Portrait of a literary hero - Anna Karenina. Analysis of the image of Anna Karenina

Initially, Anna Karenina (1873-1877) was conceived by Tolstoy as a family novel about an unfaithful wife. In the process of work, the idea deepened and expanded. The writer focused not only on family, but also economic, social, public relations. On the pages of the novel a wide panorama of Russian life was recreated. One of the heroes of the work, Levin, said: “Now we have... all this has been turned upside down and is just falling into place.” This formula. I. Belinsky considered it a classic characterization of Russian post-reform development.

Everything has been turned upside down: not only the economy, but also the usual ideas about morality, ethics... In this atmosphere of instability, anxiety, self-doubt, distrust of others, and in anticipation of impending disasters, Tolstoy’s heroes live. Hence the intensity of their experiences, the emphasized drama of events - despite the fact that the action takes place in peacetime and is confined to a relatively narrow sphere family relations.

Tolstoy said that in “Anna Karenina” he loved “family thought” (and in “War and Peace” - “people's thought”). However, in his new novel, family thought is linked, although not always explicitly and directly, with folk thought. The problems of family, everyday life, and personal connections are perceived by the writer in close connection with the question of the state of the entire Russian society at a turning point in its history.

The author did not immediately formulate the image of the main character of the novel. In the process of work, Tolstoy consistently elevated Anna's appearance, endowing her not only with remarkable physical beauty, but also with a rich inner world, an extraordinary mind, and the ability for merciless introspection. This is one of the relatively rare cases in Tolstoy’s artistic practice when in the image of the heroine there is no contradiction between appearance and inner essence. The moral purity and moral decency of Anna, who did not want to adapt, deceive herself and others in accordance with the “norms” social life, served as the main reason for her bold decision - to openly leave her unloved husband for Vronsky, which became the source and cause of her sharp conflict with environment, who takes revenge on Anna precisely for her honesty, independence, and disdain for the hypocritical foundations of a fundamentally false secular society.

In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy avoids clear-cut decisions. In this regard new novel different from War and Peace. There, the author's verdict was usually final; the negative characters were not given in dynamics or evolution. Now Tolstoy’s view is devoid of a certain bias: he knows how to see the truth of his heroine (and instill warm sympathy in readers for her), but does not exclude the possibility that Karenin also has his own truth (although this is not so obvious). The polyphony that is usually associated with the name of Dostoevsky is also inherent in Anna Karenina.

Karenin is the embodiment of the St. Petersburg bureaucracy, a dry, callous person, but still a person experiencing grief, suffering, capable of both generosity and cruelty. The remarkable Soviet artist Nikolai Khmelev, the first performer of the role of Karenin in the famous dramatization, which was staged with great success stage of the Moscow Art Theater in the 930s, said: “When I put on Karenin’s uniform and when I touched his sideburns with a lifeless hand, they told me with admiration: here, here, you have found the main thing - the personification of bureaucratic Petersburg, so play! I play like this, but there is no happiness in my soul, no creative happiness. To tell you the truth, I am secretly drawn to Karenin’s drama, because there is drama and even tragedy there...”

Alexei Vronsky also has his own drama, who turned out to be worthy of the high feeling that connected him with Anna. Love elevated and ennobled not only her, but also him. And yet Anna was not happy not only in her first family (with Karenin), but also in her second (with Vronsky). The worst thing is happening - the lack of spiritual unity, mutual understanding, the disintegration of human connections. It is difficult to find one specific culprit in this case. The inhumane secular society with its deceitful morality is to blame, the unfair marriage laws are to blame, Karenin and Vronsky are to blame, Anna herself is to blame.

The epigraph to the novel reads: “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.” There is ongoing debate in the research literature regarding its interpretation. It is assumed that the threat of imminent punishment contained in the epigraph was connected with the original intention of the novel; Perhaps Tolstoy wanted to say that only God has the right to punish a sinner, but not people. But if this is so, the question of Anna’s guilt still remains. Secular society does not have the moral right to judge Anna, but Tolstoy judges her from the heights of that family thought, which he himself considered the main one in the novel.

