THE FEMALE SPECTACLE

Objectification of the Female Form in Lev Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

Maria Pushkina

Daughter of Russian Romantic author

Alexander Pushkin

Portrait of an Unknown Woman

By Ivan Kramskoi

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw

By John Singer Sargent

Anna exiting the train station

Vronsky with Frou-Frou before the

race

“Pale, his lower jaw, trembling, he stood over her and pleaded with her to be calm, himself not knowing why or how….but the louder he spoke, the lower she bent her [Anna’s] once proud, gay, but now shame-stricken head, and she became all limp, falling from the divan where she had been sitting to the floor at his feet” (149).

COMPARISON OF ANNA AND FROU-FROU

“His face disfigured by passion, pale, his lower jaw trembling, Vronsky kicked her in the stomach with his heel and again started pulling at the reins” (200).

THE OBLONSKY FAMILY

INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND: THE

OBLONSKYS

“And how nice it all was before that, what a nice life we had! She was content, happy with the children, I didn’t hinder her in anything, left her to fuss over them and the household however she liked” (3).

“’And generally,’ thought Darya Alexandrovna, looking back at the whole of her life in those fifteen years of marriage, ‘pregnancy, nausea, dullness of mind, indifference to everything, and above all, ugliness” (607).

Kitty and Vronsky entering the ball

KITTY AND LEVIN

THE LEVINS