Anna Karenina And Konstantin Levin: Similar Struggles Different Outcomes

Suicide And Meaning of Life In Anna Karenina

Hello!!!

This is Joyie and welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books!

Have you been reading anything this week?

I've just finished Anna Karenina on Friday. I personally believe in letting a story sit for a while to figure out how I feel about it. But I can already tell I loved this book, it's one of those stories that will get better with time.

I'm sure there are many layers to this novel and on my first read, I didn't even attempt to understand them all. I've decided that when reading a complex book, I'll try to digest just one idea in one read. And for me, that one idea in Anna Karenina this time was suicide, and by extension, the meaning of life.

If you haven't read Anna Karenina and would like to avoid spoilers, I'd recommend skipping this one.

Before reading Anna Karenina, I expected this book to be about… Anna Karenina because it’s literally named after her. But actually the story has another main character beside Anna– Konstantin Levin. In the story, they both contemplate killing themselves, Anna actually does it, but Levin doesn't.

Anna and Levin are somewhat opposites in the story. Anna starts good and ends bad, Levin starts bad and ends good. Throughout the story Anna gives up her family and Levin builds up his family.

They are also similar, they both seek more from life than the average person around them. But the difference is that they take very different approaches. Anna’s focus is mostly outwards, towards the material world. She's about appearance and indulgence, also she herself is extremely beautiful. Levin on the contrary, is mostly focused inwards, towards the spiritual world. He's about asking questions and philosophising, also, he's hardly a good-looking man.

The two of them don't meet until very late in the story and when they do, Anna tries to use her charms on Levin, and Levin is attracted towards her. However, once she is out of sight, he comes clean about it to his wife Kitty, and that's pretty much it, he never again stops to think about her.

To me that felt like a call back to a later part of the story, after Anna has died, where Levin has already found a spiritual enlightenment and expects it to magically transform his life, only to find that the physical world still affects him with its nuisances. Despite that, he finds it doesn't diminish his inner spiritual integrity.

I think the story tried to imply that Anna, despite her irresistible physical allure, cannot damage Levin’s almost spiritual bond with Kitty.

Levin contemplates suicide because he struggles to find meaning in a life that is doomed to end, but finds peace in spirituality. His family, his wife and son play an important role in his journey towards spirituality. And he lives on, with them. Anna lives her life seeking personal pleasure, for which she gives up her family, her husband and son. But in the end, as her passion with her lover starts to cool off and her perfect, indulgent life of unmixed happiness starts to fall apart, she is unable to bear that disillusionment and ultimately kills herself in an impulsive decision.

I interpreted it as finding his spirituality is what saves Levin despite him contemplating suicide, and focusing only on the material physical world is what fails to save Anna.

What about you? Have you read Anna Karenina? What do you think of Levin and Anna's opposite outcomes in the story? I'd love to hear about it!!!

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That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.

Until then,

Joyie 🌻