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Get every literary device explanation for Anna KareninaPlus so much more...
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Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—The Search for Happiness:
While on her way to the train station, Anna's mental state deteriorates even further, demonstrated by the irony of her thoughts and situation:
‘Well, I’ll get the divorce and be Vronsky’s wife. What, then? Will Kitty stop looking at me as she did today? No. And will Seryozha stop asking or thinking about my two husbands? And between me and Vronsky what new feeling will I think up? Is anything—not even happiness but just not torment—possible? No, nothing!’ she answered herself now without the least hesitation. ‘Impossible! Our lives are parting ways, and I have become his unhappiness and he mine, and it’s impossible to remake either him or me. All efforts have been made; the screw is stripped. Ah, a beggar woman with a child. She thinks she’s to be pitied. Aren’t we all thrown into the world only in order to hate each other and so to torment ourselves and others.’
At the start of the novel, Anna is unsatisfied with her life and attempts to find happiness. However, her search for happiness through an affair with Vronsky only results in her further depression and eventual death. Such is the irony of her life that her pursuit of happiness causes her such unhappiness.
The tragedy of Anna’s story is the moment she realizes that nothing will make her happy, not even a divorce from Karenin. She fears that her relationship with Seryozha is forever ruined, that her stature in society is forever tainted, and that Vronsky will never love her as much as she loves him.
Vronsky, the person who once brought her joy and excitement, has now become the root of all of her unhappiness. Anna believes that Vronsky's love for her is fading, so he has become the cause of her madness and unhappiness. On the other hand, Vronsky stays and loves Anna now only out of duty to their child, so she has become the cause of his unhappiness. The two will never be able to find peace together if they cause each other such torment.
Even more ironic is how many people, though they scorn her choices, believe that Anna is happy with her new lover and that she has taken control of her life by chasing her desires. In reality, Anna has never been more miserable.
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