Anna Karenina part.3

Anna Karenina. 3

Author

Tolstoy

Publisher

Minumsa | published 2009-09-04

Category

Novel

Description

A masterpiece gathering the thought and reflections of the great writer Tolstoy! The great Russian writer Tol...

The big story of Volume 3 can be summarized as the deterioration of the relationship between Anna and Vronsky, the difference between Kitty and Levin's city life / country life, and the remarkable connecting ability of Dolly and Stiva; the conclusion can be summarized as Anna's death and Levin's awakening. In the book's structure, Kitty and Levin's story comes first, and here, feeling Levin's anguish made up almost the whole of it. The displeasure Levin feels through Vasenka—for example, in the scene where Vasenka, as a man of 'society' naturally does, shows off his charm to make a good relationship with a lady—Levin feels a certain displeasure. Because of the jealousy welling up from Levin's emotions, and because in Levin's value system Vasenka's behavior is very rude and so he thinks he is entitled to be angry about it, he ends up driving Vasenka out of the house. But you can see him suffering as he realizes how timid an act his own behavior was, and feels that because of it, mental harm has come both to Kitty and to himself.

In Levin's behavior, you could see that although he wants to act according to a rational value system, the thoughts of each passing moment poke at him so that he does not arrive at what he considers the best outcome but instead acts on 'emotion.' Not everyone is like this (just as not everyone behaves like Sergei Ivanovich), but many people, faced with what they think is the best outcome, end up taking 'emotional' action because of a little feeling. This can never be called purely good, nor can it be called bad. There is even research showing that in a situation where one must choose between two options, 90% of people come to regret it. Unlike Levin, Sergei Ivanovich makes judgments very much based on 'reason.' Because 'Varenka'—the very charming, beautiful, kind-hearted woman who cared for Kitty when she was abroad—happened to be staying at Kitty's house, and as Sergei Ivanovich and she went around together many times, there was a feeling that the two might develop affection and marry, but Sergei Ivanovich, carefully reflecting on why he had not married all this time, in the end decides not to propose. For him, purely keeping the memory of his dead wife is undoubtedly a very precious thing (both emotionally and rationally), and he held no dissatisfaction about keeping that duty, considering it entirely natural. Moreover, in the Russian society of the time, once a man and woman had confirmed each other's feelings to a degree and felt they were likely to marry, the man had to propose, so Varenka could not have stepped forward readily. If Levin is a person who follows the emotion of the moment more than reason, then Sergei is an excellent person who makes judgments based more on reason and keeps his sacred duty. That is why Levin respected his brother even though his brother held somewhat different opinions from his own.

When I first talked about 'Anna Karenina' with my mother over the phone, my mother said that Anna Karenina was a pitiable being. Pitiable, she said, in that although she was married, she fell in love with another man. About this, judging myself based on having read up to Volume 2 at the time, I did not understand it well. Because, when judged rationally, she was clearly a woman who had abandoned her social 'duty.' My reason would not permit me to send any 'sympathy' or 'pity' to such a woman. But somehow, watching the change in attitude of the men who meet her for the first time, I felt a little powerless, and as her own anxiety grew more and more serious, and as I came to feel Anna's psychology in detail, I came to understand a little why my mother had looked at Anna and called her pitiable.

The deterioration between Anna and Vronsky is the fault of both sides. Only, I couldn't shake the feeling that the starting point in the middle of it always seemed to be Anna. It's been a while since I read Volumes 1 and 2, so I don't remember well how Anna reacted in them, but what is certain is that Anna always had guilt, and at the same time the anxiety arising from that guilt always hovered around her. Of course, her appearance in Italy was sufficiently calm and stable. Her appearance in the early part of Part 6 was enough to conclude that she had something to pour her passion into and was now a little stabilized. But the only one who can grant some 'freedom' to her, bound as she is by her own thoughts, is herself—and it seems this was impossible. Her appearance, suffering throughout, is so very pitiable. Of course she is selfish. Perhaps growing anxious every time she sees Vronsky and pleading this state of mind was the best she could do.

'...He looked at me with a cold, harsh expression. Of course it was vague and hard to perceive, but there was never anything like that before. So that gaze means a great deal,' she thought. 'That gaze shows that his heart has begun to cool.'

