Name: Suhani Shah
In the ever-memorable epic of a woman in Russian society trying to achieve self-will, Anna Karenina exemplifies conflicts between the accepted and unaccepted social norms. Social norms or Societal norms have become irrefutable laws, and those who go against them are more often than not isolated, ostracized, and abandoned by society. We have witnessed this in the past, and we will notice this in the future. Every time someone tries to go against social norms, the repunctuations they face are brutal, just like Malala Yousafzai did in 2012 when she defied the Taliban in Pakistan, seeking every girl’s right to be educated in Pakistan. The Taliban shot Malala twice for defying their rule and going against societal norms. In Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina, Anna alone is not responsible for her death. Instead, it’s a culmination of different factors which lead to her death. We get to witness this in the heart-wrenching love story of Anna Karenina and Vronsky and how they attempt to escape the social culture of Russia in the 1800s because the public abjures their affair. The harsh judgment and the sexist constraints of society invade her personal life resulting in the loss of social stature and her failed relationship with Vronsky. By demonstrating the impossibility of sustaining a relationship simply through love, Anna Karenina highlights the inescapable implications of social class on an individual’s life and happiness.
The book Anna Karenina opens with one of the most iconic lines of all time, “All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its way.” (Page 1) Through this line, Tolstoy introduces us to the lives of a Russian aristocrat Stephan Arkadyevitch and his wife, Dolly. Stephan embodies the notion that life is meant to be enjoyed and not repressed by duties. Stephan plays the portrait of an ordinary man in the 19th century in Russia. He feels entitled to have sex with whomever he pleases. This apparent paradox in his character highlights the patriarchal nature of Russian society at the time. Stevia is essentially free to enjoy himself, while his wife is expected to endure his affairs in good-natured silence and do all the household chores. Thus, we see that the values of men and women in the society are oriented toward different goals, and Stiva’s affair with the French governess causes these different values to stand in evident relief. “He had even supposed that she was a worn-out woman no longer young or good looking and in no way remarkable or interesting, merely a good mother, ought from a sense of fairness to take an indulgent view.” (Page 3) Stiva’s little love affair prefigures the adultery of Anna with Vronsky.
We are soon introduced to a scene that forms a composite for the entire novel, a thumbnail sketch, and all the action that lies ahead is foreshadowed in this one scene. Anna, the protagonist, is introduced to us as she steps off the train. The train is an important symbol for Anna and Russian society in general: just as trains in the 1870s represented something new, terrifying, and disruptive, bourgeois Russian culture is in the midst of significant change, although they do not recognize it. We are shown the essence of Anna’s vitality in this scene, which sustains and destroys her. “It was as though an excess of something so filled her whole being that it expressed itself against her will. She deliberately tried to extinguish that light in her eyes, but it blazed out against her will in that faint smile.” (Page 46) This is the first instance where we see that the problem is not that Anna had an affair with Vronsky that’s wrong, but the way she had an affair and how she conducted herself that’s incorrect.
We then see Anna and Vronsky at the ball dancing together. Anna’s expressive face shows the sign of excitement and success that she feels familiar with, while Vronsky’s expression is firm and independent, which bears a look of “bewilderment and humble submissiveness, like the expression of an intelligent dog when it has done wrong. (Page 55) Here we see that Anna has all along since the very start been interested in Vronsky, but she is under the social constraints to not let her feelings out. They then have a third encounter where Vronsky tells Anna, “You know that I have come to be here with you.” (Page 75) At this point, he clearly states his love for Anna and tells Anna “what her soul longed to hear” (Page 75). The fact that Anna did not speak of this incidence with anyone shows the flaws in her behavior. She knows that there is something that the future holds for the two of them; she knows that she should tell her husband about this encounter, she knows she is doing Kitty wrong, but she wishes to extinguish these thoughts from her mind even though she has an idea about what the future holds for them. The next time she meets her husband, she can feel the “the fire seemed quenched in her, hidden somewhere far away.” (Page 81)
