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Anna is a beautiful, entrancing woman, but she is
trapped in a cold, unfulfilling marriage to government minister Kerenin.
Her only joy is her young son. Then she encounters a dashing soldier,
Count Vronsky, and falls deeply in love. Tempted by the hope of true
happiness, she is soon forced to make impossible choices between her
love for Vronsky and her son, and the affair spirals out of control.
Fate offers the three protagonists fleeting glimpses of a happy
resolution, but they cannot seem to grasp them, and societal pressure
adds to their personal anguish. As Anna is consumed by despair, even her
passionate love Vronsky cannot seem to sustain her. Meanwhile, another
relationship is developing, less dramatic but equally engrossing. Levin,
and enlightened landowner, falls in love with a young girl, Kitty; but
finds that she is infatuated with Vronsky. Levin struggles, both to win
Kitty's heart, and also to find some meaning in his life. As all the
characters search for true happiness, Tolstoy reveals the double
standards that govern the acceptable behaviour of aristocratic men and
women. Controversially for the time, he shows that the only way to find
true contentment is to follow your heart. |
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