Twentieth-Century Russian Literature. Selected Papers from the ...

Published in: Twentieth-Century Russian Literature. Selected Papers from the Fifth
World Congress of Central and East European Studies. Edited by Karen L. Ryan
and Barry P. Scherr. Houndmills: Macmillan, 2000. pp.126-151.
THE RHYTHMICAL COMPOSITION OF DOCTOR ZHIVAGO 1
Maria Langleben
Doctor Zhivago consists of sixteen narrative parts written in prose, and one part of superb poetry.
Unlike the poems, the prose, despite its fame, has not been accepted unanimously; it has been
regarded not as a well-structured novel, but rather as a text where individually excellent
fragments are not cast into a harmonious whole. 2 The prose of Doctor Zhivago is in no way
inclined to modernism, but, if assigned to the genre of traditional novel, it does not rank with one
of the best. The reader is often perplexed by the awkwardness of its syntax, as well as by the
shallowness of the plot, which draws on incredible coincidences much more than on causal and
psychological motivation.
However, with time, it becomes clear that this novel might conceal some very unusual,
unique compositional devices, that it might appeal to an uncommon type of structural reading. It
has been shown convincingly by Boris Gasparov that the prose of Doctor Zhivago has a
polyphonic texture, where the imperfection of the surface text is often recompensed by daring
contrapuntal linkages. 3
A naturally polyphonic view of this text would arise if the description is focused on the
'crossings of lives' (Pasternak's sud'by skreshchen'ya). Each life story makes a horizontal
'melody' in the plot; each contact of lives makes a vertical crossing. This approach would permit
the treatment of events as meeting points of lives, like chords in a polyphonic piece that are
treated as meeting points of separate moving melodies. Choosing a certain pair of lives, and
tracing their crossings in the text, one would select all relevant events and arrange them in a line.

2
The line would retain the order of the plot, but, strictly speaking, it does not belong to it. Rather,
with such lines, a meta-plot is built up which can be read as a musical score, both horizontally
and vertically.
The lives of the two main protagonists, Yurii Zhivago and Lara Guishar are stretched along
the text; the line made by the crossings of their two lives is more extended and rich than any of
the numerous similar lines. One can hypothesize that this line holds the clue to the composition
of the novel. Proceeding on this assumption, the narrative parts of Doctor Zhivago (Parts I-XVI)
are examined in this paper. 4
The biographies of Yurii and Lara begin at widely separated places, geographically as well as
socially. Lara is not only 'a girl from another society', much lower than Zhivago's, but she is from
distant lands as well – Belgium, France, and the Urals, all three far away from Yurii's Moscow 5 .
Their two lives gradually gravitate towards each other, they part, meet again and again part, and
all of these crossings are ascribed to blind chance alone. Yet, the line of crossings may have its
own structural teleology. It will be shown in this paper that the route that leads Yurii and Lara
out of their disconnected worlds and draws them through the text is arranged by a rhythmical
fluctuation of events which has no need for realistic motivation.
1 The Line of Contacts
Starting from the first meeting of Yurii and Lara, we shall make a list of their lives' crossings, or
rather, of all their contacts, leaving aside everything irrelevant to this subject. Here a broad
definition of 'contact' will be used: in additiion to their meetings, any event that could be related
to Lara's role in Yurii's life is considered relevant. Any reference to her name, recollections,
letters, or discussion about her will be considered on a par with the meetings. Thus understood,
the contacts listed will differ greatly in terms of Lara's and Yurii's degree of participation in the
events. Sometimes one of them is absent; at other times, they both are unaware (or pretend so) of
each other's presence. At certain points, the contact is only visual or verbal (written or oral). A
contact may be established indirectly, i.e., through a mediating object. On the basis of these
differences, one can characterize the contacts as relatively more intense or less intense, using the
following criteria:

3
1. physical presence – absence;
2. awareness – unawareness;
3. direct – indirect;
4. visual – verbal – full.
Assuming that 'presence', 'awareness', and 'directness' make a contact stronger than do their
opposites, and that a full contact is stronger than a visual or verbal contact, one can distinguish
between 'stronger' and 'weaker' contacts of various degrees.
In this way, a line of contacts (LC) may be compiled, in which besides Lara and Yurii, the
presence of their three spouses, Tonya, Antipov, and Komarovskii, 6 is also considered. It appears
then that stronger and weaker events alternate in the LC in a way that is hardly random: the
alternation generates a persistent rhythm. Yet, since Lara and Yurii first meet rather late in the
text, and die before the novel ends, the LC leaves the beginning and the end of the novel
uninvolved. Assuming that the deaths of his parents constitute make a prologue to Zhivago's life,
while the meeting of Evgraf and Tan'ka forms an epilogue to it, one can extend the LC to the
beginning and the end of the nnovel. Then one can see that the whole text yields to the regular
pulsation.
The extended LC is presented in Table 1.1; the grading of events is indicated in the table by
shifting the entries to the left or to the right. 'Stronger' events are shifted to the left, while
'weaker' ones are shifted to the right. Simultaneous events are connected on the left side of the
table. The events of the prologue and the epilogue are marked on the right side. Yurii, Lara,
Tonya, Antipov, and Komarovskii are designated by Y, L, T, A, and K respectively. One can see
in Table 1 that from the beginning of the LC, each strong event is accompanied by a several
weaker ones, of various degrees of intensity. There is a point (Parts XIII-XIV), where the
stronger events become predominant, and then, towards the end, the original pattern of pulsation
is resumed. Another notable feature of the LC is that it has its own thematic organization, which
is adjusted to the pulsation and is only remotely related to the surface story.

4
Table 1: The Line of Contacts
Parts
I
II
III
Events
The funeral of Y's mother
The knock at the window
The death of Y's father
L's mother's suicide attempt
Y sees L for the first time
A candle in the window
Y sees L again
The shot: Lara tries to kill K
IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Y and L meet at the front
Y meets L in the hospital
V A letter from T to Y (about L)
Y does not knock at L's door
L is ironing
The knock at the door (window)
VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Y visits the house in Brestskaya street
VII
Y is interrogated by A
VIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Y's dream with L's voice
Y and L in the library
Y and L meet near L's house
Thinking of L, Y is captured by the partisans
X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
Lara = Yurii's soul
Lara = 'God's earth'
A song of a rowan tree
L's soul opened
A vision of the weeping head
L = a rowan tree in snow
Y reads L's note to him (T is mentioned)
Y and L meet in L's house.
Y and L live together in Yuryatin (and talk about T, A,
K)
T's letter to Y (L is mentioned)
K arrives in Yuryatin
Y and L in Varykino
K arrives in Varykino
K takes L away with him
Y's lament for L; L's voice
A and Y in Varykino
The shot: A's suicide.
prologue
XV
Y lives in A & L's room
The death of Y
Y's body is returned to A's room
Y's funeral; L & Evgraf;
The remembrance of the candle
L disappeared
XVI Tanya meets Evgraf Zhivago. epilogue

