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Abstract: The aim of the article is to understand the role and significance of the estate topos in the artistic world of Pasternak’s novel, to analyze the connection between the image of the estate and the lines of the main characters, and to clarify the characters’ ideas about the form of estate life in the past and its possible evolution under new conditions. Due to the reception of the discoveries of the Russian classics, Pasternak was able to create on the opening pages of the novel “Doctor Zhivago” the atmosphere of a properly flowing estate life. From Goncharov, Dostoevsky and Chekhov, Pasternak borrows mainly those artistic techniques that are associated with the crisis of a person’s state and their passions; from Tolstoy the writer “adopts” the very approach to life and the holistic vision of the environment. Estate life, according to Pasternak, is the best form of organization of being, linking together a person’s proximity to the earth and physical labor, their understanding of themselves in the history and future of the family, caring for their own house and garden. Pasternak’s Yuri Zhivago, who grew up in the traditions of the estate culture, is not a warrior and builder, although he has to perform both of these social roles and functions. Yuri Zhivago cannot even be called “forefront”: the main task of this character is to preserve honor and his living soul during crises, to convey to others his knowledge about life that does not depend on the system and political clashes. The author of the article notes that on the path of the best characters of Pasternak, the estate topos, images of the family and home, as the most important semantic and ideological centers of the novel, play a huge role. The article proves that Varykino becomes the culminating point on Doctor Zhivago’s path in comprehending the destruction of the estate past and his own revival, creating his own shelter, in which Yuri Zhivago feels himself to be a man, father, master and creator, feeling the harmonious flow of time and the fulfillment of his life purpose.

About the author(s) :

Valeria G. Andreeva
A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences
(Moscow, Russia)
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4558-315

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 06.01.2023; date of publication: 30.03.2023

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