The writer, who has seemingly done everything to arouse the reader’s fascination with the heroine of the novel, at the same time does not at all perceive her as an ideal. Only at the very beginning of the work “uncontrollable joy and revival” shine on Anna’s face. Then her state of mind (and the further, the stronger) is marked by completely different signs: suspicion, embitterment, despair, jealousy... This corresponds to the system of epithets used by Tolstoy: “the painful color of shame”; “once a proud, now shameful head”; happiness paid for at the “terrible price of shame,” etc.

Anna's rebellion against the false morality of the world turns out to be fruitless. She becomes a victim not only of her conflict with society, but also of what is in her from this very society (“the spirit of lies and deceit”) and with which her own moral feeling cannot be reconciled. The tragic feeling of her guilt does not leave her. Reflecting on her relationship with Vronsky, Anna clearly and frankly formulates the very essence of the contradiction, the tragic insolubility of which predetermines the unbearableness of her situation: “If I could be anything other than a mistress, passionately loving only his caresses; but I cannot and do not want to be anything else.”

The origins of Anna's tragedy lie not only in external obstacles, but also in herself, in the nature of her passion, in the inability to escape reproaches of conscience. The problem central to the novel is examined through the example of several married couples: Anna - Karenin, Dolly - Oblonsky, Kitty - Levin. And in all cases, Tolstoy does not find a positive answer to the questions that constantly concern him, which have not just a narrowly intimate, but also a social significance.

As is known, the connection between a character and his portrait in work of art interdependent. Through the description of the hero's appearance, the author reveals him inner world, its true essence. Thus, in Anna Karenina, a psychological portrait is one of the most important means of creating artistic images. The main feature of Tolstoy the psychologist is his ability to highlight one or another detail, a feature in the hero’s appearance, without which he subsequently cannot even be imagined. Thus, the author emphasizes that Karenin’s gait was such that “he moved his entire pelvis and blunt legs.”

Perhaps, without this characteristic the image of the hero would be incomplete. To achieve the greatest dynamics, again and again draws our attention to individual details of appearance. Every time Anna appears, her "brilliant eyes, thick eyelashes and beautiful little hands" are mentioned, a constant characteristic of Stiva is his beautiful face and, like Anna, sparkling eyes. Therefore, we can talk about the internal similarity of the heroes, because the eyes reflect the spiritual world of a person.

Sometimes portraiture is aimed at reducing the image in the eyes of the reader. Thus, Karenin is often characterized by tired eyes and white hands with swollen veins, and Vronsky is characterized by a red neck overgrown with hair and strong white teeth, which strengthens in our minds the idea of ​​​​his resemblance to a “beautifully fed animal.” Often, turning to the portrait of minor characters (the merchant Ryabinin, who buys timber from Stiva for next to nothing, Mademoiselle Varenka, Karenin’s lawyer), Tolstoy gives them a direct, clear description. Against this background, it seems strange that the main characters of the novel seem to be devoid of portrait features.

Of course, there are portraits of the characters, but they seem to be dissolved in the text or given through the eyes of other characters. For example, about the appearance of Stiva Oblonsky it is written: “On the third day after the quarrel, Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky - Stiva, as he was called in the world - at the usual hour... woke up in his office...

he turned his plump, well-groomed body on the springs of the sofa...” This description speaks of certain character traits - the laziness, effeminacy of the master. But the question arises why Tolstoy does not create a direct portrait of his heroes. It’s just that the author doesn’t want to disrupt the dynamism of the narrative or slow down the pace of development of fast-paced events, which is why he highlights the characteristic features of his characters as the action progresses.

