Christ's Passion in DoktorŽivago."The Slavic and East European Journal 18 (1974): 384-91. Silbajoris, Rimvydas. "The Poetic Texture of DoktorŽivago." The Slavic and East European Journal 9 (1965): 19-28. Vickery, Walter. "Symbolism Aside: DoktorŽivago." The Slavic and East European Journal 3 (1959): 343-48. Zaslove, Jerald. "Dr. Zhivago and the Obliterated Man: The Novel and Literary Criticism." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 26 (1976): 65-80. • Sirohi, Shruti Candidate Number 002150-009