"Anna Karenina" is a novel with a modern theme, the main theme of which is Anna's betrayal of marital fidelity, because of which she is rejected by society and ends her life in an extremely tragic way. In parallel with her own destiny, we observe her destructive relationship with Vronsky and the love story of Levin and Kitty, based on unselfishness.

The plot takes place in the 70s of the 19th century in Russia, and, despite the fact that the characters of the novel live in the same place, their destinies do not depend on each other.

One of the main issues raised in the novel is the acceptable and unacceptable behavior of men and women in society, which is why the novel is often compared to Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Both novels touch on the same themes, and one of them is the unfortunate fate of a woman who has found happiness, but is condemned by society.

Tolstoy, like Flaubert, uses a narrator in the novel who knows everything, comments on events and is an intermediary between characters and readers.

The novel consists of several storylines, where each family plays an important role for the whole plot. Among other things, Tolstoy touches on topics conventionally divided into happiness-sadness, wealth-poverty.

The themes mentioned above are most relevant to the two characters most opposed to each other in the novel. Anna symbolizes high society and wealth, while Levin is modest and strives for a peaceful family life.

In addition to the parallelism of the storylines, the structure of the novel can also be represented as a ring. First of all, this is reflected in the relationships and constant contradictions of the characters (Levin, who is in love with Kitty, who loves Vronsky, who, in turn, likes Anna).

The novel ends with the same question as at the beginning - the theme of adultery. Despite the fact that there is a plot in Anna Karenina, the question remains open.

At the end of the novel, the differences between Anna and Levin become less and less, and the unselfish and pure love of Levin and Kitty (unlike Anna and Vronsky) runs into difficulties. The end of the novel touches on the actual theme of the existence of a happy family.

“Anna Karenina” is a very controversial novel, as it speaks of hypocrisy and a society that is biased and condemns any betrayal in marriage, even if the marriage exists only formally, and there has been nothing between the spouses for a long time.

Genre: novel

Time: 70s 19th century

Location of events: Russia

Anna Karenina retelling

The novel begins with Anna's arrival at the house of her brother, Stiva Oblonsky. Steve's wife - Kitty's sister, Dolly, finds out about her husband's infidelity, and the family collapses. Stiva is waiting for Anna's arrival as his salvation. Anna convinces Dolly to forgive her husband.

Anna has a high status in society. She is charming, sociable, loved by everyone. She loves her nephews and son very much and skillfully resolves conflicts that arise.

Levin is a poor landowner who is in love with the wealthy Princess Kitty, who, in turn, hopes for an engagement with Count Vronsky. Disappointed by her refusal, he travels to Moscow to devote himself to his work.

Vronsky meets Kitty, but, to her dismay, he is not at all interested in marriage. At the ball, he fell in love with Anna, which drove Kitty to despair. The doctors suggested that Kitty's parents take her abroad, and they set off on a journey.

In Germany, Kitty recovered, forgot about Vronsky and found new friends. Upon her return, she accepts Levin's second proposal and they marry. Despite Levin's jealousy and insecurity, they are happily married. Kitty takes very compassionate care of Levin's dying brother Nikolai.

In the future, Kitty has a son, which makes her even happier, while Levin tries to find himself even after the wedding. He finds salvation in religion, but deep down he feels that only Kitty can support him.

The relationship between Anna and Vronsky is completely opposite. Anna is married to Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, who holds a high position in the ministry. Her relationship with her husband is completely insensitive, as Anna is suppressed by his rationality and coldness.

After Vronsky's declaration of love, Anna tries to hide and leave, but Vronsky follows her, and they meet almost daily. According to rumors, Anna's husband also finds out about this. He asks Anna to keep her relationship a secret in order to avoid a public scandal, but she does not listen to him at all.

Soon Anna becomes pregnant from Vronsky and tells him this news before the races. The shock of the news leads to an accident. Seeing this, Anna is no longer able to restrain her feelings.

On the way home, Anna openly confesses her infidelity to her husband, but he refuses to give her a divorce. He forbids Vronsky and Anna to meet in their house. Months of suffering pass while Vronsky persuades Anna to leave her husband. After the birth of a girl, she begs her husband for forgiveness. He again accepts her and the newborn daughter. This news shocks Vronsky so much that he tries to shoot himself.

In the end, Anna nevertheless decides to leave with Vronsky. She takes her daughter, but her husband forbids her to take her beloved son with her. Vronsky and Anna leave for Italy and are happy for a while, but over time, Anna misses her son more and more, which forces her to return to Russia. Accompanied by Vronsky, she drives up to the house, where she learns that her son has been informed of her death.

In high society, Anna is no longer successful. Despite the fact that Vronsky has become more influential thanks to her, they go to his estate in the village.

Vronsky realizes that his daughter bears the surname Karenina, and again asks Anna to divorce her husband. He thinks more and more about his career and the life he sacrificed for Anna. She is increasingly jealous and yearns to regain her former life and status in society. Over time, she becomes even more hysterical and begins to take morphine. In a deep depression, she throws herself under a passing train. Vronsky, unable to remain in this society any longer and survive her death, voluntarily leaves for the front in Serbia.

In the novel, we see two completely different types of relationships. Kitty and Levin's love is built on trust, while Anna and Vronsky's tumultuous relationship is built on selfishness and a sense of ownership. Anna was rejected by society due to infidelity (at the time, infidelity was not considered a serious mistake, but nevertheless it was preferable to keep it secret). But Anna could not and did not want to pretend and hide her feelings for Vronsky, as a result of which pressure from society forced her to commit suicide.

Main characters: Anna Karenina, Vronsky, Levin, Kitty

Character Analysis

Anna Arkadievna Karenina is the main character of the novel. She is an intelligent, smart, beautiful woman who let her feelings take over the mind. Showing us her “weakness”, Tolstoy asks the question whether she is really to blame and whether it is fair to blame a person for his feelings.

At that moment, when Anna fell in love with Vronsky, she was well aware of her exclusion from high society and complete condemnation. No one would take into account whether she was happily married or not. However, in her opinion, nothing could compare with true love.

Despite the fact that society could not accept her feelings, she was not going to hide them or pretend to be faithful to her husband. This shows that she behaved more morally than other women, as she took full responsibility for her actions without false pretense in an attempt to maintain her status.

Tolstoy describes Anna as a person with a strong character, who is very difficult to judge because of her principles. She really stands out among the crowd of hypocritical people. The decision to leave her husband for the sake of Vronsky looks quite natural and humane. That is why Anna is perceived as a heroine, and not a moral criminal.

Over time, the situation changes, feelings are replaced by jealousy and doubts. Anna becomes more nervous and selfish, she is tormented by remorse. It can be concluded that her death was provoked by her own moral anguish, and not by pressure from society.

Levin- a landowner, described at the beginning as a person with a strong character like Anna, confident that the meaning of a person's life is his own happiness. He thinks so until he meets Kitty. After the wedding, he realizes that this is not always enough to make life meaningful.

His simplicity and slight conservatism bring Kitty security and peace, but there is no romantic passion in their feelings that Kitty once felt for Vronsky.

Vronsky- a young handsome officer who lives a carefree life before meeting Anna. According to the plot of the novel, he turns from an irresponsible person into someone who is able to do everything for the sake of his beloved and even takes responsibility for the child. But nothing lasts forever, and when he and Anna face difficulties, Vronsky, despite his love, begins to regret his lost career.

Despite the fact that there is no direct connection between Vronsky and Anna's suicide, it cannot be said that he had nothing to do with this tragedy. He did not keep his promise to Anna, and this happened as a result of the desire to be an ordinary person. While Vronsky tried to be himself, Anna became more and more convinced that she had become a burden for him.

Kitty- a princess from Moscow, in love with Vronsky. Her father does not approve of her feelings, considering Levin a more suitable candidate. However, at first Kitty refuses Levin, waiting for an offer from Vronsky.

Rejected by Vronsky, Kitty regrets her refusal to Levin. After spending some time abroad, she becomes stronger mentally. Her marriage to Levin is strong and stable.

Kitty's chastity could not be compared with Anna, who charmed Vronsky. Kitty is destined to become a faithful wife, while Anna strives to achieve something more in life.

Leo Tolstoy biography

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a Russian writer who was born in 1828. He is one of the great realist writers of his time. The son of a landowner, Tolstoy was orphaned at the age of 9 and was educated mainly by teachers from France and Germany.

At the age of 16, Tolstoy entered Kazan University, but quickly became disillusioned with his studies and was expelled. After a fruitless attempt to improve the life of the serfs on his estate, he travels to Moscow, where he enters high society.

In 1851 Tolstoy joined his brother's regiment in the Caucasus, where he first met the Cossacks. Further, he describes their life and way of life with sincere sympathy in the novel Cossacks, published in 1863. Also during his service, Tolstoy completes two autobiographical novels, which suddenly receive wide publicity and approval.

Back in St. Petersburg, Tolstoy promotes education for the peasants by opening a local elementary school.

