Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew Up… without his father who was once wealthy but became an alcoholic and committed suicide after he lost his fortune.After his mother's death, Yuri was taken in by raised by his uncle, Kolya.
Living… in Russia in 1917 during the revolution. Russia has become a dangerous place, with people being executed for treason, men being conscripted for long and violent military operations, and citizens being watched by the government.
Profession… doctor. He joined the army as a medical officer and is stationed in a small Russian town. He had to say goodbye to his wife, Tonya, and his two children, who stayed in Moscow.
Interests… poetry. Yuri is a talented writer and spends his free time writing beautiful poems. Though all of his writing recently is about a beautiful woman who is not his wife.
Relationship Status… complicated. He loves his wife, but he can’t help but have feelings for a nurse he is working with named Lara who is also married. Lara’s husband, Pasha, is a soldier who has been missing for some time and is presumed dead. With guns and death in the background, they have begun an intense and passionate affair.
Challenge… surviving the political upheaval in the Communist revolution. Although that challenge is daunting enough, he is finding it even harder to balance his feelings for Lara with his duties to his wife and family. He is feeling so guilty about the affair he feels he needs to confess everything to his wife and ask forgiveness.
Personality… passionate, idealistic, and a bit stubborn. Yuri is a strong-willed and nonconformist man who is living in a Communist world that doesn't value individual freedoms. He does what he can to stand up to the regime and also writes poetry about the world he dreams of.
Get to Know him in...
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In Doctor Zhivago, Omar Sharif and Julie Christie play two protagonists who in fact love each other yet because of their current situation cannot find a way be together.
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In the grand tradition of the epic novel, Boris Pasternak’s masterpiece brings to life the drama and immensity of the Russian Revolution through the story of the gifted physician-poet, Zhivago; the revolutionary, Strelnikov; and Lara, the passionate woman they both love. Caught up in the great events of politics and war that eventually destroy him and millions of others, Zhivago clings to the private world of family life and love, embodied especially in the magical Lara.
First published in Italy in 1957, Doctor Zhivago was not allowed to appear in the Soviet Union until 1987, twenty-seven years after the author’s death.
Translated by Manya Harari and Max Hayward
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
