Doctor Zhivago Madness Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

Pasha, Lipa, the Kologrivovs, money—it all started spinning in her head. Life became repugnant to Lara. She was beginning to lose her mind. (3.7.10)

After her affair with Komarovsky, Lara takes a job with the Kologrivov family to make some money. But pretty quickly, life just seems to have too many moving parts for her. By the end of it all, she just wants to settle down, get married, and have a nice quiet life. But before she can do that, she goes through a period of feeling like she's totally insane, which of course culminates in her attempt to murder Komarovsky.

Quote #2

He would have gone out of his mind, if it had not been for everyday trifles, labors, and cares. His wife, his child, the need to earn money, were his salvation—the essential, the humble, the daily round, going to work, visiting patients. (6.5.5)

If it weren't for his daily habits and responsibilities, Zhivago would totally lose his mind. It always helps to have something in your life to keep you grounded. The problem is that Zhivago eventually starts to resent the very things that keep him sane. He ends up abandoning his family and spending all his time writing, which just makes him more and more eccentric as he gets older.

Quote #3

The assumption that he would see Antipova once more made Yuri Andreevich mad with joy. (9.16.16)

The expression "mad for joy" in this passage might seem like a figure of speech. But when you look at it in context, you realize that Zhivago has done certain things in this book that have made us question his sanity. For this reason, we're forced to entertain the possibility that the thought of seeing Lara literally makes Zhivago insane with happiness. Love as madness, at any rate, is an age-old theme in literature.