When you are younger, you are not worthy of reading famous works, because it is very likely that you will not be able to read them, and only stay on the surface of the story.
The Russian literary giant Leo Tolstoy's classic "Anna Karenina" gave Mo Sauce such a feeling: when I was young, I could only read that the novel was about a noblewoman's infidelity.
Of course, this interpretation cannot be said to be wrong, because Tolstoy himself was inspired by the news that a woman committed suicide in the orbit of a woman because of a love problem when he wrote this novel.
However, as it is written, the behavior and story development of the characters are not controlled by the author himself.
This can be seen as a logical realist creative method that faithfully expresses life, and mature writers can change the original creative intention in the middle.
When the creative intention was changed, this originally vulgar story was given a deep meaning.
Anna, the woman who cheated on her, Tolstoy instead expressed sympathy for her.
<h1 style="text-align: left;" > the setting for Anna Karenina</h1>
Anna Karenina (1873-1877) was written in the 1870s, when the old feudal landlord Russia was being hit hard by the wave of capitalism in Western Europe. As the book mentions, "Everything is turned upside down, and everything is just beginning to be established." "The main thing is that the old order of feudal aristocracy has been overthrown, and the capitalist system has sprouted.
With this great change, the social system, economic structure, customs, ideology, and so on have all been impacted. In this period of great changes in the alternation of the old and the new, what particularly attracted Tolstoy's attention was the changes in the family and the fate of women.
Tolstoy himself said that Anna Karenina was written mainly about family problems, and the book wrote about the different experiences of several different families.
The ambiguous relationship between the nobleman Oblański (Anna's brother) and the former French teacher is discovered by his wife Torrey, which triggers a family conflict, and Anna comes to help mediate the conflict, meeting Vronsky at the station to greet her mother.
Vronsky was originally pursuing Tao Li's sister Ji Di, but when he met Anna, he was dissimilar.
The nobleman Obronsky's friend, the noble landlord Levin, came from the countryside to visit him, and his real intention was to propose to Ji Di. But still obsessed with Vronsky's Gidi has no feelings for Levin.
The subsequent story focuses on Anna and Levin, which can be seen as two threads unfolding in parallel.
Anna turned her back on her husband Karenin and fell in love with Vronsky, but was ostracized by high society and eventually forced to commit suicide; and Levin, after some twists and turns, finally had a happy ending with Gidi, and the two returned to the country manor after marriage.
<h1 style="text-align: left;" > fiery love is a light on a boring marriage</h1>
Anna Karenina was born into the nobility, and married Karenin, who was twenty years older than her, according to the so-called marriage system of nobility and church, which was actually a feudal "arranged marriage". Karenin's official fortunes were smooth and smooth, and the union with Anna seemed to the upper class to be a match made in heaven.
But Karenin was vulgar in appearance, hypocritical and cold in character, and rigid in his actions. In his heart, fame and fortune are the most important, and it can even be said that it is an official machine.
Anna was angry, and after marrying Karenin, her anger was suppressed to some extent.
For eight years, a backwater marriage had made Anna think that life was not like this, love was not like this, until she met the personable aristocratic young Vronsky.
The old feudal ethics of Russia are being challenged by the emancipation of the personality and the freedom of love of the Western bourgeoisie, and it is difficult for a woman like Anna, who is rich in feelings and very individual, not to be affected.
After meeting Vronsky, Anna was inspired by her inner passion and a strong desire to pursue happy love and a new life.
At the first meeting, Anna's beauty surprised Vronsky, Anna's beauty is not only in the skin, try to see:
In that brief glance, Vronsky had noticed a suppressed anger flowing across her face, between her sparkling eyes and the slight smile that had bent her lips. It was as if there was an excess of vitality pervading her whole body, against her will, sometimes in the flashes of her eyes, sometimes in her smile. She deliberately tried to hide the brilliance in her eyes, but it flickered in a faintly recognizable smile against her will. ”
Vronsky was able to see the repressed life force in Anna, and Anna had a crush on Vronsky.
As a result, the two people naturally opened a sweet love.
