Anna_Karenina-Indirect_Characterization

Anna Karenina: Tolstoy's Use Of Indirect Characterization Russian author, Leo Tolstoy, is famous for his novels, among them, Anna Karenina . It is said that Tolstoy reaches "unsurpassed perfection in the realistic art of the novel" with Anna Karenina . In the novel Anna Karenina , Tolstoy leads the reader through Anna Arkadyevna Karenin's life and all the people who surround her. The reader follows Anna as she sorts out a fight between her brother Stepan and his wife Dolly. Next the reader finds themselves trailing Anna as she dances away from a Moscow ball with Count Vronsky's heart. The path this novel takes then forks as the reader begins to follow Levin and his pursuit of the young and beautiful Kitty who was once a friend of Anna's before Vronsky. The story bounces back and forth between these two characters as Anna plunges into an affair with Vronsky that produces an illegitimate child, and Levin marries his true love Kitty. Anna then finds herself in a divorce resulting from her affair while Levin and Kitty are expecting their first child. The reader follows Anna and Levin through marriage, divorce, childbirth, death, heartbreak and utter happiness. In the novel Anna Karenina , the narrator gives the reader a view of various characters true natures through indirect characterization. At the beginning of the novel the reader is introduced to Stepan, Anna's brother, who has been caught having an affair with his children's French governess. Generally, human nature's first instinct is to despise a man with such poor morals. As the reader continues with the story, their opinion of Stepan cannot help but change. Tolstoy's description of this character is of a man who does not mean to put his wife through hardship, but of a man that has an extreme love of life. When Stepan is confronted by his wife Dolly, about his infidelities, Tolstoy uses indirect characterization to show Stepan's true self. "Instead of being hurt, denying, defending himself, begging for forgiveness, instead of remaining indifferent even . . . his face utterly involuntary assumed its habitual, good-humored, and therefore idiotic smile" (5-6). Even though Stepan's in a bad situation, his nature forces him to smile. The reader becomes more aware of Stepan's good natured personality when he shows kindness to his friend Levin after he approaches Stepan at a political council meeting. " 'Well lets go into my room,' said Stepan Arkadyevitch who knew his friends sensitive and irritable shyness" (29). With the character Levin, Tolstoy once again cleverly uses indirect characterization to allow the reader to look inside of him. When Levin falls into the story, he has just been caught sneaking into the political council without permission. Usually, men of good character would not need, or simply would not want to be sneaking into places where their presence is not invited. Levin is also a large man who is strongly built. The stereo type of large men is that they are confident, loud, and even boisterous. As the reader learns of Levin's love for Kitty, their opinion soon changes. Indirect characterization shows that Levin is actually a humble man. When thinking of Kitty and her feelings for him, Levin's thoughts said, "He heard that women often did care for ugly and ordinary men, but he did not believe it" (39). Levin believes himself to be ordinary and ugly, and Kitty far above him. The reader very much wants to dislike Vronsky. He is a man who begins an affair with a married woman after insinuating a proposal to young Kitty. Vronsky appears to be selfish and cold-hearted. As the reader continues with the story, they realize that this is not the case at all. When Anna is suffering from the after effects of having Vronsky's child, he stays by her side even though her husband is there also. When speaking to Anna's husband, Alexey, Vronsky says " 'I am entirely in your power, only let me be here.' " (p.673). Selfish men would turn and run when they had to face the embarrassment of coming face to face with the man from who they stole their wife. Tolstoy uses indirect characterization to show one of the reasons why Anna began her affair with Vronsky. The narrator speaks of Anna's love of books. Anna imagines herself as the hero or heroin in these books to occupy her time. The narrator speaks of Anna having a great desire to live and therefore she imagines herself in the same situations of the hero or heroine of the book she is reading. "If she read that the heroine of the book was nursing a sick man, she longed to move with noiseless steps around the room of a sick man" (p.161-162). This use of indirect characterization hints that Anna feel that the affair with Vronsky is her chance of leading an exciting life as does the hero and heroines of her books. Throughout the novel Anna Karenina , Leo Tolstoy uses indirect characterization to portray the inner selves of the characters. The reader's opinion of the characters continue to change as Tolstoy uses the characters actions, thoughts and feelings to make them appear different. He changes Stepan from being an adulterer, into just being a man full of love for life. Tolstoy accomplishes his purposes with this novel as it is one of the most acclaimed of all time.