Thus, even while certain that the love had begun to cool, Anna could still do nothing, and could not change her attitude toward him in the slightest. Just as before, she could only hold onto him through love and charm alone. And just as before, she could only quiet by day with work, and by night with morphine, the terrible thought of what would happen if his love cooled. In fact, there was one more way. Not holding onto him—if she could only do that, she wanted nothing other than his love—but staying close to him and creating a situation in which he could not abandon her. That way was precisely divorce and marriage. So she too came to want it, and resolved that the moment he or Stiva brought up the matter, she would agree at once.

It was amid such thoughts that she spent those five days alone, without him, while he had to be away from home.

It's pitiable. For her to spend five days alone amid such thoughts is terrible. It's true she committed adultery, but she too has a right to pursue happiness. The fact that she gave up Alexei Alexandrovich and Seryozha and chose Vronsky does not mean her right to pursue happiness disappeared too. Russian society did not accept her either. But the bigger problem is precisely that she herself judged 'right and wrong' about this matter so very precisely. Choosing Vronsky, and even while raising his daughter Annie, even when she schemed to enjoy happiness and pursue as much stability as possible, she could not help suffering because of that certain thought she always suspected (that Vronsky might abandon her), and because of the collapse caused by her own value system.

The meeting between Levin and Anna takes place only in the latter part of this book. Honestly, I thought these two would never end up meeting. Because Kitty and Levin disliked Vronsky, and on top of that they considered Anna's behavior morally improper. In the meeting between the two that finally came about through the connecting link of Stiva, Levin feels affection for her. Apart from the values he held, he admits that she is excellent and beautiful. This is the terror of beauty, and this feeling was felt even more strongly and specially by Vronsky (similar to what Anna felt looking at Vronsky), so the two even come to live as husband and wife—but it is undoubtedly a dangerous and frightening emotion. I felt so very sorry for such an Anna.

The matter of life and death came across as very important. The unknown emotion Levin felt when first seeing his baby seems to come from the fact that joy cannot be felt simply by watching that a life has been born. Even for me, when I see some child just beginning to move, I think it would be hard to feel simply the emotion of joy from watching that. But watching Kitty and Agafya, unable to properly take shelter from the rain, holding the child close under a tree, Levin too comes to realize that he has feelings of love for his child. It was complicated. For Levin, packed tightly with reason, his child must surely have held a very complicated meaning. For the child to look at Levin and recognize him—that means the child has shared a history with Levin.

...She raised herself and tried to tip her head back. But something huge and merciless pushed at her head and dragged her along. 'Lord, forgive me all my sins!' she murmured, feeling that any resistance was impossible. A small peasant, muttering something, was working on the rails. And the single candle that had cast its light beside her as she read the book full of anxiety and falsehood and grief and evil flared up with a brighter light than ever, illuminating before her everything that had been steeped in darkness, then crackled, grew dimmer and dimmer, and went out forever.

Anna's suicide happened in an instant. In the very moment she tries to take her own life, in the moment she crosses herself and tries to throw herself between the train cars, all her memories suddenly revive in her heart, and happiness and joy envelop her as she goes. The reason she meant to die was to free herself from suffering. But that is by no means the way Tolstoy sought. Still, one can only say that her death was a very tragic choice and yet unavoidable. Anna's loving Vronsky was a sin, but her heart has the right to be free. However, religion constricted her, and her own value system made her hold her breath, and she grieved on her own.

Why did it come to that? Why did she abandon Alexandrovich and go to Vronsky? After first meeting Vronsky, she came home and tried as hard as she could to calm her heart, but she clearly felt it: that she could not stop this emotion... If she felt it was not what she wanted and not right, she should not have done it, but she went ahead with the affair and suffered because of it. She was torn between Seryozha and Vronsky, and watching the things she had built to feel happiness be destroyed, she grew unhappy and heartbroken.

Lastly, in part.4 I'll talk about Levin's reason and emotion, briefly talk about Dolly and Stiva, and then wrap up the Anna Karenina series. Personally, of the books I've read over the past few years, I'd like to say 'Anna Karenina' is the best.