Mosharaf Hossain

MA at University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

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Abstract:

In this paper, I will examine the ethical moral code of the characters, and Tolstoy’s view regarding the issues of religious morality.  Though Tolstoy wrote this many years back, it still has universal appeal to readers' insight, influences the mind of the audience. Throughout the novel, the writer displays the individual's struggle toward society's expectation, and their own way of reaction. Actually, Leo Tolstoy does not appreciate any fixed values or share any moral lesson that we can learn, rather he elaborates the scope of discussion to keep readers in constant thinking, and sympathetic environment.

Keywords: Morality, Religion, Individual, Society

Anna Karenina provides readers with a valuable opportunity to engage with moral intricacies and refine their moral consciousness through a practical and experiential lens. Tolstoy's implicit call to self-awareness is situated in his work, which engages readers in a moral battle rather than imparting a direct moral instruction. The author promotes self-reflection on our moral values by presenting a diverse range of reflective tools inside the text. Similar to the 18th century poets and Russian utilitarian critics, Tolstoy expressed the conviction that literature possesses the capacity to exert a moral influence on its readership. Throughout the entirety of his creative career, Tolstoy steadfastly adhered to the notion that the craft of literature ought to engage with the audience's inherent ability to empathise, so yielding a consequential moral. The author posits that morally impactful literary pieces can evoke empathy in readers, but only if they are able to identify in a character both their own flaws and virtues. Tolstoy, in his later work, posits the notion that in order to effectively portray individuals as paragons of existence, it is imperative to not overlook the inherent human element, including their inherent flaws and failings. In this novel, Leo Tolstoy “focus on the overwhelming miseries of individualism, the impossibility of reconciliation between individual and totality” (Love 64)

Religious morality shapes the overall structure and plot of the novel. The book has eight sections, each of which starts with an epigraph taken from the Bible or early Church Fathers' works. This helps to set the novel in a theological framework and implies that readers will interpret the story's events in light of Christian morals. Numerous characters in the book are fervently religious, and their beliefs influence how they think, behave, and relate to other people. For instance, Levin's religious conversion prompts him to renounce his social standing and seek a simpler, more spiritual existence, while Anna's religious background makes her feel guilty and ashamed of her affair with Vronsky.

Tolstoy employs a sophisticated and intricate application of religious morality in Anna Karenina. He doesn't utilise religion to preach or to offer moralistic responses to the challenging issues raised in the book, rather he employs religion as a means of examining the human condition and posing significant queries on the connection among morality, faith, and significance. Tolstoy's personal religious ideas and ideals affect the narrative style of the novel. Being a devoted Christian, Tolstoy's personal moral and religious convictions are clear throughout the entire book and Tolstoy, for instance, held that everyone is susceptible of atonement, even those who have committed grave transgressions. The way Tolstoy handles all of his characters—even the ones who commit grave errors—reflects this viewpoint.

Religious morality is a set of rules that come from religion, or any legal institutions. The idea of sin comes from religion, by contrast, the concept crime comes from other legal institutions which shape the individual thought. In a state, religion is an essential institution that functions as a moral Department.  In this hypocritical high society, Anna seems empty though she has wealth, social status, and charismatic appearance.

Religious morality plays a significant role in Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina. In this novel, Christian morality is more integrated than social norms. The novel examines the themes of sin, forgiveness, and redemption through the progress of its characters, particularly Anna Karenina and Konstantin Levin. The novel is set in Russia, a time where the Russian Orthodox Church was still a powerful force in society. Tolstoy himself was a deeply religious man, and his views on religion and morality are reflected in the novel.

Anna is an aesthetically pleasing, captivating, and intellectually an astute individual who finds herself confined within a marital relationship devoid of affection. The protagonist develops romantic feelings for Count Vronsky, leading to the initiation of an extramarital relationship between them. The act of adultery committed by Anna is considered a transgression in accordance with both the legal framework of Russia and the moral principles upheld by Orthodox Christianity. The protagonist makes separation from her spouse and offspring, resulting in her ostracization from society. Anna's religious ideas have a nuanced and paradoxical nature. The individual lives in a household with strong religious beliefs, although she exhibits a certain degree of hesitancy or resistance towards organised religion. The individual has the belief that God possesses qualities of love and forgiveness, while simultaneously experiencing a sense of guilt for having transgressed religious moral standards. The individual in question found herself caught in a dilemma, torn between her own personal aspirations and the societal pressures placed upon her.

Levin, on the other hand, is a wealthy landowner who is looking for meaning in life. Without knowing him, Levin cannot lead his smoothly, and he never sees his existence. Despite his strong religious convictions, he experiences doubt. Though he is conscious of his own shortcomings, Levin feels that leading a moral life is important. When Levin's son becomes unwell and passes away, his religious convictions are put to the test. After his loss, Levin starts to doubt his religion, but in the end, he comes to see that God's love transcends all human pain.

Karenin adheres to Russian Orthodox Church teachings, and he considers adultery to be a sin, respects the sanctity of marriage. He makes decisions based on his religious convictions and gives appearance and social conventions first priority. It results in his emotional seclusion and his failure to establish a genuine bond with Anna. However, Vronsky bases his morality on a person's sense of completion and pleasure. He thinks that one should live life to the fullest and follow one's passions regardless of social conventions and laws.

