Anna Karenina: The Road to Death to Exist
I recently watched the 2012 movie Anna Karenina. Anna Karenina is Tolstoy’s novel that is widely known and read. Years ago I read it from a bad translation. Even so, it impressed me. There is already talk of the necessity of rereading such cult novels. There is an opportunity to look from a different angle at every age. There is also reading at the right time. While talking about a book with a 25-year-old young friend, he stated that he did not like Crime and Punishment at all. Because he was 15 years old when he was studying. I advised him to read it again now, that he will read the novel with a different eye. In the 15-20 age range, such classics can be heavy. I look at young people who are interested in reading and they are upset that I couldn’t read Crime and Punishment at the age of 20. Don’t worry, your reading time has just come. After that… But we are always pumped with a lack, always a feeling of being late. I am also affected by this situation at this age. I think that these kinds of feelings bring nothing but panic to reading life.
At the time, I saw that the character of Levin had more internal inquiries, even though Anna was the main character in the novel. Levin; It was questioning human relations, beliefs, and society as firmly as possible. We can compare Levin to the heavy brothers of the neighborhood who stand alone in the corner, read a lot and hang out. I remember that he made his inquiries not superficially, but with deep thoughts. Levin was actually most brutally critical of himself. This was due to his uneasiness. For this reason, he avoided city life and devoted himself to earthworks. But in his village life, it could not be said that he had finished the fight in the full sense. Anyway, it goes on… In short, I found the character of Levin almost head to head with the character of Anna Karenina. The events were viewed through Levin’s eyes as a reader. We were listening to the events from Levin with all their truth, correctness and falsehood. Why did Tolstoy do such a thing? There are those who attribute this to the then male-dominated society and ultimately to Tolstoy being a male writer. This has absolute implications.
Now I want to evaluate the work that I read and watched years ago from a different perspective. The only character similar to Levin was Anna. Both were unhappy and restless. Both were alone. Both had a revolt in order to become an individual to the order accepted by society. Levin does this by dealing with the land and isolating himself; Anna, on the other hand, was unhappy when she had a distinguished life, and she did it by going after the person she loved and against the values of the society.
But what Anna’s doing was more difficult and obvious. The way he took to realize himself was more dangerous and painful. While Tolstoy showed us about Anna’s betrayal of her husband, she also explained that she had justified reasons. We didn’t blame Anna, we understood her. We did not find it right, either. While Levin had a clear road ahead, Anna had no other choice in that situation. She turned to betrayal to realize herself in an unhappy marriage. He did not leave his marriage and son for his beloved Vronski. Vronski was just a reason. Anna was actually looking for herself, but unfortunately she couldn’t stand the weight before finding herself. So Anna Karenina means more than a married woman cheating on her husband. The same pain of existence of Anna and Levin ..
Levin is the lucky character of the novel. When he said his way was open, he had more options. Of course, he made the right choices. If he were otherwise, he could have been dragged into the abyss like Anna. Let’s face it. There was positive discrimination for Levin. There is a married woman and a single man who want to realize herself. Can we talk about the equality of the conditions? Or let me ask you like this. Anna is single and unhappy, what consequences would she have if Levin was married and unhappy? I don’t think Levin would at least not commit suicide. Because he would not be as judged as Anna. Tolstoy reveals clues to this early on how Anna’s older brother Stiva’s cheating on her husband was welcomed in society. Stiva is hailed as if she made a simple mistake rather than immorality. Even though they suffer the same pains of existence, Levin has a happy ending, while Anna takes her life with her depression.
My impression of the film version of the work was that they turned the tragedy into a tragicomic one. They tried to alleviate the heavy mood on the novel. Especially at the beginning of the film, I felt these tragicomic situations in the scenes of Anna’s brother Stiva, the scenes that developed as a result of her brother’s cheating on her sister-in-law, the scenes of Anna’s daily life, the scenes that showed us what kind of person her husband was at home and at work, and the scenes of her lover Vronski at the balls. Vronski seemed to me snobbish and unruly in the movie. He was more charismatic and sane in the novel. Anna, on the other hand, was drawing a more sympathetic and cheerful character in the movie. In the novel, he was cold and distant. While Anna’s husband, Aleksey, was more strict and ruthless in the novel, he was an ambivalent and compassionate character in the film. The slightly more compatible character of the novel and the movie was Levin. Although Levin’s inquiries in the film are light compared to the novel – we cannot expect the whole novel to be reflected in all its forms – I watched a character parallel to Levin in the novel. In some scenes of Levin I got the taste of the novel.
At the same time, the director has created a theatrical atmosphere in the movie. It even wanted to give a musical atmosphere. I can say that I love this side of you. In the beginning scenes of the movie, the civil servants make the same movements as robots (I like this scene because it emphasizes the banality of the government offices), the movements of the servants while the nobility is dressed, the first dance scene with Anna’s Vronski, Vronski’s horse racing scene, Anna’s Vronski When she returned to Petersburg with her, the scenes at the ball she attended, the train scenes… They all had a musical atmosphere. Visuality and music were more important than the speeches. If you ask what was the most memorable scene, it was Anna’s first dance scene with Vronski. They reflected very well Anna’s fall into the first love fire, the strange glances of those who watched the dance, the horror that Anna gave to her face that she was not the same Anna when she first saw herself in the mirror at the end of the dance. Meanwhile, the music played with excitement and tension was also well chosen. Especially the black dress she wore reflected Anna’s beauty, grace, unhappiness and pursuit.
I didn’t regret watching the movie, but again Anna Karenina prompted her to do the analysis.
When I read it years ago, I thought Levin was going the right way and Anna was going the wrong way. But now I am looking, actually, I see two people on the same road, one lucky and one unlucky. I must reread Anna Karenina. So what do you think? Waiting for your comments….
