Anna Karenina on the road to suicide

Anna begins as a confident, intelligent, empathetic beauty – a paragon of all things good. Eve before ‘The Fall’. The only blemish in her life is the millstone of an older and unresponsive husband, married to his government job. Handsome Vronsky assiduously seduces her and - like brother, like sister - she is ensnared in marital infidelity. Stiva indulges with gay whimsy, whereas, Anna cuckolds cold Karenin after much heartache and soul searching, making a considered and enduring commitment to Vronsky.

Though a disgraced woman, Anna long retains her grace and integrity, and is blest with a devoted lover in Vronsky. Increasingly, jealousy and suspicion begin to erode her poise because the guilt she feels, over her lost son and husband, is heightened by her social isolation. She is cool towards her young daughter. By the time she suicides under a train, Anna the opium addict, is a shadow of the woman, who rescued Stiva and Dolly’s marriage. The wages of sin is death. Less spectacularly, Stiva’s marriage has sustained lasting wounds from his random infidelities, although, considering the extenuating circumstances around Anna’s unfaithfulness, divine retribution seems tempered for the male adulterer.

Levin and Kitty, by contrast, will be faithful unto death…surely so, now that the despairing Vronsky - heading to death in battle - has removed himself from Kitty’s reach for the second time. Ensconced in marital bliss, honest Levin is blessed with a vision of the sacred.

Have I understood the novel?

I think that Anna's major problem was her drug habit. It rendered her hopeless and helpless. Sure she turned to drugs to deal with her issues but had she not turned to drugs the ending might well have been much different.

I think that you have great understanding of this novel

I’m remiss in forgetting the impact of Anna's drug habit on her fall from grace – from Eden to Gehenna. Without opium, her road to suicide is scarcely plausible.

But I doubt the moralistic Tolstoy would consider drug addiction “Anna’s major problem”. Drug addition in Tolstoy’s day was not the vice we perceive it to be today: for major vices, look no further than infidelity, adultery, separation and divorce.

I agree Gladys. Ithink that Anna was a little unstable fromt the begining of the book eg. At the start of the novel Anna is talking to her husband but she is not listening to what he is saying she is reading his face and getting it completely wrong. This trend gets worse as the novel progresses. I have to agree that the drug problem would not have helped but I am not sure that it was the main factor in her demise.

Yes, you did understand the novel.

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Originally Posted by Gladys

She is cool towards her young daughter.

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You probably wanted to say cold, but also; maybe you didn't...She cared for little Anna, but Anna was with her all the time, and son Seryozha was far far away from her so it was normal for a mother to constantly seek for her lost child (like that story in the Bible). Every mother seems always to like more the sick and the lost child then the others one.

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Originally Posted by Gladys

By the time she suicides under a train, Anna the opium addict, is a shadow of the woman, who rescued Stiva and Dolly’s marriage. The wages of sin is death. Less spectacularly, Stiva’s marriage has sustained lasting wounds from his random infidelities, although, considering the extenuating circumstances around Anna’s unfaithfulness, divine retribution seems tempered for the male adulterer.

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I think that was the problem Tolstoy wanted us to see - how did society act to Stiva's actions and how did react in Anna's case. Two same situations with two totally different reactions. Stiva didn't felt any consequences but on the other side; Anna was judged, abandoned, thrown out of her house and away from kids. She couldn't deal with that anymore and she saw death as only and ultimate solution.

Without a doubt Anna has to be one of the most enigmatic heroines in fiction and her suicide is totally incomprehensible. I do not mean that her suicide is not plausible within the plot but given that Anna is sufficiently worldly and educated that one would have thought she should have been able to have rejected suicide as a viable option.

As an example she envies her best friend Betsy who seems to be able to thrive in her adultery but still retain her position in Petersburg high society. But what has Anna to complain about? She confesses her adultery crudely to her husband, Karenin who has his own self esteem problems, such that he was prepared to give her carte blanche to Anna for her adultery. All he asked was not to entertain Vronsky in their home.

When she could not even abide by this sole stipulation, Karenin prepared to take the drastic step (drastic that is to the society of the time) to seek a divorce by trial. Thanks to her brother Stiva, Karenin was dissuaded and allowed Anna to leave and start an independent new life with her lover. The only drawback was that custody of their son Seryozha would be to Karenin something even Anna realized was his right.


Then we have the night at the opera where Anna was snubbed by Mme Kartasov. Yes it was unpleasant but should Anna be surprised? She already was cognizant that her friend Betsy was not prepared to see her socially. The only female prepared to meet her unconditionally was Dolly but even she, although loving her sister-in-law unconditionally was not comfortable in her society.

My bottom line point is that Anna “made her bed” but I guess she was not prepared to lie in it.

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Originally Posted by tkutsaar

I do not mean that her suicide is not plausible within the plot but given that Anna is sufficiently worldly and educated that one would have thought she should have been able to have rejected suicide as a viable option.

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I would have thought that Anna should have been able to reject nagging, jealousy and opium addiction as viable options, given the angelic young woman - overflowing with poise and maturity – that we meet prior to her adultery with Vronsky. Is love, or infatuation, really such a powerful force?

