L.N. Tolstoy's storyline of the fate (characterization) of Konstantin Levin is not presented as vividly as the line of the main character, but at the same time, it is important and quite interesting. The image of Levin is one of the most complex and interesting in the work of Lev Nikolaevich.
Levin's image
Levin's storyline contains many of the philosophical and socio-psychological problems of the work. The hero’s spiritual quest directly reflects the thoughts of the writer himself, which were formed in him in the era of the 70s. Even the description of his image speaks of external similarity. And there is no need to talk about the consonance of his surname with the name of Lev Nikolaevich.
With his energy, sincerity and ability to think critically, Konstantin Levin is similar to Tolstoy’s other heroes - Pierre Bezukhov, Andrei Bolkonsky.
This young seeker of truth gives in to the impulse to comprehend the essence of social relations, to know the meaning of life itself, in order to try to change something. Levin does not find ways to solve the problems that bother him, which plunges him into difficult and painful thoughts and leads to a mental crisis.
The need to confess before his wedding with Kitty leads Levin to think about God. Here the author raises a religious and moral question. Konstantin's thoughts lead him to the fact that he finds sincere faith in his soul.
Konstantin Levin cannot remain indifferent to the impoverishment of the landed nobility under the pressure of a new social formation. It is difficult for him not to notice the instability and instability of established orders. Levin also shows concern about the fate of the peasants, who have a very meager life. His desire to reconcile landowners and peasants, reserving the right to land, by creating a rational agricultural system, fails. Levin wonders why the peasants are so hostile to the nobles. Levin hears a reproach from his brother:
“You want to be original, to show that you are not just exploiting men, but with an idea”
And deep down the hero agrees with him.
The wedding of Levin and Kitty in the film 1967 (USSR)
Konstantin is trying to study all areas of the noble community from the inside. His visits to the world court, elections and other similar places lead him to conclusions about the futility and vanity of everything that happens around him. Only being in nature, familiarization with peasant labor, and household chores can bring him peace of mind.
The immersion into folk life in the novel “Anna Karenina” has a bright and deep motive. This is evidenced by the colorful scene of haymaking on Kalinov Meadow, Levin’s conversations with the peasants, his passion for their simple and so difficult life. Levin is not left indifferent by the completeness and integrity of the feelings of Ivan Parmenov and his wife, their endless happiness in unity. The hero even thinks about marrying a peasant woman. Fokanych’s statement about the need to live “for the soul, in truth, in God’s way” penetrates deeply into the hero’s soul.
The inability to resolve complex social and moral issues pushes Levin towards abstract moral self-improvement. Here the contradictory worldview of not only Levin, but also the author himself, is fully reflected. Levin's quest does not end at the end of the work; the author leaves the image of his hero open before us. The dependence of Levin's fate on his own attitude to the moral foundations of existence makes the image of the hero similar to the image of Anna Karenina.
Levin and Kitty in the 2012 film (UK)
In the novel by L.N. Tolstoy, along with the storyline of Anna Karenina, another, very significant, line of the life destiny of Konstantin Levin is presented. It is with the image of this hero that many important moral, philosophical and social problems of the work are connected. Levin's spiritual quest largely reflects the author's moods and thoughts that developed in him during the turning point of the 70s. An energetic, thinking person, sincere, Levin, like some of Tolstoy’s other heroes (Pierre Bezukhov, Andrei Bolkonsky), tirelessly seeks the truth and meaning of life, strives to penetrate into the essence of social relations in order to change and improve them. He does not know the path to this, and that is why his thoughts are so painful for him.
