Essay Archive - Anna Karenina: Characters and the Life Novel
Anna Karenina: Characters and the Life Novel
By examining the character list, one immediately notices the value
Tolstoy places on character. With one hundred and forty named characters
and several other unnamed characters, Tolstoy places his central focus in
Anna Karenina on the characters. He uses their actions and behavior to
develop the plot and exemplify the major themes of the novel. In contrast
to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Tolstoy wishes to examine life as it really is.
Both novels have relationships and adultery as a central theme. However,
Tolstoy gives us a much more lifelike representation in Anna....
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