I know I'm late to the party, but I want to make a contribution.

At the beginning Anna behaves in a confident and mature way, but I got the impression that there is more to her than that. Even at the beginning of the book, someone, I don't remember who exactly, but I think it was Kitty, notices there is sadness in her eyes. She is a troubled person who finally finds her love and happiness. She struggles between doing what is 'right' and following her heart and I think her integrity is her downfall. She cannot live a life full of lies. She cannot cheat on her husband endlessly like Betsy. Of course her inability to live in falsity is punished by the society she lives in. People despise her, because she is honest with herself and choose not to pretend that she is a wife of a man whom she doesn't love. Anna knows she is despised and negative feelings start to consume her, she starts to despise the hypocritical world that casts her off.

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I think that was the problem Tolstoy wanted us to see - how did society act to Stiva's actions and how did react in Anna's case. Two same situations with two totally different reactions. Stiva didn't felt any consequences but on the other side; Anna was judged, abandoned, thrown out of her house and away from kids. She couldn't deal with that anymore and she saw death as only and ultimate solution.

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I couldn't agree more. The double standards and hypocrisy of society are clear.

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Originally Posted by Aylinn

I know I'm late to the party, but I want to make a contribution.

At the beginning Anna behaves in a confident and mature way, but I got the impression that there is more to her than that. Even at the beginning of the book, someone, I don't remember who exactly, but I think it was Kitty, notices there is sadness in her eyes. She is a troubled person who finally finds her love and happiness.

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It doesn't really make sense to pin Anna's downfall on any particular decision she makes, or any single aspect of her personality.

Her destiny can be summed up in one phrase: she was born under an unlucky star. The same is true of Prince Andrei in "War and Peace", who, unlike Anna, does nothing wrong by any standards, society's or his own. He's a kind, honest and honourable man who inherits an atavistic sadness from his ancestors. Anna, like Prince Andrei, is an "old soul": she seems to carry the burden of an ancient feeling of guilt, and ends up acting out her guilt by absconding with Vronsky. As Salman Rushdie said, "Life teaches us who we are."

You meet people like Anna and Andrei in real life, who, while seeming to have everything, never manage to get it together - something in them feels they don't deserve happiness, or is subconsciously convinced that happiness is an impossible dream.

There is an almost mystical dimension to Anna's story. Remember the terrible premonition she has of being on a railway line while a peasant navvy mutters something? There is above all a sense of inevitability about Anna's fate that transcends rational analysis. This isn't a cop-out by Tolstoy: he is showing how life is, not how reductionist psychology tells us it is.

The first time I read Anna Karenina I felt empathy for Anna, and resentment toward Vronsky. The second time I read it (not too long ago), I felt more empathy with Vronsky and much less so with Anna. She makes some really stupid decisions, in my opinion, and is utterly led by emotions, and not logic. She suffocates Vronsky to the degree that he distances himself from her, and she treats her husband (for all his faults) quite unfairly. While I still felt pity for Anna this time around, I am inclined to agree with tkusaar that she was mainly responsible for what happened to her, and yet she was not strong enough to bear the burden (or the cross, if we want to go with the Christian symbolism).

Or perhaps her suicide is the ultimate exertion of her free will... and a slap in the face to the rest of society. Possibly her last, and most dramatic, attempt to rebel against the norms and constraints of the society she lived in.

If we think of her tragic end in these terms, then perhaps Anna did stay true to her character and was courageous until the very end. Though that depends on whether it takes more courage to live or to die.

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Originally Posted by FranzS

You meet people like Anna and Andrei in real life, who, while seeming to have everything, never manage to get it together - something in them feels they don't deserve happiness, or is subconsciously convinced that happiness is an impossible dream.

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I agree that it is the case with Andrei but Anna's situation is completely different. Her unhappiness first and foremost stems form separation from Seryozha. I think that if she at least had the boy, she would be much happier and would not give up on her life. Of course, the fact that society shunned her didn't help her at all.

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Originally Posted by PoeticPassions

Or perhaps her suicide is the ultimate exertion of her free will... and a slap in the face to the rest of society. Possibly her last, and most dramatic, attempt to rebel against the norms and constraints of the society she lived in.

If we think of her tragic end in these terms, then perhaps Anna did stay true to her character and was courageous until the very end. Though that depends on whether it takes more courage to live or to die.

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Anna a courageous rebel? In the beginning this seems true but, towards the end, her "noble" character seems to have thoroughly disintegrated.

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Originally Posted by FranzS

You meet people like Anna and Andrei in real life, who, while seeming to have everything, never manage to get it together - something in them feels they don't deserve happiness, or is subconsciously convinced that happiness is an impossible dream.

There is an almost mystical dimension to Anna's story. Remember the terrible premonition she has of being on a railway line while a peasant navvy mutters something? There is above all a sense of inevitability about Anna's fate that transcends rational analysis.

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It's an interesting idea. Anna remorseless fall from grace seem to lack a matter-of-fact psychological explanation. Perhaps she does have a mystical desire for self destruction. By contrast, Vronsky's behaviour is always coherent.

Anna is very fatalistic. When Vronsky tells Anna he loves her, she knows it is the end.