Levin sees the instability, the abrupt nature of breaking the old order. He, as a noble landowner, is concerned about the impoverishment of the local economy under the pressure of new post-reform relations. Levin also sees the meager life of the peasants. His attempts, while retaining land rights, to reconcile the interests of “conscientious” landowners and the people, and to create a rational system of land tenure for these purposes, end in failure. He is struck by the implacably hostile attitude of the peasants towards the landowners-nobles, towards everything that the “master” interprets and promises them. He is perplexed and tries to understand the reasons for this attitude, and distrust is prompted by all of the peasants’ centuries-old experience, which does not allow the thought that “the goal of the landowner could be anything other than the desire to rob them as much as possible.” In the depths of his soul, Levin agrees with his brother Nikolai’s reproach: “You want to be original, to show that you are not just exploiting a man, and with an idea.”
Levin gets acquainted with various forms of activity of the noble community, is present at the elections of the leader, in the magistrate's court - and from there takes away the impression of the vain emptiness and uselessness of what is happening. Only in the village, in close proximity to nature, in familiarization with peasant labor, in continuous economic worries, does he find joy and temporary peace.
In the novel Anna Karenina, Tolstoy penetrates deeply into people's life. This is evidenced by the wonderful scene of mowing on Kalinov Meadow, Levin’s conversations with the peasants, his passion for their natural, wise, working life; The youthful happiness of Ivan Parmenov and his wife, the completeness and integrity of their feelings excite and attract the hero. He dreams of marrying a peasant woman and living the same working life that the working village people live. These dreams of his are not coming true...
Levin's family life is developing happily, but he cannot be satisfied with a narrow personal sphere, even if it is so attractive. The hero seeks to find a way out for himself in the “people's truth”, in the naive faith of the patriarchal peasant. From Fyodor’s story, he learns the thoughts of the old man Fokanych that one must live “for the soul, in truth, in God’s way.” These words are perceived by Levin as a revelation... Fokanych’s concept of good has a religious connotation, which Levin also perceives,
The hero of the novel, as we see, does not find real ways of social transformation and tries to solve the issues that concern him in terms of abstract moral improvement. This undoubtedly reflects the contradictions in the worldview of not only Levin, but also Tolstoy. And yet, what is essential in Levin’s spiritual development is his attraction to the people. Essentially, the hero remains at a crossroads, his quest is not completed, and new opportunities for growth seem to open up ahead.
Konstantin Levin is one of the primary characters in the novel Anna Karenina. Compared to the storyline involving Vronsky or Karenin, his life seems calmer, without particularly sharp turns. But the subtly written movements of Levin’s soul indicate that the author endowed him with his own experiences and considered them as important as the events of the outside world. The similarity of the hero and his creator is evidenced by the consonance of names (Lev - Levin), and the external description: “a strongly built, broad-shouldered man with a curly beard,” “an intelligent, courageous face.”
From the very first chapters of the novel, Tolstoy describes Levin as a restless man: he blushes easily and gets angry easily, mocks a way of life that is incomprehensible to him. He is proud and does not tolerate being perceived not as Konstantin Levin, but as the brother of the famous Koznyshev. He is extremely shy and values himself so low in front of the girl with whom he is in love, “that there could be no thought that others and she herself would recognize him as worthy of her.”
These feelings, which so easily take over Levin, indicate that he fully and passionately feels every minute of his life. For Konstantin there are almost no half-tones: when doing housework, you need to go into every detail of the matter and go to mowing; Having received the bride’s consent to the marriage, you need to endow everyone you meet with your euphoria; When idolizing your wife, you need to protect her so much from everything “unworthy” that you can even throw out the guest (as they did with Vasenka Veslovsky).
His nature can be called immature, and not only because of his almost teenage maximalism, but also because of the eternal search for the meaning of life, the “truth of life.”
Tolstoy created his hero after the night of “Arzamas horror”, which forced him to rethink everything that exists. The only chapter of the novel that has a special title (“Death”) shows us Levin’s special attitude towards leaving for another world. What was “clear” for his brother Nikolai remained a mystery to the observer. Levin feels “horror of the unknown and at the same time the proximity and inevitability of death,” the same feelings swept over Leo Tolstoy in Arzamas. As if not wanting to leave his hero alone with these experiences, the author shows Levin a new miracle - expecting a child.