But it also happens that Tolstoy cannot do without direct portrait characteristics. As a rule, such a description records the changes that have occurred in the character. Here, for example, is a portrait of Karenin, given through the eyes of Anna: “Anna, who thought that she knew her husband well, was struck by his appearance... His forehead was frowned, and his eyes looked gloomily ahead, avoiding her gaze; the mouth was firmly and contemptuously compressed.

In his gait, in his movements, in the sound of his voice there was a decisive firmness that his wife had never seen in him.” In Tolstoy's novel "" the author uses various artistic media for the psychological disclosure of images: internal monologues, landscape, author's comments, symbolism, etc. But, it seems to me, the most important means of psychologism is still portraiture.

After all, in the novel “Anna Karenina” there are 287 characters, main and secondary, and for each of them their own individual and deeply psychological portrait is outlined. Karenina” is, like all the works of a brilliant writer, not only a story about a family. “Leo Tolstoy,” wrote Stasov, “rose to such a high note that Russian literature has never hit before...

With a wonderful sculptor’s hand, he knows how to sculpt types and scenes that no one had known before in all of our literature... “Anna Karenina” will remain a bright, huge star of talent forever and ever.” Reactionary critics had a completely different attitude towards the novel. At first they praised Tolstoy, thinking that he would describe the old noble life in the novel and glorify the legends of deep antiquity.

But each new chapter of “Anna Karenina” alarmed and disappointed the zealots of antiquity. They soon became convinced that Tolstoy’s novel was directed against what was dear and dear to them, and they began to denigrate him. What was it about Tolstoy’s new work that frightened reactionary critics so much? They were frightened by the harsh truth with which the writer showed Russian life of that time with all its acute contradictions.

They were frightened by the sharp condemnation of the “dishonest reality” in which such wonderful people as the heroine of the novel Anna Karenina live, suffer, struggle, suffer and die. They were frightened by the mercilessly bright light directed by the artist to that side of the life of the bourgeois-noble society, which they themselves preferred to remain silent about. We are, of course, talking about the family theme of the novel.

“Anna Karenina” begins with the words: “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” And further: “Everything was mixed up in the Oblonskys’ house.” Then we see an even more unhappy family - the Karenins.

Before our eyes, a third similar family, devoid of peace and happiness, is being created and born - Anna and Vronsky. And only the family of Konstantin Levin and Kitty are shown happy. But how much excitement and grief Levin and Kitty experienced before they started their family!

And Levin’s happiness was not serene. He is full of worry and anxiety for the future - of his family, his neighborhood, and all of Russia. Levin is a deeply feeling and thinking person.

At the same time, he is a man of action, of action. A well-born nobleman, a landowner, he sees that all his efforts to preserve and organize his economy are doomed to failure, that noble land ownership will soon come to an end, that a new era is coming, pushing new forces into the arena of social struggle. Levin knows the people well and loves them in his own way. He has no doubt that the interests of the peasants are “the fairest.”

However, he still does not dare to break with the nobility and go over to the side of the people. He never found an answer to the questions: how to live, how to manage, what kind of relationship to establish with the peasants? Tolstoy writes that Levin was possessed by “a feeling of internal anxiety and expectation of an imminent resolution” - the resolution of all the conflicts and contradictions that he actually encountered.

The writer put into Levin’s mouth an eloquent description of the post-reform with the collapse of the old order and the search for new ways. “For us... all this has been turned upside down and is just settling down,” says Levin.

Konstantin Levin spends most of his life in the village. Describing his affairs and days, Tolstoy widely showed rural Russia - the Russia of the landowner and peasant. The novel shows how Russian society lived during this period, how the “old foundations” that had become established for many years serfdom. Anna/Karenina's entire life was spent in the city, and she appears most often in those chapters of the novel that depict St. Petersburg and Moscow aristocratic society.

The life of this society is shown by the writer as artificial, far from real human interests and goals, full of hypocrisy and falsehood. However, these unsightly features are covered with external shine and gloss, and they are not so easy to see. And even Anna Karenina, such a sensitive and subtle person, did not immediately understand what kind of people surrounded her. The fate of the heroine of the novel is deeply sad.

