Based on the story “The Torrents Of Spring” and “The Nevsky Prospect”, Ivan Turgenev and Nikolali Gogol push the narrative of a negative appeal of lovesickness to further emphasize the ideology that love sickness can ultimately cause more harm than good. Lovesickness refers to an affliction that can produce negative feelings when deeply in love, during the absence of a loved one or when love is unrequited.  Valeria Sobol says “Lovesickness, a malady of the soul manifested in the body, thus was as much a medical as a literary concern at the time.” in her book Febris Erotica. In discussions about lovesickness, one controversial issue has been whether failed or unrequited love could produce illness. Though today, the term is rarely used in medical or psychological fields, new research is being undertaken on the impact of heartbreak on the body and mind. Both authors portray lovesickness in their characters differently. Gogol uses one of the main characters, Piskarev, to show how unreturned love can actually be fatal to one’s overall health and life. Love sickness affected Piskarev psychologically and physiologically. Turgenev shows how obstacles play a part of what causes Sanin’s lovesickness which ultimately affects him psychologically. 

In the book Febris Erotica by Valeria Sobol, the author mentions that “Unrequited or unconsummated love assumes the dangerous form often referred to in contemporary journals as “desperate love.” (Sobol) Piskarev had become so desperate in his idealization he went to extreme measures to keep his desire alive. Idealization is when one believes and sometimes even acts on, something is better than what it truly is. Depending on the situation at hand, it can be seen as either a good or bad thing. In the story, “The Nevsky Prospect” by Nikolai Gogol, the main character Piskarev over idealizes a person he deemed to be perfect. Overidealizations can often lead you to create false narratives of a person especially when love isn’t reciprocated. For example, Piskarev falls in love with a lady that he barely knows and has only met one night. That same night he finds out that she is actually a prostitute, and refuses to accept that she is not the perfect woman he perceived her to be. He begins to idealize the lady into what he assumes and wishes her to be in his dreams.  In his dream he portrays the lady as if she is some sort of majestic and innocent angel, more specifically the Virgin Mary “I did, a wonderful girl, a perfect Pirugino Bianca”( Gogol, 251);despite his complete understanding that she is a prostitute, and he continues to dream. Instead of accepting her for who she is, he is choosing to create a false reality of her to fit the figment of his imagination. This causes  him to go down a road of lovesickness because of  the way he  sets himself up to fall in love with something that is unattainable. However in “The Torrents of Spring”, Sanin’s story isn’t only about lovesickness being unrequited but also when there are obstacles put in place to further one’s desires. Sanin has a tendency to purposely place obstacles to fuel his desires for Maria, who is married, even though he was engaged and truly loved by Gemma. Sanin abandons his truly loving relationship with his fiance, for his lustful obsession with an already married woman, he could never actually have.“This Madame Polozov persistently floated—no! not floated, poked herself, so Sanin with special vindictiveness expressed it—poked herself in and faced his eyes, and he could not rid himself of her image, could not help hearing her voice, recalling her words, could not help being aware even of the special scent, delicate, fresh and penetrating, like the scent of yellow lilies, that was wafted from her garments. This lady was obviously fooling him, and trying in every way to get over him …” (Turgenev 66) Maria did not reciprocate the feelings that he did, but Sanin still  became blind in his pursuit of Maria telling her, “I am going where you will be, and will be with you till you drive me away,” he answered with despair and pressed close to him the hands of his sovereign.”(Turgenev 79)  She constantly comes to his mind and he can’t even help himself. He wraps himself around Maria’s finger all on his own, and does whatever she wants; while Sanin Digging himself into a much deeper hole. After finding out about his betrayal Gemma no longer wanted to be with Sanin, and left him. Both women leave Sanin with an unreturned love because of the obstacles he placed himself. For example, when he met Gemma she was already engaged to another man, but that still didn’t stop Sanin from wanting her. Then once he finally got her, he cheated on her with Maria. However,  Maria was also married. It was as if he needed an obstacle to continue to want someone. The obstacle that he created with Gemma by cheating on her caused him to desire her even more after she leaves him, which leads to his love sickness. 