In this period, Konstantin is again shown as a man of great passions: his attitude towards his wife (“you are such a shrine to me”), his behavior during Kitty’s birth are extremes. But extremes that come from sincerity, from the fullness of the feeling of life. This strong man has an equally strong nature that carries him beyond conventions and limitations.
For a nobleman of that time, these traits were not very characteristic: the younger generation was just beginning to seriously think about whether everything in this world should be arranged as it is. Levin's views, expressed in his small world (after all, he prefers his cozy, quiet estate to a noisy life), the throwing of nature in these quite comfortable conditions sometimes look a little funny. And this is, perhaps, the only thing in which Tolstoy condemns his hero: he is limited only by his life, does not want to look beyond its limits, to think about the restructuring of not only the economy, but also society as a whole. The revolutionary views characteristic of Lev Nikolaevich are not reflected in the image of Levin.
The special desire for sincerity, passionate, persistent, that distinguishes Konstantin, is extremely rare in men. Giving your beloved, innocent, “like a dove,” diaries describing intimate experiences is an act as brave as it is short-sighted. This desire is selfish: caring only that there are no barriers between him and his wife, Levin does not think at all about the pain these recordings will cause Kitty.
The same applies to his attempts to comprehend life: in thinking about its meaning and purpose, he comes to a dead end, and this affects him so much that Konstantin - a happy family man and a hospitable host - seriously thinks about suicide, again completely disregarding his loved ones. And when he begins to seek healing in the family, in the usual household chores, he immediately “grounds” and high aspirations leave him. The author is both glad about this change in the life of his hero, and a little condemns him for it: exchanging for a comfortable life, according to Tolstoy, meant the end of spiritual life.
A firmly grounded, passionate, sincere and thoughtful person, Levin remains so until the last line about him. And only his reconciliation, a compromise with the “wrongly structured” reality show that the author himself wanted to avoid such a fate and considered it unworthy of such a person.
- The image of Vronsky in the novel “Anna Karenina”
- The symbolism of the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "Anna Karenina"
The image of Konstantin Levin in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "Anna Karenina"
Levin Tolstoy Karenina
A strongly built, broad-shouldered man with a curly beard. Smart, courageous face. At 32 years old, he is a very energetic person. Educated, hardworking, honest. Not a believer, but respecting the beliefs of other people.
Levin is an integral, active, ebullient nature. He only accepts the present. His goal in life is to live and create, and not just be present during life. The hero passionately loves life, and this means for him to passionately create life.
Very strong but difficult character. A person who listens to his conscience, who lives by Christian rules, loving and compassionate towards his neighbors, with slogans: against war, for honesty, for hard work, for love in the family; and not recognizing God. This is the image of a rich gentleman who has everything and needs absolutely nothing. In principle, he can achieve everything he needs on his own, through an effort of will, or simply buy it with money. He chooses a safe lifestyle. Alienating himself from the “high society”, from the world, he lives in a quiet and peaceful village, where the likelihood of stumbling and getting lost in life’s quest is much less than in a big city. But he doesn’t just need to live his days in solitude and peace, he strives to make his life better and even better. Constantly struggles with incorrect orders and stereotypes. Levin strives for noble and honest work, simple human happiness and love.
Not only could he not imagine loving a woman without marriage, but he had previously imagined a family. His concepts of marriage therefore were not similar to the concepts of most of his acquaintances, for whom marriage was one of many common affairs; for Levin this was the main matter of life, on which all his happiness depended.
The image is partly copied from Tolstoy himself (as evidenced by the surname Levin - from Leva, Leo): the hero thinks, feels, speaks directly on behalf of the writer. Tolstoy gave him the details of his own biography - for example, Levin’s explanation with Kitty in chalk in capital letters of the words on the card table reproduces exactly his own explanation with S.A. Bers, as described by T.A. Kuzminskaya from the words of her sister. The small details of the groom, the reading of his diaries by the bride, being late for church because of a starched shirt - Tolstoy simply wrote off all this on himself. Levin’s moral quest and suffering in the last part closely correlate with what the author will soon talk about in his “Confession” (1879-1889). Nikolai Levin is also given features and details of the life and death of his brother Dmitry, to whom Lev Nikolaevich came to Orel before his death in 1856.
