Romantic love has an endless number of definitions, modern psychologists see it as a strong desire for emotional union with another person, while others can see it as a feeling rather than a choice. Something that can be universally agreed on is that romantic love is one powerful human emotion. There’s no doubt that love is a strong feeling, but when romantic love is not mutual, it was once believed to cause an illness of the mind and body, classified as lovesickness. Unconsummated love was medically believed to lead to physical illness in the 19th century, while today lovesickness can be classified by more modern factors such as psychological and hormonal. The possibility that the current state of mind one is in can lead them to succumb lovesickness can be explored in the literary texts of Ivan Turgenev’s The Torrents of Spring and Nikolai Gogol’s Nevsky Prospect, using evidence from modern sources on love.

Benedict Carrey’s The Brain in Love tells his medical ideology on love and lovesickness, backing his ideas up with various studies. The chemicals dopamine and norepinephrine are released during love and attraction to another person, this being responsible for us feeling excited and euphoric around them.3 It is possible that when we are in a state of romantic attraction for one person, we could mistake those chemicals released as having the same attraction for someone else. This can be explored in The Torrents of Spring. Sanin is swooned by Gemma at first glance, and their mutual attraction for one another is evident, “Sanin rubbed on, and kept stealing glances at her. Mercy! what a beautiful creature she was”.1 When he and Gemma later confessed their mutual love, Sanin was put to the test of loyalty when meeting the beautiful Maria. While he was still in love and infatuated by Gemma, he was aware of his attraction towards Maria. Sanin was seduced by her which leads him to cheat on Gemma. He couldn’t control his desires towards Maria because of the state of love he was already in when he had met her. Sanin already had these chemicals in his brain which are responsible for the feeling’s euphoria, craving and addiction.3 So when he had met Maria, he could have mistaken the love he was feeling for Gemma, as attraction towards her instead.

When it is revealed to Gemma that Sanin was unfaithful to her, she leaves him to suffer from heartbreak, or rather even lovesickness for decades to come. He did not think about Maria, but indeed Gemma, “And not that his memory failed him, oh no! he knew only too well what followed upon that moment, but he was stifled by shame, even now, so many years after; he dreaded that feeling of self-contempt, which he knew for certain would overwhelm him, and like a torrent, flood all other feelings if he did not bid his memory be still”.1 Peter Tooheys Love, Lovesickness, and Melancholia explain how lovesickness is more related Melancholy than anything else. Sanin ended up suffering from lovesickness from his own doings. The chemicals responsible for Sanin falling in love with Gemma were also responsible for the feelings of obsession and idealization for Maria, and of despair after he had lost Gemma. In Sanin’s case, he suffered from “serious dejection due to unrequitedlove”.4 Both melancholy and lovesickness offer the same symptoms, Sanin’s love was ultimately left unfulfilled so for him “melancholy was a depressive rather than a manic illness”4, therefor leaving him lovesick.

In Nikolai Gogol’s Nevsky Prospect, Piskarev displays various actions that lead him to fall lovesick. His emotions are heightened after meeting the woman, “His senses and thoughts were on fire”.2 The state of mind he was in was a high, he was so high off the chemicals dopamine and serotonin he was essentially blinded by it. He did not see that the woman was a prostitute, he only envisioned her as who he idealized her to be. He was not in a clear state of mind, Benedict Carrey explains how when in the stage of being or falling in love, the brain is similar to one on drugs. He compares MRI images and brain scans of those who were romantically in love and those who were on a cocaine induced euphoria. This can compare to the medical ideas on lovesickness in the 19th century, the lovesick brain becomes flooded with the same chemicals serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.3

Today, the term lovesickness is not used to refer to illness like it was in the 19th century. Lovesickness can be caused by many psychological factors, Peter Toohey’s Love, Lovesickness, and Melancholia explains this. In the literary texts The Torrents of Spring and Nevsky Prospect, lovesickness is shown in differing ways. In Sanin’s character we see symptoms of lovesickness when he realizes he regrets cheating on Gemma. With Piskarev, he goes into a depressed state after learning the woman he idealized essentially did not exist. We see Piskarev spiral into a downwards spiral, this lovesickness that he experienced could have “appeared to the common people to be melancholic”.4 Sanin was also seen as falling into despair after things ended with Gemma, and showed signs of melancholy, “Galen describes lovers as sometimes emaciated, pale, sleepless, and even feverish”.4 Sanin would stay up at night thinking of how he let Gemma go.