5
2 Twelve Motivic Groups
The events included in the LC are located at discrete points in the text; they are not connected by
the logic of the fabula. Yet, despite their narrative incoherence, the selected events cohere
meaningfully within the LC. The whole LC may be divided into successive motivic groups of
events, where each group has its own generalized meaning, and these groups do not intersect. It
seems that the LC tries to tell its own tale, unfettered by the surface story.
To support this, let us now review the LC as it is divided into twelve motivic groups. Each
group is presented and discussed separately, preceded by a title (the general meaning) given in
capitals. The events are listed in the same order as they appear in the LC. Strong events are
printed in bold-face type and marked by asterisks; the degree of intensity of the weaker events is
not indicated. For each event, the relevant textual reference is given in parentheses. 7
1. DEATHS OF PARENTS
* Funeral of Y's mother (I,1:19-20)
The knock at the window (I,2:21)
The death of Y's father (I,5:27; I,6:28; I,7:32)
L's mother's suicide attempt (II,21:71)
In the first group, all events are related to the deaths of parents. Yurii's heartbreaking lament after
his mother's death and his central participation in her funeral are immediately followed by a
weaker echo, a mysterious elemental knock at the window. The next event, the death of Yurii's
father, is reported from three points of view, only one of which (the second) involves Yurii: the
boy impulsively prays for his dead mother, collapses, and then realizes that he forgot to pray for
his father – all this without knowing that his father had died at that very moment not far from
him. A mocking echo of these two deaths is discernible in Yurii's visit to a cheap hotel where
Lara's mother has tried to kill herself. Fully aware, but consciously impartial, Yurii is quite
indifferent to the woman's sufferings.

6
Yurii's visit to the hotel has dual significance, since it unites two events; while the weaker
event is assigned to the DEATHS OF PARENTS, the stronger one belongs to the next group,
where all contacts are visual.
2. VISUAL CONTACTS
* Y sees L for the first time (II,21:72)
The candle (III,9:89; III,10:91)
* Y sees L again at the Christmas party (III,14:94)
There are three visual contacts in this group, two of which are strong. Yurii's visit to the squalid
hotel is the first time that he sees Lara. He is mystified by her silent eye-contact with
Komarovskii, while Lara is hardly aware of his presence. The strong, one-way visual linkages of
this scene are echoed by Yurii's and Lara's eye-contact through mediating objects. On his way to
the Sventitskiis', 'Yurii saw the same things that, a little while before him, Lara set her eyes
upon'. Their eyes meet, their without knowing it, at the candle lit on the window-sill of Antipov's
room. This time, the visual contact is mutual, but indirect and unconscious on both sides. The
candle assumes the active role of a conscious mind: like 'a consciously peeping eye', it is looking
outward in search of someone particular in the street. Symmetrically, both protagonists are
accompanied by their future spouses, but the candle is noted only by Yurii and Lara. Neither
Tonya, nor Antipov, by whom the candle was lit (though he did it for Lara 'who liked to talk by
candle light') participates in the contact. The third visual contact occurs at the Christmas party in
the same one-way direction, as in the hotel scene previously. Again, Yurii sees Lara, without her
seeing him. However, instead of looking at Komarovskii, Lara shoots at him, and unlike the
languid glances at the hotel, this visual contact is sudden and momentous, like the shot. Once
again, the future spouses Tonya and Komarovskii are also present.
This group of visual contacts is remarkable for its symmetry. Embedded between the two
one-sided visual contacts, the episode with the candle is totally unconscious, and therefore
weaker than the two other episodes, in which Yurii is fully aware of the presence of Lara. The
symmetry is supported by the constant presence of the future spouses: while Tonya stays with
Yurii in two of the scenes, Lara's partners are symmetrically interchanged (Komarovskii–
Antipov–Komarovskii), so that Antipov appears only once, in the candle episode. Thus a
framework is established, by which the importance of the candle event is stressed.

7
The impressive symmetry of VISUAL CONTACTS is thoroughly, although irrationally,
motivated.The central scene looks very much like a ritual of betrothal sanctified by the candle in
the conspicuous presence of two concerned witnesses, namely Tonya and Antipov. Powerfully
though unconsciously involved, Yurii and Lara do not forget this candle till the end of their days
(cf. XV,14:482). But neither they, nor their companions ever understand what has happened: the
candle has wedded Yurii and Lara and destined them for each other forever. This is destiny's
response to a preceding scene (outside the LC), in which Anna Ivanovna joins Yurii and Tonya
as future man and wife (III,4:82).
The Christmas party (like the previous hotel episode) has a dual function: it ends the group of
VISUAL CONTACTS, and at the same time, starts the next group.
3. MURDER
* L tries to kill K (III,14:95)
L and Y meet at the side of a wounded soldier (IV,11:127)
The two contacts of this group take place in the shadow of murder. When Lara tries to kill
Komarovskii at the Christmas party, she misses her target, and another lawyer's hand is slightly
grazed by the shot. Although Lara's shot does not seriously harm anyone, it has an enormous
impact on the plot. The shot puts an end to the overture; with it. the curtain rises and the play
begins. Up to this point, Lara and Yurii have been only moving towards each other. After the
shot, they move in the reverse direction; the distance between them grows and the obstacles to
their union are mounted. Consequently, after the shot, the LC is interrupted by long periods of
separation, and until the end of Part IV, Yurii and Lara do not meet again.
In the meantime, however, precipitated by the shot, 'Mature Inevitabilities' ('Nazrevshie
neizbezhnosti', the title of Part IV), start happening one after another. Tonya's mother dies. Yurii
and Lara start their separate family lives at a safe distance from each other. But their fateful
betrothal must be fulfilled - and providence takes care of this. Symmetrically, the two young
families are broken apart by the war: Yurii is drafted, Antipov volunteers. All this happens
beyond the LC.
The LC is again activated with the next event of the MURDER group, a weak echo of Lara's
shot. Free from their families, Yurii and Lara meet at the front, at the side of a soldier mortally
wounded by an explosion. Their contact is unconscious on both sides: Yurii does not recognize

