Solaris Literary Elements

Science-Fiction, Parody

An unspecified future time where human technology is advanced enough for interstellar travel, Planet Earth during flashbacks, and Planet Solaris at the “present.”

Events are told from Kris Kelvin’s point of view and the novel is narrated in the First Person from his perspective.

Initially the tone of the narrator is cold and purposefully reserved. Later on it shifts to wistful and reflective, dotted with several philosophical musings on the past, identity, and existence.

Kris Kelvin is the protagonist who tries to understand himself, his past, and Planet Solaris’ sole intelligent life. The Visitors that Solaris creates and Solaris itself cannot be considered an antagonist in the classic sense as their motivations cannot be clearly understood but these characters do create in the humans a great sense of dread and unease, especially when confronted by fears and hidden desires.

Kris Kelvin is visited by an alien facsimile of his dead ex-wife, which he jettisons into space. He is then visited by a new clone shortly afterwards and after overcoming the initial shock of meeting his deceased wife’s clone he eventually learns to love her. Kris’ relationship with Rheya, both the clone Rheya that Solaris creates and the memories told through flashbacks of his late wife, are the major conflict of the story.

Kris Kelvin allows Snow and Sartorius to read his EEG allowing them to devise a way to destroy the Visitors and disrupt Solaris from scanning their minds preventing the Visitors from manifesting.

Kris Kelvin is greeted by the sight of an expedition station seemingly gone mad: Dr. Gibarian has killed himself, Sartorius locked up in his room, Snow in a state of genuine confusion heading for a mental breakdown, and a mysterious, larger-than-life, semi-nude African woman nonchalantly walking about. This is just a taste of all the alienness, all the strangeness that he is about to experience and live with until the end of the novel.

The clone Rheya drinks liquid oxygen when she realizes that she is just a complex simulation created by Solaris. She receives horrifying injuries as a result then mysteriously and miraculously regenerates from these injuries, and although clearly panicked she merely remarks "It… it didn't work” with regard to her suicide attempt.

There are several literary and philosophical references mentioned through out the novel as the main character is a well-educated man. He mentions Don Quixote, Faust, Romeo and Juliet, and makes references to the Old Testament. Additionally, Kris makes a number of historical references as well mentioning historical figures like Martin Luther, Einstein, and Alaric the Barbarian King.

Isolation, obsession with the past, regret and grief, philosophical rumination on life and existence.

Kris Kelvin is initially shocked by the appearance of the clone Rheya and the clone responds just as the human Rheya did when confronted with emotional distress, by hurting herself. In doing so however she and the whole crew witness her wondrous regenerative abilities that render all suicide attempts of hers pointless. Kris though eventually falls in love with the clone and the clone eventually learns that she isn't the real Rheya, prompting her to desire oblivion again. This time however the explorers know how to permanently destroy Visitors and Kris relives the horror of seeing his wife die again.

The author makes draws a parallel between the expeditionary mission of the Solaris team to earlier historical voyages to discover the New World on planet Earth through the use of the half-naked African woman Visitor.

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The planet/ocean being, Solaris, is referred to by the crew as a living, self-aware being, albeit obliquely.