In 1862 he marries Sofya Andreevna Bers from a Moscow secular family. Over the next 15 years, he had a large family with 19 children. At the same time he published two of his most famous novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877).

In the impartial novel "Confession" Tolstoy describes his spiritual excitement and begins a long journey to moral and social peace. In his opinion, it lies in two principles of the Gospel: love for all people and resistance to the temptation of the devil. Living in autocratic Russia, Tolstoy fearlessly criticizes social inequality and the unquestioning authority of the state and church. His didactic essays, translated into many languages, won the hearts of people in many countries from all walks of life, many came to him in Russia seeking advice.

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is a novel that can be called autobiographical, as it is based on the childhood of ...

If I've written on this topic before, it's more about what I didn't like about this storyline in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (it blew up to the main point, Levin is too idealized even compared to Pierre Bezukhov). Now I want to write about what I like about this line. And positive emotions, of course, more than the desire to find fault.

The Shcherbatsky-Levin line is my favorite in the novel, for the sake of it I re-read Anna Karenina many times, perceiving the other pair of characters (Anna and Vronsky) with much less interest. Ideally, I would prefer that the novel was not about them at all. And the film would have been made about another couple (Kitty and Levin).

Is it the same for other readers? Everyone has their own way. I, like, apparently, Tolstoy, are attracted to relationships that are not based on pure physiology, that do not put wild passion at the forefront, although no one denies its existence and the right to describe it. Perhaps filmmakers are more interested in this - erotica in one form or another has always been in vogue, it will provide box office receipts. And the study of spiritual depths and metaphysics may not provide these fees. I haven't watched the last film adaptation yet and I'm not writing at all in connection with it.

But one thing is obvious: screenwriters in the cinema do not pay due attention to it - either this line exists, but fragmentarily, sporadically, or it does not exist at all. And why? Tolstoy himself clearly gave preference to the relationship between Kitty and Levin, wrote about them with pleasure, savored other moments.

Kitty is an ordinary girl, whose charm lies precisely in the fact that she does not pretend to anything, does not consider herself the crown of creation (and the author does not impose her as such on readers). But this "ordinary" is described with such love that it is difficult to remain indifferent to it - in my opinion. And this attachment arises naturally, not on someone's orders. You can look into it with pleasure - and see the nuances that endlessly touched Levin, who partly lost his naive, bright, integral perception of life and longed for the illusions that he had lost. In it, he loves himself young. The "poetic" that he saw in the young princess Shcherbatskaya is the poetry of his own vision of life, which she helps him to resurrect and renew.

It is difficult to say how their relationship would have evolved if Vronsky had not appeared on the horizon. Beautiful, self-confident, calm. A brilliant secular shell that hides (in my opinion) - not emptiness (this is probably too much), but ... emptiness. Before the affair with Anna Karenina, he was just that. I would say that experiences of such strength did him good, he developed the ability to sympathize, to understand that you can’t play with the feelings of other people ... how he calmly played with Kitty, knowing full well that he was deceiving her, thus having fun.

It was not a coldness towards Kitty (he had no feelings for her, and there was nothing to cool down there), but a conscious deceit - that's what meanness is. But he didn’t do it out of malice, he just sincerely did not understand what love is, never experiencing any strong sensations. The very first feeling for a woman caught him by surprise - he did not know what to do with it. And in the end he gave up his whole former life, because he could not do otherwise and even tried to shoot himself. Thanks to suffering, he turned from a dandy into a martyr. Has Anna changed for the better? Here she is, no. This feeling destroyed her.

If we contrast two types of love, which are called "love-death" or "love-salvation", then for Anna it was love-death. And not because she was married. (What claims can be made against Karenin, except that he is not handsome? Suddenly, “the ears are not the same” - this, in my opinion, is not an insight, but some kind of sign that she suddenly became stupid and began to attach universal significance to trifles Not to mention the fact that Karenin did not stuff herself into her husband and never imposed himself, as Soames Forsythe imposed on Irene - it was for her that marriage with him was very profitable, and she appreciated it in her youth.) Anna did not feel happy with Vronsky - it was a kind of black energy: arousal akin to narcotic, the agony of the heroine's former soul (peaceful, bright, whole in its own way, balanced, wise), love-illness, fever, methodical destruction of the foundations of her personality, which was multifaceted, but allowed one facets to engulf all others. Why? She fell in love with a man more stupid than herself, incapable of understanding her, but experiencing a craving for her - purely physical (and he did not understand the other). And her own inner light went out. She could not respect herself or him.

It is no coincidence that Anna did not like the word “love” itself, when he spoke about it, she felt that Vronsky did not understand its full meaning, belittling it, seeing only the physical side, as it happened with them as a result. And how jarred she was when he spoke of "happiness"! Like the hero of a dime novel, who repeats lines without really thinking about their essence. For her, it was a painful addiction, and not happiness at all. Although, for all his limitations, sympathy for him grows throughout the novel, he becomes a figure, perhaps even more tragic than Anna herself.

Of course, they had periods of relative calm in the second half of the novel, but it was more like self-deception - a subconscious desire to believe that all problems would be solved by themselves, and they only got worse. And Vronsky did not seem to understand the obvious thing: a scandalous situation for a woman can turn into social death, but no one judges a man so severely, and his position with Anna in the eyes of society is not at all the same, he loses much less and does not become a pariah. For this, Anna hated him. He broke her life, and now he can start a new life as if nothing had happened ... if he wants! Perhaps this would have been the case if the suicide had not happened (Anna knew how this would affect him, and thus destroyed all his potential plans for a happy future without her).

But enough about this couple. Kitty was carried away by this beautiful shell of Vronsky, like many girls who dream of a prince and do not understand men in real life. On an emotional, human level, she had nothing to give him - only sweet smiles, empty small talk ... she would quickly feel this psychological vacuum. Indeed, at that moment, Vronsky, having charmed another beauty, did not know further what to do with her. Here is their relationship and trampled on the spot.

In the future, this passion for the "shell" would poison her relationship with Levin. Because he could never be sure that Kitty, deep down, didn't prefer someone else. Not being handsome, Levin was worried about this, and this sore spot of his did not give him the opportunity to enjoy happiness, suspicions plagued him, they gnawed at him. And, since he had complexes because he did not meet secular standards, he behaved constrainedly, did not know how to please the nobility, had no idea how to seduce. Innocent Kitty felt his torments and secretly sympathized with them. But then she could not even suspect that Vronsky's acquired secular manner of behavior with the ladies was nothing more than a game familiar to him. And she sacredly believed in his every look, gesture, because she had never encountered deception in her life, had no idea how it happens.

And here it would be appropriate to return to the issue of raising girls in the Shcherbatsky family. Dolly, Kitty's older sister, complained that maman's upbringing made her so naive that Stiva's behavior came as a shock to her. She could not even imagine that at the time of the matchmaking, during the engagement, after the wedding, the husband could lead a double life. Kitty was kept in the same "ignorance". The father's favorite, the youngest daughter was so patronized by all members of the family that no one could have imagined what a blow awaited her. And the Shcherbatsky family turned out to be unprepared for this blow.

Prince Shcherbatsky, a clear, cheerful, direct and simple man, could not feel the insides of Vronsky in any way, he was always suspicious of him. The princess was fascinated by him - naively, like a woman. Men evaluate each other more accurately than women, and in some matters it is better to rely on their judgment. But the Princess was stubborn, she got it into her head that Vronsky was a handsome prince. And what happened (his departure after Anna Karenina) crushed her. She, of course, repented that she did not listen to her husband, did not try to warn her daughter, but deep down she believed that only Anna was to blame for everything, and Vronsky was the unfortunate victim. There is a type of people who are so fascinated by secular gloss and brilliance that they refuse to believe that there can be a lack of any inner content behind it. (FILLING for Vronsky was a feeling for Anna, otherwise he could have remained like that.)

Kitty's faith in love collapsed, she began to see the world in a black light. It was as if all human flaws suddenly became more and more clearly presented to her. The disappointments of youth are terrible precisely because of this: a person’s perception of the world around him collapses, he goes from naivety almost to ... misanthropy. Now it seems to him that everything around is deceit, bargaining. Kitty stops believing even her relatives! She suspects them of wanting to get rid of her - to find any husband they want. And she rebels against any further attempts to bring her together with someone ...

The doctor says that in such a state it is better for a sick girl not to contradict, this is fraught with serious complications for the psyche, it can end in consumption (and this is a death sentence). Kitty seems hardened, steely - but this armor is only her temporary protection. She critically looks at the relationship between husbands and wives, not seeing examples of family happiness. Her sister's marriage seems humiliating to her - Dolly endures everything and pretends not to notice her husband's betrayals. Kitty is aware of some traits of her character: pride, pride. She would never have done it herself!

That is why she always sympathized with Levin so much and "forgave" all his awkwardness and social mistakes - knowing that his self-esteem cannot be hurt. She herself now had that same aversion to the world that he had, forcing him to spend time in the country, delving into the problems of agriculture.

