Contents
There are some milestone novels in the history of world literature. The reader never wants such novels to end while reading them. Additionally, a person enjoys these literary works differently as they read it at every age. Along with this, they derive a different meaning from these works each time and capture different perspectives. The novel Anna Karenina is such a book which we will describe as the pinnacle of Leo Tolstoy‘s novels, about whose valuable works we have previously written War and Peace and What Men Live By.
According to a survey conducted by Time magazine in 2007 among one hundred and twenty-five living novelists, you will feel a storm in your soul as you read this book, which was chosen as the best novel of all time. In the meantime, you will sometimes suffer, sometimes rejoice, and sometimes question the meaning of life. After all, the author of this book is a person who has questioned the meaning of life and the existence of God throughout his life. At this point, it is very natural to find such deep philosophical meanings in the book.
Leo Tolstoy, who also comes from a noble family and has the title of count, is also a landowner. In this sense, it is possible to find traces of him, especially in the character of Levin in the novel. In fact, the reader will find traces of the author in some characters and flows of events as they progress through the books abundantly illustrated literary paths. At this step we coul d say that, if you have read some of our author’s other books, you will have no difficulty in finding traces of him in the characters.
Anna Karenina Plot
It may seem normal for you to feel all the emotions while reading such a thick novel, published in 1876 and approximately 1100 pages long. On the other hand, you will also learn the analyses and different problems of Tsarist Russia in the 1800s during the modernization period from an author who lived his feelings so intensely.
One of the most important issues we need to mention when talking about this book is the concept of “death”. Our famous author wavered between the meaning of life and death throughout his life, and was even excommunicated from religion by the church for a period. In this sense, it should be noted that while reading the novel, you will occasionally question the meaning of life and the concepts of death.
It is not a short task to give information about the subject of such a thick novel that takes place in a very complex and changing environment in 19th century Russia. However, it is possible to briefly define the subject of the novel Anna Karenina as love and marriage. Our author quotes from the Bible at the beginning of the book and says, “Vengeance is mine, I will take.” and then says, “Happy families are similar to each other, but unhappy families have their own differences.” This actually gives us clues about the subject of the book.
Those who study his life know that he had a neighbour named Anna at a young age and that she takes her life by suicide because of betrayal. In this sense, it is also true that there are quotes from real life in the work. In addition to the subjects of love and marriage, there are also analyses about the Russian peasantry of the period in certain sections of the book.
Anna Karenina Short Summary
Tolstoy, who participated in Crimean War as a soldier with his brother, later got married and reflected these aspects of his life in his books. In other words, the subject of Anna Karenina is basically love and marriage. On the other hand, our author also emphasizes the soldiers who will volunteer to participate in the Serbian war with the Turks. In addition, Vronsky, one of the main characters of the book, is a decorated soldier. Moreover, military traditions and some rules are also included in the book. In addition to all these, the Russian bureaucracy and agricultural system are also included in the book.
In our opinion, in the character Levin, in which he describes himself, Tolstoy has analyzed the issues such as the caste system, slavery and landownership that existed at that time.Additionally, he has made analyses on how to develop these issues in the dialogues and discussions of his characters with each other. As a result, although the book is mostly set in Petersburg society and balls, there are also many scenes of agriculture, farms and villages as a reality of Russia. Finally, while closing this section, it is possible to state that the subject of the novel is a mixture of love, bureaucracy, religion, military service and family life.
As you can appreciate, it is very difficult to briefly summarize a novel that is close to 1100 pages. At this point, we will talk about the main dimensions of the events as much as we can. If you are curious about the rest of the Anna Karenina novel, it is in your hands to read this fluent work that you will not want to put down while reading.
Oblonsky’s Betrayal
The novel begins with the character Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky, who is the brother of the main character Anna Karenina and a middle-level manager in the bureaucracy. Arkadyevitch cheated on his wife Princess Darya Alexandrovna Oblonsky (Dolly) with the maid of the house. Learning this, his wife Dolly decides to leave Stepan.
At this stage, there is information about the character Oblonsky in the book. Despite his quick-witted nature and his character no longer believing in marriage, his unwillingness to break up his marriage comes to the fore. At this stage, he asks for help from his sister Anna, and she travels by train to Petersburg to save her brother’s marriage. The train journey is important at this stage because they meet Vronsky, with whom she will later fall in love in a way that will cause her death, at the train station. Anna eventually talks to her brother’s wife Dolly and saves their marriage.
At this point, Karenina is also married and has a sweet son named Seryoja. This valuable work also analyzes the mother-son relationship. While reading the book, you will sometimes feel very sorry for this little boy and your eyes will fill with tears. Maybe the moment will come when you will get angry at Anna for losing her son and changing her son’s love for forbidden love. Anyway, let’s get back to the topic.
