Doctor Zhivago

Lara is 16 years old. She grew up during a time when “waves of revolution rolled across Russia” (33). Despite her youth, she becomes embroiled in a secret affair with Viktor Komarovsky, a lawyer and the sometime boyfriend of Lara's mother. Though he has a reputation as a cold, hard businessman, Komarovsky becomes obsessed with Lara. She is concerned that the affair will “end badly someday” (36). Though she appreciates that Komarovsky has enough money to take care of her, she is disgusted by the older man. When they finally have sex, she is immediately struck by remorse. Meanwhile, Komarovsky only becomes more obsessed. The situation plunges Lara into a deep depression. Unable to pray in church, she cries instead. In Moscow, a group of railway workers launches a strike. Pavel Antipov and Kiprian Tiverzin are among the striking workers who are exiled from the city by “the management” (37). Pasha, Antipov's son, is sent to live with Tiverzin's mother after the “disorderly uproar” (39). In the wake of the revolution in 1905, the Russian government signs an agreement with the protestors. When the protestors hold a demonstration in the streets, they are ambushed by soldiers and Pasha is nearly lost in the massacre. Yuri’s uncle Nikolai watches the people fleeing from the demonstration. At this moment, Yuri is living with the “professorial family of the Gromekos” (46). They have taken him in and raised him as though he were their son. Nikolai agrees to lecture at “a benefit for political exiles” (47) and scribbles his thoughts about history and philosophy in his notebooks.

Komarovsky moves to Moscow. Lara lives nearby, now considering herself a “fallen woman” (49) because of her affair with him. Komarovsky fears that he is becoming too obsessed with “the object of his madness” (50), Lara. Even though she is still “an immature schoolgirl” (51), Lara cannot help but be flattered by the adoration of a well-respected older man, but she is increasingly disgusted by both herself and him. Lara meets Nika and Pasha in the courtyard near her home. Immediately, the “childishly simple” (53) Pasha is infatuated with Lara, who enjoys the power she has over the young man. To her, Pasha (and his similarly young friend Nika) seem like little boys who are desperate to be considered adults. The situation in Russia is increasingly dire, and war seems inevitable. As the war draws closer, Lara makes preparations to move herself and her mother Amalia into the Montenegro Hotel to escape the fighting. They delay until the workers at the dressmaking shop where her mother is employed go on strike. In the hotel, Amalia is so distressed by the situation that she poisons herself with iodine. Lara sends for the doctor, who is performing a music recital at the Gromeko household. Alexander Gromeko, the head of the household, offers to accompany the doctor on the call to see “upper-class lady” (58) who is dying. Yuri and Misha, who frequently visits the Gromekos, beg to come with him.

In the hotel, the doctor treats Amalia. They are separated from the room by a “wooden partition” (60). Exhausted, Lara has collapsed in an armchair. Komarovsky suddenly steps around the partition, waking her. Misha and Yuri closely observe the interaction. Lara exchanges meaningful glances with the older man. Yuri cannot stop looking at her. He can sense that she is bound to the older man somehow and knows that the situation is not good. As he speculates about whatever kind of vulgarity defines the relationship, he thinks about his friends Misha and Tonya. As they travel home, Misha talks to Yuri about Komarovsky. He explains that Komarovsky is “the same one” (61) who drove Yuri's father to drink and caused his suicide. Yuri is too preoccupied with Lara to think about his past.

Alexander Gromeko buys a wardrobe for his wife, Anna, but it inspires a “superstitious terror” (62) in her. While Yuri, Misha, and Tonya prepare to finish university, Anna contracts pneumonia. Yuri is 20 years old. He still lives in the Gromeko house. He studies medicine, believing that he has an obligation to be “generally useful” (63), but he is also interested in writing poetry. Misha and Tonya will graduate at the same time, studying philology and law respectively. Anna’s health worsens. Fearing death, she seeks reassurance from her adopted son Yuri, but he does not know what to say. He speaks vaguely about religion and the afterlife. Though Yuri does not believe in the value of his comments, they seem to reassure Anna, and her condition improves. Near Christmas time, Anna falls ill again. Sitting with her, Yuri explains how his complicated inheritance has been swallowed up by lawyers' fees and court cases. His father left his mother and started a second family, meaning that he has a brother named Evgraf. Anna tries to tell Yuri a story about a blacksmith named Vakkh. As her health worsens, she begs Yuri and Tonya to get married, even though Tonya and Yuri regard each other only as friends.

Lara decides to end her six-month affair with Komarovsky. Seeking independence, she finds a job as a tutor for Nadya's young sister, Lipa. The position means that she will move in with the Kologrivov family. Three years pass and Lara hears nothing from her mother or her brother, Rodion. In the fourth year, Rodion visits Lara. He claims that he has a large gambling debt. He has gone to Komarovsky, who has agreed to lend him money but only on the condition that Lara is the one to ask him for it. Lara refuses to speak to Komarovsky. Instead, she secures the loan from Mr. Kologrivov, using Rodion’s revolver as a security deposit, an arrangement that she believes will have the secondary benefit of preventing Rodion from turning the gun on himself. Though the wealthy Kologrivov soon forgets about the debt, Lara refuses to do so. She cannot repay the debt as she has secret expenses of her own, such as sending money to Pasha's exiled father, Antipov. The debt makes her feel like a burden and a hostage to the family, as she knows that she cannot repay it. As she feels increasingly alienated, Pasha develops a “certain self-confidence” (71). Lara intends to marry Pasha in the future, but he seems different from the quiet boy he once was. Armed with Rodion's gun, she contemplates killing Komarovsky. In 1911, at Christmas time, she decides to go to Komarovsky and ask for the money.

