|
\"I will write a novel about a woman who commits adultery,\"
Tolstoy reportedly said to his wife as he began Anna Karenina.
But his concerns were broader than that, and in telling Anna\'s
story, he touches on a number of important themes.
1. MARRIAGE
Many readers think Anna Karenina is the greatest novel about
marriage ever written. Tolstoy draws portraits of three
marriages: Dolly and Stiva\'s, Anna and Karenin\'s, Kitty and
Levin\'s, as well as Anna and Vronsky\'s domestic relationship.
All but Kitty and Levin are unhappy.
Stiva regards marriage as a social convention, something one
has to submit to. He would like Dolly to make as few emotional
demands upon him as possible; her job is to run the household,
supervise the education of the children, and make as much money
as possible available to him for his personal pleasure.
Outwardly, Anna and Karenin appear to have a happy home. But
appearances are deceiving; they have no romance or sexual
excitement between them. For Anna, their life is suffocatingly
predictable.
Anna and Vronsky\'s relationship fails for the opposite
reason: theirs is little more than a romantic entanglement in
which sex (for Anna, at any rate) is more important than
anything else.
The marriage of Kitty and Levin is typical of what Tolstoy
considered ideal. It is a voluntary, rather than arranged,
match between a man who is happy in his work and spiritually at
peace and a woman who feels that her purpose in life is to
devote herself to her family.
2. WOMAN\'S ROLE
Some readers believe that Anna suffers because she betrays
the functions of her sex. Her life disintegrates because by
refusing to fulfill her \"proper\" role in life, she clashes not
only with her husband, but also with her society and the man she
truly loves. Out of sync with the scheme of things, she\'s
unable to restrain her self-destructive impulses.
But there\'s another way to consider Anna\'s failure as a
woman. She refuses to have more children with Vronsky because
she fears that pregnancy, nursing, and the other
responsibilities of motherhood will lessen her sexual
attractiveness. For Vronsky, she wants to be constantly
beguiling and romantic--in short, an object of perennial
delight.
In Tolstoy\'s terms, this desire of Anna\'s denotes failure
because it places her outside the grand cycle of
birth-life-death. In twentieth--century feminist terms, Anna
fails on this score because she strives to be an object rather
than a person.
3. RELIGION
Tolstoy treats the theme of religion in much the same way
that he handles the theme of marriage--by using several
characters to embody particular viewpoints and experiences.
Kitty has an unquestioning faith in God and His goodness.
Death holds no horror for Kitty, since she believes that death
has not only a rightful place in the natural order, but a
higher, spiritual purpose as well.
Karenin tries hard to be a good Christian. After learning of
Anna\'s love affair with Vronsky, he strives to turn the other
cheek. But he cannot. What he really wants is to be
\"virtuous,\" in order to satisfy his ego rather than his soul.
Until the very end of the novel, Levin battles with his lack
of faith. His first struggles are with the fact of
death--which, he holds, doesn\'t allow for the possibility of the
existence of God. It is through Kitty, who knows how to care
for his dying brother, that Levin perceives that death may be
part of a benign, though mysterious, cycle.
Part VIII, Chapter 12 is when Levin has his final spiritual
illumination. After a talk with a peasant, Levin realizes that
we must live for \"what is good,\" Goodness--because it is outside
cause and effect--is what Levin construes as God.
4. VENGEANCE
\"Vengeance is mine; I will repay\" is one of the most puzzling
epigraphs in world literature. Biblical in origin (from St.
Paul\'s letter to the Romans), the sentence in its entirety
reads, \"\'Vengeance is mine; I will repay,\' saith the Lord.\"
Karenin takes vengeance on Anna, Anna\'s former friends take
vengeance on her, and Anna takes vengeance on Vronsky.
But Tolstoy said he was concerned primarily with the
vengeance of God. He believes that God punishes those who live
only for themselves. And so Anna and Vronsky\'s passion for one
another becomes their torment and their doom.
5. RUSSIA
Anna Karenina is also a panoramic novel of Russia. Tolstoy
addresses himself to what he considered to be the crucial issues
in his nation.
A. City vs. Country
Tolstoy is convinced that city \"society\" will ruin Russia.
He feels the backbone of Russia is the rural areas and
peasantry. Stiva, therefore, as the personification of urban
values is one of the villains in the novel. Levin, the
enlightened landowner, is the hero.
B. The Emancipation of the Serfs
Tolstoy favored the 1861 Emancipation. Before that, Russian
peasants were essentially slaves, bound to their landowners, not
all of whom, needless to say, treated them with the concern that
Levin (and Tolstoy) showed their serfs. When the Czar decreed
the serfs free in 1861, the peasants were permitted to own land,
to accumulate capital, to employ others, and to form local
governing bodies.
C. Industrialization
The 19th century was a time of rapid industrialization in
Europe. Tolstoy (and Levin) concluded--after a tour of
Europe--that Russia was not meant to be industrialized, that the
\"gold-mine\" of Russia is in the land, in farming.
Tolstoy held that Europe and Russia were vastly different,
not only in terms of their resources, but in temperament, soul,
and destiny, as well.
D. The Slavic Question
In 1875 (while Tolstoy was finishing the novel), the Slavs
living in the Ottoman Empire revolted against the discrimination
they had long suffered. Many Russians favored supporting the
Slavs and fought against the Turks. Stiva and Vronsky support
the campaign; Levin does not. Where do you think Tolstoy stood
on this question?
6. HARMONY
In Anna Karenina, the only happy characters are those who
strike a balance between the various demands made upon them, who
manage to resolve conflicts between themselves and those to whom
they are close, and between competing ambitions.
Think of Levin, Anna, and Stiva. Which character achieves
balance in his life?
7. ANNA AND LEVIN
The title of the novel bears the name of the heroine, but the
story belongs equally to the hero.
Tolstoy compares and contrasts Anna and Levin. Trace the
development of these two characters. Think about the ways they
are affected by the society in which they live, their goals, and
the obstacles they try to overcome.
|
