Essay on Tolstoys Anna Karenina - 3020 Words

Tolstoys Anna Karenina The world of Tolstoys Anna Karenina is a world ruled by chance. From the very opening chapters, where a watchman is accidentally run over by a train at Moscows Petersburg station, to the final, climactic scenes of arbitrary destruction when Levin searches for Kitty in a forest beset by lightning, characters are brought together and forced into action against their will by coincidence and, sometimes, misfortune. That Anna and Vronsky ever meet and begin the fateful affair that becomes the centerpiece of the novel is itself a consequence of a long chain of unrelated events: culminating Annas sharing a berth with Vronskys mother on her way to reconcile Dolly and Stiva in Moscow. And yet, as an epigraph†¦show more content†¦Bakhtins theory of carnivalism, however, only goes so far in characterizing Tolstoys prose, and even though the reliance on chance as generator of events continues, the solipsistic mode of self-analysis and interpersonal distance returns almost immediately af ter the race is over and as the novel continues, becomes the dominant mode of ideological presentation so key to the essence of Annas relationship to Vronsky and to her reasons for suicide. Stephen Oblonsky, the first character we encounter in the novel, is at home in the turbulent and unstructured world that Tolstoy depicts, and lives at ease with the often meaningless turns of fate that occur to him and others. You wish all the facts of life to be consistent, but they never are, he says to Levin in Part I. You want the activity of each separate man to have an aim, and love and family life always to coincide -- and that doesnt happen either. All the variety, charm and beauty of life are made up of light and shade. Oblonsky is aShow MoreRelatedTolstoys Perspective on Womens Rights as Depicted in Anna Karenina817 Words   |  4 Pages Vengeance is mine; I will repay, states the darkly foretelling epigraph of Leo Tolstoys famous novel Anna Karenina. Throughout the work, the author seems torn between feminist and misogynist sympathies, leading one to wonder if the above quote is directed at the adulterous Anna--the only character in the novel who pays for her transgressions with her life. At first, Tolstoy seems to sympathize with Anna, contrasting her situation with that of her brother Stiva, who has also committed adulteryRead More The Characters of Leo Tolstoys Anna Karenina Essay1681 Words   |  7 PagesThe Characters of Leo Tolstoys Anna Karenina          By examining the character list, one immediately notices the value Tolstoy places on character.   With one hundred and forty named characters and several other unnamed characters,   Tolstoy places his central focus in Anna Karenina on the characters. He uses their actions and behavior to develop the plot and exemplify the major themes of the novel.   Tolstoy wishes to examine life as it really is.   Tolstoy gives usRead More Views on Marriage and Divorce in Tolstoys Anna Karenina Essay2253 Words   |  10 Pageswith that of Pierres later marriage with Natasha (among others) and in Anna Karenina, the novel is in some ways two separate stories of two separate marriages. On one hand is the union between Levin and Kitty and on the other is Anna Arkà ¡dyevna and Alexà ©y Karenin. One is a marriage coming together, while the other is one breaking apart. Based on the characterization of the players involved, coupled with parallels to Tolstoys own life it is possible to discern his philosophy towards marriage andRead More Flauberts Madame Bovary and Leo Tolstoys Anna Karenina Essay3834 Words   |  16 PagesFlauberts Madame Bovary and Leo Tolstoys Anna Karenina Gustave Flaubert wrote in Madame Bovary that â€Å"someone’s death always causes a kind of stupefaction; so difficult it is to grasp this advent of nothingness and to resign ourselves to the fact that it has actually taken place† (258). Greater still is the stupefaction when the death is suicide, when the advent of nothing has been self-initiated. For the reader of both Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, the literary suicides ofRead MoreCharacterism And Symbolism In Tolstoys Anna Karenina1222 Words   |  5 PagesIn Anna Karenina, Tolstoy marks Anna Karenina as a character of sensual beauty and ultimately suffocates her persona with superficiality that inhibits any attempt towards authentic emotion free from the constraint of constant attraction. Anna’s semblance overwhelms any social situation, preventing her from being anything more profound than the most beautiful woman in the room. While each element in Anna’s l ife changes as the story progresses, the rings on her fingers remain constant. The detail placedRead More Use Of Indirect Characterization in Anna Karenina Essay902 Words   |  4 PagesUse Of Indirect Characterization in Anna Karenina  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, is famous for his novels, among them, Anna Karenina . It is said that Tolstoy reaches unsurpassed perfection in the realistic art of the novel with Anna Karenina . In the novel Anna Karenina , Tolstoy leads the reader through Anna Arkadyevna Karenins life and all the people who surround her. The reader follows Anna as she sorts out a fight between her brother Stepan and his wife Dolly. Next the readerRead MoreEssay on Themes of Life and Death in Anna Karenina1333 Words   |  6 PagesThemes of Life and Death in Anna Karenina The novel, Anna Karenina, parallels its heroines, Anna Karenina, moral and social conflicts with Constantin Levins internal struggle to find the meaning of life. There are many other underlying themes which links the novel as a whole, yet many critics at the time only looked upon its critical view of Russian life. Henry James called Tolstoys novels as loose and baggy monsters of stylessness, but Tolstoy stated of Anna Karenina .....I am very proud ofRead MoreAnalysis of Leo Tolstoy and His Work How Much Land Does a Man Need?2543 Words   |  11 Pages by Leo Tolstoy was influenced by his life and times. Leo Tolstoy encountered many things throughout his life that influenced his works. His life itself influenced him, along with poverty, greed and peasant days in 19th century Russia. br brTolstoys eventful life impacted his works. Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born into a family of aristocratic landowners in 1828 at the family estate at Yasnaya Polyana, a place south of Moscow. His parents died in the 1930s when he was very young so his auntsRead MoreEssay on Comparing Heroines in Anna Karenina and War and Peace2444 Words   |  10 Pageswomen in their works. The image of Anna Karenina, the main character of the novel, according to Tolstoy represents both a woman, who lost herself. She stepped away from her sacred duties of being a mother and a wife, but she does not have another choice. Tolstoy tries to justify the behavior of his heroine, but at the same time her tragical destiny appears to be unavoidable. Some very poetic motives of â€Å"War and Peace† develop in the character of Anna Karenina. In particular reflects the imageRead MoreEssay about Tolstoys Three Hermits1648 Words   |  7 Pages Between 1875 and 1877, Leo Tolstoy, nobility by birth, wrote installments of Anna Karenina. While writing Anna Karenina,† he became obsessed with the meaning and purpose of life. This led Tolstoy to compose the essay, My Confession, detailing his agonizing religious and moral self-examination, published in 1882. He devoted another three years to the discovery of the meaning and purpose of life. At the close of the seven years of only non-fiction essays, Tolstoy resumed writing and publishing fictional