8
Lara, and she takes no notice of him. In order to emphasize this, other characters (Gordon and
Galiullin, the son of the dying soldier) are included in the scene, and they also lose their
conscious perception. This total amnesia is hard to explain by common sense, but it is fully
consistent with the regularity of the LC.
4. THE DAWN OF LOVE
* Y & L meet at the hospital (IV,14:132)
Y receives a letter from T (V,2:137)
Y does not knock at L's door (V,6:145)
When Yurii and Lara meet at the hospital, their contact is, for the first time, completely and
mutually conscious. They talk and find each other attractive. This fully conscious, strong event is
marked by the sudden news of the revolution. It is followed by two weaker echoes: Yurii
receives a letter from Tonya which makes him aware of his attraction to Lara; he goes to Lara's
room in order to speak to her, but stops at the door without knocking.
5. DESIRE
* Lara is ironing (V,8:148)
The nocturnal knock at the door/window (V,9:153)
The events of this group are marked by the semantic element of DESIRE. Yurii's longing for
Lara is tangible; in her presence, as well as after her departure, he misses her intensely. In the
ironing scene, both Yurii and Lara are emotionally involved and powerfully attracted to each
other. They are fully aware of their feelings for each other. The emotional tension is broken by
Yurii's sudden, though predictable, declaration of love. And then, as a weak echo of the strong
physical presence in the ironing scene, a disembodied nocturnal knock follows, which Yurii
takes for Lara's return. In fact, there is no one at the door; it is only lime-tree branch knocking at
the window. Nevertheless, although Lara does not come back, she is certainly involved in the
knocking. Of all the numerous rooms in the house, only two are designated for this event, and
both rooms are linked to Lara: the window is knocked out in the scullery where the memorable
ironing scene takes place, and Lara's room is flooded with rain water.
There are more semantic elements antonymically linking the two scenes of DESIRE. The
interior space of the house changes its dimensions. The first scene is confined in 'one of the rear

9
rooms of the upper floor', with the windows open out to the nostalgic fragrances of the garden.
The window of the second scene is not, on the contrary, open – it is broken, and the space is not
limited to one room. Yurii and Mademoiselle are out of their bedrooms, thoroughly searching the
house, vertically and horizontally. The doctor walks downstairs and back, while Mademoiselle
walks 'in the depth of the house' and back. The shades of darkness, change in the two scenes as
the gradations of warmth do. During the scene in the scullery, the garden outside 'is covered by
darkness', but it is late evening and the night has just begun. It is different when, alarmed by the
nocturnal knock, the doctor walks out in the street: 'adapting to the darkness, his eyes discerned
the signs of the rising dawn' (154). The ironing scene is full of hot smells and vapour (145),
including the smoldering of the burned blouse (151). All this hot humidity is replaced by cold
water in the second episode. A metaphor of the sea is involved in this transformation. It appears
in the first episode as an abstract symbol of socialism, life, originality (samobytnost'): 'socialism
is the sea,..., the sea of life, the sea of originality. The sea of life...' (151). 8 In the second episode,
the metaphor is realized and hyperbolized; there are enormous pools of water on the floor of the
scullery, and 'a real sea, a whole ocean' in Lara's room (154). 9
The group of DESIRE is separated from the next group by a break of two Parts (VI, VII).
Once again, driven apart by their destinies, Yurii and Lara return to where they were before the
war erupted: she to Yuryatin, he to Moscow – and resume their separate lives. Yurii and Tonya
enter the barbarous new era together, he devotes himself to his family, and Lara seems to
disappear totally from his life.
6. LARA & ANTIPOV; THE NEW REGIME
* Y visits the house in Brestskaya street (VI,12-13:205)
Y is interrogated by Strel'nikov (VII,28-31:245-251)
At the end of Part VII, the doctor's visit to a patient has suddenly brought Lara out of oblivion,
weaving the recollection into the nightmarish existence under the new regime. Zhivago is
coincidentally brought to the house in Brestskaya Street, at a time when a scurrilous meeting of
tenants is being held. Simultaneously with the meeting, the tenants of the house are being
interrogated and their apartments ransacked in search of illegal weapons. In this ugly surrealistic
setting, typical under the new regime, Lara's silhouette emerges, together with Antipov's: this
was the house where he grew up and where she used to visit. The reminder of Lara is divided

10
between Yurii's two conversations, one with Fatima, the other with Olya Demina; the break
between sections is located between these conversations. Gradual amplification can be detected.
Fatima's report is short, and the section abruptly ends before we can hear Yurii's response. The
conversation with Demina is ampler, and Yurii interrupts her monologue with a neutral question:
'What do you think about her?'. In this contact, both sides are impartial: Lara is absent, and Yurii
is not outspoken. However, the reader is certainly supposed to perceive the flood of emotions
overwhelming the hero when he hears the names of Lara and Antipov. Against the background
of complete forgetfulness, this is a very strong event. Like the betrothal at the candle, Yurii's
meeting with Lara's past is cast in the shadow of Antipov. Both events occurred at the places
where he lived, and where Lara only visited.
After the event in Brestskaya street, a slow movement starts that will eventually bring Yurii
to Lara. Persuaded by Tonya, but against his own will, Yurii takes his family to the Urals. To
save themselves from cold and hunger, the Zhivagos leave Moscow and set out on the long
journey to Varykino. On the way, an echo of the visit to Brestskaya street occurs. Yurii meets
with Strelnikov-Antipov in his current home, the train. The two events have much in common.
Yurii is brought to both places by an outsider, and with an objective other than this particular
meeting. Both events include a clash with the new regime, although the manifestations of the
regime vary. In both places, the authorities are at work searching and interrogating; the
disgraceful row in Antipov's former house is, in fact, a victorious achievement of the armed
struggle led by Strel'nikov from his quiet train residence.
Lara is still far away from Yurii, and there is a long way to go. The Zhivagos' vicissitudes
during their long journey through Russia, and their life in Varykino sonstitute one more break on
the LC. After the intermission of two Parts (VIII, IX), an upsurge of contacts begins.
7. LOVE & INTIMACY
L's voice in Y's dream (IX,5:278)
Y and L meet in the library (IX,11:286)
* Y and L meet near L's house (IX,13-15:289-296)
Thinking of L, Y is captured by the partisans (IX,16:299)
Mutual LOVE finally evolves, and becomes a fact. With this, the pulsation changes its rhythm:
the echoes in this group are inverted. Rather than starting the group, a strong event is preceded
by a crescendo of two, gradually amplified weaker events. First, Yurii dreams of a woman's