Both Sanin and Piskarev are automatically drawn in by Gemma and the prostitutes looks. They both are automatically swooned by first glance, “His senses and thoughts were on fire… No, it was no dream … such a wonderful life of two minutes!”.2 Sanin and Piskarev both have a lack of sleep when first enraptured by the women, “…he did not know how to get free from this darkness, this bitterness. Sleep it was useless to reckon upon; he knew he should not sleep”.1 The first signs of captivation relate to the medical idea proposed by author Benedict Carrey, when a person first shows signs of captivation the chemical level of dopamine skyrockets, “increased energy, less need for sleep or food, focused attention, and exquisite delight in the smallest details of this novel relationship”.3 This medical idea is similar to historical ideas on lovesickness, except switched around. When a person falls lovesick, they’re dopamine levels lower, resulting in a person with less energy, being in a depressed state. We see this with Piskarev when the truth about the prostitute is revealed to him, and this with Sanin when he is no longer with Gemma. In Piskarev’s case, his lovesickness got the best of him and led him to his own life. After coming to terms with the fact that his beloved was imaginary, he turned to opium to help him sleep, which was the only way he would see the lady of his dreams, “He heard that there was a means of restoring sleep- one had only to take opium”.2 Piskarev displays all common signs of depression, and past 19th century medical beliefs on lovesickness, “He did not think about anything, he even ate almost nothing, and impatiently, with a lover’s passion, waited for evening and the desired vision”.2 Piskarev did not allow his mind or heart enough time to heal. Sanin also experienced similar symptoms, not being able to sleep because of Gemma, “Never had he felt such weariness of body and of spirit. A sort of clinging repugnance, a weight of loathing closed in upon him on all sides like a dark night of autumn; and he did not know how to get free from this darkness, this bitterness. Sleep it was useless to reckon upon; he knew he should not sleep”.1 Sanin, much like Piskarev could not come to terms that he was not with his beloved. Sanin’s own mistakes were to blame, he fell lovesick for a longtime after his and Gemma’s relationship ended, “A long, long while he sat deep in thought, and taught as he was by the experience of so many years, he still could not comprehend how he could have deserted Gemma, so tenderly and passionately loved, for a woman he did not love at all….”.1 The state of mind Piskarev was in while in love with Gemma had never changed, his mistake could have been because he was so in love with her. This only further proving “the link between lovesickness, depression and melancholia [being] a vital one”.4 It is evident that both characters were not in the right state of mind after meeting the women, making their decisions irrational and leading them to succumb to lovesickness in the end.

Romantic love with Sanin and Piskarev led them to their own suffering of lovesickness in different ways, both ending up with dreadful outcomes. Sanin’s love for Gemma was left unfulfilled in the end leading him to suffer for a lifetime of lovesickness. Piskarev’s idealization of the prostitute brought lovesickness upon himself, leading him to suffering and taking his own life. The mindsets of these characters prove that love and lovesickness is caused by more psychological factors. Their love was left unfulfilled in the end, their actions prove the ties that lovesickness has to modern day known mental illnesses.

Works Cited:
1 Ivan, Turgenev. The Tourrents of Spring. 1872
2 Gogol, Nikolai. The Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985.
3 Carey, Benedict. The Brain in Love. New York Times. 2002
4 Toohey, Peter. Love, Lovesickness and Melancholia. Illinois Classical Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, 1992, pp. 265–286. JSTOR