Receiving pleasure from pain has always been one of the controversial issues from many decades. While people pretend that nobody likes pain, there are some people around the world who tend to inflict pain or receive pain in order to get pleasure. In psychological terms these are what is called sadism and masochism. In the discussion of sadism and masochism, one controversial issue has been why do people are driven into receiving pleasure from pain. In the book “Hegel & Empire” M. A. R. Habib explains in the chapter “The Master-Slave Dialectic” that some people might have sadistic behaviour in them because they want to feel superior having all the power and dominating the weaker one in a sense of getting freedom & not living under anyone’s dominance. Margi Kaplinsky, MSW and Shulamit Geller’s article “The Sadomasochism of Everyday Life” describes how sadists never care about the one they inflict pain on and how masochists feel love by humiliation, beating & hostility. The psychological phenomenon of sadism and masochism are correlated. While sadists like to dominate the weaker one being the master of the relationship, masochists like to seek pain and punishment from the superior one who barely cares about them. 19th century Russian Literature has a lot of work that focuses on the topic of sadism and masochism. “First Love” and “The Torrents of Spring” are the most well known pieces of literature of the 19th century which portrays sadism and masochism and both literature shows different types of behaviours of sadistic and masochistic characters.

In the novella “First Love,” Ivan Turgenev explains how people receive pleasure from pain. Zinaida being the most beautiful, gorgeous and young woman was loved by all the men who could do anything for her just to get her attention. She used to turn all the men round her finger and she knew that each of them was deeply in love with her. But she never cared about them. Moreover, she used to feel pleasure playing with their feelings. She continuously hurt some of them by her words and she never cared if they felt bad or not. Vladimir was in love with her even after getting hurt by her several times. Zinaida could have chosen any of the men who was in love with her and could have lived a happy & luxurious life but she didn’t do it cause she doesn’t feel pleasure being with someone who treats her like a queen. Moreover, she feels pleasure by refusing their proposal, by turning them round her finger and inflicting them pain. Incidentally, she found a man who could master her and the man was no one but Vladimir’s father Pitrovitch. Pitrovitch was very cold to Zinaida and he had complete power over her. Pitrovitch was a married man who never really cared about her and he was very abusive to her. But this is probably what attracted Zinaida towards him. Zinaida deeply fell in love with Pitrovitch and this love was very self destructive to her. She knew the love she was in wasn’t good for her & she was hurt. But at the same time she had no control over it. Even though she was hurt, she felt pleasure from the pain being in love with him. 

There are some people who cause pain by hurting others and receive pleasure from it which is called sadism. Turgenev portrays sadism in his novella “First Love” where Zinaida used to inflict pain to all the men who were in love with her and receive happiness by doing this. In the novella “First Love,” Turgenev maintains that “Zinaïda continued to play cat and mouse with me. She flirted with me, and I was all agitation and rapture; then she would suddenly thrust me away, and I dared not go near her—dared not look at her. I remember she was very cold to me for several days together; I was completely crushed,” ( Page 18 ). In other words, Turgenev explains that Zinaida used to interact with Vladimir based on her mood. One day she used to show tremendous affection to Vladimir and the next day she used to behave very cold to him. Turgenev is surely right about this behavioral changes of Zinaida as Margi Kaplinsky, MSW and Shulamit Geller mentions in their article “The Sadomasochism of Everyday Life” that “The sadist does not care for a relationship with a victim who actively wants to be in such a position”(Page 250). This quote shows that the sadist people never care about the person they inflict pain on and thus Zinaida didn’t care for Vladimir either. Since Zinaida already understood that Vladimir was in love with her, she felt pleasure being cold to him and hurting him.

