Ak discussion questions part 3

RUS 424 Tolstoy
AK Discussion questions Part 3

1) When Princess Oblonsky (Darya Alexandrovna) asks the peasant women about their children, children’s diseases, etc – what insights do you gain into her character?
2) Is Alexei Karenin a religious man? What kind of a man is he based on his deliberations preceding the letter to Anna and based on the letter that he writes?
In what way does he approach domestic problems?
3) Princess Betsy’s statement about not looking at things tragically – “one and the same thing can be looked at tragically and be made into a torment, or can be looked at simply and even gaily”. Does this remind you of the French critic’s statement (a contemporary of Tolstoy’s) that Anna should have turned things around by becoming a society diva rather than an outcast and that he saw this as a flaw of the novel. Discuss
4) How does Tolstoy make the reader feel that life of nobility is somehow unnatural? Would you have liked to lead this kind of a life for a day/a week?
5) In what way do Vronsky’s honorable thoughts about the forthcoming duel tragically influence Anna and his fate?
6) Why does princess Darya Alexandrovna consider Levin’s idea of the cow as a machine somehow radical and strange? Would Tolstoy support or reject feminism in your opinion?
7) Why is Levin having so much difficulty in section XXIV to go to visit Kitty?
8) What qualities can we ascribe to Levin after reading about his relationships with his brothers?
9) Why does Koznyshev feel that universal education is important in an advanced society? Why does Levin feel it is unimportant to the peasants?
10) Henry James, the great novelist and critic, called Tolstoy’s works “loose and baggy monsters”. Based on your reading of Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of AK would you agree/disagree with this accusation?