Death and the Train Station By Shadman Asif
Anna Karenina, written by Leo Tolstoy, takes the readers through an extensive study of love and trials associated with love. We find Anna and Vronsky to be madly in love with each other in the beginning of the book, both deemed as the cream of the crop in society, fancied by most people and envied by the rest. Anna being married posed a threat to their eternal happiness, especially since Russia at that time did not take kindly to women after divorces or extra-marital affair. But the readers form the impression that they would make the perfect couple, and Tolstoy wrote their story in such a beautiful style and he knew the audience would root for them. But what seemed to be just a mention of a death of a guard at a train station, insignificant to the plot/storyline, turned out to be a great foreshadowing event that maps out the structure and one of the principal theme of the novel. It turn out to be a symbolism of Anna’s ultimate fate.
St. Petersburg, Russia was a city of lavish taste and beauty. The society was quite modern for that time and held liberal values. People held more importance to societal views than religious implications, and had a great taste for the high life and grand parties. The train station served as the black burn mark in the beauty St. Petersburg. It was dark and gloomy, especially with it’s great vulgar metal structures. It was a representative of the working class of St. Petersburg and their poor condition. It shows how St. Petersburg is not as rich and euphoric as it high society makes it out to be and that there are people who are suffering poverty. This contrasting view and symbolism of how looks can be deceiving can be taken as a direct assessment of the relationship that forms between Anna and Vronsky. On the day they met for the first time, at the train station, a guard had been crushed and killed by the train. The first death of the novel...