Tolstoy?!!!?
- Stillost
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Tolstoy?!!!?
I was really overcome after reading war & peace, i loved it so much i had to read anna karenina next and that was just as good with characters even more perfect and clear in their creation, if possible.
I have a question though, the thing that really got me was that one of the characters seemed to share so much of my ideas and thought and personality, it made me wonder does everyone feel this way, i there a tolstoy character in us all, and if so which one?
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I’ll take a guess that you identified with Levin (in AK, I haven’t read W&P yet). I thought he shared a lot of my ideas and characteristics, though that may be a trick of how he was represented by Tolstoy, because he was based on the author himself. Maybe because the author saw himself in the character we see ourselves in the same character?
- Stillost
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Yeah, you picked true, levin and pierre, and i read that too, that levin was the character most closely related to tolstoy, thats why i wanted to see how true the other characters are.thisislissa wrote:I often feel that way, though not just about Tolstoy. In the end I think it’s the job of any good author to create characters so vital that we see ourselves in them, maybe no one does this better than Tolstoy (haven’t read enough to give a strong opinion, but he’s on the short list).
I’ll take a guess that you identified with Levin (in AK, I haven’t read W&P yet). I thought he shared a lot of my ideas and characteristics, though that may be a trick of how he was represented by Tolstoy, because he was based on the author himself. Maybe because the author saw himself in the character we see ourselves in the same character?
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As to the truth of the other characters, I don’t know. Anna is incredibly vital, but I can’t think that many people would identify with her deeply, she’s so selfish. For the reader to identify with the character maybe the author has to have a certain relationship with that character too. No matter how well Tolstoy paints Anna, he still views her as Other, he still judges her while writing. While reading, one can feel that Tolstoy disapproves of Anna. Oblansky is another possibility. I liked him a great deal, I identified with him a little bit (maybe he was Tolstoy before Tolstoy discovered morality?). The remaining characters were less completely drawn (even Oblonsky was more of a sketch, but I though he was a sympathetic sketch). Maybe the reader can only say ‘this is me’ if the author also says ‘this is me’.
- Stillost
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Yeah pierre is in w&p, i think he is alot like levin but perhaps a bit lighter, a bit smoother maybe. I know what you mean when you say he disapproves of anna, like he know's where her action's will lead, but i can relate to some of her behavior funnily enough, there's little reason in her decisions, but it seems with oblansky she has no power over her reason as she did before.thisislissa wrote:Pierre was in W&P? I don’t remember him if he was in AK. Like I said above, I haven’t read W&P yet so I’ll have to confine my discussion to AK.
As to the truth of the other characters, I don’t know. Anna is incredibly vital, but I can’t think that many people would identify with her deeply, she’s so selfish. For the reader to identify with the character maybe the author has to have a certain relationship with that character too. No matter how well Tolstoy paints Anna, he still views her as Other, he still judges her while writing. While reading, one can feel that Tolstoy disapproves of Anna. Oblansky is another possibility. I liked him a great deal, I identified with him a little bit (maybe he was Tolstoy before Tolstoy discovered morality?). The remaining characters were less completely drawn (even Oblonsky was more of a sketch, but I though he was a sympathetic sketch). Maybe the reader can only say ‘this is me’ if the author also says ‘this is me’.
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- Stillost
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And as for kitty, i mean no offence when i say, you must be a woman, her charm is her innocence, she's full of love, of life, not caught up with society. She put's you on the wrong foot right away by choosing vronsky, when we can see how much she means to levin, so it's hard for her to get your good opinion. But i think she grew in the story into someone worthy of levin.
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Maybe I'm not making sense here, all I'd really like to hear is other people's opinions on TDOII! [/i]
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I haven't read The Death of Ivan Ilyich, but I'm a med student and one of my professors said that if i like tolstoy this would really be a good book to read. It's about dying with dignity isn't it?
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