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Tolstoy uses an omniscient, or all-knowing, narrator. This
means that the governing point of view in Anna Karenina is
Tolstoy\'s. Tolstoy was always forthright about the fact that he
was a moralist. He does not just depict the world in his
novels, he passes judgment on it as well.
Tolstoy expresses his own viewpoint, and manipulates ours,
through his characters. His hero, Levin, is essentially a
mouthpiece for him. Anna, although she has many traits that
Tolstoy admired, went against Tolstoy\'s moral code, and so he
had to destroy her. Karenin, who represents a type of person
Tolstoy detested, is the obvious villain in the story.
Through the device of the interior monologue, Tolstoy
describes in detail the thoughts of some of his characters. For
example, Anna\'s carriage ride to the train station where she
commits suicide is told through Anna\'s eyes, and the ball at
which she steals Vronsky\'s heart is told through Kitty\'s eyes.
By occasionally shifting points of view, Tolstoy heightens the
drama of the story.
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