11
voice, which he is unable to identify, though he tries hard. Then he goes to the library where he
and Lara see each other, but neither of them admits it. After that, he meets her near her house – a
strong event which initiates their fabulous love-affair. Nature marks this event by a special sign:
a momentary whirlwind covers everything with a cloud of dust. A weaker echo of this meeting
ends the group: torn between his love for Lara and his dedication to Tonya, Yurii decides to part
with Lara, but to see her one last time, and to do this immediately. As he makes this decision
riding home to Varykino, he turns his horse back to Yuryatin. Overwhelmed with passion,
galloping in blissful anticipation of his meeting with Lara, he is suddenly captured by the
partisans.
8. ADORATION OF LARA
L's name = Y's soul (XI,5:333)
L = God's earth (XI,7:336)
Kubarikha's song: 'I'll go to my berry beauty' (XII,6:354)
L's opened soul (XII,7:358)
L's head in the rain (XII,7:358)
* L = the rowan tree (XII,9:365)
Although Yurii's long captivity takes three full Parts (X-XII), his contacts with Lara, in her
absence, are resumed in Part XI. A series of recollections starts, where all echoes are inverted,
and the strong event comes last. This group includes six events, more than in any of the
preceding groups. His first recollection of Lara, which is spontaneous and short, is his
pronounciation of her name together with Tonya's. He calls Tonya 'an eternal reproach to my
life', while Lara's name is 'my soul'. Later in the same Part, he equates Lara with his own life,
and 'all God's earth, all the sunlit space spread before him' (336). At the same time, he feels that
the flaring light of the sunset pierces his chest, and crossing his entire being, emerges out of his
shoulder-blades as a pair of wings – an uncommon vision of crucifixion. In the next Part, a
portentious folk song is sung by Kubarikha, a village witch. The song implicitly resonates with
Yurii's captivity and his longing for Lara, and for the first time, the metaphor of the rowan-tree
appears. The song has a symbolic ending: 'I shall flee from my prison, / To go back to my berry
beauty' (A i vyrvus' ya iz plena gor'kogo, / Vernus' k yagodke moei krasavitse) (354) – the words
which are later paraphrased by Yurii.

12
The next time Yurii recalls Lara, it is a vision of her parallel to his own crucifixion by sunset.
This illusion is more material. Lara grows no wings, and her shoulder-blades are not opened by a
sunbeam, but by a sword. Her soul is exposed, and its contents are eerily corporeal: 'the foreign
cities and expanses' (358) stretch out of her soul in a long ribbon. Apparently, Lara is affirmed
by this vision as a foreign, exotic Other. Then, immediately after the vision of her open soul, the
adoration of Lara is elevated to the heavens. A fuzzy vision of her face, elevated high above the
earth, appears in the mist and rain (358). In contrast with the two previous recollections, Lara is
not named here, and the anonymous vision is slightly ambivalent. The vision is bogotvorimyi,
'worshiped' which is close but not equal to bozhestvennyi, 'divine'. The enormously enlarged
visage is apparently not the image of the divinity, but another mirage of Lara. Finally, the
strongest event of the group comes where Lara is present – not in her own body, but in the form
of her metaphoric twin, the rowan. In this scene, predicted by Kubarikha's song, Yurii
passionately embraces a beautiful rowan tree covered with snow (or with sugar, as the title of
Part XII, 'Ryabina v sakhare', suggests) and in Yurii's perception, the tree merges with Lara: 'I
shall see you, my princess rowan'. With this striking embrace, movement toward the resounding
culmination of the LC commences.
9. UNION
L's note to Y (T is mentioned) (XIII,2:370)
* Y and L meet in L's house (XIII,9:383)
* Y and L live together (XIII,10-16:384-398)
A letter from T to Y (L is mentioned) (XIII,18:403-405)
* K arrives in Yuryatin (XIV,1:406)
* Y and L live in Varykino
(while T and A are invisibly present) (XIV,4-10:414-430)
* K arrives in Varykino (XIV,11:432)
* L leaves with K (XIV,12-13:435-437)
Y's lament for L; L's voice (XIV,13-14:438-441)
The arrival of A; A and Y talk about L (XIV,15-17:442-448)
This is the largest, and the strongest group in the LC. Strong contacts come in clusters and the
weaker ones are in the minority. The group starts with an inverted echo: immediately upon his
return to Yuryatin, Yurii finds Lara's note addressed to him, in which she mentions Tonya. This
note opens a new era in their relationship: Yurii and Lara meet in Lara's house and live together.
Their happiness is disturbed by the intrusion of their past. As a parallel to Lara's note, Tonya's

13
farewell letter, in which she mentions Lara, arrives. The past then begins its bitter fight with the
present: After arriving in Yuryatin, Komarovskii pursues Lara and Yurii wherever they go, in
Yuryatin and Varykino. Finally, he takes Lara away from Yurii. However, Komarovskii is not
solely responsible for the separation; the logic of the LC suggests that in breaking the union of
Yurii and Lara, Komarovskii is aided by two secret allies. Latently but definitively, Tonya and
Antipov have been there all the time, doing what they can to disrupt the union of Lara and Yurii.
The three spouses/adversaries act in concert; imperceptibly, they infiltrate the lives of the
lovers. The arrival of Komarovskii is only a link in the long chain of their joint actions. When
Yurii and Lara are living together in Yuryatin, soul-searching analysis of their relations with
Tonya, Antipov, and Komarovskii constitute a large part of their conversations. Then, Yurii and
Lara went to Varykino together, but their abandoned spouses are awaiting them there. Yurii and
Lara spend their last thirteen days in a place where both Tonya and Antipov are constantly,
though only implicitly, present. After the arrival of Tonya's letter, the small house in Varykino
becomes an active reproach to Yurii. To avoid the house where the presence of his family is so
tangible, he and Lara take refuge in the large Mikulitsyn house, but Antipov, an invisible intruder
in their privacy, is already there. Just as Tonya's letter is transformed into a real scene of the
abandoned small house, Antipov's invisible presence in the big house is later rendered actual,
when he finally appears there in person. Thus, the three abandoned lovers join their efforts and,
with Komarovskii operating as a surface agent, tear Lara away from Yurii.
Antipov comes to Varykino in order to meet Lara; instead, he can only talk with Yurii about
her. Yet, against all odds, Lara's husband achieves his aim by shooting himself. Spilled out on
the snow, Antipov's blood is shaped in little red balls that, to Zhivago, looks like frozen rowan
berries – the symbol of Lara 10 assigned to her by Yurii. Through his posthumous meeting with
Lara, Antipov has been drawn one step closer to Yurii, because it was Yurii who (prompted by
Kubarikha's song) created a metaphor bringing together Lara, a snowy rowan tree, and blood: 'I
shall see you, my rowan, my beloved drop of blood.' (Ya uvizhu tebya, ... moya ryabinushka,
rodnaya krovinushka'), and it was Antipov who converted his own blood into rowan berries
scattered in the snow.
Antipov's suicide has dual significance for the LC. On the one hand, by killing himself, he
achieves his desire: he meets with Lara, and this irrational meeting ends the group of UNION.
On the other hand, he dies, and, with his death, the next group starts.

