Anna Karenina; Leo Tolstoy Reviewed by Erica Andrades
Stiva and Dolly, Anna and Vronsky, and Levin and Kitty are the three main couples in the
expansive, ambitious narrative Anna Karenina. In addition, Tolstoy widens his omniscient third person restricted offerings to include each of these characters as well as Anna's actual husband Karenin, her 8-year-old kid, and even Levin's hunting dog, Laska.
The prose is frequently poetic—even evocative—but oh, so wordy. I'm confident that a good third of it could have been removed without causing any harm. In fact, if one wanted to see it published in today's literary market, it would need to be chopped down at least that much. Remove some of the over 1,000-page sections that discuss the political problems surrounding peasants and their apparently poor work ethic. Good grief, I'm sure this was a genuine problem in Tolstoy's day.
To be honest, the book wasn't quite as monotonous as I had anticipated. It surprised me because, although being a Russian text, it frequently made me think of Jane Austen. This, in my opinion, was caused by a mixture of the historical period, the way things went, the depth of my own reflections, and my keen social observations.
It didn't hurt that Tolstoy was making quite plain reference to the absurdity of Russian divorce rules. I was inspired. At first, I could relate to Anna and admire her since she doesn't see how loveless her marriage to a much older, emotionally comatose civil servant is until she is faced with the intrigue of a passionate, obsessive suitor. I felt sorry for her until she returned from her fling with Vronsky and discovered her own son to be unsatisfactory. It is entirely credible. I've observed it in women previously when they become so preoccupied with a new love interest that their own children start to lose importance. But I can't help but find that change in priorities revolting.
I must praise Tolstoy much for his use of foreshadowing. Anna's scary nightmares are recurring enough to arouse interest, and their similarity to Vronsky's heightens the urgency of the investigation. The horse racing scene was a particularly devastating element since it not only signalled a dramatic change in the story but also emphasised Vronsky's carelessly selfish personality. If Anna had not been so severely emotionally damaged, she could have seen this as a clear indication that she needed to flee
quickly and far.
Another noteworthy quality of Tolstoy's writing—and maybe my favourite—was his incredible understanding of the psychology of women. Here, we hear from three very diverse women who have experienced various forms of societal and gender-based discrimination. And each one of them had the impression of being a complete individual. The first traditional male novelist I've read, Tolstoy, seems to genuinely comprehend how and why women think and feel.
Tolstoy's subject matter has evidently been construed by some readers as a condemnation of "loose" women, although personally... I wasn't able to perceive it that way. He surely didn't promise us a happy ending in exchange for moral compromise. But it may be argued that he is only acting from his sense of actuality. He always depicts Anna's condition from various viewpoints as awful. Vronsky is plainly the one who started and continued her decline because of his narrow-minded perseverance in pursuing her and his decision to set his personal needs over her reputation and way of life in the name of "love." And Anna's steady descent into irrationality, sadness, and absurdity is so adeptly portrayed that I'm inclined to give it a higher grade merely to express how much I value the empathetic achievement. By the book's conclusion, I realised... These characters weren't any of my favourites.
I felt sorry for Dolly and Anna because of the circumstances that society and emotional dominance seemed to have forced them into. By the last few chapters, Kitty's fragile, naive perfection finally lost its annoying edge. I disliked Steva, Vronsky, Karenin, and Levin in unexpectedly various ways. However, Anna's neglected young son was ultimately the sole victim of this colossal soap opera for whom I sincerely wished the best.
BIBLOGRAPHY:
Online Book
Tolstoy, L., & Garnett, C. (2015). Anna Karenina. Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue Editions. Retrieved from
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/inflibnet-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5441791 on October 12, 2023.
Image Credit: https://nlist.inflibnet.ac.in/search/Record/EBC5441791
No comments:
Post a Comment