Anna Karenina (1878) by Leo Tolstoy


Anna Karenina (1878) by Leo Tolstoy

This is a literary classic that follows a selection of upper class Russian relations through their lives in Moscow, Petersburg, and the neighboring countryside. The highlighted characters are the titular Anna Karenina and Konstantin Levin, who rarely interact but bolster the narrative with their diametrically opposed fates.

At its core, this novel explores the difference between living for one’s self, and living for one’s soul. That is to say - leading a life entrenched in self-interest or a life vested in God’s love. The acute difference here makes itself evident in Levin’s epiphany at the end of the novel, and informs the trajectories of each character in the story.

Anna’s own tragedy stems from a life led by passions. Her love for Vronsky causes her to leave her otherwise ornamental marriage at the cost of abandoning her son and the security of her societal standing. And although there’s a redeemable honesty to Vronsky and Anna’s mutual love, the strained circumstances that maintain it are worsened by the relationship’s self-interested underpinning. Trapped in this vacuum of equal parts isolation and similarly-motivated company, Anna can’t help but spiral into unfounded jealousy - ultimately seizing suicide as the only means to escape her situation and satisfy the vindictiveness that her feelings toward Vronsky so precipitously evolved into.

Her husband Alexi falls into a similarly unsatisfying fate from self-interest. While he showed a moment of clarity in his magnanimous forgiveness of Anna as she nearly died giving birth to Vronsky’s son, Alexi’s “conversion” can’t penetrate into his character - a man whose whole being is no deeper than surface-value convictions. Stripped of his dignity in society over his wife’s infidelity and lack of confidence from his peers, Alexi becomes such a shell of a man that he turns to fortune-tellers to make decisions on his behalf. And Vronsky, broken by Anna’s suicide on his own account (though blameless), runs off to war in order to die himself under the thin guise of heroism. A notable secondary character, Oblonsky, is similarly self-interested. And he lives this conceit outwardly through a spendthrift, unfaithful, pleasure-seeking lifestyle. Yet he surrounds himself with people who conversely live for God, for the soul and the good of others. And Oblonsky is thereby sustained through the grace of his company, whether or not he deserves the fruits of others’ generosity.

At the positive end of the spectrum is Levin, who struggles through the whole novel with his questioning of life’s meaning, of philosophical reasoning, of work and family and happiness in general. In spite of his mental turmoil over these enigmas, Levin unquestioningly follows his conscience. He pursues honest work, establishes a healthy relationship with his wife, cares for his dying brother, and provides for his friends and acquaintances. Levin finds himself at the point where his life is outwardly perfect, yet the agony of his empty search for meaning in it all brings him to the brink of suicide like Anna. And yet a moment of clarity in an offhand conversation enlightens him to the idea that living for God’s goodness, as he had unwittingly done all his life, is the key to an inner happiness that he couldn’t grasp by reason alone.

It’s a beautiful denouement to the whole novel, shedding light on what brings tragedy for the self-interested and peace for the selfless. Granted, as a Christian I can easily identify with Tolstoy’s faith projected through Levin - but I’d like to think that living for the soul is an idea that can pervade beyond religion and be a driving force for everyone’s lifestyle and inward motivations. And while those like Alexi and Anna don’t have the depth of character to embrace this truth, real people aren’t hindered by the lack of dimension that plagues allegorical figures. We all have the capacity to live for a good beyond ourselves - we just have to commit to it. 

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