Nicko A.

Concepcion III-BEE

Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy

THE NOTION OF LOVE AND HAPPINESS (Deconstruction)

You cant ask why about love. - Count Vronsky.
Love. It could be the central moving mechanism of Leo Tolstoys Anna Karenina. But this Love has
come into many forms from different persons, depicting its complexity.

That was shameful, disgraceful. But it was not love. It was the animal in man not the soul.
Anna to Dolly
So, this is love. Anna with Count Vronsky, while consuming their love
These two statements from Anna portray a contradicting definition of what love really is.
ADULTERY (Moral-Philosophical approach)
When he was caught having an extra-marital affair with the governess, Stiva called Anna to help
him persuade his wife Dolly to forgive him. Anna asked for permission from Karenin and his response
highlights one moral implication of the novel Adultery is a sin.
I am to be deprived of my wife so that adultery may be forgiven?
Karenins response is a rhetorical question obviously posing a moral statement, that adultery is a
sin. His response also depicts his apparent stiff, upright and righteous character and his moralistic view of
marriage. that we are bound together by God, and this bond can only be broken by a crime against
God. At this point in the story,
That was shameful, disgraceful. But it was not love. It was the animal in man not the soul. Anna
The root of this sin was justified by Tolstoy thru Annas statement. Maybe, Tolstoy wants to expose the
fragility of man, capable of doing evil, of traversing the social norm. This is what Jungian psychology
(also a literary theory) call the Shadow, the dark side of human nature. Later in the story, the animal in
man takes over Anna, driving her to defy the norm, and even flaunt her defiance and transgression. But it
was love, ecstasy and lust.
Anyway, someone might be watching (Anna looks around. Then looks up to the sky)
But Anna is aware of the rules. She knows what is right. But still chooses to succumb to her love with
Vronsky.
SOCIAL CLASS - Marxist Literary Theory
Kitty is of the Heavens, an angel. And I am of earth. Levin
It is indecent.
It is a torment to me that Ive brought you under the same roof as this unfortunate as this
fallen and in your precious delicate condition
 The above extract from the movie implies the underlying unwritten rule of society: the lower
class should not marry the upper-class. But Princess Kitty didnt mind at all and traversed the rule
drawing power from her love she shares with Levin.
Meanwhile, the high social class displays power
STRUCTURE - Russian Formalism
Foreshadowing

On Adultery
Alexei, do you think nine years of marriage and children should count for nothing against an
infatuation?
No. Very well. But sin has a price, you may be sure of that.

On Annas death
The death of the oil-soaked man under the train is parallel to Annas suicide. Moreover, these
deaths are somehow parallel to Leo Tolstoys death in a train station (Biographical approach). When he
was past 80 years old, he got tired of his wife, ran away in the freezing winter breeze, caught pneumonia
and died.
Paradox

Murderer of Happiness
Happiness? You murdered my happiness. Murderer. Go on. Murderer.
In Annas statement is reflected again a philosophical statement of Hedonism, i.e. as long as it
brings pleasure, it is just right. What or who could be that happiness she was talking about, I think that
was Serozha, Annas son.