During the 19th century the culture of love was what was most trending amongst the people in Russia. The most famous way most people were able to learn and express their ideas of love is through Russian fictional literatures. Through this trend many forms of love such as masochism was brought to light through many fictional characters, but also there was a deeper meaning and idea behind the masochist and sadist that were being presented. In the  novel First Love the author Ivan Turgenev uses metaphors and analogies in order to present the idea that masochist where people who were doing such things in their love life because it is an effect or reflection of their past negative life experiences. What is this culture of masochism?

Masochism is more well known as BDSM (Bondage Discipline sadism and Masochism in the modern world. This term was originally most brought to light in the 19 century in Russian fictional literature.  . Masochism is when one feels sexual fullfilling pleasure through pain inflicted on them. According to The Pleasure of Pain by Bruce Gross describes masochism as “the desire or need for submission..A focus on an erotic power exchange.” Meaning, when in a position of a masochist you  must give in your regular roles of being dominant and making command to the hands of others. But why might one give in their power?

In the the russian literature First Love masochism have had its one of the many spotlights in literature. This piece of work specially displays how negative past experiences can make one masochist . The main character  vladimir, in the story seems to fall in love with a older women (Zinaida) who show no interest to him and is having an affair with his father (Pytor). Although , Vladimir has a crush on zainiada and one day follow her to her secret meetings only to find out she was having an affair with Pastor he continues to follow love her and respect his father. This can be counted as a form of pain and pleasure. The reason why he chooses to continue to love her and respect his father is because it is the the same situation as his childhood experiences. Vladimir as a child always had a cold and distant mom who rarely showed him love. But he observed his mom giving his father plenty of love and attention for which he respected his father for that ability. In the present time his father yet again had the ability to get the love and attention from a woman he also loved(Zainida) even though he couldn’t achieve that from her. This shows his replicating his past painful memories on to present time and actually feeling pleasure out of it.

  Characters like vladimir who have had bad childhood experiences which can be traumatizing and grow up to reflect off of that are better known as in the present time “Rat People” . In the article The Effects of Overstimulation:Rat People  by Leonard Shengold describes Rat people as people who “suffered traumatic overstimulation as children” (Shengold,Line 4). Just as someone like Vladimir has been traumatized as s child from very distant parents, he had grown up just trying to please his parents and now worries about how people perceive him and if he will be accepted. He follows that statement by explaining through many observations on adults who have had negative childhood experiences that their “ Patterns of behavior, operating under the sway of repetition compulsion”. In Vladimirs case he he repeats his past by not taking charge and action when finding out his love is having an affair with his father. This is a repetition of his father getting love from a women he loves like his mother.

Through many researchers, there have been interpretations of people being masochist because of their past experiences. Based on Doctor Roy F. Baumeister’s article Masochism as Escape from Self  social psychologists have described masochists as people who are “escaping from high-level awareness of self as a symbolically mediated, temporarily extended identity.”(Baumeister,Line 2)  In the case of Vladimir in First Love he is portrayed as a naive boy who is passive and does give much mind when he encounters his father with his crush. The reason why he may have turned out naive and passive is because of how he had to look past the emotionally abusive parents and consider their actions as love. According to How children Learn about Love:And Why you’re the most important part of the process by Lauren Slater believes “ We see our parents hug, so we hug; we hear the click of a kiss, so we decide to do it ourselves..Break the heart , break the child..When such experiences are repeated over time, the neural messages become engraved.” ( Slater, Paragraph 17). This proves how Vladimir’s acts of passivity and masochism is because it is all that he knows. He has been learning that pain is his from of love and is a normal thing for anyone.

In other cases there are Russian fictional literatures that include masochists that are usually of female orgins. Literature pieces such as White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky’s presents a young girl Nastenka who is form of an masochist tortures herself by waiting for the “love of her life”. Nastenka spent most of her young life taking care of her blind grandmother, isolated from others and the outside world. This life made her weak and naive and so although she had the chance to move onto love that is healthier for her , she chose to push away a man who loved her and waited for man who took a very long time to give back her love . Just as Vladimir in First Love  Nastenka chose to give up taking action towards facing his crush and letting her have an affair with his father. They both do share many similarities when it comes to being a masochists through emotional pain, but when it came Russian fictional literatures masochists that were women were portrayed very differently from masochists that were men.

Masochists that were  in russian fictional literatures were seen as smart, educated women such as Nastenka from White Nights. But men on the other hand that are being portrayed as masochists in Russian fictional literatures are seen As victims of abuse and inexperienced young men with a lack of knowledge. In the literature piece The Torrents of Spring  by Ivan Turgenev the main character Sanin, a 22 year-old man who fell in love with a woman named Gemma who broke off her engagement with her ex-fiance for him had later fell in love with another married women. Sanin is a masochist because at various parts of the texts he feels tortured by his guilt he feels which is caused from leaving Gemma for Maria his new lover. For example in the text Turgenev states “ One other thing confounded him, angered him, with love, with tenderness, with grateful transport he dreamed of Gemma, of their life together, of the happiness awaiting him in the future,so Sanin with special vindictiveness expressed it–poked herself (Maria) in and faced his eyes, and he could not rid himself of her image” (Turgenev, Chapter 38). In this particular scene the main character Sanin is battling with  the pain of not being with his well known pleasure Gemma because of a woman who is to present in his life.

Other stories such as the Kreutzer Sonata written by Leo Tolstoy also delves into the fictional life of a man named Pozdnishef who talks about bringing in a musician over to his wife although behind his smile he suffers from great jealousy. Pozdnishef meets a musician and brings him into his house, many times over and over although he sees them making eye contact which he assumes is flirting in order to feed his ego. A masochists like him is seen as a weak man trying to protect his reputation and ego. Stories like such give men a personality and past that we can sympathized and feel bad for.

Overall, through all the articles Masochism has been proven to be the alternate reality I which people in distress or with a traumatizing past would go in, to figure out and deal with it. Articles such as How children Learn about Love:And Why you’re the most important part of the process by Lauren Slater has proven negative experiences and lack of parental love to alter someone’s personality, to which they will grow up and find masochism as a way to deal with the harsh negative self. Other articles such as The Effects of Overstimulation: Rat People by Leonard Shengold has brought up a group of people called rat people who have been traumatized from abuse such as Vladimir did from his mother and father. Rat people have grown up with a bad personality or learn to express themselves through sexual desires like masochism. Overall Vladimir from First Love has set a good model of showing someone who has have an abusive past, (mostly emotionally abused) and have been seen as a passive person because of  his knowledge of love from his distant parents. Ultimately leading him to be a masochist who have dealt with pleasure through his emotional pain he felt when he saw the first ever women he loved have an affair with the one man in his life who always took the love he seeked from women away from him. Vladimir at the end held respect and didn’t take action toward the forbidden lovers leading him to great pain.