Classics of Russian Literature | Family Life Makes a Comeback (Lecture 20)

Lecture 20: In contrast to the parody and tragedy of the Oblonskys and the Karenins, we see genuine and healthy conjugal life, with all of its attending stresses and joys, destined to last a lifetime. This destiny we observe as the result of the marriage of Kitty, née Shcherbatskaia, and Konstantin Levin, a character in many ways obviously related to his creator, Tolstoy. The novelist’s first name is close to the character’s family name; the proposal of marriage repeats verbatim the word game Tolstoy used in his own proposal to Sofiia Bers. Perhaps most important, Levin’s final religious conversion, or epiphany, parallels Tolstoy’s own—which we know will be as temporary; Tolstoy could never stop searching. As Isaiah Berlin put it brilliantly: Tolstoy was born to be a fox, an animal who runs far and wide over the fields; he desperately wanted to become a hedgehog, an animal that remains with one overwhelming insight and defense. Anna Karenina magnificently and profoundly shows this truth and this agony.

Suggested Reading:
Isaiah Berlin, The Hedgehog and the Fox.