The last time I read a Russian novel, it was required reading in high school, so…a long time ago. Have I avoided Russian works because I was traumatized or simply bored to death? I don’t remember, but after reading Anna Karenina, probably the latter. This book took me a while to finish. For one, the tome could be used as a wheel chock, and secondly, the plot is like a Russian nesting doll but in reverse, every layer of the novel reveals an increasingly bigger tale.
Anna Karenina is a rich cultural forum, a series of linked meditations on farming and politics and religion and family and relationships and war and the meaning of life, not just about sex and romance. There is a lot to absorb and consider in this book of faith, of family, of affirmation, of belief in the land, nature, goodness, and simple human joys over pretentious society life. Yes, affirmation, in spite of Anna’s demise. The book consists of two separate yet interconnected plots. Anna’s story, with its complex emotions, social conventions coupled with women's position legally and socially, provides for the excitement and life of the entire work. Levin’s story, more or less modeled on Tolstoy's life, provides for the political, philosophical, social and religious views of the author as well as an insight to the author's life struggles.
It’s important to note that Anna Karenina is not a straightforward morality tale. Perhaps Tolstoy had intended Anna to be an ugly, vulgar old adulteress who represented Evil Womankind, and Karenin to be a model of sainted Christianity. But as the story progressed, the black-and-white moral rigidity acquired shades of grey. Anna became beautiful, then sympathetic until the bitter end. Karenin became clueless, hypocritical, desperate, and even unmanly. Vronsky no longer twisted his mustache, but became a man with a code who wanted very much to be allowed to keep that code and live a life. Morals become increasingly tangled, and we intuitively understand what makes a tragedy a tragedy. Tolstoy does not force us to make judgement. There’s a wonderful quality of generosity and empathy that runs through the whole novel: Judge not, lest ye be judged.
Posted by: Regina C.
No comments:
Post a Comment