The Ending Of Anna Karenina Essay, Research Paper

The ending of Anna Karenina

As we saw at the end of the novel Anna Karenina, Anna ends her tragic life by throwing herself onto the tracks underneath an oncoming train, while begging God for forgiveness during that time. The way Anna’s life ended symbolized the rise and fall of her life put together into one incident that took place on the subway. Anna, who at one point was a very prominent woman in the Russian Society, now lived a sad and dreadful life of misery. By reading at the end, it became very obvious that Anna had by far reached her lowest point in life. Her social problems with Vronsky, Karenin, as well as her other surroundings leave her old and alone.

Could all of this been prevented? Sure. Could the Russian Society not have the fall that they had? Sure. However, each situation, whether it was Anna, or the Russian Society, each made choices that decided their eventual fate. In the end, the scripture “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” showed itself to be the most important quote in the novel.

Anna, just like Russia, were both equally successful. Anna was a popular woman in Society, Russia’s upper class were very wealthy and prosperous. Overtime, each made costly decisions that sent themselves into trouble. Anna had her problems with her infidelities, while the Russian Society had problems controlling how much money they spent. Eventually, Anna personality changes completely due to her looking at society in a different light and vice versa. Some members of the Russian Society, had to give up the “good” life, in exchange for a paying job to help payoff debts accumulated by sheer ignorance and a willingness to spend but not pay.

The theme of the novel was based solely on choice. The theme of choice was the starting point of the novel that built into other facets of the story. From the first few pages of the novel where Oblonsky has an infidelity with Dolly, but shows no remorse for his actions. That situation was circled around the two main marriages in the novel between Levin and Kitty, as well as Anna and Karenin. As the novel continued, we saw the Russian aristocracy throw their money completely away to the point of bankruptcy and debt. The aristocracy made their decision to continue to live the wealthy life, only worrying about “eternal presentation.” The Russian aristocracy lived a “dual” life. On one hand, parts of the aristocracy tried to present themselves as people who did not have a worry in the world and just lived life easy, where in reality, they were suffering inside with the same problems as most of the common people that lived there during that time.

Anna was the central figure in the novel, hence the title Anna Karenina. Anna’s up’s and downs were magnified due to her being that central figure that the novel focused on. From her marrige to Karenin, to infidelities with Vronsky, to the end where she throws herself onto the train, the entire focus of the novel centered around her and her life.

The importance of her fall signified the fall of Anna, as well as Russia. Russia, for the most part, took that exact same fall. It was a fitting conclusion to a novel which showed the up’s and downs

of most, if not all the characters in the novel. I agree with Tolstoy, the way the story ended was a fitting conclusion. Why change it if it were true.

Bibliography

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy-1950