Kitty is gradually transforming into a person who is getting closer and closer to the ideal of a wife that was formed in Levin's imagination. But she herself does not suspect it. There was never any falsehood in Levin—this Kitty sensed unmistakably. Even in herself she sometimes felt it, only not in him!

But for all her simplicity and responsiveness, Kitty is a princess. And Varenka, the girl with whom she made friends on the waters, was born from a commoner, and then she was adopted by a rich lady. And she cannot have such freedom, spontaneity, openness ... Such a girl should know her place, and Varenka found salvation in fatalism - acceptance of life as it is, humility.

It seemed to Kitty that after Vronsky's betrayal, she would never be able to open her soul to people. And Varenka, restrained, calm, laconic, sacrificial, turned out to be the best medicine for her. Kitty fell in love with her, creating in her mind the feminine ideal she now wanted to live up to. And with her usual fervor, ready for self-abasement and creating an idol for herself, she imitates her, now dreaming not of love or marriage, but of devoting herself to charity, helping the poor, refusing personal happiness. (It must be said that these features - a modest opinion of oneself and a willingness to recognize other people as higher, better, more beautiful - are also characteristic of Levin. These are their most attractive qualities. Impulsivity, impulsiveness, emotional instability, intolerance for falsehood are also their common features.)

But a pinch of the old prince's irony is enough, and Kitty now sees her new acquaintances in a different light: it seems to her that there is pretense, posturing in these people. And she internally turns away from them. Keeping a place in your heart only for Varenka. (With what joy she will then watch the rapprochement of her beloved friend with Koznyshev, Levin's brother, whom he also considered better than himself in every respect - more balanced, mature and wise. This line will not end with anything, but the episode itself leaves a pleasant, although and sad impression.)

Kitty is no longer drawn to rebellion, she is gradually growing up - returning home, she does not dream of incredible feats, but tries to live her old life, meeting Levin, in whose soul a serious upheaval has taken place. All this time he was tormented, because after Kitty's refusal to marry him, it seemed that everything was over for him. Dolly's attempts to influence Levin only angered him more. He thought: they perceive me as a “fallback” if it didn’t work out with another gentleman. Which means that Kitty never loved him.

All this time, he still secretly tried to think over Dolly's words: what is it like for a girl who knows little about life and is poorly versed in people to decide for herself whom she prefers. No matter how modest Levin was about himself, he did not want to agree to play the role of comforter. And I could not stand coexistence with a woman who secretly sighs for another person. Couldn't be more humiliating! He tried to draw conclusions - one after another, but nothing helped ... He was selected brides, and attractive, suitable, but he did not even want to look at them.

And only the sight of Kitty - both the former and completely different ... ashamed, timid, like a repentant child ... illuminated him in a different way: he saw in her an inexperienced creature that needed guidance. And without it, it can fail. He saw himself differently - as a protector, patron ... And they simultaneously understood this without words.

They were connected not by violent passion, but by a romantic tender feeling. The very thing that transforms, makes people better, gives them strength, contributes to their inner enlightenment.

In this line, Tolstoy resorted to his own biography - acquaintance with the family of his future wife (when he did not know which of the sisters to fall in love with, and eventually settled on Sophia - it was the same with Levin when he chose from the three Shcherbatsky sisters and yet chose Kitty), an explanation with the bride in the initial letters of each word, and a lightning flash of mutual understanding when she answered his proposal with a long-awaited consent.

In the description of the pre-wedding chores, the wedding, the first months of the life of a married couple, there may also be autobiographical motives. Quarrels, mutual jealousy, reproaches - and reconciliation. The realization that they are now one being. Not only physically, in a higher sense. And Levin cannot be angry with Kitty—he understands that he is angry, as it were, with his own hand... with an inseparable part of himself.

The death of Levin's brother and help in preparing for it also brought Kitty and her husband closer. He saw that with all his intellectual baggage, he is helpless where a field of activity opens up for simple souls. Kitty makes the last days of his brother's life rich, meaningful, pleasant, joyful. And she is much less afraid of death and everything connected with it, taking it casually, as, probably, it should.

Kitty's pregnancy is a relatively calm period of their life, when they enjoyed communication with relatives, guests, and nature. Kitty was delighted to feel like an "adult", she talked on an equal footing with ladies older than herself - her own mother, sister, housekeeper. For a long time, she will be in the position of an "adult child" who builds her nest, partly playfully, at the same time, in the most serious way, wanting to assert her authority.

After the birth of his son, Levin finds himself in the position of a man for whom there are no secrets of nature left. He has not found a firm faith in God, he rushes about, realizing that the child needs spiritual guidance, but does not know how to implement it. For him, it is painful and difficult. On the one hand, he understands that he is responsible for the family, on the other hand, he suffers - a certain circle is closed. From the romanticization of the idea of ​​love and family, you need to move on to practical implementation. A child is no longer dreams and fantasies, but a reality. And she subconsciously often frightens men.

Having lost his curiosity about the processes that happen to Kitty (she became a mother), he partly loses interest in her. Both Levin and Kitty are unstable people, their moods change, their feelings are subject to extraneous influences. They know this and understand that salvation lies in holding on to each other and not giving in to any temptations. And due to their nature, new hobbies, alas, may arise.

Tolstoy does not paint an idyll, but a real picture of the life of two people with certain characteristics of temperament and psyche. At the same time, they are crystal honest with themselves and with each other. And they may not find that same honesty in other people, this is generally very rare.

Therefore, the union of Kitty and Levin, with all its internal fluctuations and tossings, apparently, will still stand. And this "changeability" will make it alive, not static, changing - however, like life itself around them.

Reviews

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The existence of Anna and Vronsky, depicted by Tolstoy, is strikingly similar in appearance to a genuine family life, but this similarity of a mirror, it is deadly, which becomes clear against the background of the image of the real family life of Levin and Kitty. "Anna-Vronsky's family" is organized by the same variations of the "familylessness" leitmotif as the original plot situation of the Oblonsky family: the motive of lies, pretense, loneliness and misunderstanding.

