The Function of Love in Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle

Abstract

Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, like Boris Pasternak before him, insists upon the primacy of life over any socio-political system. To lead truly meaningful lives, his characters must comprehend that they are responsible for their own actions; that they are engaged in an existential struggle which pits individual freedom against the will of authority. In The First Circle , this struggle is clearly reflected in the theme of love which, when analyzed in terms of the suppression or triumph of its four basic elements ( sex, eros, philia, and agape ), offers a convincing allegory of man's existential self-definition by free choice.