Name: Shivam Yadav

Roll no: 16/31004

Dayal Singh College

Women Education and Livelihood in Anna Karenina

This essay will focus on debates and questions raised by Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina that
were concerned with women education and livelihood in nineteenth century Russia. It will deal
in detail with the position of women in Russia during the Tolstoys time, and how Tolstoy as an
author depicts and deals with women issues and problems. As a reader of Anna Karenina, one
can also conclude, to some extent, Tolstoys views on role of women in society, their education,
rights, and livelihood.

When one thinks about debates surrounding women education and various other women
questions in Anna Karenina, immediately, Oblonskys dinner party in book four, chapter ten
comes to mind. It is the part where the so- called intellectuals of Moscow and Petersburg like
Karenin(Annas husband), Kosznyshev (Levins half brother), Pestsov including others were
invited by Stephen Arkadyevich Oblonsky(Stiva) to his dinner party.

The debate in Oblonksys dinner party actually shifts its focus from russification of Poland and
how one country can decide to annex other countries, to that of women education quite
abruptly. And, the man who made efforts to bring everyones attention to this very pertinent yet
neglected issue of not only nineteenth century Russia but whole of Europe was Pestsov.
Throughout the debate, which was mainly interesting to these three guys (Karenin, Pestov and
Kosznyshev), one witnesses each of them giving their viewpoints while countering to that of
others. Besides, it was Pestov who was clearly seen as the great supporter of emancipation of
women, of their education and rights. When Karenin claimed that there is no such problem with
education of women unless that education is also associated with their complete liberation
(which in his opinion can be injurious to the society and family), at that time, Pestov, unlike
Karenin, talked about the vicious circle that women are trapped in. He says, that question of
women education and their rights are not separate but are co-related, i.e. women are deprived
of education because of their lack of rights, and similarly, they are deprived of their rights
because of their lack of education. Only Kosznyshev and Pestsov among all male characters in
Anna Karenina, to some degree, consider women as an individual with their own rights and
own personal life, rather than being a mere toy used by men to fulfill his sexual as well as
other desires and needs.
In Karenin, one can clearly see a man whose failures in marriage and his inability to keep his wife
away from adultery has led to his reluctance to show support for women education and
emancipation. One can assume why Karenin wants some restrictions to be put on women and
the education they get, or else, according to him, they all will perhaps turn into a fallen
women like her wife Anna. Both Kosznyshev and Pestsov consider women able enough to take
part in works that are usually associated with man if they are given proper education. That it will
also help men, as women will share and lessen the burden of work from men. In Pestsovs
opinion, the biggest problem in society is- marginalization and suppression of women, which
makes them unable to handle the high intellectual work, while simultaneously portrays them
as person who are better suited only as mothers and wives to nurse and comfort their life.
Societys general disregard for women and their upliftment can be seen in the words of Old
Prince's reply. He finds Pestsov and Kosznyshev's discussion completely pointless, and says that a
woman can not do a mans work in the same manner as a man can not be a wet nurse. The
sarcasm in his observation, when he feels unfairly treated like women because he isnt allowed
to play the role of a wet nurse, is quite obvious. How low and incapable a woman is considered
as an individual in nineteenth century society or even today is shown in the proverb that Old
Prince quoted, which is- a womans hair is long but her wits are short.

Tolstoy is often criticized as being misogynist in the portrayal of women character in Anna
Karenina. The parallel that has been drawn between life of Stiva Oblonsky and Dolly, Anna-
Vronsky and Levin- Kitty is important to understand the treatment of men, women and marriage
by Tolstoy. In Dolly and Stiva, one sees Tolstoy's presentation of a typical married couple who
have neither something to be admired nor something to be despised. But, in case of Anna and
Vronsky as well as in Levin and Kitty one sees two extreme cases; while the former are looked
down upon and outcasted from the society for being in an adulterous relationship, whereas the
latter is being heightened so much that it is considered as an ideal. The pathetic condition of
women in this novel is quite obvious. If a woman tries to live her own independent life fulfilling
her individual desires and giving them more priority than to her husband or father, then she may
face the same fate as did our heroine of this novel Anna. According to the 19th century Russian
society, women should fulfill and perform the task that they are bound by nature (to avoid the
unfortunate fate), i.e. to bear children and nurse their kids and serve their husband for their
entire life. Additionally, what women feels is not significant to contemporary Russian society of
Tolstoy, and this case is clearly visible in the life of Dolly where women is presented as nothing
but a child producing machine. And, if a woman is unable to fulfill this primary job then she
must help other women in doing this, like Varenka or Levins maid. Kittys realization of her
uncertain future in case she is unable to find a suitable husband made her, as one can assume,
to accept Levins proposal, which she has earlier rejected, even though, Tolstoy depicted them as
someone who truly loved each other.

Gayle Green in her essay, Women, Character and Society in Tolstoys Anna Karenina rightly
talks about the piteous condition of women when she says that the ideal depends on a
conception of women as a creature suited to be happy in her condition, bearing and raising
children, tending home and hearth, appearing when needed and disappearing when in the way.
A woman is considered good only when she fulfills her main duty of childbirth and caring for her
family, but as soon as she tries to find her own identity and seeks for fulfillment of her life she is
considered to be threat to the society and must be suppressed. But as a reader, one should
praise the genius of Tolstoy in providing such in- depth portrayal of women and society. Tolstoy
depicted the reality and the way things were rather than how things ought to be.

Bibliography

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Norton critical edition, The Maude translation)
Greene, Gayle. Women, Character, and Society in Tolstoy's Anna
Karenina. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 1977, pp. 106
125. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3346113.
Meyer, Priscilla. Anna Karenina, Rousseau, and the Gospels. The Russian
Review, vol. 66, no. 2, 2007, pp. 204219. JSTOR, JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/20620533.