Where there are people who get pleasure from inflicting pain, there are some people who get pleasure by receiving pain which is called masochism. An example where Turgenev shows that people can receive pleasure even when it causes physical pain is “Zinaïda sat up, and stretched out her arm…. Suddenly, before my very eyes, the impossible happened. My father suddenly lifted the whip, with which he had been switching the dust off his coat, and I heard a sharp blow on that arm, bare to the elbow. I could scarcely restrain myself from crying out; while Zinaïda shuddered, looked without a word at my father, and slowly raising her arm to her lips, kissed the streak of red upon it” ( Page 39 ). In this quote, Turgenev urges how Zinaida was being physically abused by Pitrovitch and instead of being sad over this Zinaida was surrendering herself to Pitrovich so that he could beat her with the whip. She received intense pleasure as she kissed her arm where he had beaten her up. The reason why Zinaida received intense pleasure by Pitrovich’s abusive behaviour can also be explained by  Margi Kaplinsky, MSW and Shulamit Geller’s article “The Sadomasochism of Everyday Life.” In this article, they mention “ he can feel love only when camouflaged by humiliation, verbal beatings, and hostility. And he unconsciously chooses to be in relationships that look hostile but conceal a wish for love without having to risk acknowledgement and exposure of his own sense of weakness” (248). This quote means masochistic people feel erotic love by getting humaliated or by getting beaten up. They tend to be with those types of people who are not weak and are more powerful than themselves. As Pitrovitch had complete power over Zianaida, she unconsciously was driven towards him and his self destructive behaviour where she felt pleasure through pain. 

Ivan Turgenev’s another novella “The Torrents of Spring” also explains about some sadistic and masochistic behaviours. Dmitry Pavlovich Sanin met a beautiful young woman named Gemma who was already engaged with another man named Karl Klüber. Sanin had a “Hero” type of image in front of Gemma’s family as he saved Gemma’s brother Emilio’s life. Sanin even went for a duel with the officer who misbehaved with Gemma because he started catching feelings for her. When Gemma cancelled her engagement with Kluber, Sanin and Gemma both confessed their love for each other and Sanin proposed to her for marriage. Sanin expressed his noble intentions to Frau Lenore and convinced her to take care of them financially too. When Sanin went to Russia to sell his estate so that he could marry Gemma, he met Maria Nikolaevna there to whom he was planning to sell his estate. Maria was a gorgeous lady who was married to Ippolit Sidorich with whom she had a very open relationship. Maria used to seduce men by which she used to get pleasure and her husband knew everything about it but he didn’t have any problem with that. This is the reason Maria got married to Polozov with whom she can live with freedom. Maria was sadistic towards all the men she could have control over. Maria Nikolaevna fell in love with her teacher Monsieur Gaston at a very young age. He was the only person she had ever been afraid of in her life. Maria saw a great deal of slavery in her childhood and she had suffered enough from it. Maria gave Sanin conditions to stay with her for two days in order to buy his estate. Sanin was astonished by the beauty of Maria but even at that time his heart was full of Gemma. Maria had a wager with Polozov on whether she could seduce Sanin. Maria started to continuously seduce Sanin and Sanin seemingly against his own will, finds himself increasingly obsessed with Maria Nikolaevna. Within three days, Sanin ends up cheating on Gemma by making love with Maria. Maria won the bet with Polozov and thus received ultimate pleasure from it. This shows Sanins masochist behaviour where he cheated on his love of the life Gemma with a woman who doesn’t even love him back and is sadistic towards him. Even after being humiliated by Maria and knowing that she will destroy his life, he purposely followed Maria to Paris and left Gemma alone. 