Anna’s awakening passion changes the pattern of her social life. She avoids the severe group of the society she once enjoyed because its members are hypocrites. Her sudden awareness of hypocrisy reflects her understanding of deceit. This deceit, however, is twofold. Anna suspects her emotionally incomplete existence as the faithful wife of a man she realizes she does not love is hypocritical. The other source of her deceit is adultery, a condition of fraud defined by society. At the same time, cheating provides the only means by which Anna can redeem her false marriage: Through Vronsky, she can achieve a genuine love relationship. She further tries to convince herself and subdue her feelings by talking to Vronsky, telling g him they are better off as friends even though she knows she is lying. “Friends we shall never be, you know that yourself. Whether we shall be happiest or the wretchedest people- that’s in your hands.” (Page 101)
After observing Anna’s behavior, Karenin wishes to speak to her. Here we see how Karenin values his position in society, and even though he did not feel that Anna’s conduct was improper, the societal pressure drove him to question Anna. “But he noticed that to the rest of the party appeared, something striking and improper, and for that reason, it seemed improper to him.” (Page 103) Though her lover is revered for his affair, Anna becomes the subject of public scrutiny for her parallel actions. After news of Anna’s affair spreads, “The greater number of the young women, who envied Anna and had long been weary of hearing her called virtuous, rejoiced at the fulfillment of their predictions and were only waiting for a decisive turn in public opinion to fall upon her with all the weight of their scorn” (Tolstoy 126). Anna’s position in society does not depend on the substance of her character, as her peers are willing to change their view of her when some form of gossip gives them the opportunity to (Roberts). Social reputations are fabricated concepts that rely on the way others view an individual, not necessarily how the individual behaves. Anna is treated as worthless and despicable for loving someone, which exhibits the hypocrisy of society in its treatment of men and women for the same actions.
Societal pressures also influence Anna’s relationship with her husband, Alexey. Upon learning of her affair, Alexey’s worst fear comes true. “my aim is simply to safeguard my reputation, which is essential for the uninterrupted pursuit of my public duties.” (Page 205) Alexey would rather have a troubled marriage than admit to Anna’s affair as his social standing is more important to him than the basis of his relationship. Thus, Anna cannot be with the person she loves and is forced to sustain a public image that she no longer wants. Due to society’s pressures placed upon them, Anna and Alexey must lead lives of either falsehood or persecution. “The Karenin’s, husband and wife, continued living in the same house, met every day, but were strangers to one another” (Page 258)
“The position was one of misery for all three, and not one of them would have been equal to enduring this position every single day if it had not been for the expectation.” (Page 259)
After continuing their affair, the constraints of their public images become so prominent in their lives that Anna and Vronsky attempt – unsuccessfully – to elude their hyper-critical social class by escaping to Italy. Despite being in a country far from Russia, Anna and Vronsky feel unaccepted and miss being with their Russian counterparts, “But without occupation, the life of Vronsky and Anna, who wondered at his loss of interest in it, struck them as intolerably tedious in an Italian town. The palazzo suddenly seemed so obtrusively old and dirty, the spots on the curtain, the cracks in the floor, the broken plaster became obvious, and they very in need to make a change.” (Page 348) Anna and Vronsky’s escape cannot last as the Italian environment is not satisfactory due to their excessive Russian social conditioning. In no setting are they able to find happiness; thus, they can never liberate themselves from the influence of their social circles. Tolstoy uses imagery in this setting to further emphasize these cultural pressures. While in Italy, Anna and Vronsky meet a Russian painter and, impressed by his work, commission a picture of Anna. After the painting is finished, Vronsky is surprised the painter could have captured Anna’s inner beauty: ‘One needs to know and love her as I have loved her to discover the very sweetest expression of her soul'” (Page 330). However, the narrator explains, “it was only from this portrait that Vronsky had himself understood the truest sweetest expression of her soul. But the expression was so true that he, and others too, fancied they had long known it” (Page 335). This painting and the social perspective that Anna is viewed from creating an unattainable ideal of beauty that does not exist. Although Vronsky feels as though he has long known this idea of her, his discovery of this “characteristic beauty” (Page340) comes about simply because it is placed in front of him. Although beginning positively, their glamorous reputations precede them, this critical eye on Anna and Vronsky eventually becomes a negative perspective. The continuous impact on them proves the harmful and far-reaching influences of their culture.
