The similarities between Karenin and Vronsky?

[kelby_lake]

It's no coincidence that both men are called Alexei. But did Tolstoy do this to contrast how different the two Alexeis were, or to suggest that there were similarities?

[Alexander III]

This may sound like a stupid answer, but they are so different that they become almost similar.

Vronsky on one hand is passion, he is life, he believes in honor for the sake of honor - he acts by his own interior compass not that of the world around him.

Karenin is rationality, he is not the individual but rather the faceless beuractatic mass, he does not have a sense of honor or dignity he has a sense of respect, he is guided by the world around him, he seems to have no internal nature, but is shaped by the world outside him - unlike Vronsky who shapes the world around him.

Yet these very different character sets result in two proud, independent figures who have a sense of superiority to everyone else. They both have been damaged by society. Karenin on the inside may have been beautiful ( as we seen when Anna is dying) but he was weak and so let society shape him into a machine without even a whimper of defiance. Vronsky shaped society around him and flowed with it, until it final came at odds with him, when it did he faugh to the bitter end until final he to ceaded and allowed himself turned into a lifeless being as he goes to die in a war.

[kelby_lake]

The main similarity for me is how the two men prize 'honour' and 'duty'. I agree with you that Karenin and Vronsky's definition of these concepts is very different. Vronsky believes in a chivalrous sort of honour, so he sticks by the woman he loves, though he also feels a military duty as well. Vronsky's concept of honour is not to do with social mores- it's about being a gentleman.

For Karenin, honour and duty means obeying social codes of morality and religion. When he sees Anna and Vronsky talking to each other, he doesn't notice anything strange about it- he only warns her off when he realises what other people think of it. Karenin wants Anna to do her duty as a wife, but only in the sense that she poses as his wife. She doesn't have to do any "wifely duties" (euphemism there?).