Real and mystical on the way of becoming

family life of Levin and Kitty

Levin's line in Anna Karenina is a memory of the happiness of the young Tolstoy family. The marriage of Levin and Kitty is presented by Tolstoy in the novel as an alternative to Anna Karenina's two unsuccessful marriages. Levin and Kitty's relationship goes through several stages and develops gradually. First, Tolstoy shows ideal, romantic love, in which Levin deifies Kitty, then the period of courtship and grooming, and, finally, wedding and family life. The writer conveys the purity and seriousness of his hero in his intentions: in Levin's dreams, his sincere feelings, Tolstoy never notes his carnal desires for the object of his love. Levin's thoughts about Kitty are very pure and lofty. All the people around them know about Levin's relationship with Kitty, everyone knows and feels the sincerity and genuineness of his feelings. The apogee of love was the scene of Levin and Kitty's explanation, highly artistically drawn by Tolstoy: Levin writes with chalk on the card table the initial letters of words denoting his thoughts, and Kitty guesses the words and their meaning with flair. Just such a declaration of love happened in the life of Lev Nikolaevich and Sofya Andreevna 1 . Showing love that awakens the brightest and noblest sides of Levin's soul, the author notes the hero's desire to be worthy of his ideal. And Levin's love reaches its peak on the wedding day. The wedding scene depicts an important moment in the "disclosure" of the event of the beginning of Levin and Kitty's life together, the participation and empathy of all those present during the religious rite of family formation. But it is precisely at the moment of happiness that Tolstoy does not forget to recall the upcoming difficulties in the family life of the bride, future wife, putting into the mouths of random people present in the church words expressing sadness and sympathy for her: “Eka, my dear, like a sheep removed! No matter how you say it, it’s a pity for our sister, ”the women said to each other with obvious regret (9, 19). Every married woman knew about the difficulties that would certainly arise immediately after the turn - the wedding, and, probably, because of Tolstoy, the entire female half perceived the church ceremony of the wedding of the young with special excitement and sadness. Feeling the general tension, trying to protect Kitty from extraneous empathy, her sister, Countess Lvova, as if defending herself, whispers to Countess Nordson: "... we are all submissive wives, this is in our breed." This characterization of Lvova contains Tolstoy's idea of ​​an ideal wife as a "submissive wife". This is exactly what all his wives from the exemplary Shcherbatsky family were like. The writer in the novel constantly emphasized that the formation of a family is a great work. And, indeed, the long-awaited family life for Levin begins with disappointment in the ideas of family happiness. “Despite the fact that Levin believed that he had the most accurate ideas about family life, he, like all men, involuntarily imagined family life only as the pleasure of love,<...>, but he<...>I forgot that she, too, had to work...” (9, 57). This delusion of Levin was close and understandable to Tolstoy himself, his diary entries are evidence of this.
September 24, 1862 was the wedding of Lev Nikolaevich and Sofya Andreevna. On this day, Tolstoy wrote in his diary “... On the day of the wedding, fear, distrust and the desire to escape. The celebration of the rite.<...>Yasnaya Polyana.<...>Night. Heavy sleep. Not she" (21, 242). September 30th. “I love her all the same, if not more…” (21, 243). October 14. “We had two more collisions<...>. I love even more and more, although other love, there were difficult moments ... Today I write because it captures the spirit, how happy I am ... ”(21, 244). October 15th. "<...>I'm getting sick of this idleness. I can't respect myself.<...>I am annoyed with everything and my life and even her ... ”(21, 244). Tolstoy constantly draws attention to the fact that the process of the initial formation of family life is complex and contradictory, because there is a merger of two family lifestyles in which the young lived before marriage. The grinding of characters, the inability at first to understand each other, caused misunderstanding and grief in the life of the young spouses. Levin was irritated by Kitty's petty preoccupation, who was trying to create comfort in the house and, as it seemed to him, was thinking only about everyday life. He saw, and did not like it, that Kitty was gradually pushing Agafya Mihailovna, the elderly housekeeper, good adviser and friend of Levin, from all duties. He did not like the fact that Kitty was changing the order in the house, which took shape over the years and was dear to him. The feeling of annoyance did not leave him even when he saw the “Shcherbatsky dominance” in his house, the establishment by the “guests” of new rules previously unknown to him. Indicative in this regard is the scene of cooking jam. Despite the fact that Tolstoy was repeatedly criticized for this scene as being far from perfect in artistic terms, for us it is interesting in displaying the moment lapping process two family structures, the Levins and the Shcherbatskys, taking place with a great strain of mental strength, both on one side and on the other. The Levin family was harvesting berries for the winter. The jam was brewed<...> according to a new method for Agafya Mikhailovna, without the addition of water. Kitty introduced this new method to their home. Agafya Mikhailovna, who carried out this work, considered "... what was done in the Levins' house could not be bad: after all, she poured water into strawberries and strawberries, arguing that it was impossible otherwise, and was convicted of this, now raspberries cooked in front of everyone ... ". Princess Shcherbatskaya, Levin's mother-in-law, present here, felt that "Agafya Mikhailovna's anger should be directed at her, as the main adviser when cooking jam, she tried to pretend that she was busy with other things ..." (9, 154). Tolstoy portrays the internal rejection of one family, what was considered the norm in another, and this just caused a feeling of dissatisfaction with each other. The interpenetration of two family systems, the blurring of the lines between them, according to Tolstoy, is one of the most painful stages in the formation of the new Levin family. It is during this initial period that the path for the further existence of the family is determined, requiring additional mental efforts and even courage on both sides. But the point was what Levin did not understand and did not see—Kitty the hostess was beginning to "make her nest" 1 . The process of Levin's transition to the status of brother-in-law and son-in-law was also not easy. Turning to his mother-in-law for Levin becomes another test: he “never called the princess maman, as sons-in-law do, and this was unpleasant for the princess. But Levin, despite the fact that he loved and respected the princess very much, could not, without desecrating his feelings for his dead mother, call her that ”(9, 159). This adaptation to the changed situation was painful not only for the newly-minted son-in-law, but also for the mother-in-law. Levin did not understand why the princess, seeing his love for Kitty, care and respect for her as Kitty's mother, attention to Dolly and her children, sighs sadly, wants to leave them under the pretext of her father-in-law's wish, "that the young should be left alone for the first time" (9, 171). And here Tolstoy explains the situation: “... no matter how good the princess was with her daughter, no matter how she felt needed here, she was painfully sad for herself and for her husband since they married their last, beloved daughter, and nest completely deserted" (9, 172). The writer pointed to the end of the life cycle of the prince and princess, who had fulfilled their main duty towards children. It was hard for them to understand, of course. What was clear and understandable for the Prince and Princess Shcherbatsky, for Levin, who was starting family life, was only to be experienced. The writer passes his married hero through many trials, and the main ones are the test of jealousy, fidelity, love. The most painful and difficult phenomenon for Levin was the jealousy that appeared in him. Jealousy, which arose spontaneously, like a disease exhausting the soul, turned for him into a violent protest against the presence in his house of a man whom he could not trust. Vassenka Veslovsky, who had come with Stiva to visit Levin, began, as was customary in secular society, to court Kitty. Levin, suspecting that something was wrong, without any ceremony kicks the sticky guest out of his house. Tolstoy showed Levin's ability and readiness to protect his wife and his home from "outside influences", which Karenin was unable to do in his family. The test of loyalty was also not easy for Levin. The new relationship that he had with Stiva took on some kind of secret hostility, "as if since they were married to sisters, there was a rivalry between them in who arranged their lives better, and now this hostility" manifested itself. openly in a conversation started by Stiva. “Don’t I see how you have placed yourself with your wife? I heard how you have a question of first importance - whether or not you will go hunting for two days. All this is good as an idyll, but this is not enough for a lifetime. A man should be independent, he has his own male interests. A man must be courageous, - said Oblonsky<…>. - So what is it? Go look after the yard girls? Levin asked. - Why not go if it's fun<...>. My wife will not be worse off from this, but I will have fun. The main thing is to keep the shrine at home. In the house, so that there was nothing. And don't tie your hands" (9, 201-202). Lewin's test of fidelity in Tolstoy has two plans and subtext. The first plan defines a direct meaning - Levin's attitude to marital fidelity. What for Stiva another fun out of the house, this is indeed Levin cannot accept it, because he does not want to deceive his wife, for him deception is a deception of himself, and Levin did not cheat on himself under any circumstances. The second plan is the rejection of the path of becoming an animal personality that wants to satisfy carnal needs. He is chosen by Stiva, who follows this path after meeting with Vronsky and Anna. Levin, on his way, strives to comprehend the meaning of life, to realize his destiny in it. He cannot step over the inner law that is in him, and therefore he is closer to the truth. However, Levin is still far from comprehending the Truth. Marrying the woman he loves, Levin understands: what disturbed his soul before marriage, did not leave her and continues to live in it: the long-awaited peace, to which he so aspired and painted all the time in his dreams, did not come. Levin's marriage did not bring harmony to his inner world. Neither the relationship with Kitty during the period of expectation of the child, nor the care for her brought Levin the proper appeasement, he continued to worry and torment the question: "Why is all this being done?" Levin tries to explain his destiny, the meaning of life on earth. love test does not make Levin happy, moreover, there is further disappointment in life. State of hopelessness, tragic expectation something constantly felt and pumped inside him. In this regard, the chapter "Death" acquires symbolic meaning - the only chapter in the novel that has a title. The writer correlates the death of Nikolai Levin in the novel with the events directly taking place in the Tolstoy family. The brothers of Lev Nikolaevich Nikolai and Dmitry, who died of tuberculosis at a young age, on the one hand, opened a tragic page in his life, on the other hand, contributed to his awareness of the most important phenomena of life. Tolstoy conveys his state of mind in connection with the death of his brother Nikolai, who died in his arms, in the scene of the death of Nikolai Levin. The writer embodied in the image of Nikolai Levin the life story of brother Dmitry and the story of the last days of brother Nikolai, thus exposing his hidden thoughts and feelings. Tolstoy describes in detail the last days of his life, in which he desperately fought for life, madly hoped for healing and passionately prayed to God. Nikolai Levin lived a sensual life, forgetting God and the Christian commandments. A disorderly, familyless life, cohabitation with a woman who had previously been in a brothel, unwillingness to maintain family relations with his siblings, approaching strangers and communicating with them did not bring happiness to Nikolai and brought grief to his brother Konstantin Levin. As a consequence of a godless life, Tolstoy shows the death of Nikolai in a dirty hotel room. Nikolai Levin did not acquire anything: neither a house, nor a wife, nor children. Sinful love with Maria Nikolaevna does not give happiness to either him or her and does not contribute to the creation of a normal family. The alienation of Maria Nikolaevna at the bedside of the dying Nikolai immediately caught the eye of Konstantin and Kitty. She is afraid to turn him over, does not know what to do and how to help him. The role of the nurse here is played by Kitty. Kitty understands her husband's brother with her heart and helps him, Nikolai is grateful to her for this. Maria Nikolaevna, despite her close relationship with