14
10. DEATH OF TWO HEROES
* A shoots himself (XIV,18:449)
Y moves into A's former room (XV,9:470; 479)
The death of Y (XV,13:475)
Y's body is returned to A's former room (XV,14:477)
In this group, the pulsation of events returns to its initial pattern. The death of Antipov is a very
strong event, because at this moment, not only Yurii is present, but Lara as well, represented by
the red 'berries' of her husband's blood. With Antipov's shot, a new borderline is drawn in the
plot. Structurally, this shot forms a distant counterpart to Lara's shot at the Christmas party.
Unlike the first shot, the second one is fatal, and it prefigures the extinction of Lara and Yurii.
With this shot, the denouement begins: from now on, both Yurii and Lara move towards their
deaths.
All the details preceding and accompanying Antipov's death confirm his antagonistic kinship
to Yurii. The fatalistic trend that can be traced all through the text is continued here in another
illogical connection between Yurii and his antagonist. A few months before his death, Yurii
moves to the same room in the Kamergersky Street where Antipov had lived, and where the
lighted candle had determined their lives. This is Yurii's unconscious return to the past, destiny's
effort to rectify the missed opportunitis of their young years, when Zhivago and Antipov 'had to
meet', but never did. This is a response to the question raised by the author at the moment of their
encounter in the train: 'How could it happen that life had not brought them together? How could
this happen that their roads had not crossed?' ('Kak ne stolknula ikh zhizn'? Kak ikh puti ne
skrestilis'? (246)).
Then comes Yurii's turn to die, and this is the weakest event in the group, since at that
moment, Lara is absent from his life and thought. There is no similarity between the death of
Zhivago and Antipov, but a secret intertwining of the three lives – Yurii's, Antipov's and Lara's –
is confirmed again. Found dead, Yurii is returned 'to the place of his last abode' (477), the same
room in the Kamergersky house; he is laid there, in the place which belonged to Antipov and
Lara – as Antipov lay dead near the Mikulitsyn house where Yurii and Lara had previously lived
together.
Yurii's after-death return to the room in Kamergersky Street is merged with his funeral, the
strong event of the next group.

15
11. DEPARTURES
* Y's funeral (XV,14–16:477–485)
The remembrance of the candle (XV,14:482)
L disappears (XV,17:486)
At Yurii's funeral, he and Lara meet for the last time. This is a one-sided contact, directed from
Lara to Yurii. Now it is Lara's turn to look at him without being seen, to talk and appeal to him
without being heard; previously, this was Yurii's role.
Compared to the funerals of Yurii's and Tonya's mothers (the latter outside the LC), Yurii's
own funeral is emphatically devoid of ceremony. In fact, it is only a preparation for a funeral, the
reader is not taken to the cemetery, because Yurii's body will be cremated. To stress the
simplicity of this event, even Lara's lamentations are expressed in 'simple, everyday words.' But
however poor this funeral is, it is still a human ritual, with the body lying on the table, with
Yurii's wife Marina crying bitterly, with people coming for a last farewell. Not once are we
reminded that it is not a Christian funeral. But the rituals of Orthodox Christianity do not
completely disappear, since Lara is very much concerned about the last kiss, and blesses Yurii
with 'a wide cross'. The atmosphere of Yurii's funeral is supposed to be 'mundane', however, the
scene is full of intuitive revelations. One is the reappearance of the candle, which Lara cannot
forget, though she does not know why. To this, the author responds that, unbeknownst to Lara,
the candle was a milestone in Yurii's life. In another divination: 'Your departure, my end', Lara
predicts her own imminent end as a great and irrevocable consequence of the union of their lives
(Tvoi ukhod, moi konets. Opyat' chto-to krupnoe, neotmenimoe.) (485). The group ends with a
sad echo of Yurii's funeral: Lara disappears anonymously, without any funeral, with not even a
place of death known to anybody. 11
During the funerals, a strong link is created between Lara and Evgraf Zhivago. In a long
passage ('And there were two of them among all the people, a man and a woman, who stood
out...' (477-8)), they are brought together by every syntactic means. Quite unexpectedly, the
reader is urged to believe that Lara and Evgraf were kindred souls in everything: nobility,
energy, practical skills, and rights to Yurii's spiritual heritage. In addition to being portentious for
the philosophy of Doctor Zhivago, this unexpected linkage 12 facilitates the transition to the last
motivic group, the resurrection, which includes only one event.

16
12. RESURRECTION
* Tanya and Evgraf Zhivago (XVI,3:494)
Lara is eliminated by the state, and, outside the LC, Yurii diagnoses his heart disease as the
direct consequence of the 'constant, systematic hypocrisy' which is required by the new regime
(467). They are unable to survive in the Bolshevik state, and the latter is to be blamed for their
deaths. However, two members of their family who did survive emerge in the epilogue, : their
daughter Tan'ka Bezocheredeva meets Yurii's half-brother Evgraf. One can see this meeting as a
posthumous contact of Yurii and Lara, since both surviving Zhivagos resemble Yurii and Lara;
Tania smiles like Yurii, while Evgraf, in the end, is identified with Lara.
The meeting of Tania and Evgraf hints at a tentative resurrection 13 and reunion of the heroes.
Two contrasting versions of their adjustment to the new state are suggested here: the power of
the half-brother, exotic, elusive and manipulative, who emerges on the top of the new elite as a
Soviet general, and the misery of the semi-literate daughter, barely subsisting at the bottom of
Communist society. As bleak and unattractive as this resurrection is, it is still the future, still a
beacon to survival, maybe the only possible one.
3 The Line of Motives
It may be concluded that the structure of the LC has proved to be far from chaotic. A unique
compositional trait of LC lays in the unusually persistent isomorphic conjugation of two different
types of textual structures: a chronologically aligned event structure, and an iterational motivic
structure in which the manifestations of each motive are adjacent. 14
The alternation of strong and weak events in Table 1.1, is, in fact, nothing less than
organized pulsation within the motivic groups. Along the LC, the pulsation follows an 'echo'
pattern, except for some deviations starting in the middle of the LC. At the same point, the
motivic groups grow in size, and then, when the pulse returns to the original pattern, shrink
again. It will be demonstrated below that the pulsation changes its rhythm in concert with the
general composition. In this section, the succession of motivic groups along the LC will be

