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Theme Of Anna Karenina

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The context of the next significant death in the novel decidedly contrasts the death of Nicholas Levin. Anna Karenina, after falling from grace and her elevated social stratum, desperately searches for meaning in her life. She fears that she no longer provides Count Vronsky with any sort of pleasure and constantly seeks to improve herself in order to keep his attention and love focused on her. In a constant state of inadequacy, Anna cannot even sleep without a heavy dose of opium. Anna grows dependent upon the drug, and one night, “She poured out her usual dose of opium and thought that she need only drink the whole phial in order to die, it seemed to her so easy and simple that she began thinking with pleasure of how he would suffer, repent, and love her memory when it was too late” (Tolstoy 680). Tolstoy foreshadows Anna’s demise in this passage. Anna feels that, were she to kill herself, she could finally solicit the attention and love she craves so adamantly. However, on further considering this avenue, “All was darkness. ‘Death!’ she thought. And such terror came upon her” (Tolstoy 680). She quickly dismisses this thought, desiring to live her life fully. However, the seeds of something horrible are planted in her mind. Those seeds sprout as Anna continues to trudge through her lackluster life. Anna stumbles upon the train tracks, and, “Suddenly remembering the man who had been run over the day she first met Vronsky, she realized what she had to do” (Tolstoy 694). Anna

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