Nikolai, plays only the role of a servant in this situation. And the reason here is not in the class difference, but in the lack of spiritual closeness between them. Before his death, Nicholas turns his gaze to God, asking him for salvation, but this appeal was not his inner need, but came from a selfish thirst for healing. The tragedy of Nikolai Levin is a kind of warning: such is the fate of all who turn away from God and fall under the power of feelings and false ideas. It is not by chance that this death precedes the death of Anna. In the fate of Nikolai, as in a crooked mirror, the fate of Anna is reflected. On the image of Nicholas, the writer reveals the theme of a fallen personality, unprotected by family relations. But it was the death of his brother Nikolai that became for Levin the beginning of gaining faith in God. The writer depicts the moment of addressing Him Levin, who is present at the brother's transitional line between life and death. Being at the bedside of the dying Nikolai, Levin, independently of himself, begins to pray to God, asking him to save his brother and himself. And That, whom Levin asked, heard his prayer, did not stop life, but gave its continuation by the birth of a child in his family. Tolstoy believes that the birth of a child is another milestone on Levin's path to understanding them the main question never ceases to torment him. In moments of the highest mental tension, while waiting for the birth of a child, Levin again begins to pray: “Lord, have mercy! sorry, help! - he kept repeating the words that suddenly suddenly came to his lips. And he, an unbeliever, repeated these words with more than one mouth. Now, at that moment, he knew that not only his doubts, but that impossibility of believing by reason, which he knew in himself, did not in the least prevent him from turning to God ”(9, 3). Levin understood that he had witnessed something previously unknown to him, connected with high forces, inaccessible to the understanding of an earthly person. But then, what happened to Levin at the door of the room where Kitty gave birth, and what he, without realizing it, only felt, “was similar to what happened a year ago in a hotel in a provincial town, on the deathbed of brother Nikolai. But then it was grief This there was joy. But also that sorrow and that joy were the same in unusual conditions of life, as if holes, through which it was shown something higher"(9, 358) . Tolstoy depicts the moment Levin realized the concept higher power, gives him a chance to see that place, where this power is located, each time bringing it closer and closer to the cherished goal. A. Fet, being especially friendly with Tolstoy during the period of writing the novel “Anna Karenina”, writes in a letter to him: “But what artistic impudence is the description of childbirth. After all, no one has done this since the creation of the world and will not do it. Fools will scream, but here everything is perfect. I jumped so much when I read up to two holes in the world spiritual and nirvana 1. Fet rejoices that Tolstoy was able to show these extraordinary phenomena of life and death, presented by the writer in the form of two holes that appear at the boundaries of life and death. Significance of birth new life in the Levins' house, the writer extends it to all family members. At the door of the bedroom, behind which Kitty gave birth, a mother-in-law was born from the old princess, who did not like Levin. Princess Shcherbatskaya after the appearance of the child, "seeing her son-in-law, hugged him and cried," admitting "their", and Levin, casting aside prejudices, called her for the first time "mom". But Tolstoy does not consider procreation to be the highest meaning of life: and with the advent of a child in the family, peace does not come to Levin. Levin, who expected peace of mind and inner harmony, after becoming a father, does not find them. After Levin realized the Divine presence in the existing world, he still does not recognize Christianity, does not accept those answers to questions that it gives. Kitty and Lvov and the old prince believed, but this belief did not satisfy Levin. Levin reread many books and came to the conclusion that his life was meaningless, that a state of calm in his soul would only bring death.“And a happy family man, a healthy man, Levin was close to suicide, he hid the string so as not to hang himself on it, and was afraid to walk with a gun so as not to shoot himself” (9, 456). This is how Tolstoy portrays the spiritual crisis of Levin, bearing his cross for a life without faith, for the scientific worldview that guided him on his way. The writer explains that Levin lived the way his fathers and grandfathers lived: he did the same work that they did, and inside him was some defining force which guided his activities "how to". This power inside Levin came to him from God, writes Tolstoy. The writer leads Levin to the muzhik truth of Fokanych, which the seeker of truth learns from Fyodor, the feeder of sheaves at the threshing machine. Fedor speaks of Fokanych as a righteous man who lives and remembers God in his soul. These words: "live for the soul, remember God", - lit up Levin's soul. In Levin's understanding of the Highest Divine power, Tolstoy puts his own concept of faith, which differs from the Christian one, and resolves it simply and naturally. Arguing with himself, Levin suddenly realizes that God is good, which cannot be rationally explained why it is done by people. “If good has a cause, it is no longer good, if it has consequences - a reward, it is also not good. Therefore, goodness is outside the chain of causes and effects” (9, 465). Showing the moment when Levin found the truth, the writer believes that no discovery happened, that these concepts always lived in him, guided him, were his inner judge, that he sucked them in with his mother's milk. Explaining this phenomenon, Tolstoy points out that some people comprehend these Higher laws immediately, while others live with them, are guided by them unconsciously. So from love for a woman, through many trials and disappointments, Tolstoy leads his hero to peace, to universal reconciliation, to harmony, and “peace or space means exactly consent and fret" 1 . Depicting the meeting between Levin and Anna, Tolstoy conceives it as the sound of the motive of "sin-sinner". This meeting is incapable of changing the general direction of Anna's collision towards the pole of death, because Anna takes the loveless law of the existence of secular society as the universal law of life. This meeting provides only an external plot connection between the storylines of Anna and Levin, however, both Anna and Levin solve the same question here: “And when you see the truth, what to do?” And in this regard, there are situations of "Anna's death-suicide" and "Levin's temptation of suicide", but, facing the decision of the same issue, the characters make different decisions. Anna recognizes the law of "familylessness", and for her the only way out is death. Levin, in search of the meaning of his destiny, eventually comes to God. The idea of ​​"familyness" - "familylessness", realizing an internal connection, "coupling" of all levels of the plot, gives us the opportunity to say that the novel "Anna Karenina" is built on an internal, moral-psychological and religious-philosophical conflict. The epigraph of the novel "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay" in an extremely laconic artistic form marked one of the deepest levels of the conflict underlying the novel - man and God. The moral and philosophical meaning of the epigraph and the aspect of the conflict designated by it determined the development and conjugation of collisions and storylines of the main characters of the novel. So, the violation of the Divine law by Anna leads her to a gradual oblivion of God, lovelessness, orphanhood, familylessness, and therefore to the perception of the world as a kingdom of chaos, from which there is only one salvation - death. The sin of adultery is regarded in the Bible as one of the gravest sins, followed by severe punishment. In the novel, spiritually rich, believing characters do not blame or condemn Anna for this sin. Both Dolly and Levin, and, in the end, Kitty show compassion and pity for her as for a lost soul. No man can punish himself more than he himself. Anna punishes herself, but this punishment is sent down to her from above. The measure of punishment comes only from God. Tolstoy, drawing the death of the main character, describes in detail her state of mind before death. She, like Nikolai Levin, tormented by internal dissatisfaction, jealousy and suspicion, seeks to get rid of "what worries" (9, 386). She does not seek this deliverance from God, but, on the contrary, comes to a sinful thought that is contrary to Christian morality. “Why not put out the candle when it’s disgusting to look at all this?<...> Everything is false, everything is a lie, everything is a lie, everything is evil! (9, 386-387). For a moment, life called her, but an inexorable terrible force already dragged her along, she, feeling the impossibility of a struggle, only had time to think: “Lord, forgive me everything!”. An "evil spirit" has gained the upper hand in Anna's soul, and darkness has swallowed her up. The image of Anna is the image of a woman who has forgotten God and violated the Christian commandments. Fate gave Anna the opportunity to save her soul, to reconcile with God and people, but the animal personality won in Anna, and the result was tragic. However, this tragedy has another side - social. Depicting St. Petersburg and Moscow society, creating a whole gallery of images of secular women, Tolstoy shows the failure of the moral standards of their lives, the lack of naturalness, humanity, connection with nature and all living and healthy. It is significant that in the description of the life of the families of high-ranking people there is no place for nature. The writer describes in detail and conveys the artificial life of a high-ranking elite: her behavior in luxurious dachas, resorts, waters; inventing the rules of the game of life and not allowing them to be violated. Anyone who dares to break these rules will be doomed to contempt, insult and loneliness. With such a bold, original technique, built on contrast and irony, Tolstoy reveals and reveals the vices of contemporary society: the deceitfulness of morals and opinions, the failure of the life principles of secular society. Therefore, all attempts (especially screen adaptations) to isolate only a love plot from the novel and cross out its social sounding turn out to be untenable. Tolstoy's novel is as complex and multifaceted as life itself. “We like to imagine misfortune as something concentrated,” says Tolstoy, “an accomplished fact, while misfortune is never an event, and misfortune is life, a long, unhappy life, that is, such a life in which the atmosphere of happiness remains, and happiness, – the meaning of life – are lost” 1 . These words of Tolstoy correlate with the fate of Anna. Indeed, an atmosphere of happiness surrounds Anna. But Dolly, surprised at the luxury and beauty that surrounds Anna, understands that for an outwardly happy appearance, she paid a high price. And this price is the loss of a moral, spiritual core. In the post-reform period, Dolly's family happiness easily collapses, although she is the ideal of the writer's moral woman, and Anna's family easily fell apart, despite Karenin's best efforts to at least outwardly preserve her, but she never recovered. Countess Lidia Ivanovna has no family, Liza Merkalova is unhappy. It is no coincidence that Tolstoy took the words from the Bible as an epigraph to his novel: “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.” These words are taken from the song that the Lord gave to Moses: “I have vengeance, and I have retribution when the foot is shaken and; for the day of their destruction is near, and what is prepared for them will soon come, ”this is said about those who, having forgotten God, worship other“ gods ”. Those who forget the Lord are waiting for his punishment. Everything is in the hands of the Lord, he alone punishes and forgives. "Humanity is subordinate to the Divine" - such is the late (1885) statement of Tolstoy. The idea of ​​family happiness, a happy marriage is associated with Levin and Kitty. Tolstoy emphasizes that only by joint efforts can one find family happiness, build a strong family. But the joint efforts of both spouses must be sanctified by faith in God and subject to religious moral standards. The search for the meaning of Levin's life ends with the realization of the essence of being. In his opinion, God is Good, which every person should do in the name of love for his neighbor, and the closest people for him were members of his family. Tolstoy's conclusion is this: only on a religious, moral basis can one find happiness in marriage. Love - a bright and noble feeling - is good only if the laws of Good are observed, but if these laws are violated, then Love turns into a terrible destructive force that cripples a person and makes him unhappy. L.N. Tolstoy in the novel "Anna Karenina" appeared as a person who believes in God and as a psychologist and prophet who understands the inner state of a person, as a great thinker and defender of family relationships. At the same time, he also acts as a philosopher, sociologist, reflecting the contradictions of family life as contradictions of society as a whole.

