Psychology of Love in the “Mysterious Stories” by Turgenev

Аэлита Базилевская

Московский областной педагогический университет

Abstract

Last years of I.S. Turgenev’s life are marked by his increased interest in problem of the
inexplicable, supernatural, strange. Mystery of love and laws of love are on the foreground of his “mysterious stories” written in 1870-1880-ies. Peripetias of love feeling are conjugated to activity of the supersensual, irrational within mentality of heroes, to their hereditary links, unintentional faults, misgivings and insights. The concealed and obvious, conscious and unconscious in human more often are conveyed not in traditional Turgenevian way of “secret psychology”, but in artistic means similar to the style of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky: through inner monologue, developed inner dialogue and portrait dynamics. In the psychological descriptions which not seldom are grotesque the writer’s notions of mysterious powers subjugating the personality, of “tragic sense of love” are concretized.

Keywords:

personality, secret psychology, tragic sense of love, laws of love, mystery, supersensual, Turgenev, Goethe, Faust