Jasper Lu ELE4 Ms Manning 10 May 2012 Anna Karenina After the Industrial Revolution in Russia, many old ideas

and relationships were either changed or abandoned, such as the emancipation of serfs in Russia. However, though many new ideas were introduced and many old ideas were abandoned, some were also kept, such as the idea of a fallen woman. In old Russia, if a woman were to engage in an extramarital affair, she will have sacrificed everything and would be looked down upon in high society as a vile creature (Tolstoy 51). Leo Tolstoys novel, Anna Karenina, explores the idea of the fallen woman and the differences between old (pre-industrialization) and new (postindustrialization) Russia ideals and culture through the novels main character, Anna Karenina. At the start of the novel, and throughout the rest of the book, Anna is married to the boring Alexei Karenin, who carries with him the ideals of old Russian society. Karenin is a very conservative person, and always abides by the law. To get a divorce from Anna, he is given a simple solution to all his troubles to apply for a divorce under the grounds of adultery by mutual consent (Tolstoy 430). However, he refuses to apply for a divorce in this manner because he [has] religious scruples which made it impossible for him to accept this method (Tolstoy 431). What Karenin means by his religious scruples is that, because he is Christian, he cannot accept a divorce under mutual consent. This adds to the idea of Karenin being very conservative because he always adheres to the rules and does not like to break them.

Anna later falls in love with the rich, intelligent Vronsky (Tolstoy 54), who is representative of new Russian ideas, but does not ever get a divorce with Karenin. This situation is similar to how, even though Russia had a revolution, they still kept ties with old Russian ideas and culture. Vronsky does not adhere to the rules as much as Karenin, and Annas affair with Vronsky represents Russias change from a very conservative society to more free and open one. However, even after her affair with Vronsky is made public, Anna [does] not want a divorce from Karenin (Tolstoy 505). This is representative of how, even after the Industrial Revolution in Russia, they do not change everything about their society, and do not divorce some of the old standards and ideals of Russian society, such as the idea of a fallen woman being a very low and vile person. After Anna gives birth to Annie, she is overcome with an illness and wants nothing more than to be forgiven (Tolstoy 480). Her illness during this time is symbolic of the conflicts during the Industrial Revolution in Russia. Just like Anna cannot choose between Vronsky and Karenin, and at one point even dreams that both of them [are] her husbands (Tolstoy 177), the also cannot people of Russia decide whether or not they want to. This conflict of whether or not to industrialize is shown in the way that Levins workers do not want to make use of the new technology available to them. After Annas sickness is over, she decides to remain with Vronsky and starts to become physically repelled by Karenin (Tolstoy 496). This is similar to the way that, in the end, Russia changed in favor of a more industrialized, free society, as opposed to the conservative ideas of old Russian society. Tolstoys novel, Anna Karenina, was written in a time where Russia was changing rapidly. During this time, Russia was changing from a more conservative society to a more

industrial society. Tolstoy wrote the character of Anna Karenina to represent this change in Russian society. At first, this idea of Anna representing Mother Russia may not be very obvious, but after thinking about the differences between Vronsky and Karenin, the state of Annas marriage with Karenin, and the inner turmoil within Anna, this idea begins to become more obvious.