Views on Marriage and Divorce in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina Essay

Kate Chopin is an experienced short story writer from the beginning of the 1900s, who was ahead of her time due to her amazing ability to take such complex characters that are easy to identify with and create amazing short stories in such a small amount of space. Marriage is a common theme in her stories, because a "wife" was a defining role in women's lives back then. The only thing is, marriage is not always shown to be flowery and romantic like writings before her. She looked at the painfully real side of how marriage can be good and bad, notably in The Story of an Hour and The Storm. Kate Chopin's attitude towards marriage is primarily negative because it can become dull and it can repress women, yet at the same time her

Marriage unites two people for better or worse, in sickness and health, until death they do part. In earlier times, some people might say wedding vows were taken more seriously; other say divorce was different back in the day. Looking at Katie Chopin and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who both exemplify martial vows in their short stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “The Birthmark.” It is clear in one instance, it was because divorce was different but then on the other hand the stories demonstrate the seriousness of the wedding vows. However, these stories express a husband-dominated relationship, in which the men possess ideals such as possession, perfection, and being all knowing.

In his novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy offers his audience a glance into the life and death of an ambitious man, Ivan Ilych. Tolstoy uses the death of Ivan Ilyich to show his audience the negative consequences of living the way Ilych did. Ivan Ilych followed society and made decisions based on what others around him conformed to and not so much about what he genuinely wanted until he was on his deathbed. As death approaches Ilych he realizes that he wrecked everything that should be meaningful in his life in order to work and make money and in the end his friends did not really care much about him. Ilych’s desire to conform made him live a miserable life and led him to darkness. Ivan Ilych attained everything that society

Marriage is an important stage in people lives, for this is when someone has found someone to live the rest of their life with and to love. This is a general idea of marriage, for a study was done to see what University Students think the meaning of marriage and stated “Marriage, which includes the coupling of two people possessing different interests, desires and needs, is a special association given shape by social rules and laws and significantly affects individuals’ development and self-realizations … meeting both individuals’ biological, social, psychological and motivational needs, bringing new generations to world, gaining a place in society, the feelings of being safe and protected, the sense of cooperation, being confident about the future, feeling proud of each other” (Özyiğit 680). This shows what a group of people thinks about marriage, and the problem with the group that taken the survey were generally young people who have no idea what marriage is for they may not be married. Kate Chopin knowing how serious people take marriage poked fun at it with many of the stories she wrote during her time. Chopin’s stories would be about what people see as forbidden during a marriage such as the wife having an affair with someone and the wife truly not loving her husband. The short story “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin story demonstrates the tyranny within some marriages which relates to current day marriages.

Furthermore, in Leo Tolstoy‘s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and analysis will demonstrate that the character Ivan Ilyich struggles throughout his life to achieve the ideals of liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness. It is through Ivan’s death and his friend’s narration of Ivan’s life that the reader comes to the realization the the middle-class Ivan has few strength’s besides his hard work to drive him towards his ideals for wealth and property. Ivan lived his whole life with the purpose of enjoying himself. He did this through winning power at work, spending money, buying things to impress his friends, throwing parties, and playing bridge. His pursuit of happiness in material things and pleasures is so great that his deliberately avoids anything unpleasant. This means that when he settled down with a family, which was expected of him, he never grows close to them.

The character that are talking in this section are Vronsky and Ambassador’s wife. This passage is about if marriage should happen through two of the people falling in love or if it should be with reason (getting married because of politics). Before this passage was said the group of society elites were discussing the marriage between Vlasyeva and Topov. After this passage was spoken Anna Karenia and Vronsky discuss their feelings between each other. Anna feels that Vronsky should go back to Kitty and apologize to her for leaving her. Anna is conflicted with her feelings towards Vronsky but feels that he should do right by Kitty.

