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Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy ranks as one of the world's great writers. He was also an important moral thinker and reformer. Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, Russia, the fourth of five children. After being educated at Kazan in 1844, he joined the army in 1852. He fought proudly in the Crimean War, and after he left the army, he traveled abroad. He inspected German schools to insure their quality before going to his brother's side outside of Marseille, France.
Nicolai died at a spa with his brother at his side. This death affected Tolstoy so deeply that his writing was the only thing that kept him afloat. Upon his return, Tolstoy settled on his Volga estate, where he wrote his epic masterpiece War and Peace - the story of five families during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. His next novel, Anna Karenina, written in the romantic period, is one of the great love stories of the world. He married Sofya Andreyevna Bers, a. k.
a. Sonya, and had nine children. Tolstoy then experienced a spiritual crisis which led to such works as A Confession and What I Believe. Some of his similar, earlier struggles were recorded in Anna Karenina, which he had previously published. Tolstoy converted to his religion, Tolstoyism.
This faith said that "only through emotional and religious commitment can one discover this natural truth." His family disapproved of this and made life around the Tolstoy house unbearable for almost everyone. In his last days, he transferred his fortune to his wife and lived poorly as a peasant under her roof. Leaving home secretly, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy died of pneumonia some days later at nearby railway station. Anna is portrayed as a beautiful, mysterious woman who encompasses the quest for personal discovery. She is content in her life, but sees something that she wants more. This love, the love for Vronsky, drives her to unimaginable heights to keep her life and mental state at a safe level.
As a woman, Anna suffers great injustices for her actions. These unfair laws of society drive her to her grave. Levin is representative of Tolstoy's life. He is a respected, educated, and well off landowner in the aristocracy. His quest for self-discovery leads him out into the fields with his workers, thrashing grass with the rest of them. He also lusts after Kitty, and finally attains her love when she realizes what a good and true man he is.
His epiphany during the storm changed his character for the better, as he viewed life differently. Vronsky is a handsome man who attracts women like a magnet. Although the fairer sex flocks to him, only one made it through to his heart. Anna was at first seen as a trophy by Vronsky, but then it changed when he fell in love with her. He is sometimes stubborn, as illustrated when he pushed his horse too hard (which is also representative of Anna).
In the end, he gives up on everything, including life, and goes on a kamikaze mission into the war. Karenina is Anna's first husband, a kind man who did not deserve the angst that Anna caused him. Although she was content with Karenina, she lusted after another. When Anna was on her deathbed, Karenina realized who he really was, and restored his faith in God. Kitty is a character that did a full circle in this novel. She begins as conceited and childish, gossiping and lusting after Vronsky.
But as she realizes what a goodhearted man Levin is, she makes a happy life for herself and her family in the country, somewhere she would have never imagined herself living. Dolly failed to keep her husband satisfied in their marriage, and the book begins with the story of their struggle. She comes to the realization that having children who love her is better than having a husband who is completely in love with her. Stiva is Dolly's husband, the man who we meet in the beginning who was "in the doghouse" after his wife learned of his cheating. His cheating destroys her life for awhile, but she forgets the past and goes on. He is not self-destructive - Stiva is destructive to others.
Anna Karenina is a tightly woven story of love, life's lessons, redemption, and the cycle of life. In this novel, the main character is hard to pinpoint. Although the title suggests that it is indeed Anna Karenina, Levin also plays a major part in Tolstoy's literary masterpiece. As these two travel down the path of life, they encounter countless other characters and come to many hard decisions. Such is life. This epic novel begins with the knowledge that Dolly and Stiva Oblonsky are not a happy couple.
We meet them as he is sleeping downstairs because of his cheating heart. Stiva leaves to meet his sister, Anna, at the train station. She persuades Dolly not to get a divorce, and concentrate on her wonderful children instead of her cheating husband. Anna Karenina first meets Count Vronsky at the train station where the watchman is killed. This event is symbolic to what will happen in the relationship between Vronsky and Anna. They meet again the night Levin is utterly turned down by Kitty.
This ball in Moscow marks the beginning of two major plots: Levin's conquest for Kitty and the love affair between Anna and Vronsky. Anna then returns to her home in St. Petersburg and finds that Vronsky followed her. She acts like she has no interest in him, but inside she is re-evaluating her love for her husband. Vronsky stays in Petersburg in order to make Anna leave her life as she knows it and run away with him. While here, Vronsky competes in a horse race.
He is riding "Frou-frou", a beautiful black horse. He is behind, and pushes the horse too hard in the back stretch. This ultimately killed him, for both rider and horse fell and Vronsky had to shoot him. Anna is there with her husband and is very afraid when Vronsky fell.
Karenina knew something was wrong because she didn't bat an eyebrow when another rider fell. Later that night she decides to tell her husband she doesn't love him and is leaving with Vronsky. The two lovers depart for Italy. While this is going on, another plot line is being tightly woven into the fabric of this novel. Levin is obsessing over Kitty and will stop at nothing to get her. He is evaluating his life and finds that he does not have self-satisfaction.
One day he walks out into the fields with his serfs and picks up a thrasher. He then begins a routine of cutting grass alongside of his employees. This act is the first step to his path back to happiness. The next big step comes when he asks Kitty to marry him. She accepts and they begin their happy life together. Shortly after this, Kitty becomes pregnant.
She gives birth to a beautiful, healthy son that would make any man proud. But Levin holds the baby and feels disgust and horror at the whole process of birthing and the fact that he is a father. Later on, a storm sweeps over him and he has a spiritual epiphany and is in some ways "reborn." Meanwhile, in Italy, Anna and Vronsky are living it up on their trip together. He decides to try and paint, and Anna comes alive on his canvas.
This picture will come into play later in the novel. They get bored and miss life in Russia, so the two decide to come back. Big mistake. Anna is ostracized by society as a whole because she does not have a divorce from her husband and she is running around with Vronsky. Although she is an outcast, Anna goes on living and becomes pregnant. Near the end of her pregnancy, she becomes deathly ill.
While lying delirious in bed, Karenina, her husband, comes to her side and forgives her and Vronsky for the pain they have caused in his life. She survives and stays with Vronsky. While Vronsky is out having a good time, Anna is inside slowly going crazy. Her exclusion from society is a prison cell that is gradually getting smaller and smaller. To help her sleep, Anna takes morphine that was prescribed for her when she lost the baby in her sickness. This proves to be a drug that is a crutch for her whenever she is feeling anxious or depressed.
She goes to her son in the middle of the night only to see him for a second and get kicked out of the house. This event triggers her breakdown and the gun finally goes off one night when Anna Karenina travels to a train station and plunges in front of a moving train to her death. Vronsky has lost everything in his life. He sees it as over.
Thus, he goes off to war hoping to die a painless death th...
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Research essay sample on Anna Karenina Train Station
