The story tells about how Anna Karenina, the wife of a respectable official from the elite of the noble society, comes to her daughter-in-law Daria in order to help settle relations with her wayward husband Stiva Oblonsky.
But protecting her brother’s marriage, Anna does not think about her own marriage. She starts an affair with a young officer. Karenina becomes pregnant by Alexei Vronsky. Her lawful husband Alexei Karenin, after the news of her infidelity, is going to terminate the marriage with her, but, seeing the suffering of the giving birth wife, forgives her and recognizes the newborn child, he is inclined to put up with her betrayals and not hinder her happiness.
After the release from the burden, Anna does not stop suffering from cohabitation with her unloving husband, embarrassed by his unexpected goodwill. She runs away abroad with Vronsky, leaving behind her beloved son and Karenin.
Suddenly, disagreements arise between the lovers. Anna is burdened by her alienation from secular society, and her legal husband, having become a universal laughing stock, does not allow her to see Seryozha (son).
Realizing that Vronsky’s mother is counting on her son’s marriage to another woman, Anna throws herself under a train and dies. Simultaneously with the key plot line, the writer tells about the life of Levin, a landowner from the outback: his marriage, his thriftiness and conceptual judgments. This component of the work answers the questions that appear in the novel. The writer himself adheres to the example of Levin’s “true life” away from secularism and its intoxicating influence.
The meaning of the movie “Anna Karenina”
It is indicated in the fact that the writer considers family life to be higher than “love”. He believes that it is impossible to know personal well-being on the ruins of his family. This will surely lead to grief.
In family turmoil, Tolstoy first of all provides a ladder through which the individual will be able to comprehend the truth of life and his purpose (using the example of Levin). The main author’s idea is the insight of Konstantin. He clearly realized his goal after a conversation with a serf.
The meaning of the story at first glance is seen in the amorous drama of a married woman. Apparently, this partly confirms the title of the book. But the meaning of the work is much deeper than the usual love drama.
On the example of the life of the heroine, the author revealed two important problems – moral and social. The society condemned Anna not for cheating on her husband, but for her refusal to hypocritically deceive her husband, as was customary among secular ladies. Karenina openly confessed her feelings and was publicly condemned for it.
But who, if not the Creator, can judge a person. This idea is also heard in the epigraph to protect Anna Karenina from human condemnation.
On a note! Tolstoy is not satisfied with merely discovering love and family themes. The connections of the book characters are directly coordinated with the era and the events that took place then.
The author is concerned about such issues as faith, religion, the meaning of life. This is reflected in the emotional struggle of Konstantin Levin, shown against the backdrop of Anna’s tragedy.
Levin: faith and doubt
While working on the novel, Tolstoy did not keep diaries, but many of his thoughts and feelings of those years, as researchers note, were reflected in the image of Levin. The life of this hero is filled with worries about the economy and moral and intellectual searches. The hero constantly thinks about his attitude to faith, is tormented by the fact that he finds doubt in his soul: “My main sin is doubt. I doubt everything,” Levin confesses to the priest in confession. However, despite the realization of this doubt, in the most difficult moments of life’s trials, Levin continues to pray to God for the salvation and well-being of his loved ones. Konstantin Levin is a hero who realized what family happiness is, illuminated by divine light. It is not for nothing that Tolstoy makes the description of the wedding of Levin and his bride Kitty the center of his novel. Levin’s doubts throughout the novel lead to the fact that by the end the hero is obviously more inclined towards faith than disbelief. He is very similar to Tolstoy himself during the years of writing the novel, as evidenced by an entry from the diary of Sofya Andreevna Tolstoy: “After a long struggle between disbelief and the desire for faith, he suddenly calmed down now, since autumn. I began to observe fasts, go to church and pray to God.” An acute crisis in Tolstoy’s relations with the Orthodox faith and the Church will begin later.
Karenina: sin and repentance
The image of Anna Karenina is the image of a sinner who preferred to choose the path of sin and death, but at the same time, as Tolstoy shows, a living and thirsty feeling for God is preserved in her to the very end. Realizing that death was near and nothing could be changed, she was horrified by what she had done and cried out: “Lord, forgive me everything!” Of course, these last words of the heroine should be taken only in dialogue with the epigraph from the Bible: “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.” Yes, her act is a self-willed and sinful act, but Tolstoy does not pronounce either an acquittal or a guilty verdict on her: what can a human court say at the moment when a person is sent to the judgment of God?
“Vengeance is mine, and Az will repay”
Many years later, Tolstoy admitted that he chose the epigraph “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay” (Rom 12:19) , “to express the idea that the bad that a person does has as its consequence all that bitter that does not come from people but from God and what Anna Karenina experienced on herself. That is, here we are talking about the moral law as the law of retribution to a person for his misdeeds. All the fates of the heroes of the novel, as, according to Tolstoy, and all the fates of people, are determined by their attitude to understanding and fulfilling the moral law.
Two destinies, two roads
With the death of the main character, the novel does not end. The stories of Anna Karenina and Konstantin Levin develop in parallel , like railroad tracks. Those who, while reading War and Peace, leafed through the scenes of the war in order to quickly return to the adventures of Natasha Rostova and Pierre Bezukhov, did the same with Levin in Anna Karenina. And in vain – in this opposition lies the intention of the novel.
Tolstoy compares two worlds – destruction and creation, two destinies – happy and unhappy, two loves – carnal and spiritual. Anna breaks her life, she is doomed. Levin is building a bright future with Kitty. Their love is genuine and will live on. But what will this life be like?
No, Tolstoy will not leave the reader at the moment “and they lived happily ever after.” Then the most interesting begins. What lies ahead for them? What will their marriage be like? The answer is disappointing. Having found the long-awaited family happiness, Levin did not find the meaning of life. The hero experiences a severe spiritual crisis and hides the string and the gun out of sight.
At this point, the two storylines converge. Both Karenina and Levin came to understand that the point is that there is no point. Anna was looking for meaning in love and died, Konstantin – in the family, but drives thoughts of suicide. The novel ends with Levin’s “illumination” – support must be sought within. Everyone is free to invent their own meaning.
Explanation of the ending “Anna Karenina”
Although the novel is called “Anna Karenina”, the story does not end after the death of the heroine. Tolstoy tells how the life of other characters turned out. Against the background of the story of other people’s lives, the tragedy that happened to Anna seems much deeper. Narrating the events taking place two months after the death of Karenina, the author wanted to say that life does not end with the departure of one person.
In addition, it is at the end of the novel that Levin realizes the true meaning of life, which lies in faith. At one time, many prominent thinkers ambiguously perceived Tolstoy’s novel. Some even considered this novel a salon. But whatever the meaning of the story, Anna Karenina remains one of the most popular books not only in Russia, but throughout the world.