Love at First Sight
After this meeting that started at the train station, Karenina tries to get away from Count Vronsky, a high-ranking soldier, because she is married, but she has already fallen in love with him. In the process, she becomes estranged from her husband, a high-ranking bureaucrat and a very important man, and decides to leave. According to the rules and religious traditions of the period in Russia, in order for a woman to leave her husband, her husband must cheat on her and accept it. Her husband does not accept this either, and the process starts a series of painful events that will lead to Anna Karenina’s suicide.
Levin, another character in the book, is also the husband of Dolly’s brother Kitty. This character, who is identified with the author, will be the epitome of good marriage and virtue throughout the book.
Characters of the Novel
This novel, which has gone down in the history of world literature as a masterpiece with its plot, descriptions and multi-faceted approach, has fewer characters than the author’s other novels. However, as is a habit in Russian literature, the feature of addressing the same characters with more than one name is also valid in this book. In other words, do not be surprised if you sometimes read Countess Karenin and sometimes Arkanya for our main character. Anna Karenina, is a beautiful and fascinating woman for everyone.
On the other hand, our author has also added courage, truthfulness and the ability to break taboos to this woman. Following her love for her lover was a very brave move for a married woman at that time. Ultimately, she will pay the price for this move with her life. Apart from this, Karenina, who is also separated from her young son Seryoja, whom she loves more than anyone, will be ostracized from Russian society she is accustomed to as a woman who cheats on her husband and will be dragged into loneliness.
Then, she will not give up her love for Vronsky. On the other hand, our perspective to her towards the end of the novel will change. Anna, who becomes increasingly angry and jealous due to the state of mind she has fallen into and her husband’s refusal to let her go, will eventually lose Vronsky’s love and finally dies by suicide by throwing herself in front of a train. Meanwhile, the fact that another woman dies by suicide at the train station where she met him at the beginning of book is a subtle message from the author to reader.
The reader will remember this scene at the beginning of the book for a moment at the moment of Karenin’s suicide.
Levin and Kitty
As much as our main character is rebellious, the second main character, Levin, who in our opinion reflects Tolstoy’s inner world, is also calm, naive, good and a complete family man. At the beginning of the Anna Karenina novel, Levin, who is rejected by Kitty, whom he fell in love with because of Count Vronksy, later reunites with Kitty, the love of his life, and they have a happy marriage. On the other hand, as stated in the book, “A person thinks that happiness is when what he wants comes true. However, when it comes true and he is not happy, he discovers that happiness is something different.”
Our hero, who questions life throughout the novel, makes the reader ask the question “I wonder if he will take his life too?” at the end of the book and scares the reader. At this point, the author has a surprise for us and, although he has difficulty naming exactly what happened by choosing to fight instead of taking his own life, he finds happiness and inner peace.
Our second hero, a landowner nobleman, will analyze and discuss with other characters about the land structure and peasants of Russia at that time throughout book. According to him, the peasants’ labour is not equal and if you do them good, they will work more efficiently. In this context, while reading novel, you will sometimes find Levin working in fields for hours with the peasants working with him.
Kitty is also a cute character who represents goodness like him. Although she thinks that she has been deceived by Count Vronsky at the beginning of the work and experiences a period of near-death illness, she later holds on to life with her love for Levin and, unlike her sister Dolly, has a happy marriage.
Alexey and Vronsky
She is also one of the main characters in this book who reminds us of goodness, morality and virtue. Her expectation from life is a peaceful marriage and being a good mother. She will achieve this towards the end of the work and give Levin a son.
Perhaps the most pitiful character in the book is Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin, who holds a high-ranking position in the Russian bureaucracy and is strictly devoted to his religion. Apart from being Anna’s husband, he is an important character in the book that symbolizes truth and conscience. The character, who realizes that his wife is cheating on him at the beginning, even gives her time to fix herself. As time passes, he cannot stand his wife’s forbidden love with Count Vronsky and experiences great losses both in his high-ranking job and in his inner world.
Alexey becomes a worse man as the Anna Karenina novel progresses and begins to be guided by the advice he receives from his surroundings. So much so that, while he accepts Anna’s divorce at one point, he later does not accept it and forbids her from seeing her son Seryoja. As a mother, he knows her love for her son, but punishes her for replacing this love with a forbidden love. Mr. Karenin, who generally portrays a moral and dutiful character throughout the novel, is not present in the novel at the end and his fate is unknown.
Main Idea of Anna Karenina
The high-ranking soldier Count Vronsky is a lively and quite striking young single man who rides horses at the beginning of the book. His mistake was to fall in love with Anna and give up everything for her.
In the later stages of the novel, not being able to marry her also affects Vronsky, and due to Anna’s jealousy crises, the fire of his love fades towards the end of the novel. Despite everything, our hero, who loved Countess Karenina very much, returns to the army after her suicide and volunteers to join the Serbian war. We do not know his fate after this point.
Anna Karenina, whose characters are generally like this, is a masterpiece that sometimes draws you into the Russia of the period and wonderfully reflects the spiritual world of each character. This book, which you will not get bored while reading and will not understand how time passes, will offer you a great reading pleasure with its detailed descriptions and character analyses. We recommend that you keep the characters and other names in mind before reading the book.