Soon upon returning to Moscow, Vronsky goes to meet his mother and brother, and he says, “If the world disapproves, I don’t care. But if my relations want to be on terms of relationship with me, they will have to be on the same terms with my wife.” (Page 383). Here we see the nature of social constraints and the deep-rooted patriarchy that has been embedded in society for years. Even though Vronsky is allowed to live his life to the fullest and has no social constraints placed upon him, Anna, on the other hand, is confined to the room. “But he very quickly perceived that though the world was opened for him. It was closed for Anna, just as in a cat’s game in a mouse. So the hand raised for him was dropped to the bar. The way for now.” (Page 383). Soon everyone shuns them, even Betsy Tverskaya, who explains that she cannot risk the public shame of socializing with Anna. Here we get to witness the hypocrisy of Princess Betsy even though initially she encouraged Anna’s affair with Vronsky. Now she is fearful that if she interacts with Anna, she will be socially isolated. “People will throw stones at me I know if I come to visit Anna” (Page 384). After the heart-wrenching meeting of Anna and her son, Anna is left traumatized. Here we also witness the effects of isolation on humans and how hard it is to be socially unaccepted, and the roles in plays psychologically and physiologically.
Karenin’s loneliness nearly pushes him to a nervous breakdown as his family life and professional career falls apart. The man who once seemed invincible now appears surprisingly frail. Tolstoy suggests that isolation can disintegrate even the most powerful. We then see Anna in the theatre and how she is humiliated and ostracised by the public. Before going into the theatre, Vronsky even tells Anna, “in that dress with a Princess only too well known to everyone, to show yourself at the theatre is equivalent, not merely to acknowledge your position as a fallen woman, but it’s bringing down a challenge to society. That is to say, cutting yourself off from everyone forever.” (Page 390) She feels sad and alone that no one wants to talk to her, and even Vronsky is acting strange to her.
Juxtaposed to this failing relationship is the relationship that Kitty and Levin share. Throughout their relationship, we get to see how independent from the exterior forces of society the two of them are. Levin prefers the countryside company to the city life because it’s hassle-free, and they can live their lives according to their whims and fancies. The sole reason Kitty and Levin’s relationship can last is that society does not influence their personal life. Thus they are not subjected to social isolation.
On the contrary, we see how Vronsky and Anna are subjected to social discrimination because they disobeyed the social norms. We also see moments where Anna is confused and does not know what she wants. When everyone is trying to persuade her into taking a divorce, she refutes, saying, “I cannot lose my son” (Page 463). But she soon changes her mind asking for a divorce “Anna wrote to her husband asking him about a divorce.” (Page 483) This reveals how fickle-minded Anna is how she is not very well averse with her thoughts and does not know what she wants. We see that Anna Karenina often faces a battle between her inner thoughts and external actions, which results in a negative psychological impact.
After a quarrel with Vronsky, Anna leaves to meet Dolly, thinking she can confide in Dolly. Upon reaching, she feels that Kitty is being rude to her and is treating her differently, so she soon departs from Dolly’s house. Feeling worse than before, conscious of “having been affronted and rejected” (Page 548)by Kitty, Anna thinks that all human relationships are based on hate. Life is sundering us.” Love is transient, but hate is everywhere.
After fights with her lover progressively worsen due to ongoing humiliation from the public eye, Anna resolves to kill herself: “I will…escape from everyone and myself” (Page 553). She commits suicide by jumping in front of a train. “and the light by which she had read the book, filled with troubles, falsehood, sorrow, and evil, flared up more brightly than ever before. Lighted up for her, all that had been in darkness, flickered, began to grow dim, and was quenched forever.” (Page 553) By committing suicide, Anna reflects the rigid constraints of her social standing, which forced her into making this decision. We also see the railway as a metaphor throughout the novel. The railroad represents rigidity and a specific path that every individual should follow and how you cannot step out of the rail. A person cannot make choices openly and freely without being condemned. When she finally decides to follow her desires, the judgments of her peers for not sticking to the “rails” results in the deterioration of herself and her mental health. She feels that the only escape from these rules is death. Her suicide is symbolic of the suppression she endlessly endured by the nobility in Russia.
The lives of characters in Anna Karenina show us how Anna was not responsible for her death. Instead, the society and how she conducted her affair with Vronsky resulted in her death. The Marxist critic Engle used Anna Karenina as an example of how “the deceit, failing and misfires” of bourgeois marriages are less the fault of individuals and more of how societies are organized.