When Anna was a young girl, her aunt married her to Karenin - a dry, callous man, a prominent official who was pursuing a career. A soulless, cold egoist, he even speaks with his son in the language of office orders. “This is not a person, but a machine, and an evil machine,” is his wife’s assessment. Reading the chapters of the novel dedicated to Anna, we clearly see that the reasons for her death lie not only in her passionate and proud character, but also in the social bonds that bind a woman in a bourgeois-noble society.

The “laws” of this society deprive a woman of all independence and place her in complete subordination to her husband. The fate of the heroine of the novel is tragic. Konstantin Levin is full of anxiety for the future.

And yet the novel does not evoke a feeling of hopelessness in the reader. There is a wonderful scene in “Anna Karenina” where it is told how, while hunting, Levin, walking through the forest, noticed old, dry leaves moving. It was the needle-sharp sprouts of young grass that pierced them from below. “What!

You can hear and see the grass growing,” Levin said to himself. By depicting the spring renewal of nature, Tolstoy instills in the hearts of his readers the belief that the forces of life are irresistible. He affirms the beauty of living life, its victory over the forces of evil and darkness. Completing the novel “Anna Karenina,” Tolstoy came to a sharp change in his views, which had been preparing and brewing for a long time.

A new period has begun in his life and work, “a revolution that has long been preparing in me and the makings of which have always been in me. What happened to me was that the life of our circle - the rich, the learned - not only became disgusting to me, but lost all meaning... The actions of the working people, creating life, seemed to me to be the only real thing... I renounced the life of our circle, admitting that this was not there is life...

“Tolstoy proclaimed as his ideal “the life of simple working people, those who make life, and the meaning that they give to it.”

The very first phrase of the novel “Anna Karenina” by Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy fully reflects the essence - every family has its own misfortune, but everyone is equally happy.

Anna Arkadyevna Karenina is from a family of St. Petersburg aristocrats. She is very close to the ideal - rich, smart, beautiful, reads a lot and writes stories for children, understands art. She believes in love, and love for her is not only romance and dates under the moon, but also a family idyll and friendship. But it is precisely the desire for pure love and personal honesty that alienates her from society. She didn't even look like a society lady from high society. Karenina was filled with simplicity and sincerity, she denied any pretense.

Anna is married, but unhappy and lonely in her marriage. It’s hard for her to live with a man who only plays the role of a living person. Anna does not love her husband Alexei Karenin, and transfers all her love to their son Seryozha. She also believes that there is always the possibility of forgiving a person for the sake of strong family. But Anna’s character is contradictory, because along with this statement she considers love to be stronger than anything, even duty. And at the moment of crisis, this is precisely why she leaves the family, refusing her current husband Karenin’s proposal to show a strong, unbreakable marriage to society. Anna’s life support becomes her love for Vronsky, and this love is like a disaster.

Nevertheless, she remains devoted to her family. Even after leaving Karenin, Anna remains faithful to her son. That's why she sneaks into her former house to wish your little son a happy birthday.

But life with Vronsky is not so good. Anna begins to look within herself for the reason for Vronsky’s changes, why he stays with her only out of obligation and no longer loves her.

Karenina has long been expelled from high society. Any appearance of her in high society causes condemnation, contempt and reproaches. This society can still accept secret betrayal quite tolerably, but it completely denies and does not accept open love for another person. Everyone knows about the adultery of famous ladies, but at the same time they keep their families together; Such hypocrisy has long been considered the norm. Anna cannot accept such a norm.

Anna Arkadyevna's life is filled with internal tension and unfulfilled dreams of independence. She begins to argue with everyone, including her life: “...And I’ll get rid of myself,” the moral support is gone.