<h1 style="text-align: left;"> hypocritical Karenin is the main cause of Anna's tragedy</h1>
And when Karenin learned of his wife's relationship with Vronsky, he showed his hypocritical and indifferent side even more fully. For the sake of decency, he insisted on living with Anna and pretended nothing had happened. At first, he did not agree to divorce, and he stumbled on a vain marriage; when he finally agreed to divorce, he grabbed his son and held on to it, although he did not have a lot of love for his son; Karenin, who had a green light on his head, naturally received more public support and sympathy...
It can be said that Karenin's series of operations were the main cause of Anna's tragedy.
From the perspective of religion and ethics, Anna could not restrain her feelings, blindly pursued freedom and love, and violated the "way of women", thus making her discredited and self-destructive. Tolstoy certainly believed that Anna was guilty, but his condemnation of Anna was measured, and it could be said that sympathy outweighed condemnation.
Tolstoy not only gave Anna a beautiful appearance, but also wrote about her kind character. At the station, Anna heard of the tragic death of a railway worker, and she felt pity for the family of the deceased, and Voronsky entrusted the station master to give the family of the deceased two hundred rubles, which made Anna greatly appreciate this behavior. When the brother and sister-in-law were not in harmony, she personally went to mediate, and with her ingenuity, she persuaded her sister-in-law and gave her great comfort. She also has a sincere maternal love for her son...
What Tolstoy really hated was this society, the official figures and feudal forces like Karenin, who controlled people like Anna and trampled on such a beautiful humanity as Anna. Tolstoy contrasted Anna's portrayal of Karenin as an outright hypocrite who could be said to have no merit from the outside to the inside. Thus the two of them represent two diametrically opposed categories of people.
Some people may say that the author did not completely deny Karenin, and Karenin did not completely exterminate Anna. He never forgot his duty as a husband, sent Anna living expenses on time, and felt remorse when Anna was seriously ill in childbirth, and he also spoke to Anna and Vronsky, expressing his magnanimity to them.
In fact, people are inherently complex and changeable. Karenin's multifaceted nature is precisely in line with common sense.
<h1 style="text-align: left;" > Vronsky is not a complete "new youth."</h1>
Vronsky was also responsible for prompting Anna's utter disillusionment with life.
The marriage to Karenin makes Anna unable to see the hope of life, but can Vronsky give her the love and life she wants?
To a certain extent, Vronsky did meet Anna's requirements, and his noble, young, handsome and generous side of his origins contrasted strongly with Karenin.
Vronsky was also originally a playboy, and although his pursuit of Anna was initially hedonistic and vanity, he quickly became serious and dedicated under Anna's inspiration. He sincerely loved Anna, gave up his fame, endured public opinion, quit part of the aristocratic circle, and even shot himself... Vronsky's performances were already among the best among the sons of the nobility.
But Vronsky was, after all, a man living in high society, who needed to socialize with the nobles, and who did not have a unique mind or understand Anna's spiritual world.
After Anna ran away from home, the pressure of public opinion and the worldly gaze have made her extremely depressed, coupled with the long-term departure of her beloved son, the pain of motherhood often torments her, and at this time Vronsky's love gradually fades, and Anna, who feels that she has nothing, is going to a desperate situation.
In fact, Vronsky's dilution of Anna's love is not a point of condemnation. Mo Sauce believes that his love has gradually transformed into affection, and it will probably be like this for a long time. In the end, Vronsky did not change his heart, but his love was faded, and his responsibility to Anna was greater than his passion.
(Excessive pursuit of purity often leads to narrow-mindedness.) ）
Of course, it's also true that Vronsky didn't really understand what Anna wanted.
When Anna was besieged by high society and tortured by Karenin, and it was precisely when greater comfort was needed, Vronsky not only could not empathize, but later showed boredom.
Anna, who regards love as her only spiritual pillar, cannot accept the fact that love has disappeared, so she has no way to live.
"Everything is false, everything is a lie, everything is a deception, everything is sin!" This is Anna's dying sigh.
<h1 style="text-align: left;" > underground lust, Anna was ostracized by high society</h1>
Can't tolerate Anna in high society because she cheated? Not.
In fact, Anna and Vronsky's "extramarital love", if it is only a temporary pleasure of playing on the spot, is not a big deal in the eyes of the upper class.
At that time, The Russian high society was very hypocritical and degenerate, extramarital love was everywhere, and it was even considered a fashionable and decent way of life.
