Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy
"She said she was sorry for Pilate. In Christ's expression there should be pity because there was love in it, a peace not of this world, a readiness for death, and a knowledge of the vanity of words." - Anna Karenina, p 558.
As I reread this amazing novel I was reminded of Kant's famous comment, “Two things fill the mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the mind of thought is drawn to them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”* I found the novel demonstrated this thought in ways that contributed to its meaning and import upon my current reading.
One important theme was the nature of happiness. In Part 4, chapter 22, Oblonsky visits Karenin to discuss his situation, and he says: "Should you now be convinced that you cannot make each other mutually happy . . ." and Karenin responds: "Happiness can be defined so differently!"(p 508) Each of the major characters had differing views of happiness; for example, when Levin decides that "he would no longer hope for the exceptional happiness which marriage was to have given him," (Part 1, chapter 26, p 109). Is it even the appropriate goal or are there more important moral imperatives? While I'm trying to analyze the novel in a literary way I find philosophical thoughts intruding, thus how does the novel's depiction of happiness relate to that of Aristotle or Plato or Seneca?
Another important theme is the omnipresence of death in the novel which is shown in many scenes although the most moving of those for me were: first, the death of Levin's brother Nicholas: "Death, the inevitable end of everything, confronted him for the first time with irresistible force . . . a new insoluble problem presented itself ---Death." (Part 3, chapter 31, p 413-14) Nicholas' illness would last a while longer but his death in Part 5 is almost an afterthought, albeit one with power; second, Anna's son, young Serezha's thoughts about death, after a fretful meeting with his Father: "He did not in the least believe in death, which was so often mentioned to hiim. He did not believe that people he loved could die, nor above all that he himself would die." (Part 5, chapter 27, p 620) (Ironically, when he fails his lesson his father's punishment ends up being a fun evening with Vasily Lukich) ; and third, the nearness of death at the beginning of a new life when Kitty experiences childbirth (Part 7, chapter 15). Do these and other moments contribute to the power of the inevitable demise of Anna?
I was also impressed with the epilogue (Part 8) and found that Tolstoy, in his own amazing way, was able to bring Levin's life and spirituality together in a way befitting his character and role in the novel, specifically I was moved by the concluding paragraph of chapter 14 (p 947) that begins "Just as the bees, now circling round him, threatening him and distracting his attention," . . . and concluding "And as, in spite of the bees, his physical powers remained intact, so his newly-realized spiritual powers were intact also." It seems that his realization of his "spiritual powers" relate to his life lived (as noted in the quote from p 930) and his immersion in nature and the countryside (brought to the fore throughout the novel, but particularly, for me at least, in his immersion in the fields with the peasants mowing hay (part 3, chapter 5, pp 297ff). There were other moments in his development worthy of discussion as well.
Tolstoy encompasses the whole world within his novels. This novel exemplifies his approach that at once brings into focus the humanity of his characters, the details of the world in which they live, and the philosophies by which they guide their lives. Spinning his tale of Anna and her passions out from a small moment in the life of one unhappy family Tolstoy shows again and again how our lives are intertwined with each other. His uncanny ability to demonstrate psychological insight into the characters is amazing from the moment they are introduced through the denouement and epilogue of this massive tale.
*Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Practical Reason
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