Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Viktor Komarovsky

The lawyer named Viktor Komarovsky embodies pretty much everything that's wrong with modern Russia, at least in the author Pasternak's eyes. For starters, the guy is a cynical opportunist who'll do anything to be on the winning side of history. That's why he's always sure to have close friends in both the Russian Communist Party and the "Whites," or the dudes fighting the Communists for control of Russia.

Oh yeah, did we mention that his name comes from komar, the Russian word for "mosquito"?

On top of that, Komarovsky has a bit of a thing for young teenage girls. When he first sets eyes on Lara, the guy totally doesn't care that he's already dating Lara's mom. He starts wining and dining Lara and eventually starts having a sexual affair with her.

Now, to be fair, the guy does start to grow a conscience while all of this is going on, and he does try to help Lara and Zhivago later in the book. But it doesn't change the fact that the guy, especially compared to Zhivago, devotes his life to nothing more than saving his own skin. He has no higher ideals to speak of, and this makes him a corrupt jerk in the end.