The death of the main character can be viewed with different sides. For some it is weakness of spirit, but for others it is strength. The most important thing remains that she entered into a struggle with the recognized foundations of her society and her time.

Option 2

Based on the novel by the Russian classic “Anna Karenina”, many films have been created, both Russian and foreign cinema. The image of the main character, Anna, is shown especially clearly in this work. He appears to us as one of the most complex characters.

Before the readers, the woman appears as a real aristocrat, with a proud gait and a mysterious look. Anna can often be found in secular salons. Her life is known to us at the time when the woman meets Vronsky and things begin to develop between them. love relationship. Anna was married to a respectable man, for whom she did not have any feelings, since she rarely saw him due to her husband’s constant employment. But she had a son, whom she loved dearly and dearly.

And these routine everyday days were interrupted by the appearance of Vronsky, who awakened the feminine principle in Anna. Karenina threw herself into this pool of love, forgetting about family and public opinion. Her feelings were so strong that she even lost consciousness at the sight of her young lover. Karenina leaves her husband, despite his persuasion to show the appearance of a happy family to today's society, while remaining a devoted and loving mother to her child. Secretly sneaking into the house, Anna tries to see Seryozha and congratulate him on his name day.

However, after some time, the relationship with Vronsky no longer seems so good to her, and she thinks about what influenced these changes. Anna endures condemnation and reproaches from secular society. As soon as she appears at receptions and balls, she feels contemptuous glances from friends and acquaintances who understand the secret betrayal, but cannot recognize love in front of everyone. Almost every society lady had a secret lover, but they all kept their marriage. The norm of hypocrisy was often welcomed, but Anna cannot live like others. Becoming suspicious, irritable, living on sedatives, Anna completely despairs and decides to commit suicide by throwing herself under a train. Thus her life candle goes out. By showing the tragedy of the main character, the writer wants to show that such an end came to Anna as a result of a deep disorder of mental values ​​and moral destruction civilization.

Essay about Anna Karenina

The works of the Russian classic Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy can convey to the reader the whole essence of the work from the first words and phrases. Thanks to this, his works were loved not only by film directors, but also by theater directors. For example, the novel Anna Karenina begins with the phrase each family has its own misfortune, but everyone is equally happy, which reflects the whole essence of the future work.

The main character Anna Karenina appears to us as a girl from high society and from a family of aristocrats, but at the same time she is not arrogant, like all the surrounding ladies. Her image is complex and does not fit in with the world around her. She is beautiful and smart, has a huge amount of talent in the field of art and literature. Her soul is filled with simplicity, which does not like pretense, and even despises it. The heroine loves to write stories for children. The main thing in her life is love and the feelings it provides. Love is not only the sacrament of two people in marriage, but even ordinary friendship.

Before us appears a heroine who is married. Karenina is in an unhappy marriage and is accustomed to loneliness. My husband Alexey is constantly at work and traveling, and therefore the emergence of any feelings does not occur. She throws all her love at her son and tries to make him a man of honor and courage.

Tolstoy very clearly shows the moment when Vronskaya appears in the work and new feelings arise between them. This is love and passion, which were unfamiliar to the heroine. Karenina throws herself headlong into this pool of love and it becomes completely unimportant to her what society and her legal husband say. For that established society, such love is considered a disaster, so after leaving her husband Alexei, she does not leave her son. Because of her actions, Karenina's position in society was destroyed. When she appears at social events, she is met with contempt and condemnation. It is somewhat acceptable for them to have a secret affair, but leaving the family for a lover is alien. Gradually, in the depths of her soul, she understands that Vronsky’s love is fading away and tries to understand them.

The death of the main character is tragic and difficult to understand. Karenina, desperate to find the meaning of life, throws herself under a train. One might think that due to weakness of spirit she could not continue to live in this society; on the other hand, this is the force of impulse that came out of the struggle with the modern foundations of that society and the importance of love. Therefore, the main idea of ​​this work flows from the first lines that happiness is usually only a certain image for society, and the happiness flowing from the soul is not available to everyone.