17
considered. The order of motives is shown in Table 2; rhythmically deviating motives are
enclosed in boxes.
Table 2 The line of motives
1 DEATH OF PARENTS
2 VISUAL CONTACTS
3 MURDER
4 THE DAWN OF LOVE
5 DESIRE
6 CLASH WITH THE NEW REGIME
7 LOVE & INTIMACY inverted echoes
8 ADORATION OF LARA
9 UNION clustered strong events
10 DEATH OF THE HEROES
11 DEPARTURES
12 RESURRECTION
The twelve motives are continuous in the LC, which means that, along the LC, all events with
the same general meaning are grouped together. In the background of this unwavering
continuity, one can discern two distant connections between the events assigned to different
motives – a notable link is made by the two occurrences of the candle, and another link is made
by the two shots. Both these connections have been mentioned before as possibly having a high
compositional value.
The candle episode in Part III is causally related to the recollection in Part XV; the candle
episode is assigned to VISUAL CONTACTS, the delayed recollection to DEPARTURES. While
retaining these assignments, the two events also form a discontinuous motive, THE CANDLE.
The second motive of this kind is SHOOTING, and unlike the previous one, this motive
does not comply with the logic of the surface story. There are two sudden shots, distant and
logically unconnected, one by Lara in Part III (the motive of MURDER), another by Antipov in
Part XIV (DEATH OF THE HEROES). To these two momentous shots, one can add Yurii's
indiscriminate shooting by which he unintentionally kills a young soldier (XI,4:327). Though
Yurii's shot is beyond the LC (since Lara is not recalled), it makes a contrasting supplement to
the shots of Lara and Antipov. The shots of both Antipovs remind each other: they are single,
concentrated, and aimed to hit, while Zhivago's shooting is multiple, and not intended to hit
anyone. 15

18
* * *
Is there any system in the arrangement of all these motives? In quest of the underlying system,
let us examine the principles of concatenation, that is, the 'syntactic' relations between the twelve
continuous motives. One finds out that, depending on the distance between the borderline events,
there are three types of relations between the two motives: convergency, contiguity, and
detachment. These may be defined as follows:
(a) if the borderline events coincide, the motives are convergent;
(b) if the borderline events are located close to one another (mostly in the same Part) the motives
are contiguous;
(c) if the borderline events are separated by gaps of one Part or more, the motives are detached.
Observing the transitions from one motive to another, one finds that the path from DEATH
OF PARENTS to VISUAL CONTACTS to MURDER is characterized by convergence. This is
due to the blurred borders of the VISUAL CONTACTS group: it is at the scene of the suicide
attempt that Yurii first sees Lara, and he sees her next time at the scene of the attempted murder.
From MURDER to DAWN OF LOVE to DESIRE one proceeds by contiguity. Again, the
borders of the middle group, THE DAWN OF LOVE, are decisive: the unconscious meeting at
the front and the first acquaintance in the hospital are both located in Part IV, and Yurii's bashful
retreat from Lara's room and the hot ironing scene are both in Part V.
Then come four detached motives: DESIRE, NEW REGIME, LOVE & INTIMACY,
ADORATION OF LARA are separated from each other by wide gaps of one Part or more.
Toward the end, however, the gaps disappear. ADORATION OF LARA and UNION are
contiguous; the next three motives – UNION, DEATH OF TWO HEROES and DEPARTURES
– are convergent. Finally, DEPARTURES is contiguous with RESURRECTION.
By these connections, a well-shaped structure is suggested, with the following subdivisions:
(a) an all-convergent short introduction (DEATH OF PARENTS, VISUAL CONTACTS,
MURDER);
(b) the main drama, twice as long as the introduction, which starts and ends with contiguity,
and, in the middle, is punctured with gaps;
(c) a short ending where the convergency is resumed, as is the introductory theme of DEATH;

19
(d) a brief coda which is attached to the ending by contiguity.
A special role in this composition is given to the discontinuous motives of THE CANDLE
and SHOOTING. The two shots (one by Lara, another by Antipov) are installed on the
borderlines of the main drama, marking strongly its beginning and end. Yurii's shot is placed
between them, at the middlepoint, where a slow transition to the culmination starts. As for the
two candle episodes, they mark the introduction and the ending, respectively.
All the details of the composition are shown in Table 1.3. Various types of transition are
indicated as follows: convergence by a plus sign (+), contiguity by a downward-pointing arrow
(↓), and the gaps between the detached motives – by rows of dots (each row represents a gap of
one Part).
The composition of motives is remarkably balanced: there are three motives in the
introduction, three in the ending together with the coda, and six in the main drama. The division
of the novel into two books fits into this scheme perfectly. The demarcation line between Book
One and Book Two is drawn between Parts VII and VIII, precisely where the gap is placed
which divides the main drama into two symmetric halves, consisting of three motives each.
Remarkably, this is also the point where the rhythm of the motivic groups changes and the size
of the groups begins to grow.
The structure presented in Table 1.3 is imposed on the LC. Presumably, this is a higher level
of the meta-plot. The succession of motivic groups serves as a basis for both levels, but each of
them adds its own specific rhythm: the lower level draws on the pulsation within the motivic
groups, while the higher level is based on the diversity of transitions from one motive to another.
However, there is a correspondence between the two types of rhythm: the pulse is changed
precisely at the place where it marks the advent of the climactic end of the main drama. One may
conclude that the composition of Doctor Zhivago rests upon the two layers of rhythm, which
render this text supercoherent.

20
Table 3: The Composition of the Line of Motives
DEATH OF PARENTS
+
introduction
VISUAL CONTACTS
the candle +
MURDER
↓
Lara's shot
DAWN OF LOVE
↓
DESIRE
.......
main drama
LARA, ANTIPOV AND NEW REGIME
..............Book One ends here
..............
Book Two begins here
LOVE AND INTIMACY
Yurii's shots .......
ADORATION OF LARA
↓
UNION
climax
Antipov's shot +
DEATH OF TWO HEROES
+
ending
DEPARTURES
the candle
↓
coda
RESURRECTION
4 The Rhythmical Composition and Time
From the beginning to the end of 'Doctor Zhivago', powerful waves of rhythm roll over all causal
and logical connections and integrate the novel as a whole. Embracing the whole text, this
integral rhythm never departs from the progressive movement of time; nevertheless, it creates a
specific temporal ambience ruled by its own laws. Even if the surface composition of 'Doctor
Zhivago' is deficient, this underlying rhythm is sufficient to give the text structural unity with an
epic tenor, because it supports the motion of the surface plot and raises the novel high above
real-time chronology.