It all started with his arrival in Moscow. The purpose of the trip was to propose to Kitty, his friend's sister-in-law.
Levin came to Moscow from the village always excited, hurried, a little embarrassed and irritated. In Moscow he had to communicate with different people, they talked about new railways, about communism, about politics. Levin, of course, was an educated man, but from these conversations he was overcome by confusion of concepts, dissatisfaction with himself, and shame at something. It was simply that pathetic imposition of public opinion and order that left such a residue in him.
But as soon as he arrived home in the village, he saw everything that filled his life: his sleigh, his horses, his coachman - who told the news that happened in his absence - his internal state improved, he felt that little by little the confusion was being clarified, and shame and dissatisfaction with oneself disappear. Only here could he feel confident and remain as he is. Only here could he treat with sobriety and wisdom what was happening to him in Moscow and look at it from the other side. Now he only wanted to be better than he was before. This attitude towards oneself speaks of self-criticism and optimism of the individual. The village is a place of life, that is, joys, sufferings, labor - said Levin.
But even here in his domain, where he was his own master, where he arranged his own life, where all the people and problems that filled his hectic days were part of his life, a part of himself, even here he faced resistance. These were thoughts - associations that arose in his head at the sight of old things in his office: deer antlers, shelves with books, a stove mirror with an vent, his father's sofa, a large table, a broken ashtray, a notebook with his handwriting; things that filled his life since childhood. When he saw all this, he was momentarily doubted about the possibility of creating the new life that he had dreamed of after Kitty’s refusal. All these traces of his life seemed to embrace him and tell him: “No, you will not leave us and you will not be different, but you will be the same as you were: with doubts, eternal dissatisfaction with yourself, vain attempts to correct and fall and an eternal expectation of happiness , which was not given and is impossible for you.”
Tolstoy, in this personality shows us a real clash of two internal forces. Let's call them: good and bad. The good one, of course, strived for love and happiness, and the bad one tried to destroy him and kill his desire for happiness. He chose the positive option and tried to direct all his efforts towards realizing his dream - to be happy. Levin worked hard and thought a lot. Time passed and did its job. He felt that in the depths of his soul something was being established, pacified and settled.
During his intense work, Levin made a very important conclusion for himself about his work and economy. He now clearly saw that the business he was running was only a stubborn and cruel struggle between him and the workers, in which on the one side, on his side, there was a constant intense desire to remake everything according to the model considered the best, while on the other side, - the natural order of things. And in this struggle, he saw that, with the greatest effort on his part and without any effort or even intention on the other, all that was achieved was that the farm was a draw and that beautiful tools, beautiful cattle and land were spoiled in vain. In essence, what was the struggle? He stood for every penny he had, and they only stood for working calmly and pleasantly, that is, the way they were used to. For a long time Levin felt dissatisfied with his attitude towards the farm. He saw that his boat was leaking, but he did not find or look for a leak, perhaps deliberately deceiving himself. The housekeeping he was leading became not only uninteresting to him, but disgusting, and he could no longer do it. This is by no means weakness or lack of self-confidence, this is precisely the real wisdom that implies the correct approach to the problem. He looks at the problem from all sides, and looks for all the pros and cons. He does not make hasty conclusions and does not rest on one opinion that could have developed due to a lack of information. Levin shows the same wisdom in his disputes with his brother Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev. Only because Levin looked at things from different angles and was looking for the most correct and true answer, he did not pursue the goal of proving his opinion to the only true ones and did not pursue the status of a sage; his brother always won in these disputes. He had a strong, unshakable opinion that he did not want to give up because of his pride.
