Yesterday I finished Tolstoy's 940 page masterpiece about the interconnection of love, adultery, faith, happiness, social expectations and duty. Now it is going to be impossible for me to say everything I would like to about the novel. After all it was nearly 1000 pages long! I was quite overwhelmed at the beginning when I realized I was reading TOLSTOY. Aka one of the greatest writers of all time, and probably the best Russian writer ever. I was worried about the level of understanding, but Anna Karenina actually reads quite easily (although this may be partly due to translation).Ok, so I guess I'll start by talking about the characters. Obviously, the book takes its title from Anna, a gorgeous and dignified wife of a passionless Russian aristocrat (Alexei Karenin). But interestingly, the book has a co-protagonist who balances out the story of Anna. This is Levin, the socially awkward landowner who finds fulfillment not in the intellectual high society, but in the simple life of farming and his quest for faith. Many literary experts believe that Levin is actually Tolstoy's self-portrait. The thoughts and many of the events in Levin's life (such as the lost shirt on the wedding day, making jam with his family, his wife and child getting caught in a thunderstorm, and a proposal by writing the first initials of words) are the same as in Tolstoy's life.
Most people know Anna Karenina as a story of adultery. It is certainly that, but also so much more. The story starts when Anna's brother Stiva cheats on his wife Dolly with the governess. Stiva calls Anna to Moscow where she meets the handsome, passionate Vronsky. Her meeting with Vronsky transforms into an extramarital affair that drives the plot of the book. Right off the bat, you can see the double standard in the treatment of male and female adultery. Stiva is not looked down upon for being unfaithful to his wife. Rather he is endowed with many lovable characteristics and considered very highly in society despite not having a moral basis for his actions. As soon as Anna is unfaithful to Karenin, however, society turns its back and people who once "loved" her began to scorn her for her actions.
This ties in another interesting theme. It turns out that in the world of late 19th century Russia, adultery is more of a social issue than a religious one. Who knew? Karenin is not worried that Anna broke her marriage vows but rather fears what people will think of him as a man and does not want to compromise his reputation. It is because of this coldness and constant worry of appearance that Karenin is a much less sympathetic character than the adultress. While there are a couple of highly religious characters in the book, one turns out to have questionable motivations and the other is a quack who believes in a French psychic. Tolstoy seems to be telling his characters and us that a person's guilt is for God, and not man, to decide.
Anna is a fabulous person (even if whiny and paranoid at the end), and has been described as "an adultress with a moral sense." Certainly she is more moral than her husband because she is honest with Karenin and does not keep her affair concealed. She is constant in her unwillingness to live a lie. Anna just has the need and want for passionate love and refuses to abide by public opinion and meaningless social conventions. She is willing to give up her husband, her son Serozha, and her good repute in order to pursue a love that allows her to feel something. It is as Vronsky's passionate love for Anna begins to dwindle that she starts contemplating suicide (even though his passion cools as he is upset at losing his freedom, we still get the sense that his is head over heals for her).
In historical context, it can be said that Anna Karenina is set during a time period of fading traditions and social change. And this is where my Western Civ AP knowledge comes in handy! In 1861, the czar liberated the serfs. This has a major impact on Levin and his farm as he has to reevaluate the relationship between himself as landowners and his workers. The peasants are mostly unwilling to changes their ways as shown in their refusal to use newer, more efficient farming methods. Women's rights is also a highly discussed topic during dinners and balls. In Russia at this time there seems to be a heavy European influence among the intellectual individuals and high society. All of the "corrupt" characters spend a lot of the time speaking in French. Anna and Vronsky vacation in Italy.
Tolstoy seems to be making the point that modernization and Westernization are actually bad for Russia. Levin is put off when he overhears Dolly correcting her children to speak French. Both Vronsky and Anna have a dream about a dirty bearded peasant speaking French and are quite frightened (symbolizing the negative influence of Europeanization?). The intellectuals spend all of their time speaking in French and debating in the European style, but nothing is actually accomplished, and Levin finds his farm and peasants far more satisfying than their urban counterparts.
No symbol is more poignant in the novel than the railroad. Anna and Vronsky first meet at a railway when a peasant man is killed by a train. Anna's own suicide is accomplished by throwing herself under a train. The railroad comes to symbolize a fast rate of something harmful, such as the rapid changes and modernizations. It also speaks of how Anna "derails" her familial, social, and physical life in the course of the novel.
As the novel went on, I realized that Anna and Levin became more incessant whiners. As in, "I can't leave him because I can't leave my son, but I can't live like this because I love Vronsky and my husband is just a stuck up despicable man even though he didn't do anything wrong and how I despise this position I am in and how I despise my husband and whatever will I do???" Or Levin's, "I love Kitty but she refused my marriage proposal so she must not love me or maybe she just was infatuated with Vronksy and I actually do have a chance but I can't bring myself to talk to her because I am too shy and I don't want to face more rejection and the humiliation I already put up with, but look how beautiful she is and whatever will I do???" Yep a couple of whiny protagonists if you ask me. But I also realized that this was the author's way of letting us know the characters better.
Tolstoy mastered the art of "interior monologue," which is basically having the characters converse with themselves. This is actually key in Anna Karenina, because much of what is actually said is superfluous, and we realize the character's motivations and emotions only through their interior monologue, which is essentially a more sophisticated stream of consciousness. This is especially important since Karenina's society is one where thoughts are suppressed and kept secretive.
For example, we need to know what Anna is thinking in the carriage ride before her untimely death. She gets extremely paranoid that Vronsky no longer loves her. She thinks to herself, "My love grows more and more passionate and demanding and his dwindles and dwindles, and that is why we are growing apart. And there's nothing one can do about it. He is everything in the world to me, and I demand that he should give himself up to me more and more completely. And he wants more and more to get away from me... If only I could be anything but his mistress... But I can't and I don't want to be anything else... if, no longer loving me, he is kind and affectionate out of duty... that is a thousand times worse than hatred.... Life is pulling us apart and I am the cause of his unhappiness and he of mine, and it is impossible to change either him or me... Why not put out the candle when there is nothing more to look at, when it is disgusting to look at... There, right into the middle, and I shall punish him..." Without her interior monologue the reader does not realize all that she is going through and what leads her to commit suicide (including the pessimistic philosophical stuff about people hating one another that i didn't include). Otherwise it would just look like another pathetic woman who sacrificed herself for love. Similarly, we would have no way of comprehending Levin's strange actions during the birth of his child.
Death is everywhere. A peasant is killed by an oncoming train. Anna nearly dies in childbirth. Levin loses his brother Nickolai to a long, sickening disease and starts to wonder what the purpose of life is when humans are only here for such a short time. Levin contemplates suicide but is strong enough to keep living. Unfortunately Anna is not as strong and kills herself. But Tolstoy proposes that faith can save us and help us to lead meaningful lives. Anna, who loses her faith by committing adultery, destroys her family and endures a miserable ending. Levin, who searches for faith, creates a family and becomes happy. In a sense, Anna's life loses meaning while Levin's attains meaning.
Tolstoy shows the reader that life is meant to be lived and enjoyed, not repressed by duties. We all have the need for passionate love. But the simplest life is the most gratifying. Levin find faith after listening to one of the peasants.
"My life, my whole life, independently of anything that may happen to me, every moment of it, is no longer meaningless as it was before, but has an incontestable meaning of goodness, with which I have he power to invest it."
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