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Part 8, Chapter 18
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Anna Karenina, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Marriage and Family Life
Adultery and Jealousy
Physical Activity and Movement
Society and Class
Farming and Rural Life
Compassion and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
Levin watches the storm as it fades into the distance: at each bolt of lightning, the Milky Way appears to disappear, but then it returns. He is still disturbed by the relationship of God to the rest of mankind, but then he realizes the he can’t think about all of the incredibly small, intricate variables; rather, he has to just trust that God takes care of everyone. He hears Kitty and is about to tell her about his epiphany but decides that it’s his own secret. He realizes that even though he is human and not flawless, his life has the unquestionable meaning of the good in it.
Just as with God, even though the galaxy might appear to disappear sometimes, Levin must have faith that it always continues to exist whether or not he can see it. Levin’s turn to the skies allows Tolstoy, in the end of the novel, to open back into the rest of the world. He uses Levin’s spiritual revelation to make the reader understand that though the story depicted here might appear to be a domestic tale of a few interwoven individuals, the emotional resonances and moral epiphanies are a part of the larger world of nature and of man.
Themes
