Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Anna Karenina

One for all time! Long, so I'm glad you are starting in July (technically) :)
Anyone else up for this challenge? You won't be sorry!
Fritz

3 comments:

haileyford09 said...

I think it to be odd that the author's first introduction of Anna starts with her talking Dolly out of leaving her husband because he cheated. She tells Dolly that she doesn't agree with her brother, yet for Dolly to be happy and be with the children she needs to forgive and forget. Now, later on in the book Anna cheats on her husband and gets pregnant. It seems like Tolstoy protrays Anna as a very family oriented person, yet she destroys her family later.
Fyi this book is taking forever but it's really good!

haileyford09 said...

So I just got done with part 2 :) In it there is a few chapters all devoted to Vronsky's horse Frou-Frou. The way Tolstoy presents the horse in these chapters seems to symbolize his relationship with Anna. He can't tame the horse fully they way he would want and can't make the horse do everything he wants her to do. Also when the horse breaks his back i think that is a symbol of the way Vronsky has broken down Anna too, unintentionally, by getting her pregnant and disgracing her family.
It also seems like Anna's husband, Alexi, rather have Anna sneaking around behind his back then be disgraced by everyone else. After her confession of cheating he seems to not care if she is happy, sad or anything he just doesn't want the public to know about it.

haileyford09 said...

In the beginning of the novel Levin is in love with all of Dolly and Kitty's sisters, yet towards the middle, the part I'm on, Levin is no longer in love with anyone. When Levin goes to see Dolly when she is in the country is seems like Dolly has always been a princess to him but now he sees the family and Dolly differently.
It seems like Levin can now see them differently because Dolly has to deal with normal life, and her sister can be normal too, which was one of Levin's struggles with loving Kitty.

I thought Levin was done with being in love with Kitty and he seems to make a breakthrough but then Levin sees her and everything changes in an instant all over again. At the beginning of the book Dolly tells her husband that Levin and Kitty will end up getting married and now i think they will since their love is still there after a year.