Fig: “Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”
Source: images4.alphacoders.com/797/797330.jpg
A Tragic novel about an extramarital affair during rapid transformations as a result of the liberal reforms initiated by Emperor Alexander II of Russia. Anna Karenina is a novel which rather focusing on the central characters dives into characters’ psychology and makes us care about every character of the book.
The book never tries to make any statement, rather the choices made by the characters and the thoughts that went in the process of making those choices are the central concern for the author. Tolstoy in his book ‘What is Art’ asserts that it is the duty of good art to generate empathy in human minds towards others. Anna Karenina successfully makes us care about each character it deals with. You understand the motives of the actions of each character, and at the end of each character arc, you root for them to have a happy ending.
To understand, the book better we need to understand the scenario of Imperial Russia when the book was first published. The story is set during the Great Reforms. This was a major reformation that took place in Russia where the liberal values started getting infiltrated. There was a relaxation of censorship of the media. Modernization of the Army and Navy. Expansion of schools and universities. Economic modernization impacting banking, railways, mining, manufacturing.
Fig: An artist’s impression of Alexander II releasing the serfs in 1861
Source: alphahistory.com
What Tolstoy does better here is that he paints a picture of how these liberal values was a factor in the decision-making process of his characters, rather than talking about the reformation or the political aspects of Emperor Alexander II, he focuses more on his characters and their arc development. Unlike his other masterpiece War and Peace, where he parallelly focusses on people and politics.
To state that Anna Karenina is a romantic novel about a married woman falling in love with another man will be a binary explanation of the book. Rather the book explores more themes and ideas about human relationships. More importantly, the book tries to explain love in all forms possible. It rather tries to focus on the acts rather than the idea and asks a more serious question about who deserves our moral consideration. Even the most hateful characters in the book show an act of humanity when it was least expected of them. This suggests the idea of good and bad being present among all of us. This idea that humans are more complex than just being good or bad is a recurring theme in Tolstoy’s work. The writer shows a keen hatred for pragmatism or someone dehumanizing themselves to fit the norms of the society. Rather the book celebrates people with embracing human emotions and taking decisions in a much more romantic yet rational manner. The book encourages every character to find contentment in their lives to be happy in their lives but that should not be a product of someone else sadness. Whenever characters caused sadness in other lives, Tolstoy assured poetic justice.
The reason why Anna Karenina stands out from Leo Tolstoy’s other work because here Leo shows his excellence more as a writer than a philosopher. His portrayal of the protagonist creates a bridge between realism and modernism, which makes the character even more likable and relatable to the context and thus makes it relevant even today. Even other characters of the book suffer from a similar dilemma. Apart from the protagonist the characters who embody extreme realism or romanticism suffer painful consequences. These characters’ arc develops through the acceptance of a more modernist approach towards life.
Fig: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Source: Anna Karenina (2012)
I read the English translated version Translated by Constance Garnett, which is widely most reprinted version of the book till date, I might not be able to fully comment about the writing genius of Leo Tolstoy but the way the books unfolds the inner conflicts and way the psychological trauma is explained, it can successfully generate empathy in our minds. The book is regarded as the greatest novel of all time and it is probably on my top five greatest works of literature. Like all great literature, it will help you grow as a person. The book will never suggest you make similar choices like the characters of the book, rather it would suggest you to except the people who are doing so.
