Anna Karenina Literary Devices

Explanation and Analysis—Vronsky as a Popinjay:

While discussing Kitty's marriage matches, Prince Shcherbatsky expresses approval of Levin as a partner for his daughter. With a metaphor, he demeans Vronsky's character:

I don’t think, I know. It’s we who have eyes for that, not women. I see a man who has serious intentions, that’s Levin; and I see a popinjay like this whippersnapper, who is only amusing himself.

Prince Shcherbatsky compares Vronsky to a popinjay or a whippersnapper, an insult that defines Vronsky as someone only interested in Kitty for his own amusement. For example, Stiva is a popinjay that amuses himself with other women, while Dolly struggles to raise her family. The word popinjay was originally a synonym for "parrot," but it has increasingly come to refer to a supercilious, vain person. A parrot is also a very humorous, flighty animal, so the prince believes that Vronsky is similarly unserious and fickle.

Prince Shcherbatksy believes that Vronsky will fly away and move on to other things without a second thought about his daughter. The princess hears her husband's opinion of Vronsky but refuses to believe it. According to the princess, social status is of utmost importance to her, no matter the quality, intentions, or disposition of the husband.

Explanation and Analysis—Kitty as a Butterfly:

After rejecting several men at the ball, Kitty realizes that she has no partner for the final mazurka. When she sits down dejectedly, the narrative uses a simile and a metaphor to illustrate her predicament:

She went to the far corner of a small drawing room and sank into an armchair. Her airy skirt rose like a cloud around her slender body; one bared, thin, delicate girlish hand sank strengthlessly into the folds of her pink tunic; in the other she held her fan and waved it before her flushed face with quick, short movements. But though she had the look of a butterfly that clings momentarily to a blade of grass and is about to flutter up, unfolding its iridescent wings, a terrible despair pained her heart.

The narrative compares Kitty to a butterfly using metaphors and airy similes. She is a butterfly about to flutter away, with "iridescent wings" and a skirt "like a cloud around her slender body." Kitty is much more delicate and innocent than Anna, who is not only married but also engages in a dramatic love affair with Vronsky. Kitty is just beginning her life, trying to decide who she wants to take as her husband. Anna is the exact opposite of Kitty's new unfolding and iridescence—she is seasoned and moving towards her demise. This butterfly metaphor sets up the idea that as Anna moves towards despair, Kitty moves closer to happiness. The two protagonists must remain in balance, as both cannot live and thrive.

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Explanation and Analysis—The Murderer:

After Anna and Vronsky have sexual relations for the first time—assumed through the uses of ellipses—Vronsky feels a unique sense of dismay at the immutability of his actions. With a metaphor, the narrative describes Vronsky's perception of the situation:

And he felt what a murderer must feel when he looks at the body he has deprived of life. This body deprived of life was their love, the first period of their love. There was something horrible and loathsome in his recollections of what had been paid for with this terrible price of shame. Shame at her spiritual nakedness weighed on her and communicated itself to him. But, despite all the murderer’s horror before the murdered body, he had to cut this body into pieces and hide it, he had to make use of what the murderer had gained by his murder.

Vronsky describes his feelings as those of a murderer, comparing Anna to a victim. Now that Anna and Vronsky have slept together, their affair is permanently marked. In the 19th century, intercourse was a more serious step in relationships, making them official and unchangeable. In the same way that Vronsky cannot undo a murder, he cannot undo what he has done with Anna. As Vronsky sees it, he has blemished Anna's body, and she will be marked by him forever.

In this moment, it seems that Vronsky already regrets his new relationship with Anna but feels he must make use of her now. Vronsky's regret points to both the dangers that await the couple, as well as the moment where Anna’s body genuinely becomes deprived of life. The metaphor, therefore, foreshadows Anna's death, as Vronsky should be in love, not already thinking about Anna’s body as a corpse. Vronsky may not be Anna's actual murderer, but he certainly contributes to her downfall and eventual suicide.

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Explanation and Analysis—Frou Frou's Fall:

When Vronsky makes a wrong move during his horse race, Frou-Frou breaks her back during a bad fall. The story uses an extended metaphor and simile to illustrate the event:

She flew over the ditch as if without noticing it; she flew over it like a bird; but just then Vronsky felt to his horror that, having failed to keep up with the horse’s movement, he, not knowing how himself, had made a wrong, an unforgivable movement as he lowered himself into the saddle. […] He barely managed to free the foot before she fell on her side, breathing heavily and making vain attempts to rise with her slender, sweaty neck, fluttering on the ground at his feet like a wounded bird.