Turgenev portrays sadism in his novella “The Torrents of Spring” where Maria had sadistic behaviour towards Sanin. The psychological phenomenon behind Maria’s sadistic behaviour can be explained by Hegel’s master-slave dialectic of M.A.R. Habib’s book “Hegel & Empire”. In his book he explains Hegel’s theory that “ The superiority of the master lies in his achieving a degree of freedom through this conquest of immediacy.” In my own words, this quote means in order to get freedom, one person tries to overpower or control the weaker one so that they can be recognized by the former as the superior one and can live without any restriction and fear. Turgenev mentions in “The Torrents of Spring” that “ I suppose it must have been that I saw a great deal of slavery in my childhood & suffered enough from it” (Page 72). As Maria Nikolaevna saw a great deal of slavery in her childhood, there is nothing more important to her than freedom as she mentioned that “ freedom, more than all & before all. And don’t imagine I am boasting of this—there is nothing praiseworthy in it; only it’s so and always will be so with me to the day of my death.” (Turgenev, 72).  This is the reason she got married to Polozov with whom she can live with freedom. She wants to surround herself with those types of people on whom she has complete power over & she can feel superior among them & at the same time get freedom too. Hegel’s theory in the book “Hegel & Empire”  also explains that “ ‘The object is my idea: I am aware of the object as mine; and thus in it I am aware of me too.’ Indeed both reason and freedom consist in the fact that ‘I know everything as mine,’ that I ‘grasp every object as a member in the system of what I myself am, that in the world I find myself again.” By this quote, it can be determined that the reason behind Maria’s sadistic behaviour is that she wants to overcome her childhood trauma by recreating the same type of situation- but this time she would play the role of the master. According to the Master slave dialectics, in Maria’s childhood, she was the slave & Monsieur Gaston was the master of that situation and Monsieur Gaston had all the power. Having this past story, while Maria grew up she tended to reverse this situation & be the master this time, have all the power & live without being afraid of anyone. That is the reason, she is sadistic towards Sanin where she can manipulate him according to her mood and where she has a complete power over him. As Maria gave Sanin conditions to stay there for two days & do whatever she asked him to do, Sanin couldn’t stop himself from doing stuff which he was even guilty of and he ended up cheating on Gemma with Maria. In this case, Maria received pleasure by causing guilt in Sanin.

Turgenev also portrays masochism in his novella “The Torrents of Spring” where Sanin had masochistic behaviour towards Maria. Even though Sanin had a perfectly organized relation with Gemma, he got himself involved with someone who would bring in his life nothing but destruction. In “The Torrents of Spring” Turgenev mentions,”Snake! ah, she’s a snake!” Sanin was thinking meanwhile; “but what a lovely snake!” (Page 73). This quote explains how Sanin shows masochism by falling in love with such a woman who doesn’t love him back & even after knowing that she is a wicked woman as he referred to her as a ‘snake’, he continues to get more involved with her & receive pain. In the article “The Sadomasochism of Everyday Life”   Margi Kaplinsky, MSW and Shulamit Geller again explains that “ the masochist, in his search for a good person maintains an illusion that the sadist will turn into a good person’’ (page 250). This quote means masochist people seek to ask for pain and punishment from another person who doesn’t care about them but the masochists hope that the person will change and start to love them back. Like this, Sanin also was hoping that Maria would love him back one day and this is the reason he kept feeling pain and ended up leaving Gemma who loved him unconditionally.

Zinaida’s sadistic behaviour towards Vladimir & Maria’s sadistic behaviour towards Sanin had two different types of psychological phenomenon. While Zinaida inflicted pain on Vladimir unconsciously, Maria inflicted pain on Sanin on purpose according to the bet with her husband. Zinaida’s masochistic behaviour was associated with physical pain since Pitrovitch used to beat her up. Whereas, Sanin’s masochistic behaviour was associated with emotional pain & guilt and also sexual behaviour. The reason behind Maria’s sadistic behaviour was achieving freedom & power where she would be the master of the relationship & the reason behind Zinaida’s masochistic behaviour was to be with someone who could master her & who was more powerful than her. 

In conclusion, there is always a reason behind people’s sadistic and masochistic behaviour. Some people tend to be the master of the relationship & some people tend to be the slave. Likewise, some people choose to be the dominant one & some choose to be the victim. Thus, the psychological phenomenon of sadism and masochism are corresponded.

Work Cited Page

Turgenev, Ivan, and Constance Garnett. First Love. Barnes & Noble Books, 2005.

Turgenev, Ivan. The Torrents of Spring. Translated by Constance Garnett, 1897.

Geller,Shulamit and Kaplinsky,Margi. The Sadomasochism of Everyday Life, 2015.

Habib M.A.R. (2017) The Master-Slave Dialectic. In: Hegel and Empire. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.