Theme Of Death In Anna Karenina

In the novel Anna Karenina, written by Leo Tolstoy, the main motif is death. The people that are most connected to the symbol of death are Anna and Levin and I personally believe that that the reason why that is, specifically Levin, is due to the fact that he talks to a philosopher about suicide and death, especially life after death. He was present during the death of his brother Nikolai, an event that makes death suddenly his biggest adversary, whereas before it was merely an unstoppable force. On the other hand, Anna has been connected with death since the beginning of the book, the first being when she was present at the horrible demise of the drunk guard falling under a train. Then second when she almost dies during childbirth and the third and most tragic one being when she throws herself under the train as a result of manic depression. Levin, although a happy character, considers suicide too. The whole meaning of his existence was a question that he did not know the answer to. Even the thought of having any weapons near him were too much due to the constant tormenting he had to go through because of death. However, one can notice how death meant two different things to the two protagonists. For Anna, the main protagonist of this book, death was a way for her to escape

Every time a train is mentioned it leads to a bad meaning, for example when Anna says: “Du train que cela va” which meaning is at the rate things are going referred to the fact that Vronsky is leaving and she will never see him at all in a few years. In this phrase, the word represents a fast rate of increase of something hurtful, which is exactly how Tolstoy viewed the expansion of the lines. Anna met Vronsky in a train station when the drunk guard was tragically killed by a train and that was the sign that the affair with Vronsky would’ve brought her to death. The meeting with Vronsky reflected her death at the end of the