Soon Levin decides to completely change his farm. He says that he will work hard and try hard, but he will achieve his goal.
Tolstoy in this novel showed and compared the two most important feelings inherent in a person. Love and hate. Levin felt love for all the people and problems surrounding him on his wedding day, and a feeling of hatred for Karenina at the moment of his near-death experiences. By contrasting these two heroes, one can see more broadly and more specifically one of the main goals of the novel, the meaning of which is to compare two types of love. A lost lady with high moral standards and beautiful appearance had one love - Anna Karenina, the second love - in a spiritually reborn gentleman, with his stubborn approach to figure everything out and the desire for happiness in life.
Anna Karenina's love was doomed from the very beginning. First, she cheated on her husband and betrayed her entire family. Secondly, all her love, despite strong passion and uncontrollable attraction, was based only on carnal need and selfishness. Anna wanted intense experiences, romance, passion, and carefreeness. Throughout Tolstoy's entire novel, Anna never once gave the concept of love, or explained the experience of this feeling. All the arguments that she came up with to denigrate her husband’s attitude towards her had no basis; she did it only because she wanted to somehow justify herself in her own eyes. After she realized that she was not receiving the attention that she so dreamed of in her relationship with her lover, her suspicious nature again began to come up with excuses for herself, accusing her lover of crimes that he did not commit. Precisely because it was not real, not pure love, or rather not love, but ordinary selfish lust, because of which her whole life was destroyed, she felt disgust and hatred. And hatred, of course, led to revenge. Revenge was death. This is the only way to get away from yourself, to escape from problems and shame. And at the same time it is revenge for neglecting her love.
We see a completely different picture in Levin’s relationship.
Let us remember the evening when Levin confessed his love to Kitty for the second time, and she reciprocated his feelings. He was filled with a feeling of delight and happiness - it was love. That evening, in order to somehow pass the time until the next day, he went with his brother to the meeting. At the meeting, everyone was arguing about the deduction of some amounts and about laying some pipes, they were very animatedly sarcastic to each other.
Levin listened to them and clearly saw that they were not angry, but that they were all such kind, nice people, and so it all went well, sweetly between them. What was remarkable for Levin was that now they were all visible to him through and through, and by small, previously unnoticeable signs, he recognized the soul of each and clearly saw that they were all kind. In particular, they all loved him, Levin, extremely much today. This was evident from the way they spoke to him, how affectionately, lovingly even all the strangers looked at him.
The man with whom he had previously felt some kind of dissatisfaction, now seemed smart and kind to him, invited him to drink tea. And Levin couldn’t even remember what irritated him about him, and stayed with him until 2 am. Upon returning to the hotel, the hero saw a footman whom he had not even noticed before, and he also turned out to be very smart and good, and most importantly, a kind person.
He ate almost nothing and could not sleep. Although the room was fresh, the heat stifled him. “All night and morning Levin lived completely unconsciously and felt completely removed from the conditions of material life. He felt completely independent of his body: he moved without muscle effort and felt that he could do anything. He was sure that he would fly up or move the corner of the house if necessary. And what he saw then, he never saw again. Especially the children going to school, the gray pigeons that flew from the roof onto the sidewalk, and the cods sprinkled with flour, which were put out by an invisible hand, touched him. These fish, pigeons and two boys were unearthly creatures. All this together was so extraordinarily good that Levin laughed and cried with joy.”
It was not an earthly feeling, a feeling of love. This love was expressed in everything, it filled him from the inside and illuminated everything around him. This relationship was truly built correctly. Levin did not frame his future wife as a slave. He did not want to marry just to satisfy his natural desires. First of all, he wanted a family based on mutual love; without love, he did not see the point in it. He also built his relationships on complete openness and trust. And even though he was an unbeliever, he agreed to fast and go to Divine services. In principle, he wanted the same human happiness as Karenina, but everything that Levin did for this love indicates self-sacrifice. While Karenina did not sacrifice herself at all for the sake of her imaginary love. She sacrificed her family, her husband, her son, but not herself. She sacrificed everything that was built by the joint efforts of her family, that is, she destroyed everything that love should build.