With an extended metaphor and simile, the story compares Frou-Frou to a bird as she flies over a ditch and flutters on the ground. Comparing Frou-Frou—who is obviously large—to a small, fluttering bird emphasizes just how injured and broken she now is—so injured that the men are forced to shoot and kill her. In this moment, it seems like Vronsky perceives an injured beauty as a diminished beauty. Similarly, in Vronsky's eyes, Anna begins as a seductress but later loses her beauty when she becomes pregnant and depressed.

The fall and death of Frou-Frou illustrates Vronsky's tendency to perceive the important and irreplaceable figures in his life as disposable. Vronsky does not realize at this moment or later that his actions have direct repercussions on others' lives. It is his reckless behavior that destroys Frou-Frou and Anna in the end, both of whom are simply victims of his actions.

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Explanation and Analysis—A Faded Flower:

When Anna confronts Vronsky about the actress, he notices that she has changed "morally and physically" and uses a metaphor to depict her deterioration:

She was not at all as he had seen her in the beginning. Both morally and physically she had changed for the worse. She had broadened out, and her face, when she spoke of the actress, was distorted by a spiteful expression. He looked at her as a man looks at a faded flower he has plucked, in which he can barely recognize the beauty that had made him pluck and destroy it. And, despite that, he felt that when his love was stronger, he might have torn that love from his heart, had he strongly wished to do so, but now, when it seemed to him, as it did at that moment, that he felt no love for her, he knew that his bond with her could not be broken.

In this moment, Vronsky admits to himself what Anna truly fears: he no longer loves her. However, in comparing her to a plucked and "faded flower," he demonstrates that he feels responsible for destroying her. He cannot return the newly tarnished Anna to her old life, and yet, he does not feel attracted to her anymore. The behavior that Anna and Vronsky engaged in cannot be undone, and their mistakes are irreparable. The permanence of their actions has created this unbreakable bond between them, despite the fact that their mutual love no longer exists. Now, Anna is a plucked flower, ostracized from society and kept alive only by Vronsky.

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Explanation and Analysis—Bonnet Over the Mills:

When Anna and Vronsky return to Petersburg, Anna is ostracized by society—that is, until she officially divorces Karenin. Princess Betsy visits Anna despite the social repercussions and uses a metaphorical idiom to explain herself:

And, indeed, she went to see Anna that same day; but her tone was now quite unlike what it used to be. She was obviously proud of her courage and wished Anna to appreciate the faithfulness of her friendship. She stayed less than ten minutes, talking about society news, and as she was leaving said:

‘You haven’t told me when the divorce will be. Granted I’ve thrown my bonnet over the mills, but other starched collars will blow cold on you until you get married. And it’s so simple now. Ça se fait. So you leave on Friday? A pity we won’t see more of each other.’

The idiom "I've thrown my bonnet over the mills" is a direct translation from a French idiom, which means to throw caution to the wind. In this passage, Betsy throws caution to the wind by going to see Anna, even though she has been ostracized by society and visiting her is seen as improper. Betsy uses the French idiom to explain how she has given up caring what society thinks—or, more accurately, to illustrate the fact that she refuses to conform to the rules of society. The idiom compares “bonnet” to one’s caution and adherence; throwing the bonnet over the mills, therefore, means to abandon caution. The people in society who do not think for themselves, judge others based on their actions, and then treat them with disdain are the “starched collars” of which Betsy speaks. Through this idiom, Betsy demonstrates the influence of society and its carefully carved rules on behavior.

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Explanation and Analysis—Reading by Candlelight :

Anna finally decides to put an end to her tormented life by jumping in front of a train, just as she witnessed a watchman do in the beginning of the novel. With a metaphor, the story describes her tragic suicide:

And the candle by the light of which she had been reading that book filled with anxieties, deceptions, grief and evil, flared up brighter than ever, lit up for her all that had once been in darkness, sputtered, grew dim, and went out for ever.

This is Anna’s final moment, when she throws herself in front of a train and takes her own life. The story compares Anna’s miserable life to a book that she has been reading, one filled with “anxieties, deceptions, grief and evil.” The metaphor recalls the book Anna was reading on her train ride back to Petersburg after meeting Vronsky. In reading this book on the train, Anna realized she didn’t want to read about others’ lives, but instead live her own life.

This metaphor at the time of her death demonstrates that she achieved her goal of living her own story. Anna escaped the bore of Karenin and took a chance with Vronsky. However, Anna did not expect her story to be filled with such torment, nor did she expect to blow out the very candle keeping her story alive.

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Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina: Metaphors 7 key examples