“The First Love” by Ivan Turgenev and by the Greek Writer John Condilakis

Abstract

This paper discusses the “first loves” of John Condilakis and Ivan Turgenev, in two autobiographical short stories having the same title, “First Love”. The stories have some similarities besides their theme, and some differences. For both writers this experience was engraved deeply in their souls, which might be responsible for the fact that neither of them married. The women they fell in love with were older. The paper discusses their similarities in appearance and the first “erotic contact” the young heroes had with them. The two women come to tragic ends. Turgenev’s heroin dies while giving a birth to a child, while Condilakis’s heroine commits suicide. Turgenev focuses on the turbulence in the mind of his young hero, who is constantly jealous, while Condilakis concentrates on the despair of his heroine who, being abandoned by her fiancé, invests her frustrated feelings on a young boy who was in love with her. The paper stresses the strong feelings of compassion felt for all four characters, whose love is foreseen to be frustrated. Aristotle’s notions of tragedy are applied to both short stories. Finally, the paper stresses the depiction of the social milieu by both writers.