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Why does Kitty refuse Levin’s initial marriage proposal?
Although Kitty has known Levin for much of her life and has had romantic feelings for him in the past, she refuses his marriage proposal because she is currently being courted by Vronsky. Although Levin is a member of the aristocracy, and is therefore a suitable social match for Kitty, Vronsky is far wealthier, and his career and life are more glamorous. Vronsky is handsome, rich, charming, and socially relevant, while Levin spends most of his time living and working alone in the country, and sometimes comes across as rude, strange, and difficult to other people of his caste. Although Kitty’s father takes issue with Vronsky, immediately recognizing him to be an unserious man who is not interested in marriage, Kitty’s mother believes they’ve found the best possible match for their daughter. Kitty, who is young, naive, and impressionable, believes the same, and is naturally attracted to the charismatic Vronsky. Although it hurts her to refuse Levin, whom she does have feelings for, Vronsky is the logically better match. Women of Kitty’s time would commonly have considered love and affection as a secondary concern in choosing a husband, with financial and societal stability being the primary concern, considering that women were generally dependent on their husbands in these respects.
What is Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin’s career?
Karenin is a high-ranking Russian government official, which gives him a status of utmost importance. This status can be seen in the people he fraternizes with—his social circle is incredibly wealthy, much more so even than the Levins, Oblonskys, and Scherbatskys, who are all aristocrats in their own right but whose circumstances pale in comparison to Karenin and his friends. Karenin’s job title isn’t given outright, but his day-to-day generally consists of boring bureaucratic work such as writing reports and doing paperwork. We also see him give addresses and hold debates with his colleagues on how to help minority tribes in Russia. It’s clear that Karenin’s work is important and honorable, but it’s also dry and tedious. His career mirrors his personality: Karenin is driven by status and reputation, and his personality is stiff and cold.
How does Anna Karenina die?
While traveling by train to visit Vronsky, Anna becomes increasingly convinced that Vronsky no longer loves her and that death is the only solution to her problems. She remembers that, at the train station when she first met Vronsky, a man had been hit by a train and killed. This prompts her to commit suicide in the same fashion. She jumps underneath a train car and is hit by the train. In this way, the novel comes full circle, with a tragic and horrifying death by train marking both the beginning and ending of Anna and Vronsky’s affair.
Where is Vronsky going at the end of the novel?
As Anna Karenina comes to a close, Serbia is in a conflict with Turkey. At the time, many Slavic nations were ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and this conflict would eventually end the Turkish reign. Due to sharing Slavic roots and the Christian religion, many Russians sympathized with Serbia. While Russia would eventually step in as a nation, at this point in Anna Karenina and in history, the Russian government had not yet gotten involved in the conflict. However, some Russian men volunteered to fight at the front in Serbia, including Vronsky. As a trained, high-ranking military man, Vronsky volunteers to lead a troop, which his friends and family consider a heroic thing to do. However, everyone, including Vronsky, knows to some extent that his volunteering is practically a suicide attempt. He’s broken after Anna’s death and feels he has no reason to live as an individual. He wants to die and decides it’s best if he at least gives up his life for a good cause.
What happens to Anna’s children after her death?
After Anna’s death, Seryozha remains with his father Karenin, who already had custody of him prior to Anna’s death. Karenin did not allow Anna visitation rights to Seryozha, so their son’s situation remained relatively unchanged. However, Anna also had an infant daughter with Vronsky named Annie. Because Anna and Karenin never officially divorced, Karenin also takes custody of Annie after Anna’s death, despite the fact that Vronsky is her biological father. Anna is legally still Karenin’s wife at the time of her death, so any children she has are also legally considered Karenin’s property. This legality was a major concern of Vronsky’s, and one of the reasons he and Stiva pushed so extensively for a divorce – if Anna had legally married Vronsky before her death, Annie would have remained in Vronsky’s custody. Instead, he loses both his lover and his daughter at the same time.