It was precisely because Levin’s love was pure that it had a future, it had further development.
“Levin had been married for three months. He was happy, but not at all as he expected. At every step he found disappointment in his old dreams and new unexpected charm. Levin was happy, but, having entered family life, he saw at every step that it was not at all what he had imagined. At every step he experienced what a person would experience if he admired the smooth, happy passage of a boat on the lake, after he himself sat in this boat. He saw that it’s not enough to sit upright without swaying, you also have to think, not for a minute forgetting where to swim, that there is water under your feet and you have to row, and that it hurts unaccustomed hands, that it’s easy to just look at it, but that although doing this is very joyful, it is very difficult.”
In this passage, the writer of the novel shows us that love, even with the right beginning, has great difficulties that must be overcome with great effort. Levin, like all men, involuntarily imagined family life only as the pleasure of love, which nothing should interfere with and from which petty worries should not distract. Jealousy, possible betrayal, cooling of the feelings of the other half, love for another person - all the depressing feelings that Karenina experienced for Vronsky were also experienced by Levin for his wife. And despite all the doubts and disappointments, Levin understood everything and moved on, trying to overcome all difficulties.
After exploring love in Levin's life, we are left with only one important moment in his life - “to believe or not to believe?” - this question arose before him after all the difficulties he had experienced: Kitty’s refusal, Kitty’s mutual love, family conflicts, the death of his brother, the birth of a child. All this in his life did not pass without a trace, but it helped him somehow settle down and gain a footing in this world. It is precisely such difficult turns in his fate that lead him to faith and need for God. And he, as if raising all his thoughts from the depths of his soul, ponders this necessary important question - to believe or not to believe?
“Levin for the first time looked at questions of life and death through those new, as he called them, beliefs that, imperceptibly for him, in the period from twenty to thirty-four years old, replaced his childhood and youthful beliefs - he was horrified not so much by death, how much life there is without the slightest knowledge of where, for what, why and what it is. Organism, its destruction, the indestructibility of matter, the law of conservation of force, development - these were the words that replaced his former faith. These words and the concepts associated with them were very good for mental purposes; but they gave nothing for life, and Levin suddenly felt himself in the position of a man who would exchange a warm fur coat for muslin clothes and who, for the first time in the cold, would undoubtedly, not by reasoning, but with his whole being, be convinced that he was the same naked and that he must inevitably die painfully.”
From that moment, involuntarily, unconsciously for himself, he now looked in every book, in every conversation, in every person for an attitude to his question and its solution.
In addition, he could not forget that during the birth of his wife, an unusual event happened to him. He, an unbeliever, began to pray and the minute he prayed, he believed. But that minute passed, and he could not give this mood of that time any place in his life.
These experiences tormented and tormented him, now weaker, now stronger, but never left him. He read and thought, and the more he read and thought, the further away he felt from the goal he was pursuing.
It would seem that everything, I found a normal explanation for everything: Comprehension of divine truths is not given to man, but is given to the aggregate of people united by love - the Church. He was delighted by the thought of how easier it was to believe in the existing, now living Church, which constitutes all the beliefs of people, having God at its head and therefore holy and immaculate, and from it to accept beliefs in God in creation, in the fall, in redemption, than to begin with God, the distant, mysterious God, creation, etc. But, later reading the history of the Church of a Catholic writer and the history of the Church of an Orthodox writer and seeing that both Churches, infallible in their essence, deny each other, he became disillusioned with the Church.
Now, all those explanations of life that humanity gives, based on the fact that a person is a bubble and that this bubble will hold on senselessly and burst, were associated in Levin’s head with an evil, nasty force that could not be obeyed.
“You cannot live without knowing what I am and why I am here. But I can’t know this, therefore, I can’t live,” Levin told himself.