The image and characteristics of Marya Gavrilovna in Pushkin’s story The Snowstorm, essay

The main character, seventeen-year-old Marya Gavrilovna, is the daughter of a wealthy landowner. She is spoiled and beautiful, but pale. Her soul yearns for adventures and emotional experiences. This image attracts our attention.

Essays 9th grade OGE

Here are collected essays of OGE 15.3

Essay What can fathers and sons learn from each other?

In a family, upbringing usually occurs as follows: parents teach the child simple skills from childhood: how to dress, eat, read, write. Next, how to clean your toys, your room, cook food, sew, wash, hold a hammer in your hands.

Anna Arkadyevna Karenina- character in L. Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina”

Plunging into the atmosphere of the novel “Anna Karenina” by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, the reader involuntarily thinks about the difficult fate of a woman, the meaning of her life and the role of love. Characteristic.

The main character of the novel is Anna Karenina appears before us as a secular young woman with a very attractive appearance. She is open, friendly, cheerful. Anna is devoid of all this pretense inherent in society ladies of that time; she is a wonderful mother and loving wife. To those around her, her family seems exemplary. But only Anna knows that behind the ostentatious gloss hides falsehood and pretense. The spouses are not connected by love at all, but only by mutual respect.

Painting by Kramskoy. Prototype of Karenina

A meeting with a fresh wind of change bursts into the life of the main character of the novel. She is fascinated by a surging feeling that she is unable to resist. Anna begins to experience a thirst for life and a need for love. In the end, this passion takes over her completely. At the same time, Anna experiences painful remorse and feels like a traitor. Karenin’s behavior aggravates her condition; he generously forgives the traitor and tries to save the marriage. Anna's feelings for her husband turn from indifference into hatred.

Leaving her husband does not bring Anna Karenina the long-awaited peace of mind. No one and nothing can save Anna from painful thoughts. Her heart ceased to rejoice at both her little daughter and her beloved Vronsky. She is disappointed that her love could not overcome the trials that befell her. The woman begins to blame Vronsky for her troubles:

“My love...everything is becoming more passionate and selfish, but his everything is extinguished and extinguished, and that’s why we disagree, and this cannot be helped.”

The situation is aggravated by the fact that Anna is forced to be separated from her own son. The heroine begins to feel unhappy, and excessive use of morphine completely aggravates her condition. Anna is tired of feeling guilty and doomed; the heroine is increasingly visited by thoughts of death. Karenina's life collapses in a fit of sincere, truthful and real feelings.

The novel is based on the traditional concept of a woman’s morality. The novel clearly shows one of the main themes of Tolstoy’s work - the alienation of the world from man. Anna Karenina's love for Vronsky was under the powerful influence of public censure. Insincerity and disunity in the family became the main reason for the tragedy that happened to this attractive and sincere woman.

Lev Nikolaevich, being a subtle psychologist, in his novel avoids unambiguous characteristics of the heroes and their actions. This allows the reader to evaluate the situation in which Anna Karenina found herself, independently, relying on her own value system and ideas about “bad” and “good.” The author leaves the answer to the question: “Who is to blame for the death of Anna Karenina?” However, he brings the reader to the realization that the main cause of personality destruction is a disorder of mental balance and moral destruction.

Anna Karenina, a character who will have her prototypes at all times. In modern society there are many women who are forced to fight for their love, enter into confrontation with society and contradict themselves. Cinematic and theatrical productions present us with the image of Anna Karenina, through the prism of our own vision.

The death of the heroine can be viewed as mental weakness, or it can be assessed on the contrary, as strength of character. The depth of feelings, integrity of character and topicality of eternal human problems come to the fore in the novel and are realized in the image of Anna Karenina.

Actresses who played Karenina:

Greta Garbo
Vivien Leigh
Tatiana Samoilova
Sophie Marceau
Keira Knightley

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