21
Since Tristram Shandy, shifting and rearranging events in the plot became the ubiquitous
method of escaping linear time in literary fiction. In contrast to tendencies widespread in modern
literature, the events of Doctor Zhivago are mostly aligned in time. It is clear that the author had
no intention either to confuse the reader with a jumping clock, or to make him readjust the
fragments of broken time. Time is treated traditionally and the present is seldom enriched with
droplets of the past. (e.g., the flashbacks of Yurii's early years [I,3:21-22], and his experience in
the anatomic theatre [III,2:76]). The novel starts with the childhoods of Yurii and Lara, and
advances through the years of hardships and happiness, proceeding to the end of their lives
without seriously deflecting the arrow of time. The impression is that the progressive movement
of time is generally respected in this novel. But compliance with time may be deceptive. If one
considers the motivic composition where the stream of time is hardly relevant, one must admit
that rhythmical development may be superior to linear time.
The relation of the LC to time is ambiguous: on the one hand, it is incorporated in the linear
time of the novel where the lives of the heroes are developed; on the other hand, it creates a nontemporal
universe where the same heroes meet and contact. 16 The steady advance of the surface
plot is used only for the purpose of installing in the novel a different clock that shows not realtime
dates and events, but the pulsation of the irrational where all unlikely coincidences are
consistent and are justified. The source of textual motion is to be seen more in rhythm than in
linear time.
Sparkling under the simplistic chronology and the old-fashioned exterior, the secretive
rhythm can hardly leave the reader unaffected, even if he or she is not aware of the existence of
the LC and the motivic composition. One feels intuitively that, in spite of all local accelerations
and retardations, the narration proceeds calmly and evenly through the debris of the demolished
country, and the wreckage of precious lives. Pacing majestically, it leaves behind the bleak and
insecure dawn of the epilogue, and spreads further on, out to the sphere of the eternal which
comes to the fore in the posthumous poems of Yurii Zhivago.
5 The Explanatory Force of the Line of Contacts
A large number of events in Doctor Zhivago are omitted in the LC, and, as a result, the surface
meaning of the novel is virtually effaced. However, the sequence of motives is charged with its

22
own tale, relatively independent from the surface narration. Starting with the deaths of the
parents, the thread of the LC advances through the love peripeteia up to the death and the
resurrection of the heroes.
Rhythmical composition suggests its own logic, alternative to the notoriously deficient logic
of the surface plot. In the above presentation of motivic groups, we have already met with some
instances of this structural logic. Let us discuss more examples of the explanatory force of the
LC.
In Part VI, Yurii coincidentally becomes a witness to a hideous scandal and an official
interrogation in the Brestskaya house. In the framework of the LC, it is clear, why precisely this
time is chosen for Yurii's visit. The next event of the same motivic group is the interrogation of
Yurii himself in Strel'nikov's train. Taken together, the two events form a complete picture of the
new society.
In another case, the LC can help one grasp why, during the ceasefire at the front, Yurii does
not recognize Lara, and Galiullin does not recognize his dying father. This contact has to be
unconscious, because the preceding event on the LC is Lara's shot, a strong event which requires
a weaker echo.
Many reasons offered by the surface story may be reconsidered, as, for instance, the
motivation of the Zhivagos' journey to the Urals. On the surface, Yurii yields to Tonya's will, but
the logic of composition suggests another reason. It is Lara's magic – or, more precisely, their
mutual vows taken at the candle – to which Yurii unknowingly succumbs after she reemerges
from the house on Brestskaya Street. From that house, he is transported to where she was,
stopping on the way at the current dwelling of her husband.
Why did Yurii have to move to Antipov's room in Kamergersky street, and why, after his
death, was his body laid there? These events are justified by the fact that Antipov dies at the
threshold of the Varykino house. The deaths of the two heroes are inseparable; after Antipov
shoots himself, Yurii has to die, choosing the room of his antagonist for his last earthly abode,
and tightening the knot of three lives.
Of the five participants of the LC, three die, while two (Tonya and Komarovskii) apparently
stay alive. The composition hints at the structural interdependence of their five fates, and the
inner circle of three of them. In the fateful inner circle, three deaths occur, one in the Urals, and
two in Moscow. The first is the death of Antipov, who takes his own life; the second, Yurii's

23
death by heart attack, is presumably caused by the poisonous social atmosphere; the third death
is even less definite, even more passive: Lara simply vanishes. Thus the death sequence starts
loudly with complete self-reliance, and ends with a silent uncertainty. The three deaths are united
not only by this diminuendo. All three characters are victims of the epoch, though only Yurii's
death is explained, by the doctor himself, as the direct result of the new regime. It is quite
different with Tonya and Komarovskii. Distanced from the doomed inner circle, and from the
doomed country, they go abroad – symmetrically, one to the West, another to the East.
The list of examples could be continued. Matching the text of 'Doctor Zhivago' against its
motivic composition, one finds out that, at every point, the novel is supported by lucid structural
reasoning. The rhythm holds the text in its firm grip, and it is hardly possible to doubt that this
17 18
novel has an integral structure of inspiring and innovating elegance.
Notes
1 I am very grateful to Professor Henrik Birnbaum for his careful, questioning, and insightful reading of the draft
that allowed me to finally shape this paper. I greatly appreciate the generosity of Mr. Mordechai Kidron, who edited
my imperfect English.
2 'Critics have trouble describing the form of Doctor Zhivago ... Is it a novel? many have asked.", writes Angela
Livingstone (Boris Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989] p.5). A short verdict
by Andrei Sinyavsky is characteristic: 'Of course, the light of some scenes, and, especially, of the poems appended
in the end of the book, tells us that this is great art. But sometimes the prose text makes us doubt it..." ('Nekotorye
aspekty pozdnei prozy Pasternaka', in: Lazar Fleishman (ed.), Boris Pasternak and his Times. [Berkeley: Berkeley
Slavic Specialties, 1989] p. 360. For review of negative opinions on the form of Doctor Zhivago see Ronald
Hingley, Pasternak: A Biography. [New York: Knopf, 1983] and Neil Cornwell, Pasternak's Novel: Perspectives on
Doctor Zhivago. [Keele: Essays in Poetics Publications No.2, 1986].
3 Boris Gasparov 'Vremennoi kontrapunkt kak formoobrazuiushchij printsip romana Pasternaka 'Doktor Zhivago', in
Lazar Fleishman, ed., Boris Pasternak and his Times. [Berkeley: Berkeley Slavic Specialties, 1989] pp. 315–58.
4 I fully agree with the opinion of Henrik Birnbaum expressed in his 'Further Reflections on the Poetics of Doctor
Zhivago', in: Fleishman (ed,) op.cit., pp. 284–314) that the cycle of poems in Part XVII is central to the message of
the novel. However, the poems can be integrated into the structure of the novel only after the structure of the
narrative parts is explained.
5 Lara's mixed foreign origin is worth considering, the more so since for Zhivago and Antipov, she was a symbol of
her generation. Talking to Yurii, Antipov describes her (XIV,17:446) as a representative not of Russia, but of her
times, of the century itself. In the unconventional combination of Lara's three motherlands, the Urals are most
clearly specified. An Asiatic region of Russia, the Urals is almost as far from Moscow as is France; more
importantly, it is described as a mythical land of thick woods, as "black as night", and populated by supernatural
wood-monsters, also black and hairy, with their strange monosyllabic names – Vakkh, Lupp, Favst (III,4:80–81).
The image of the unknown distant land is associated with the Urals until Zhivago's departure from Moscow (Cf.
VII,1:210).
* (All references to Doctor Zhivago will be to a Russian edition of the novel: Boris Pasternak, Doktor Zhivago.
[Moskva: Sovetskii pisatel', 1989], and will be indicated in parentheses by Part, Section and page number.
Translations are mine - M.L.)