And, a happy family man, a healthy man, Levin was so close to suicide several times that he hid a cord so as not to hang himself with it, and was afraid to walk with a gun so as not to shoot himself.
But Levin did not shoot himself or hang himself and continued to live.
Slowly but surely he grounded himself, went into life, into work, into the bustle of his days.
One sunny day in the village, Levin got into a conversation with the peasant Fyodor, and the peasant told him very interesting words: One man lives only for his needs, only fills his belly, and Fokanych is a truthful old man. He lives for the soul. Remembers God.
The words spoken by the peasant produced in his soul the effect of an electric spark, which suddenly transformed and united into one a whole swarm of disparate, powerless, individual thoughts that never ceased to occupy him. These thoughts, unbeknownst to him, occupied him.
That is, from his words, Levin understood that living for the soul, living for God means living in goodness. Goodness in itself is a real miracle. “And I was looking for miracles, I regretted that I did not see a miracle that would convince me. But here it is a miracle, the only possible one, constantly existing, surrounding me on all sides, and I didn’t notice it!” - Levin reasoned.
He also understood that he lived (without realizing it) by those spiritual truths that he sucked in with milk, and thought, not only without recognizing these truths, but diligently avoiding them. And he understood that his mind could not give the answer to his question; life itself gave him the answer. That is, something unearthly, incomprehensible, mysterious, put the answer into his soul. And his mind taught him only to live in pride, only for himself, and to strangle everyone who interferes with the satisfaction of his desires.
It feels like everything he experienced was necessary for him to find happiness, find answers, find the true God and faith. Because every time the hero had to choose between two paths, between evil and good, he always chose the path that was laid down in his soul by true good, true God.
In fact, despite the fact that Levin did not want to accept the Church, he very correctly understood all the basic spiritual truths inherent in God. And the more he thought and looked for answers, the closer he became to faith and God.
And in order for us to be absolutely confident in his salvation and the correctness of his choice, we can turn to those same two roads in a person’s life. “Enter at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in through it; for narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it.” - Gospel of Matthew 7:13,14.
Levin found and chose exactly that narrow and difficult path that leads to salvation. This means that he will not shoot himself, will not deviate from the truth of faith, and will definitely accept the Church into his life.
God has a rule - everything has its time.
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Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin is a landowner, lives in the village, runs a large and complex farm. The family home “was the whole world for Levin.” He proudly talks about the true aristocracy and patriotism of his ancestors. Now the period of ruin of the “noble nests” is coming, and Levin understands the inevitability of this drama.
Konstantin Dmitrievich is trying to understand the mystery of new social relations, his place in these new conditions and the truth of life. Levin is not a dreamer cut off from life. He looks at life soberly, fights for happiness, trying to find peace of mind.
Levin sees an approximate way of life for Russia as a large and friendly peasant family, which cares about everything, where everything is produced by its members themselves. Levin understands that Western theories of country transformation are not suitable for Russia. We must take into account its specificity. In a peasant country, it is necessary to interest workers in work, then they will raise the state.
Levin painfully searches for the truth of life, tries to find peace of mind. Communicating closely with the peasants, he was imbued with the “peasant truth of life”, an unconscious faith in God. The exploration of Levin's life forms its own storyline in the novel Anna Karenina, but does not conflict with the general concept and composition of the work. Anna's mental anguish and Levin's search for truth are interconnected aspects of Russian life in the post-reform era, revealing the crisis in the destinies of people and ways to overcome it.
Tolstoy, in this personality shows us a real clash of two internal forces. Let's call them: good and bad. The good one, of course, strived for love and happiness, and the bad one tried to destroy him and kill his desire for happiness. He chose the positive option and tried to direct all his efforts towards realizing his dream - to be happy. Levin worked hard and thought a lot. Time passed and did its job. He felt that in the depths of his soul something was being established, pacified and settled.
Levin decides to completely change his farm. He says that he will work hard and try hard, but he will achieve his goal.