Chapter V SUBSTITUTION OF THE CONCEPTS OF THE FAMILY IN THE NOVEL

M.E. SALTYKOVA-SHCHEDRINA
"GENTLE GOLOVLEV»

5.1. The origins of the lack of spirituality of the "escheat family"

Tolstoy, Saltykov-Shchedrin and Dostoevsky almost simultaneously depicted in their novels the true signs of a serious social illness that has engulfed Russian society. The conversation about the disintegration of family relations in St. Petersburg and Moscow noble societies, begun by Tolstoy, was continued in "provincial life", which "none of the writers knew so well."<…> as Shchedrin knew it” 1 . M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, realizing the current state of affairs, predicted in the near future the complete collapse of the nobility as the basis of the monarchy. The writer puts the problems of the family of the post-reform period on a par with the global problems of society and the state. Saltykov-Shchedrin showed the reasons for the degradation of the feudal landed nobility, once a major social force, which was thrown out of the rut of "historical life order" 2 . It can be said that Saltykov-Shchedrin in the novel “Golovlevs”, having opened the “escheat” world from the inside, dealt the first crushing blow to the noble idyll, showing the ins and outs of the existence of the most intimate unit of society - the family. The Golovlevs, like Dostoevsky's Karamazovs, are far from similar to the patriarchal nobles such as the Rostovs and Bolkonskys, Oblomovs and Kirsanovs, who inhabited the "noble nests". In a draft notebook for the "Diary of a Writer" for 1876, an entry made by Dostoevsky informs: "We have no family," I recalled the words of one of our most talented satirists who told me this. S.I. Makashin, explaining this entry, argues that the words Dostoevsky remembered did not refer to a particular, but to a general phenomenon: Saltykov-Shchedrin, according to the literary critic, had in mind the collapse of the family under the onslaught of the “Kolupaev” revolution in the conditions of the bourgeois development of society 1 . At the same time, the researcher believes, there was an autobiographical subtext in the writer's words. Saltykov’s later undated note, which, according to the biographer’s assumption, dates back to the mid-eighties, stating the following: “Marriage is an ulcer and the horror of modern life,” wrote Saltykov-Shchedrin in this note, “and if I grumble at my illness , then only because it does not allow me to work and depict in all details this ulcer, with which I experienced all stages. Marriage is the death of both people and children, and it can bring only one benefit - this is to acquaint a person with the highest torment that can be experienced. All illnesses, all irritations, all failures, all stupidity, all betrayal and vulgarity - all from there. If I ever get along with myself, I will paint a picture before which all the atlases depicting venereal diseases will turn pale. The satirist did not write such a work, but sketches for it are found on many pages of his later works - in "Little Things in Life", "Tales", "Poshekhonskaya Antiquity". There are examples of Shchedrin's attempts to write a work about marriage as a tragedy for a person. So, in the fairy tale-elegy “The Adventure with Kramolnikov”, Saltykov-Shchedrin notes the tragedy of the family principle, which is not based on the foundation of harmonious, coordinated “passions-interests” (according to Fourier). Of course, Kramolnikov is not Saltykov, but a generalized presentation of 1 L.N. Tolstoy. T.72. P.416. 2 Ibid. T.64. P.15. 3 Ibid. T.72. C.8. 1 Odinokov V.G. Poetics of L.N. Tolstoy. Novosibirsk, 1978. P. 128. 1 Babaev E.G. "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy. M., 1978. P.49. 1 Ibid. 2 Odinokov V.G. Poetics of Leo Tolstoy's novels. P.129. 3 Soloviev V.S. Readings on God-manhood. Spiritual foundations of life. Minsk, 1999. P. 499. 1 Ermilov.V. Roman L.N. Tolstoy "Anna Karenina". M., 1963. P.95. 1 Shchukalin V.V. Myths of the Russian people. Yekaterinburg, 1995. P. 118. 1 Vinogradov I.I. Critical analysis of religious and philosophical views
L.N. Tolstoy. M. Knowledge, 1981. P.34. 2 Tolstoy S.M. Tolstoy and Tolstoy // Unknown Tolstoy in the archives of Russia and the USA. M., 1994. P. 460. 1 Kupreyanova E.N. "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy" // History of the Russian novel. In 2 vols. S.335. 1 Ermilov V. Roman L.N. Tolstoy "Anna Karenina". M., 1963. P.27. 1 Bilinkes Ya.G. On the work of LN Tolstoy. L., 1959. S.309. 1 New Testament. Moscow Patriarchate, 1988. S. 342. 1 Tendryakov V.F. Divine and human Leo Tolstoy // LN Tolstoy and Russian literary public thought. L., 1979. S.288. 1 Galagan G.Ya. L.N. Tolstoy. Artistic and ethical searches. L., 1981. P.135. 1 Mardov I. Vengeance and retribution // Questions of Literature, 1998. No. 6-7. P.144. 2 Tolstoy L.N. T. 45. S. 199. 1 Kupreyanova E.N. The structure and evolution of a typical character in the system of Russian and French realism; "Madame Bovary" by Flaubert and "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy // Kupreyanova E.N., Makogonenko G.P. National originality of Russian literature. L., 1976. S.351. 2 Zhurakovsky E. Spousal happiness (by Leo Tolstoy and his contemporaries). M., 1903. P.12. 3 Tolstoy L.N. T.61. pp.231-234. 1 Tolstoy in the 70s was fond of the teachings of A. Schopenhauer; See Eichenbaum B. Leo Tolstoy. Seventies. L., 1974. P.170. 2 Soloviev A.E. Does Tolstoy deny family and marriage (regarding the Kreutzer Sonata). M., 1993. S.261-269. 1 Soloviev A.E. Does Tolstoy deny family and marriage. Afterword to the Kreutzer Sonata. M., 1893. P.165. 2 Costa Solev. For what and why Tolstoy fell in love with "Darling" (new about Tolstoy's version of Chekhov's story) // Young researchers of Chekhov. M., 1998. S.298. 1 Gromeka M.S. A critical study on the novel "Anna Karenina". 6th ed. M., 1881. 1 Denisova E.I. Images of "light" and "darkness" in the novel "Anna Karenina" // Yasnaya Polyana collection. 1980. Tula, 1981. P. 103. 2 Hainadi Zoltan. On the nature of the tragic in the novel "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy: Author. dis... cand. philologist. Sciences. M., 1980. P.15. 3 Frolov I.G. On the life of death and immortality // Questions of Philosophy. No. 2. 1983. C.52-64. 4 Zhivolupova N.V. The semantic complex "Life - death - immortality" in the artistic consciousness of three Russian writers (L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, A.P. Chekhov) // Life. Death. Immortality: Mat. scientific conf. SPb., 1993. 1 Critical literature on the works of L.N. Tolstoy. M., 1903. Part 8. P.199. 2 Dostoevsky F.M. Writer's diary. 476 p. 3 Strakhov N.N. Talk about Tolstoy. M., 1883. P.103. 4 1 Dostoevsky F.M. Writer's diary. 476 p. 2 Mardov I. Vengeance and retribution // Questions of Literature. 1998. No. 6. P. 153. 1 Ibid. 2
3 Mardov I. Vengeance and retribution // Questions of Literature. 1998. No. 6. P.154. 4 Ibid. 1 Mardov I. Vengeance and retribution // Questions of Literature. 1998. No. 6. P. 155. 1 Mardov I. Vengeance and retribution // Questions of Literature. 1998. No. 6. P.158. 2 Tolstoy Museum. Correspondence between Tolstoy and Strakhov. 1870-1894. SPb., 1914. V.2. P.138. 1 Apostolov N.N. Genius life. Living Tolstoy. SPb., 1995. P. 112. 1 Correspondence L.N. Tolstoy with Strakhov. St. Petersburg, 1914. P. 83. 1 Agafya Mikhailovna (1812-1896), the former maid of Tolstoy's grandmother Pelageya Nikolaevna (from the notes of I.M. Ivakin) // Unknown Tolstoy in the archives of Russia and the USA. S. 120; Tolstoy introduces Agafya Mikhailovna into the novel as a housekeeper in Levin's house... 1 Family Chronicle. Ilya and Svetlana Tolstykh // Yasnaya Polyana 1997. No. 2.
P.137. Rafail Alekseevich Pisarev (1850-1906) became the prototype of Vasenka Veslovsky. 1 Literary heritage. T. 37-38. pp. 223-224. 1 Soloviev V.S. Readings about the God-man. Spiritual foundations of life. Minsk, 1999. P. 265. 1 Tolstoy L.N. Full coll. op. In 90 tons (Jubilee). M., 1939. T.20. P.370. 1 Gorky A.M. Quoted from an article by A.S. Bushmin "Saltykov-Shchedrin" // History of World Literature. M., 1991. T. 7. P. 99. 2 Makashin S.A. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Last years. 1875-1889. Biography. M., 1989. P.223. 1 Makashin S.A. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Last Years of Life: Biography. M., 1989. S. 420.

