Infidelity in Dr. Zhivago

r Dr. Zhivago has many different themes, such as forbidden love, love triangles, and incest. But one other theme that is very evident in the film is infidelity, or more common know as cheating. Infidelity can be separated into three different types: emotional affair, sexual affair, and combined type (Fish). The first type, emotional affair, is described as when the partner spends the emotional resources like love, time and attention to another individual (Fish). This can be seen in Dr. Zhivago when Yuri and Lara first meet, and Yuri writes to her and talks of her constantly with his own wife Tonya. In today’s society, this would have been seen as not actually having an affair, but back during the Russian revolution, it would have been seen as an equivalent to having a sexual affair. However, the audiences always love this type of affair because it’s something different than normal. It goes against society and people love that about characters. They love when rules are broken in the name of love, and when no actual harm is done, such as having a sexual affair as mentioned before. A sexual affair, the second type of infidelity, is the result of sexual activity with another individual other than the primary partner (Fish). This is very evident in Dr. Zhivago in the the sexual affairs Lara and Yuri have. Lara with Komarovsky and Yuri with Lara. This is very interesting to see that Lara is involved in both acts of this type of infidelity. So, what makes her cheat? This could be due to the “three stages of love” (Wallace). The first step is called desire. A physical attraction that draws two people together. This first stage can be seen between Yuri and Lara when they work together in the military hospital. This first stage can also be sort of described as the first type of infidelity, despite the physical part, it can also be a mental feeling that draws two together. The next stage, romance, is described as when a couple becomes intensely focused on each other.