I am a huge fan of Solzhenitsyn. If you don't know who this man is, please, take some time to find out. His ideas have changed the way I view the world. Seriously. Other than Hugo and Les Mis, Solzhenitsyn and The First Circle are my favorite author/book, and they have had a profound and lasting influence on my life.
In The First Circle, the protagonist is named Gleb Nerzhin. He is analogous to Solzhenitsyn and the book is therefore somewhat autobiographical. Gleb gets put through several experiences that allow him to explore and reflect on his personal stances. Confronted with the excesses he sees in the world he's thrust into, he ponders on the meaning of it all. While ostensibly an intellectual cynic, Gleb also acknowledges the virtues of self exploration, the rights and suffering of man, and (most interestingly) of love.
In exploring this theme - love, and in particular, love between lovers - Solzhenitsyn has Gleb encounter two very different situations. One is with a young woman (Simochka), a security guard at the prison where Gleb is forced to live/work. An emotional bond develops between them, which is a purely physical thing for Gleb. Gleb, denied a woman's touch for years, finds the idea of being able to be with Simochka intoxicating. Simochka, on her part, has a crush on Gleb and finds him exciting and intelligent. She is a rather plain girl and has never experienced the romantic advances of men. She is prepared to give herself to Gleb, which is what Gleb is interested in as well.
However, before Gleb is able to get with her, he is suddenly granted a visit with his wife (Nadya). Gleb has not seen Nadya in over a year. The visit, carefully monitored and lasting only 30 minutes, nevertheless ends up being one of the seminal moments in Gleb's life. Nadya, who had risked much to come see him at the front... Nadya, the woman who had remained faithful throughout the four years of war... Nadya, who had moved to Moscow on learning that her husband was imprisoned there - just to be close to him... Nadya, who was counting down the days until Gleb would be released....
In the meeting, there is a moment where they both have major revelations to give. Nadya tells Gleb that she may have to seek a divorce in order to finish her school work. In those days, wives of prisoners were ostracized and persecuted. As such, distancing herself from her husband was not only desirable, it was almost requisite. Gleb notices that her ring has already been taken off her finger. He notes that once divorced officially, it will be an easy step to visiting with other men socially, as friends... Which will be an easy step towards forgetting Gleb altogether...
Gleb, for his part, tells her that his kind of sentence may be extended indefinitely. This shatters Nadya and the little construct she's built for herself. Clinging to the hope that he will come and rescue her from the tortured existence she's in, or at least clinging to the knowledge that they will be together again, at last, Nadya wants to believe that the end of the term is coming. Realistically, there is never any real release from such a prison in those kinds of circumstances. It just does not happen. Even if the body is released, the person remains a pariah, an outcast. They are usually banished to live someplace in Siberia. But Nadya either refuses to acknowledge that, or is resigned to it and just wants to be with Gleb.
Gleb is touched by this. His heart is refreshed by the love of this amazing woman who has remained faithful through all the hardships and time and difficulties. Such a thing is all the more precious because it is so rare. Yet, he also acknowledges that the realities of life are often the hardest on those who are trying to be the most pure, the strongest, and the most deserving of protection.
The encounter he had arranged with Simochka never takes place. When she arrives for the moment, he tells her of the visit and that he can never be with her. He says that he will remain faithful to Nadya. Simochka is crushed. She had wanted Gleb - or the idea of Gleb - so much... Gleb, feeling foolish and angry (after all, why shouldn't he just do what the animal instinct says he should do - what he MUST do) just has to endure it as Simochka cries and cries...
This whole thing is interesting to me. At what point does one's convictions become subject to compromise, and at what point do you stand your ground? Hier stehe ich! Ich kann nicht anders!
But, of particular interest is this theme of love. When confronted with the idea that his wife may have to get a divorce, he considers the nature of love. Is love a state-sanctioned thing? Is a piece of paper what makes love real? Or a relationship? Tear up the paper - is the commitment any less real? Answer, if you will. I cannot.
He realizes that what the regime has really done, the really, truly damaging thing that they've done, is to isolate these men from the women who love them. In an allegorical allusion, Solzhenitsyn mentions the hellish prison experience of one of the special prisons - where prisoners are not fed gruel and rotten potatoes, but are fed on sumptuous meals including meat, fresh vegetables, etc. The torture comes not in the quality of the food, but in the portions that are given. Similarly, by restricting contact from those who love them, these men are kept alive only in tortured gasps, like a drowning man who is allowed to breathe only at the very brink of death, repeatedly almost drowning, but then being thrust back to the surface for life-giving air.
People are made to love each other. Unless there is something wrong, some sort of emotional stunting or issue, people crave the nourishing and enlarging presence of another's love. This is particularly true of men and women, whose romantic feelings sustain and support one another. Denied this, these prisoners languish and falter, living a life, but never truly alive. And that, Solzhenitsyn points out, is truly the greatest tragedy of the prison system he describes. To have someone who loves you, who wants to be with you, and whom you love more than life itself, and yet to be forced to continue living without that person except in small, weak gasps of air... That is hell. That is torture beyond any physical torture contrived.