Lara learns that Komarovsky is at the Christmas party at the Sventitsky house. With Rodion’s gun hidden in her clothes, she makes a stop to visit Pasha, whom she sees as “pure and inexperienced,” in contrast with the lecherous Komarovsky (72). If Komarovsky refuses to help her achieve independence, she tells herself, she will shoot him. Lara asks Pasha to marry her as soon as possible. Without a moment of hesitation, Pasha agrees. This marriage is Lara's backup plan, should Komarovsky deny her. Yuri rides to the party with Tonya and, during the ride, suddenly realizes that his “old comrade” (74) is an attractive woman. Lara goes to the party, where she watches Komarovsky. She pulls the gun on him but misses. Her shot hits a student named Koka Kornakov but does not seriously injure him. Lara is overcome and faints. At the party, Yuri recognizes Komarovsky and Lara. Though Yuri has renounced his inheritance and his father’s estate, he knows that Komarovsky has recently been attending the hearings about the estate. Believing that Lara and Komarovsky were arguing about a political issue, he attends to Koka's minor wounds and then turns to Lara. Before he can say anything to her, however, Mrs. Sventitsky and Tonya approach him. They tell him that his adoptive mother, Anna Gromeko, is dead. Over the coming days, Tonya is beside herself with despair, while Yuri is relatively unmoved. The funeral takes place a short time later, and Anna is buried near Yuri's mother. Yuri has not visited the cemetery very often in recent years. While the funeral procession marches along at a slow, mournful pace, Yuri practically skips through the cemetery. Thinking about art, death, and life, he decides to write a poem in memory of Anna.

After shooting Koka, Lara fell unconscious. Komarovsky is torn between “contradictory feelings” (82): He is as infatuated with Lara as ever, but he is also furious that her actions may damage his reputation. Putting her up in an apartment while she recovers, he visits her often. She slips in and out of “fits of delirium” (83) until Mr. Kologrivov arranges for her to stay in a friend's apartment and gives her money, “despite her objections” (84). Pasha is “tormented and perplexed” (85). He does not understand why Lara wanted to kill Komarovsky, nor why that same man is now paying for her convalescence. When Pasha visits Lara at last, she asks him to forget about her. She insists that she is not worthy of his love. After a passionate argument, they agree to get married. On the night of their wedding, Lara finally explains everything to Pasha. He is plunged into a deep, reflective state. They talk through the night, but Pasha emerges in the morning as “a different man” (86). As Lara and Pasha prepare to leave Moscow, they throw a party, which Komarovsky attends. After the party, they depart for the town of Yuriatin.  

Yuri is now a well-respected doctor, and he and Tonya are married. In late 1915, shortly after the birth of his son, Yuri is recruited against his wishes to work as a doctor for the army. Lara and Pasha live in a town in the Ural Mountains, close to where Lara was born and raised. By this time, they have a child. Katenka grows up in Yuriatin, where her parents both work as teachers in the local schools. During this time, Lara is happier than she has ever been. In contrast, Pasha is sad and melancholic. He feels cut off from the world and intellectually “stifled” (93) but unable to say anything to his wife for fear that he may anger her. Trying to lift his spirits, Lara showers her husband with kind gestures, but Pasha is unmoved. He decides to enlist in the army even though Russia is currently fighting in World War I. The decision breaks Lara's heart. She worries that Pasha has misunderstood her kindness, noting that he seems to her like a different person than the man she married. She truly loves him and fears for his safety. While he is away, they exchange letters, which Lara appreciates as they allow her to feel close to her husband. Then, the letters stop. Fearing the worst, she decides to become a nurse and join the army to find her husband. After passing the exam, she boards the hospital train on the way to the same address that was featured on Pasha's final letter.

Misha finds Yuri at a hospital near the frontline. As they tour through a field station, they pass wounded soldiers and “ruined villages” (96). During this time, Pasha is presumed to have been killed in battle. Seeking to learn more, Lara writes to Pasha’s friend Yusup, who serves in his unit, but Yusup delays responding, feeling that he is “unable to give a proper answer” (98). Elsewhere on the front, Misha and Yuri talk while artillery fires in the distance. A line of “wretched wounded men” (100) arrives at a hospital tent where Lara is working as a nurse. Among the wounded men is Gimazetin, Yusup's father. Yuri, Misha, Lara, and Yusup gather around him. Despite their close connections, none of the characters seem to recognize one another. Yuri and Misha discuss “the question of the Jews” (103), concluding that the social transformations taking place around them mean that old ethnic differences should be put aside. Their camp comes under attack and Yuri is injured. In the hospital, he lies in a bed opposite Yusup. Lara is their nurse, though she still does not recognize either man. Yusup, however, recognizes Lara from the photographs his friend Pasha has shown him. He tells her that he knows her husband, and she asks whether Pasha is dead. Yusup pauses. His unit incorrectly believes that Pasha has been killed. He chooses “to lie in order to calm her” (106), saying instead that Pasha was captured by the enemy. Unbeknownst to Yusup, this is the truth, but Lara does not believe him. Lara turns instead to Yuri, who recognizes her but says nothing about their past. Though Yuri is not particularly friendly, she is fascinated by his apparent intelligence. Believing that she will not be able to find Pasha, Lara decides to return home. Just as she is about to leave, however, news reaches the frontline from Moscow. There is “disorder in the streets of Petersburg” (108) as the 1917 Russian Revolution has begun.