Tolstoy in this novel showed and compared the two most important feelings inherent in a person. Love and hate. Levin felt love for all the people and problems surrounding him on his wedding day, and a feeling of hatred for Karenina at the moment of his near-death experiences. Levin did not want to accept the Church, but he very correctly understood all the basic spiritual truths inherent in God. And the more he thought and looked for answers, the closer he became to faith and God. Levin found and chose exactly that narrow and difficult path that leads to salvation. This means that he will not shoot himself, will not deviate from the truth of faith, and will definitely accept the Church into his life.
Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina" is built on the basis of multiple characters (several leading characters) and a variety of plots. But here the multifacetedness merges into a whole not according to the epic model, as it was in the novel “War and Peace”. Different individual destinies are correlated according to a principle akin to polyphony (perhaps because the subject of the image becomes current modernity, which was the material for Dostoevsky’s polyphonic novel).
For plot"Anna Karenina" is characterized by drama. There is a linear composition (commencement, development, climax, denouement), there is plot tension, and a tendency towards a conclusion.
In this respect, this work is closest to the European novelistic tradition, which Tolstoy usually evaluates as alien. The plot of “Anna Karenina” is characterized by an abundance of perfects, irreversible perfections (in general, this is completely uncharacteristic of Tolstoy’s prose): after meeting Vronsky, it is no longer possible to live as if she did not exist; Moreover, it is impossible to reverse events after their proximity; irreversibility reaches its maximum degree in Anna's last tragic step (she came to her senses under the wheels of the train, but it was too late).
The symbolism of the novel, prophetic signs predicting the future, enhance the dramatic tension and the sense of the fatal nature of the events taking place. The beginning of the love between Karenina and Vronsky (meeting on the railway, accompanied by the death of a road worker under the wheels of a train) predicts her death. Anna has prophetic dreams about death during childbirth - and she actually almost dies.
Milan Kundera in the philosophical novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” reflecting on the fact that the connection between the beginning and the end of love between Karenina and Vronsky is too literary, suggests seeing the non-literal nature of this correlation. In his opinion, Tolstoy here is not subject to the cliches of a “fatal” love story. The Czech writer, reflecting on whether Tolstoy is realistic or “literary” in this case, points out that in real life we are often unconsciously plot-oriented, literary: when we choose a loved one precisely because in our relationship with him there is some kind of coherent plot, symbolism , a hint of some meaningfulness; when, planning to part forever, we suddenly change our intention because something happens that seems to be a continuation of the plot. Tolstoy really has this: the narrator points out that the choice of method of committing suicide was determined by the subconscious influence of a previous impression.
It seems that the correct answer is somewhere in the middle: the idea of God's judgment still presupposes the action of fatal forces. But the psychological relativization of the plot returns us to the more familiar Tolstoy. And indeed, all other plot lines (as well as their very abundance, which blurs the centralization of the plot) are less perfect, they have more incompleteness and reversibility, and in this sense they are “more Tolstoyan.” The most typical story in this regard is the story of Levin and Kitty (Kitty’s refusal at the beginning of the novel turned out to be reversible). Although in the case of Levin there is a hint of the rigidity of the composition, a fatal prediction (at the beginning of the novel, Konstantin Levin talks with Koznyshev and his guest-philosopher about death; his brother’s position is associated with the problem of death, which will later be realized in the story of Nikolai Levin), but it is rather a semantic consonance (as in a similar motif in the story “Childhood”), rather than cause and effect, action and reaction.
There is also much in Anna’s story that breaks the “romance” of the European type: for example, two climaxes. A traditional European novel would have ended at the point of the first climax, at the bedside of Anna, who almost died during childbirth, forgiven by her husband - here a moral catharsis was achieved, a climactic plot point, an important moral gain occurred. All this is quite enough for traditional romance. But in Tolstoy the action continues, catharsis turns out to be relative, Karenin, even with his forgiveness, remains unloved and unpleasant, forgiveness only adds awkwardness to their relationship...