In The First Circle, the protagonist is named Gleb Nerzhin. He is analogous to Solzhenitsyn and the book is therefore somewhat autobiographical. Gleb gets put through several experiences that allow him to explore and reflect on his personal stances. Confronted with the excesses he sees in the world he's thrust into, he ponders on the meaning of it all. While ostensibly an intellectual cynic, Gleb also acknowledges the virtues of self exploration, the rights and suffering of man, and (most interestingly) of love.
In exploring this theme - love, and in particular, love between lovers - Solzhenitsyn has Gleb encounter two very different situations. One is with a young woman (Simochka), a security guard at the prison where Gleb is forced to live/work. An emotional bond develops between them, which is a purely physical thing for Gleb. Gleb, denied a woman's touch for years, finds the idea of being able to be with Simochka intoxicating. Simochka, on her part, has a crush on Gleb and finds him exciting and intelligent. She is a rather plain girl and has never experienced the romantic advances of men. She is prepared to give herself to Gleb, which is what Gleb is interested in as well.
However, before Gleb is able to get with her, he is suddenly granted a visit with his wife (Nadya). Gleb has not seen Nadya in over a year. The visit, carefully monitored and lasting only 30 minutes, nevertheless ends up being one of the seminal moments in Gleb's life. Nadya, who had risked much to come see him at the front... Nadya, the woman who had remained faithful throughout the four years of war... Nadya, who had moved to Moscow on learning that her husband was imprisoned there - just to be close to him... Nadya, who was counting down the days until Gleb would be released....
In the meeting, there is a moment where they both have major revelations to give. Nadya tells Gleb that she may have to seek a divorce in order to finish her school work. In those days, wives of prisoners were ostracized and persecuted. As such, distancing herself from her husband was not only desirable, it was almost requisite. Gleb notices that her ring has already been taken off her finger. He notes that once divorced officially, it will be an easy step to visiting with other men socially, as friends... Which will be an easy step towards forgetting Gleb altogether...
Gleb, for his part, tells her that his kind of sentence may be extended indefinitely. This shatters Nadya and the little construct she's built for herself. Clinging to the hope that he will come and rescue her from the tortured existence she's in, or at least clinging to the knowledge that they will be together again, at last, Nadya wants to believe that the end of the term is coming. Realistically, there is never any real release from such a prison in those kinds of circumstances. It just does not happen. Even if the body is released, the person remains a pariah, an outcast. They are usually banished to live someplace in Siberia. But Nadya either refuses to acknowledge that, or is resigned to it and just wants to be with Gleb.
Gleb is touched by this. His heart is refreshed by the love of this amazing woman who has remained faithful through all the hardships and time and difficulties. Such a thing is all the more precious because it is so rare. Yet, he also acknowledges that the realities of life are often the hardest on those who are trying to be the most pure, the strongest, and the most deserving of protection.
The encounter he had arranged with Simochka never takes place. When she arrives for the moment, he tells her of the visit and that he can never be with her. He says that he will remain faithful to Nadya. Simochka is crushed. She had wanted Gleb - or the idea of Gleb - so much... Gleb, feeling foolish and angry (after all, why shouldn't he just do what the animal instinct says he should do - what he MUST do) just has to endure it as Simochka cries and cries...
This whole thing is interesting to me. At what point does one's convictions become subject to compromise, and at what point do you stand your ground? Hier stehe ich! Ich kann nicht anders!
But, of particular interest is this theme of love. When confronted with the idea that his wife may have to get a divorce, he considers the nature of love. Is love a state-sanctioned thing? Is a piece of paper what makes love real? Or a relationship? Tear up the paper - is the commitment any less real? Answer, if you will. I cannot.
He realizes that what the regime has really done, the really, truly damaging thing that they've done, is to isolate these men from the women who love them. In an allegorical allusion, Solzhenitsyn mentions the hellish prison experience of one of the special prisons - where prisoners are not fed gruel and rotten potatoes, but are fed on sumptuous meals including meat, fresh vegetables, etc. The torture comes not in the quality of the food, but in the portions that are given. Similarly, by restricting contact from those who love them, these men are kept alive only in tortured gasps, like a drowning man who is allowed to breathe only at the very brink of death, repeatedly almost drowning, but then being thrust back to the surface for life-giving air.
People are made to love each other. Unless there is something wrong, some sort of emotional stunting or issue, people crave the nourishing and enlarging presence of another's love. This is particularly true of men and women, whose romantic feelings sustain and support one another. Denied this, these prisoners languish and falter, living a life, but never truly alive. And that, Solzhenitsyn points out, is truly the greatest tragedy of the prison system he describes. To have someone who loves you, who wants to be with you, and whom you love more than life itself, and yet to be forced to continue living without that person except in small, weak gasps of air... That is hell. That is torture beyond any physical torture contrived.
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