If you are reading this article, then you are interested in the work that Tolstoy wrote - Anna Karenina. A summary of this novel can be found below. In our busy times, people often do not have enough rest, not to mention reading books, but this time requires us to be comprehensively developed. Since many people don't have time to read long novels, they can read them in short form. In this article we present to your attention a summary of "Anna Karenina". This novel was written by Leo Tolstoy in 1878.

"Anna Karenina" is a book, the summary of which is difficult to convey. But we will try to make it as clear and accessible to the reader as possible.

There is turmoil in the Oblonskys' house in Moscow - everyone is waiting for the arrival of the owner's sister, Anna Karenina. On the eve of this very owner, Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky, was caught by his wife in treason with a governess. He feels sorry for his wife Dolly, but realizes that he no longer loves her, despite the fact that she bore him seven children, of which only five survived. On this day, Stepan has dinner with his old friend Konstantin Levin, who came to his house in order to propose to Oblonsky's sister-in-law, Kitty. But he informs him that he has a rival in the person of Alexei Vronsky. Kitty does not know whom to give preference to - Levin, with whom she is easy and free, or Vronsky, with whom she is passionate, but does not yet know that he is not going to marry her. But still she refuses Levin. Vronsky, on the other hand, meets Anna Karenina at the station and is seriously interested in her. At the ball, Kitty is waiting for him to explain himself to her, but he is completely absorbed in the conversation with Anna. Kitty is in despair. Anna returns to Petersburg, and Vronsky follows her.

Levin returns home. A young man is worried about the rejection of his beloved. Anna is disappointed in her everyday life. The company of her husband, who is much older than her and for whom she always had only respect, began to weigh on her. She begins to see only flaws in him. Even her love for Seryozha, their 8-year-old son, does not save her. Vronsky is in love with Anna and seeks her favor in every possible way. Aleksey Karenin, Anna's husband, notices the attraction of his wife and Vronsky to each other, which turns from easy flirting into something more, and sees how negatively high society reacts to this. He expresses his displeasure to his wife, but nothing can hold her back. A year after their first meeting, Vronsky and Anna become lovers. The young man persuades Anna to leave her husband and link her fate with him. But Anna cannot decide to leave her husband, despite the fact that she is expecting a child from Vronsky. Karenin sets Anna a condition that if she leaves, she will not see her son, and therefore she must maintain the appearance of a happy family life. Anna strives for Vronsky and even the conditions of her husband cannot stop the woman.

During childbirth, Anna almost dies and in a fever asks for forgiveness from her husband. She rejects Vronsky. He, humiliated, tries to shoot himself, but he is saved. Some time after the birth, despite Karenin's reverent attitude towards his daughter, he still annoys Anna. A month after her recovery, Vronsky resigns, and she leaves with him and her daughter abroad.

B meets with Kitty and realizes that she is in love with him. He proposes to her and they get married.

Anna and Vronsky are in Italy, but not everything is as good with them as at first. They get bored. Upon her return, Anna clearly feels that society has rejected her. The same thing happens with Vronsky. They begin to live in the village, on Vronsky's estate, waiting for a decision on a divorce. But there is no agreement between them. Anna feels that she loves Vronsky more and more, so she is jealous of him for everything he is interested in, even for any activity. Vronsky, on the contrary, is weary of her. In desperation, Anna throws herself under a train and dies. Vronsky is tormented by remorse. He goes to war, leaving his daughter Karenina behind. Levin and Kitty have a son.

Now that you know the summary of Anna Karenina, you may want to read this novel in its entirety or watch one of its film adaptations. They make a lasting impression. A summary of "Anna Karenina" will help you understand some aspects of the plot.

Year of writing:

1877

Reading time:

Description of the work:

One of Leo Tolstoy's most famous works is Anna Karenina, which Tolstoy wrote in 1877. Very briefly, the novel Anna Karenina tells about the sad love of Anna Karenina and officer Vronsky against the backdrop of a happy relationship between Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya.

The work is filled with philosophical reflections and conclusions, and is also replete with descriptions of the life of ordinary peasants.

We bring to your attention a summary of the novel Anna Karenina.

In the Moscow house of the Oblonskys, where "everything was mixed up" at the end of the winter of 1873, they were waiting for the owner's sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina. The reason for the family discord was that Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky was caught by his wife in treason with a governess. Thirty-four-year-old Stiva Oblonsky sincerely regrets his wife Dolly, but, being a truthful person, does not assure himself that he repents of his deed. Cheerful, kind and carefree Stiva is no longer in love with his wife, the mother of five living and two dead children, and has long been unfaithful to her.

Stiva is completely indifferent to the work he does while serving as a boss in one of the Moscow presences, and this allows him to never get carried away, not make mistakes and perfectly fulfill his duties. Friendly, condescending to human shortcomings, charming Stiva enjoys the favor of the people of his circle, subordinates, bosses and, in general, everyone with whom his life brings him. Debts and family troubles upset him, but they cannot spoil his mood enough to make him refuse to dine in a good restaurant. He is having lunch with Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin, who has arrived from the village, his peer and a friend of his youth.

Levin came to propose to the eighteen-year-old Princess Kitty Shcherbatskaya, Oblonsky's sister-in-law, with whom he had long been in love. Levin is sure that such a girl, who is above all earthly things, like Kitty, cannot love him, an ordinary landowner, without special, as he believes, talents. In addition, Oblonsky informs him that, apparently, he has a rival - a brilliant representative of the St. Petersburg "golden youth", Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky.

Kitty knows about Levin's love and feels at ease and free with him; with Vronsky, however, she experiences an incomprehensible awkwardness. But it is difficult for her to understand her own feelings, she does not know who to give preference to. Kitty does not suspect that Vronsky does not at all intend to marry her, and her dreams of a happy future with him make her refuse Levin. Meeting his mother, who has arrived from St. Petersburg, Vronsky sees Anna Arkadyevna Karenina at the station. He immediately notices the special expressiveness of Anna’s whole appearance: “It was as if an excess of something so overwhelmed her being that, against her will, it was expressed either in the brilliance of her eyes, or in a smile.” The meeting is overshadowed by a sad circumstance: the death of a station watchman under the wheels of a train, which Anna considers a bad omen.

Anna manages to persuade Dolly to forgive her husband; a fragile peace is established in the Oblonskys' house, and Anna goes to the ball together with the Oblonskys and the Shcherbatskys. At the ball, Kitty admires Anna's naturalness and grace, admires that special, poetic inner world that appears in her every movement. Kitty expects a lot from this ball: she is sure that during the mazurka Vronsky will explain himself to her. Unexpectedly, she notices how Vronsky is talking with Anna: in each of their glances, an irresistible attraction to each other is felt, each word decides their fate. Kitty leaves in despair. Anna Karenina returns home to Petersburg; Vronsky follows her.

Blaming himself alone for the failure of the matchmaking, Levin returns to the village. Before leaving, he meets with his older brother Nikolai, who lives in cheap rooms with a woman he took from a brothel. Levin loves his brother, despite his irrepressible nature, which brings a lot of trouble to himself and those around him. Seriously ill, lonely, drinking, Nikolai Levin is fascinated by the communist idea and the organization of some kind of locksmith artel; this saves him from self-contempt. A meeting with his brother exacerbates the shame and dissatisfaction with himself, which Konstantin Dmitrievich experiences after the matchmaking. He calms down only in his family estate Pokrovsky, deciding to work even harder and not allow himself luxury - which, however, had not been in his life before.

The usual life in St. Petersburg, to which Anna returns, causes her disappointment. She had never been in love with her husband, who was much older than her, and had only respect for him. Now his company becomes painful for her, she notices the slightest of his shortcomings: too big ears, the habit of cracking his fingers. Nor does her love for her eight-year-old son Seryozha save her. Anna is trying to regain her peace of mind, but she fails - mainly because Alexei Vronsky is trying to get her location in every possible way. Vronsky is in love with Anna, and his love is intensified because an affair with a lady of high society makes his position even more brilliant. Despite the fact that his whole inner life is filled with passion for Anna, outwardly Vronsky leads the usual, cheerful and pleasant life of a guards officer: with the Opera, the French theater, balls, horse races and other pleasures. But their relationship with Anna is too different in the eyes of others from easy secular flirting; strong passion causes general condemnation. Alexey Aleksandrovich Karenin notices the attitude of the world to his wife's romance with Count Vronsky and expresses his displeasure to Anna. Being a high-ranking official, “Aleksey Alexandrovich lived and worked all his life in the spheres of service, dealing with reflections of life. And every time he encountered life itself, he pulled away from it.” Now he feels himself in the position of a man standing above the abyss.