Overall lovesickness can be caused by different things, and the difference in one’s actions in bringing it upon themselves. 

Lovesickness isn’t just about the feelings of romance, but instead the sadness and longing that Piskarev and Sanin experienced. Piskarev said “Again he waited till evening, again fell asleep, again dreamed of some official who was an official and at the same time a bassoon. “Oh, this was unbearable! At last she came! Her head and her tresses …she looks… Oh, wow how brief! Again the mist, again some stupid dream” (Gogol, 262). He would continuously try to force himself to dream of this woman. “God, be merciful; show her to me for a moment at least, Just for a moment!”(Gogol, 262). He eventually drove himself to the point of developing insomnia, an infamous symptom of lovesickness. Despite knowing who she truly was and that her feelings for him were not returned. After sometime, he could no longer sleep and even when he did, he could no longer dream of her. He began taking drastic measures to restore his dreams by taking opium. The author says, “Such a state unsettled his health, and his most terrible torment was that sleep finally began to desert him entirely. Wishing to salvage this his only possession, he used every means to restore it. He heard that there was a means to restore it. He heard that there was a means of restoring sleep–one had only to take opium”(Gogol 262). And that “Taking opium inflamed his thoughts still more, and if anyone was ever in love to the uttermost degree of madness, impetuously, terribly, destructively, stormily, he was that unfortunate man” (Gogol, 264). In Febris Erotica by Valeria Sobol, the source speaks of insomnia being a devastating symptom of lovesickness, “The predictable diagnosis is confirmed by the presence of classic symptoms: “Is it not plain even to a child . . . that her disorder is one of the soul and that we have here a clear case of lovesickness? Can you not see the dark rings under her eyes, how restless her eyes are, how pale her face is, although she does not complain of any internal pain? Her concentration wanders; . . . she is suffering from an inexplicable insomnia, and has suddenly lost her self-confidence. There is only one person who can cure her, Charikles, and that is the man she loves.”(Sobol) While Piskarev suffered from insomnia which led to his addiction to opium, Sanin showed and suffered from different symptoms. For instance because Sanin committed adultery with an already married woman, he in turn loses them both. Later in the story, he reflects on the mistake he made betraying Gemma, “How had the garnet cross given Sanin by Gemma existed till now, why had he not sent it back, how had it happened that he had never come across it till that day? A long, long while he sat deep in thought, and taught as he was by the experience of so many years, he still could not comprehend how he could have deserted Gemma, so tenderly and passionately loved, for a woman he did not love at all…. Next day he surprised all his friends and acquaintances by announcing that he was going abroad.” (Turgenev 80). Though too late, Sanin had felt remorse for ruining his engagement with Gemma by cheating with Maria which led to his symptoms being guilt and despair. Ultimately resulting in him living in depression for the rest of his life,“He fell to thinking … slowly, listlessly, wrathfully. He thought of the vanity, the uselessness, the vulgar falsity of all things human. All the stages of man’s life passed in order before his mental gaze (he had himself lately reached his fifty-second year), and not one found grace in his eyes.” (Turgenev 2) In Febris Eroctia by Valeria Sobol Doctors back in that time,“ firmly believed in the devastating physical effects of strong feelings, and they held love, of all the emotions, to be the most powerful and therefore the most dangerous for human health.”(Sobol) Their conditions contained elements of intrusive thoughts, obsession, impulsiveness and delusions that research has shown can mimic mental illness.