24
6 Pasternak does not say explicitly that, after her departure from Varykino, Lara was married to Komarovsky.
However, the author clearly wished the reader to believe that "Raisa Komarova was the wife of comrade Komarov".
This conclusion can be made on the basis of the story told by Lara's daughter Tania (XVI,4:495). Comparing Tania's
story with what Komarovsky himself told Lara of his prospects for the future (XIV,1:409 and XIV,11:433), one can
see that the two stories have many details in common: a minister in Far East (White Mongolia), a special train, a
flight from the Reds.
7 See note 5 *.
8 On the realization of metaphors in Doctor Zhivago see Willem Weststeijn 'Metaphor and Simile in Doktor
Zhivago, Essays in Poetics X, 2 (1985) 41–57.
9 On Lara's association with water see Livingstone, op. cit., p. 67. Notably, after Yurii's death, Lara redirects this
metaphore to him: she likens him to a "swift, deep river", and "the cold waves" of the sea (485).
10. This was first noted by Henry Gifford Pasternak: A Critical Study. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1977] p. 194)
11. The author ends Lara's biography with the possibility that she may still be alive. But if alive, she is out of life,
placed in one of the countless northern camps, stripped of her name, and given a number instead. The number is
included in a list, which is lost. The passage is notable for the abundance of lexical uncertainties: "umerla ili propala
neizvestno gde, zabytaia pod kakim-nibud' bezymyannym nomerom iz vposledstvii zapropastivshikhsya spiskov v
odnom iz neischislimykh obshchikh ili zhenskikh kontslagerei severa" (XV,17:486).
12. One could justify the affinity of Lara and Evgraf by their outlandish natures. They both are exotic, and not only
due to the remoteness of their birthplaces, the Urals and Siberia. This is more obvious in the case of Evgraf, who is
mysterious and Asiatic-looking. He is also 'black' (XVI,3:494); Evgraf's name and his Siberian home are first
mentioned on the same page where the legendary Ural muzhiks are described, and a phonetic parallel between his
name and the names of the muzhiks can hardly be overlooked. The name is 'ringing and bulging' (zvuchnoe i
vypukloe) resembling by its three-consonant cluster the neighboring names of Favst, Vakkh and Avkt. (For an
extensive interpretation of the Evgraf–Vakkh connections see Jerzy Faryno, 'Knyaginya Stolbunova-Enritsi i ee syn
Evgraf /Arkheopoetika Doktora Zhivago, 1/; in: Anna Majmieskulow (ed) Pasternak's Poetiks, (Studia Filologiczne,
Zeszyt 31 /12/), Bydgoszcz 1990, pp. 155–221; especially 174-175). As for Lara, her foreignness is not forced upon
the reader: this is hardly needed, since the foreign lands and cities are found in her soul (358).
13. Resurrection is one of most important problems set in the novel. Part XVI ends with the hope and expectation of
unattainable 'freedom and light'; this makes a bridge to Yurii's book of poetry, in Part XVII. In the poems,
resurrection is placed into a powerful context of universal redemption. Yurii Zhivago is given another chance to pass
through his life, under the protection of Hamlet, Christ, and Pasternak himself. Cf. Per Arne Bodin Nine Poems
from Doktor Zhivago: A Study of Christian Motifs in Boris Pasternak's Poetry. (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell,
1976).
14. I am drawing here on the distinction between the events and motives as different textual units suggested in my
earlier papers: see M. Langleben, 'The grades of reading', in M-E. Conte, J.S. Petöfi, E. Sözer (eds), Text and
Discourse Connectedness (Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 1989), pp. 441-461.; specifically on the iterational motives see
M. Langleben, D. Langleben, 'Iterational structures in anomalous texts', in: B. Wårwik, S.-K. Tanskanen, R.
Hiltunen (eds), Organization in Discourse: Proceedings from the Turku Conference (Turku: U. of Turku, 1995) pp.
329-340.
15. Besides these three shots, there is plenty of additional shooting in the novel. Taking account of all instances of
all the instances of shooting, Elliott Mossman finds in Doctor Zhivago a deeper plot based on the evolution of the
predicate 'shoot', in which Lara's shot takes a determining position. ('Linguistic Fictions: The Grammar of the Plot in
Doctor Zhivago (manuscript), 1990.)
16. To assess the relation of the plot and the LC, in Doctor Zhivago, a distinction between two types of reading can
be helpful. Linear scanning builds up the surface of text, but brings little understanding; non-linear digesting
interconnects the elements of the text into a meaningful whole. See Maria Langleben 'Bakhtin's Notions of Time and
Textanalysis', Russian Literature XXVI(1989), 167–90.

25
17. I am leaving open the question whether this rhythmical composition was a planned intention of the author. But
Pasternak was a musician, and I would not exclude the possibility that the rhythm of Doctor Zhivago could be
studied in musical terms. On musical mentality of Pasternak see Gasparov 'Vremennoi kontrapunkt', Christopher J.
Barnes 'Pasternak, the Musician-Poet and Composer', Slavica Hierosolymitana, 1 (1977), 317-35; 'Pasternak as
Composer and Scriabin's Disciple', Tempo, 121 (June 1977), 13-25; 'Boris Pasternak as Composer', Performance, 6
(April-May 1982, pp.12-14; Boris Pasternak: A Literary Biography, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press,
1989, pp. 50-52.
18 REFERENCES
Boris Pasternak. Doktor Zhivago. Moscow: Sovetskii pisatel', 1989.
Barnes, Christopher J. 'Pasternak, the Musician-Poet and Composer', Slavica Hierosolymitana, 1
(1977), 317-35; 'Pasternak as Composer and Scriabin's Disciple', Tempo, 121 (June
1977), 13-25; 'Boris Pasternak as Composer', Performance, 6 (April–May 1982, 12-14.
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