Karenin's attempts to stop his wife's irresistible desire for Vronsky, Anna's attempts to restrain herself, are unsuccessful. A year after the first meeting, she becomes Vronsky's mistress - realizing that now they are connected forever, like criminals. Vronsky is burdened by the uncertainty of relations, persuades Anna to leave her husband and join her life with him. But Anna cannot decide on a break with Karenin, and even the fact that she is expecting a child from Vronsky does not give her determination.

During the races, which are attended by all the high society, Vronsky falls from his horse Frou-Frou. Not knowing how serious the fall is, Anna expresses her despair so openly that Karenin is forced to immediately take her away. She announces to her husband about her infidelity, about disgust for him. This news produces on Alexei Alexandrovich the impression of a diseased tooth pulled out: he finally gets rid of the suffering of jealousy and leaves for Petersburg, leaving his wife at the dacha awaiting his decision. But, having gone through all the possible options for the future - a duel with Vronsky, a divorce - Karenin decides to leave everything unchanged, punishing and humiliating Anna with the requirement to observe the false appearance of family life under the threat of separation from her son. Having made this decision, Alexey Alexandrovich finds enough calmness to give himself over to reflections on the affairs of the service with his characteristic stubborn ambition. The decision of her husband causes Anna to burst into hatred for him. She considers him a soulless machine, not thinking that she has a soul and the need for love. Anna realizes that she is driven into a corner, because she is unable to exchange her current position for the position of a mistress who left her husband and son and deserves universal contempt.

The remaining uncertainty of relations is also painful for Vronsky, who in the depths of his soul loves order and has an unshakable set of rules of conduct. For the first time in his life, he does not know how to behave further, how to bring his love for Anna into line with the rules of life. In the event of a connection with her, he will be forced to retire, and this is also not easy for him: Vronsky loves regimental life, enjoys the respect of his comrades; besides, he is ambitious.

The life of three people is entangled in a web of lies. Anna's pity for her husband alternates with disgust; she cannot but meet with Vronsky, as Alexey Alexandrovitch demands. Finally, childbirth occurs, during which Anna almost dies. Lying in childbed fever, she asks for forgiveness from Alexei Alexandrovich, and at her bedside he feels pity for his wife, tender compassion and spiritual joy. Vronsky, whom Anna unconsciously rejects, experiences burning shame and humiliation. He tries to shoot himself, but is rescued.

Anna does not die, and when the softening of her soul caused by the proximity of death passes, she again begins to be burdened by her husband. Neither his decency and generosity, nor touching concern for a newborn girl does not relieve her of irritation; she hates Karenin even for his virtues. A month after her recovery, Anna goes abroad with retired Vronsky and her daughter.

Living in the countryside, Levin takes care of the estate, reads, writes a book on agriculture and undertakes various economic reorganizations that do not find approval among the peasants. The village for Levin is "a place of life, that is, joys, suffering, work." The peasants respect him, forty miles away they go to him for advice - and they strive to deceive him for their own benefit. There is no deliberateness in Levin's attitude towards the people: he considers himself a part of the people, all his interests are connected with the peasants. He admires the strength, meekness, justice of the peasants and is irritated by their carelessness, slovenliness, drunkenness, and lies. In disputes with his half-brother Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev, who came to visit, Levin proves that zemstvo activities do not benefit the peasants, because they are not based either on knowledge of their true needs, or on the personal interest of the landowners.

Levin feels his merging with nature; he even hears the growth of spring grass. In the summer, he mows with the peasants, feeling the joy of simple labor. Despite all this, he considers his life idle and dreams of changing it to a working, clean and common life. Subtle changes are constantly taking place in his soul, and Levin listens to them. At one time it seems to him that he has found peace and forgotten his dreams of family happiness. But this illusion crumbles to dust when he learns about Kitty's serious illness, and then sees her herself, going to her sister in the village. The feeling that seemed dead again takes possession of his heart, and only in love does he see an opportunity to unravel the great mystery of life.

In Moscow, at a dinner at the Oblonskys, Levin meets Kitty and realizes that she loves him. In a state of high spirits, he proposes to Kitty and receives consent. Immediately after the wedding, the young people leave for the village.

Vronsky and Anna are traveling through Italy. At first, Anna feels happy and full of the joy of life. Even the knowledge that she is separated from her son, that she has lost her honorable name and that she has become the cause of her husband's misfortune, does not overshadow her happiness. Vronsky is lovingly respectful towards her, he does everything to ensure that she is not burdened by her position. But he himself, despite his love for Anna, feels longing and grabs at everything that can give his life significance. He begins painting, but having enough taste, he knows his mediocrity and soon becomes disillusioned with this occupation.

Upon returning to St. Petersburg, Anna clearly feels her rejection: they do not want to accept her, acquaintances avoid meeting her. Insults from the world poison Vronsky's life, but, busy with her experiences, Anna does not want to notice this. On Seryozha's birthday, she secretly goes to him and, finally seeing her son, feeling his love for herself, she realizes that she cannot be happy apart from him. In despair, in irritation, she reproaches Vronsky for falling out of love with her; it costs him great efforts to calm her down, after which they leave for the village.

The first time of married life turns out to be difficult for Kitty and Levin: they hardly get used to each other, charms are replaced by disappointments, quarrels - reconciliations. Family life seems to Levin like a boat: it is pleasant to look at sliding on water, but it is very difficult to rule. Unexpectedly, Levin receives news that brother Nikolai is dying in the provincial town. He immediately goes to him; despite his protests, Kitty decides to go with him. Seeing his brother, experiencing tormenting pity for him, Levin still cannot rid himself of the fear and disgust that the nearness of death arouses in him. He is shocked that Kitty is not at all afraid of the dying man and knows how to behave with him. Levin feels that only the love of his wife saves him in these days from horror and himself.

During Kitty's pregnancy, about which Levin learns on the day of his brother's death, the family continues to live in Pokrovsky, where relatives and friends come for the summer. Levin cherishes the spiritual closeness that he has established with his wife, and is tormented by jealousy, fearing to lose this closeness.

Dolly Oblonskaya, visiting her sister, decides to visit Anna Karenina, who lives with Vronsky on his estate, not far from Pokrovsky. Dolly is struck by the changes that have taken place in Karenina, she feels the falsity of her current way of life, especially noticeable in comparison with her former liveliness and naturalness. Anna entertains guests, tries to take care of her daughter, reading, setting up a village hospital. But her main concern is to replace Vronsky with herself for everything that he left for her sake. Their relationship is becoming more and more tense, Anna is jealous of everything that he is fond of, even of the Zemstvo activities, which Vronsky is engaged in mainly in order not to lose his independence. In the fall, they move to Moscow, waiting for Karenin's decision on a divorce. But, offended in his best feelings, rejected by his wife, finding himself alone, Alexei Alexandrovich falls under the influence of the well-known spiritualist, Princess Myagkaya, who persuades him, for religious reasons, not to give the criminal wife a divorce.

In the relationship between Vronsky and Anna there is neither complete discord nor agreement. Anna accuses Vronsky of all the hardships of her position; attacks of desperate jealousy are instantly replaced by tenderness; quarrels break out every now and then. In Anna's dreams, the same nightmare is repeated: some peasant leans over her, mutters meaningless French words and does something terrible to her. After a particularly difficult quarrel, Vronsky, contrary to Anna's wishes, goes to visit his mother. In complete dismay, Anna sees her relationship with him as if by a bright light. She understands that her love is becoming more and more passionate and selfish, and Vronsky, without losing his love for her, is still weary of her and tries not to be dishonorable towards her. Trying to achieve his repentance, she follows him to the station, where she suddenly remembers the man crushed by the train on the day of their first meeting - and immediately understands what she needs to do. Anna throws herself under the train; her last vision is of a mumbling peasant. After that, “the candle, under which she read a book full of anxieties, deceptions, grief and evil, flared up with a brighter light than ever, illuminated for her everything that had previously been in darkness, crackled, began to fade and went out forever.”

Life becomes hateful for Vronsky; he is tormented by an unnecessary, but indelible remorse. He leaves as a volunteer for the war with the Turks in Serbia; Karenin takes his daughter to her.

After Kitty's birth, which became a deep spiritual shock for Levin, the family returns to the village. Levin is in painful disagreement with himself - because after the death of his brother and the birth of his son he cannot resolve for himself the most important questions: the meaning of life, the meaning of death. He feels that he is close to suicide, and is afraid to walk around with a gun so as not to shoot himself. But at the same time, Levin notices: when he does not ask himself why he lives, he feels in his soul the presence of an infallible judge, and his life becomes firm and definite. Finally, he understands that the knowledge of the laws of good, given personally to him, Levin, in the Gospel Revelation, cannot be grasped by reason and expressed in words. Now he feels himself able to put an undeniable sense of goodness into every minute of his life.

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