Marriage has been a heated controversy for the past few years because people often marry for the wrong reasons. Anyone who thinks of an ideal marriage would think of two people loving each other and sharing a personal bond or goals together. Marriage is regularly defined as the legally or formally recognized union of two lovers as partners in a personal relationship. This definition remarks there is an actual connection between two people in marriage, but do people actually consider this when committing to “love” and “support” their partners forever? As research and studies have shown, people ultimately get married for many reasons, except love. This philosophy can be easily applied to the short poem, “Marriage” by Gregory Corso. In this emotional poem, the author argues marriage is more effectively understood or known for culture and convenience rather than through the abstract considerations of love. Here, we can identify people generally decide to marry for the incorrect reasons, for instance the story of the author himself. Corso finds himself confused multiple times, wondering if he should marry to not be lonely, for tradition and for his physical and mental health. He disregards love, a relationship or a connection with his future wife. General ways of convenience like loneliness, health and economic status between cultural stereotypes and religion are usually the true reasons of why people chose to have the commitment of marriage with another person.

    In the time frame that this story is set, many major life decisions things are made taking into account one’s duty to family - including the selection of a husband or wife.  It is possible that each of these couples may not have been in love,  when their vows were stated.  They have a duty to society; they must not marry outside of their social class.  They have a duty to their family;

The stark divide between love and marriage shown right the way through cannot be comprehended fully by the twenty-first century reader: in today’s society marriage and love are mutually exclusive - you very rarely get one

Popular descriptions of Alexei Karenin label him as a cold and passionless government official who doesn’t care about his wife or family. Indeed, he is viewed as the awful husband who is holding Anna hostage in a loveless marriage. However, this is a highly exaggerated description, if not completely false, analysis of Karenin. Upon careful analysis of Karenin’s character and his actions, it is clear that he is not the person Anna makes him out to be. In fact, with thorough examination of the passage on pages 384 and 385 of Anna Karenina, it is clear that Alexei Karenin can be considered the hidden tragic hero of the novel.

One of the themes of Tolstoy’s story of The Death of Ivan Ilych is detachment from life, considering that all material things can substitute the true meaning of life: compassion and care for others. “Everywhere in the novel, Tolstoy speaks of Iván Ilych's desire for propriety, decorous living, and pleasantness all while making this his first and most important priority. This motivation is a poor

The theme of the two stories revolves around the feminist issue of marriage. A common notion between the two short stories is that love is a failure and a mere comic when there is the failure to recognize the beloved as a person and not a mere convenience. The stories also deal with the 18th and the 19th century American life?declining in their spiritual and emotional lives.

England has always had a rich history of interesting cultural traditions but arguably none as prevalent as marriage. Marriage, the union of two people with emotional ideals and expectations, are brought on by many different factors that include: for love, for money, for climbing social status, escapism, survival, etc. In Jane Austen’s novels, she focuses on the importance of marriage in her world because she wanted to emphasize how marriage is the most important life event of a woman as this would determine her place in society. Persuasion shows readers good and bad examples of marriage: the amiable Crofts and other couples such as Sir Walter & Lady Elliot and the Smiths. Jane Austen uses the Crofts to support the importance of marriage

    In the opening sequence of the film, the viewer is immediately presented with an image of marriage as entirely contractual: "Today he married me to a man I've not yet met." The protagonist, although she has already been established as strong-willed and non-conforming, is accepting but not altogether optimistic about the arrangement. The viewer also learns that she

We will begin with an analysation of his family situation. Praskovya, his wife, had been a love constructed from the start of an economic and sociological expectation rather than that of a true courtship. The happiness therefore of the union was derived solely of a necessity to fulfill a desire on the part of others for a “success” of sorts, surely her desire as well. “Ivan Ilyich could have counted on a more illustrious match, but even this one was quite good. He had his salary, and her income, he hoped, would bring in an equal amount. (Tolstoy, 56)” Tolstoy goes on to make several remarks on the benevolent nature of the relationship between he and his wife. The arrival of his children creates no great marker in his life, and proves to be little more than a factor in his ever-lengthening retreat into his life of solitude and work.