Though some would argue that both Sanin and Piskarev’s downfalls were different, others would refute that both stories ended in loss and depression due to the lovesickness of  their main characters. To give an example, Both Sanin and Piskarev ended up without the women in the end. Piskarev never got with the prostitute and Sanin lost both Gemma and Maria. Another similarity between both characters is that their love sickness brought destruction to their lives and led to their downfalls. In accordance with his overidealizations, his dreams would be filled with his own false situations that he would believe and wish to be real. With this unfortunate and deluded perspective, he goes to her and asks for her hand in marriage but in reality she verbalizes that she doesn’t love him or even really know him outside of the one night that they had met. And since the love that Piskaerv felt for her wasn’t returned back, it drove him into a depression so deep that he couldn’t recover. Piskaerv made obsessing over and dreaming about the lady a priority in his life. It consumed so much of his daily life he wasn’t taking care of his basic needs. “He did not think about anything, he even ate almost nothing, and impatiently, with a lover’s passion, waited for evening and the desired vision. His thoughts were constantly turned to one thing, and this finally acquired such power over his whole being  and imagination that the desired image came to him almost everyday.”(Gogol, 264) This goes on to show the lack of concern he has for his own mental and physical health. Allowing your body to be void of any of these basic things as simple as hygiene and nutrition, can lead your body to be degraded physically, emotionally, and mentally. In the end, Piskarev ended up taking his own life. For Sanin, after the loss of Gemma, as he grows older he lives his life in regret and despair for his past mistakes. An example in the beginning of the story says,“For a few instants he looked in perplexity at this cross—suddenly he gave a faint cry…. Something between regret and delight was expressed in his features. Such an expression a man’s face wears when he suddenly meets some one whom he has long lost sight of, whom he has at one time tenderly loved, and who suddenly springs up before his eyes, still the same, and utterly transformed by the years.” (Turgenev, 2) He even tried to find his back to Gemma but she never reached back out, destroying his self esteem and respect for himself. “He remembered the scoundrelly, tearful, lying, pitiful letter he had sent to Gemma, that never received an answer…. See her again, go back to her, after such falsehood, such treachery, no! no! he could not, so much conscience and honesty was left in him. Moreover, he had lost every trace of confidence in himself, every atom of self-respect; he dared not rely on himself for anything.” (Turgenev,79)  Sobol’s Febris Erotica says “a case of lovesickness exemplifies the active role of the mind and human emotional life and their potentially destructive impact on the body’s health.” (Sobol)  Lovesickness can have physiological and psychological effects and can drive someone to do deranged things that are out of character for them, and unfortunately they both have tragic endings. 

Overall, it may be argued, the effects of unrequited love can be detrimental to one’s well-being. Valeria Sobol says that “Throughout history, there had been a prevalent idea that unconsummated or unreturned love could cause a physical and mental disorder, called lovesickness”(Sobol).  Both Gogol and Turgenev both portray this in their stories. Upon reading the Nevsky Prospect, Gogol demonstrates that unreturned love can produce an illness of the mind and body. While in The Torrent Of Spring, Turgenev told us the story of how Sanin’s lovesickness and lifelong depression was a result of him placing destructive obstacles to fuel his selfish desires. Therefore, lovesickness can ultimately cause more harm than good, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional.

Work Cited

Gogol, Nikolai. “Gogol: Nevsky Prospect: Paper.” Barnes & Noble, BloomsburyAcademic, 1 Jan. 1998, www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ gogol-nikolai-gogl/1114251399.

Turgenev, Ivan, Sergeevich, et al. The Torrents of Spring. Alexander Vassiliev.

Sobol Valeria. “PART1/Anatomy: The Anatomy of Feeling and the Mind-Body Problem in Russian Sentimentalism”. Febris Erotica: Lovesickness in the Russian Literary Imagination, University of Washington Press, 2009, p.21-54.

Sobol Valeria. “PART 2/Diagnosis: Diagnosing Love: Tradition”. Febris Erotica: Lovesickness in the Russian Literary Imagination, University of Washington Press, 2009, p.55-120Sobol Valeria. “PART 3/Therapy: The “Question of the Soul” in the Age of Positivism”.  Febris Erotica: Lovesickness in the Russian Literary Imagination, University of Washington Press, 2009, p.121-188