Vronsky's mother was proud of her son's affair, because Karenin's identity added to her son's glory; Obronsky had an affair with a former French teacher, and no one was surprised except Oblansky's wife; Vorlensky's colleague Bitritsky was fooling around with a countess, and no one thought there was anything wrong...
The reason why the upper class united front to boycott Anna was not because of Anna's immoral extramarital affair, but because Anna brought that unspeakable love affair to the table, and even wanted to legitimize the relationship. Divorced Karenin and married Vronsky.
Everyone is secretly, you have to be public, you have to be legal.
This is the face of the upper class.
This is a violation of the taboos of high society.
Like a lone warrior in high society, Anna challenged feudal, hypocritical ethics.
<h1 style="text-align: left;"what kind of resistance is effective >?" </h1>
Although Tolstoy affirmed Anna as a warrior against feudal ethics and the hypocrisy of high society, Anna herself had certain limitations.
Excluded from the aristocratic social world, the blow to Anna is also enormous, because she will be at a loss to leave everything she has lived in...
Ethics and religious ideas invisibly bind Anna's thoughts, so she is full of internal contradictions when she breaks through the marriage relationship. She dreamed that she had two husbands, one was Vronsky and the other was Karenin...
Coupled with the fact that the spiritual pillar of love is not as strong as imagined, Anna chooses to use death to strongly protest against the so-called high society.
Karenin can be compared to another thread in the novel:
In the era of the rapid disintegration of traditional society, Levin also pursued happiness and sought the meaning of life like Anna, and after he and Ji Di married, the two chose to live in the countryside and completely withdrew from the aristocratic circle.
This, of course, is progressive, but as far as Levin himself is concerned, he is a tragedy.
So it is not difficult to understand that Levin's agricultural reforms will fail. Levin, who had withdrawn from high society, would not gain the trust of the peasants; Levin, a former aristocrat in the countryside, was not flattered on either side.
Levin's ideals of social reform were once failed and tragic, but his exploration of the spiritual world was a certain success.
As a nobleman, Levin also had a life of debauchery before marriage, and fell in love with such a pure girl as Ji Di, he was ashamed of himself, and gave all the diaries that recorded his premarital life and thoughts to his fiancée to read, and asked her to reconsider their union...
On a night of thunder and lightning, Levin attained greater epiphany: a full life through hunting and labor, the constant perfection of self-morality in nature, and spiritual peace in faith.
Levine's spiritual exploration conclusions may not be correct and universal, but his persistent exploration of the meaning of life can be seen as the male version of Anna Karenina. Of course, he had a longer-term vision than Anna.
But one was destroyed by the degenerate aristocratic class, one in the countryside, which maintained the patriarchal antiquity, in nature, gained a new life and found a certain way out.
Tolstoy's writings about family problems are linked to social reforms, and Levin's successful practice is only part of the author's thinking.
Judging others is far easier than judging herself, and Anna, who is rebellious and separated, also has a real "confidant".
The only one who really appreciates Anna's spiritual world is Levin.
Levin saw anna with the virtue of honesty, her face shining with happiness and radiating happiness to others. Therefore, many people think that Levin's perspective is Tolstoy's own perspective, and Levin's attitude towards Anna is actually Tolstoy's attitude towards Anna. Levin said what a wonderful, lovely and pitiful woman Anna was, arguably the "protagonist aura" that Tolstoy gave to Anna.
It is worth noting that more and more modern readers cannot understand Anna, and "death", "selfishness" and "neuroticism" are the evaluation labels that many people make for Anna. In fact, it is not advisable to criticize Anna Karenina out of the context of the times.
What Tolsta really accused was of the high society in which Anna lived: the affair between an unmarried man and a married woman was supposed to be a laudable affair, which had long been a well-known "secret" in high society before Anna made this extramarital affair public; and it was only because of her open pursuit of legalizing the relationship and openly challenging the fig leaf of the aristocratic class as a woman that "husband and wife followed", which caused the public indignation of high society.
After Anna's death, Tolstoy spent a great deal of ink and ink writing about Levin's ideological struggles. In fact, Anna and Levin, both explorers in the period of great change, are eager to find answers to life. However, there is no standard answer to life itself, Anna is at the end of the road, and Levin is only temporarily at peace.