The novel ends with Anna's suicide and Levin's religious epiphany. Anna's death is a tragic consequence of her sin, but Levin's redemption suggests that there is always hope for forgiveness and redemption. Tolstoy does not offer any easy answers about religious morality, rather he shows that sin and forgiveness are complex issues, and that there is no one right way to live a moral life. However, the novel ultimately suggests that God's love is boundless and that redemption is possible for all.

The novel's exploration of religious and moral values raises questions about the nature of morality, the motif of society, and the individual's pursuit of accepting something.  It challenges a reader to consider his own belief and value, and to question the boundaries between personal freedom and society's expectation. The West is different from other nations not only by passionate or conjugal love, but also by its notion of eros, agape, passion, and adultery. When we read Anna Karenina, we have to keep in mind these things respectively. Anna is a very complex character in the design of Tolstoy's art.

If Anna is a fallen woman, why the audience, readers share sympathy for Anna. In this case, Tolstoy is not interested in answering the question directly. Anna, the most read character of the novel, gives priority her imagination over reason. She changes her reality on the basis of her own created world that is out of traditional law, and a moral department. “Anna appears at the beginning of the novel as possessing assured self-control. Her movements are quick, agile, and supple. They possess the utmost grace and delicacy. She is the one who arrives to mend the breach in her brother’s relation with his wife, restoring harmony and order to her brother’s life. Anna wields an almost regal authority—she has triumphed over the ugliness of unchecked desire” (Love 67). When she sits by Dolly's children, they felt mother love in her existence, feel goodness, and become happy at the end. Here, Anna is the reformer of broken relationship though, in the end, she accepts universal rejection by suicide to respect the whole system of society. In Anna’s life, culture and society affects more than her friend and husband, and is more sensitive to social impediment on her search for personal meaning. “For this reason, romantic love feels like fate, and an ideology of amoral fatalism often accompanies it. The lovers live in a realm beyond good and evil. After all, good and evil depend on choice, and where fate governs, choice is out of the question. No matter how much pain the lovers cause, one cannot condemn them. Adultery becomes as noble as revolution, and only narrow moralists worry about the pain caused the betrayed spouse or abandoned children” (Morson 10)

Anna, the most remarkable character, utilises joyful moments of reflection on her past to symbolise the state of innocence, which has been compromised as a result of her engagement with transgression and struggles with moral corruption. Anna demonstrates the capacity to recollect her previous experiences prior to engaging in acts of adultery, encountering controversy, and succumbing to a state of emotional turmoil, which she metaphorically refers to as ‘darkness'. When examined from this perspective, the novel not only illuminates the enigmas and challenges of an individual's self-identity, but also implies that, subsequent to their preferred reality, human beings engage in moral discernment. In contrast to other novels, I believe that the unique appeal of this particular story resides in its capacity to offer a range of varied interpretations. In my opinion Tolstoy’s aim is not to share any mechanical theory to resolve the issues, by contrast, it remains as “unresolved puzzle”.  We know that every piece of great literature is complex, and issues are not solved rather elaborate the way of discussion. Truly, it inspires us looking on entire to understand the complexity of modern life, and share empathy to others.

Orwin shares Tolstoy’s epigraph, that is "Vengeance is mine, I shall repay" (81). When someone asks him the meaning, Tolstoy replies that the selection of the epigraph had the intention of elucidating the concept that the negative actions undertaken by individuals yield repercussions in the form of unpleasant outcomes, which originate not from fellow human beings but from a divine source. This is precisely the experience to convey Anna Karenina herself undergoes. The author's intention is to convey individuals lack the ability to anticipate all the outcomes of their acts, rendering speculative consequences an inadequate basis for moral decision-making. Every action carries with it an inherent ethical implication, so manifesting a moral dimension through our mere engagement in activity. Tolstoy's authorship of Anna Karenina aligns with the aforementioned observation. The absence of explicit preaching or didacticism is notable in the work, as moral concepts are subtly conveyed through the actions portrayed.

In an intellectual approach, we should not compare characters to each other as Leo Tolstoy has no intention to make a character who is better than others. In human history, everyone is different and develop at their own pace, and there is no clue, every individual is distinct. Comparing characters to each other will only damage human beings' self-esteem, and ethical excellency. In my opinion, in life, there will be always ups and down along the way as life is a journey, not a destination.

References:

Gary Saul Morson. Anna Karenina in Our Time: Seeing More Wisely. Yale University Press, 2007

‌“Newsletter.” Www.neweverymoment.net, www.neweverymoment.net/newsletter/2012.htm. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.

‌Donna Tussing Orwin. The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Donna Tussing Orwin. Tolstoy’s Art and Thought, 1847-1880. Princeton University Press, 1993.

Armstrong, Judith. The Unsaid Anna Karenina. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1988.

‌Denis De Rougemont. Love in the Western World. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1983.

Love, Jeff. Tolstoy: A Guide for the Perplexed. Continuum, 2008.