Deep Analysis of Anna Karenina Part Three: Anna's Existential Crisis (Chapters 15-32) (Patreon)

We're wrapping up our reading of Part Three, discussing everything from the Apollonian -Dionysian duality of aesthetics, Anna's existential crisis, how to gain perspective during difficult times, marriage, sublimation, utopia, and dramatic deathbed dialogues.

Below the timestamps, I will offer you some interesting questions to consider as we dive into Part Four (which is going to involve some psychologically robust discussions on ideas of face, sin, and divorce laws).

• 0:00 Anna/Levin and meaning 
• 0:40 what problems are we dealing with? 
• 1:10 losing one’s sense of meaning  
• 1:30 what’s the ultimate art form? 
• 2:20 literature vs painting vs music  
• 3:05 the Apollonian-Dionysian duality of aesthetics 
• 4:30 Anna’s existential crisis  
• 6:00 Anna and her son  
• 7:30 how to generate conflict in fiction  
• 8:00 why we can sympathise with Anna  
• 9:30 “Do you love me?” 
• 12:20 “God has made me so I must love and live.” 
• 13:00 “Was any woman as unhappy as I am?” 
• 14:00 Vronsky and the complexity of other people 
• 14:50 “How I wish I knew others as I know myself.” 
• 15:45 Perspective, the sublime, and difficult times 
• 16:25 if we are small, so are our problems  
• 19:30 Vronsky’s code of rules  
• 21:00 why we might sympathise with Vronsky  
• 23:30 marriage and sublimation  
• 24:30 for most of history, love was weird  
• 26:00 Levin and Nikolai’s deathbed  
• 27:20 the art of irony (and lying as human nature) 
• 28:30 a discussion on death  
• 31:40 what is utopia? 
• 33:00 “You don’t want to set up anything. You simply want to be original.” 
• 34:30 “You only want to coddle your own vanity.” 
• 35:10 the end of Part Three

Questions for you:

1) If Anna Karenina did not exist as a novel, but was instead an opera or a series of paintings, how would your impression, appreciation, and understanding of the characters, world, and story change?

2) What do you feel is the ultimate art form? Or, at least, what is your favourite? Why?

3) Have you ever struggled with a sense of meaning?