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Levin's Life
Lessons
By
Andrew Kaufman
Andrew Kaufman is a Tolstoy
expert and Russia enthusiast whose own life has been affected
by Tolstoy's novels. Here he shares his personal perspective
on what Levin taught him about being a man, and other
universal truths Levin's experience might hold for readers
everywhere.
Tolstoy's Guide to
Everyday Living
During periods of confusion in my
life, I often turn to my family for emotional support, to my
God for faith, and to Tolstoy for insight and inspiration. I
believe Anna Karenina is one of the greatest guidebooks
to positive, everyday living I have encountered. Tolstoy
doesn't simply give us the answers. Like any great teacher, he
encourages us to seek out the answers on our own. Who am I?
Why am I here? What will make me happy?
As a man who
loves this book, I hope that when other men read this book,
they might recognize themselves in at least one of the male
characters, and take Levin's lessons to heart—it could lead to
improvements in the quality of their intimate relationships
for years to come. Tolstoy gives readers more than advice. He
gives vivid and stirring portraits of individual human beings
caught in specific, yet highly recognizable, life situations.
Men at Work
Take it
from me that most men have great work ethics except when it
comes to matters of love. When we do put work into building
relationships, we tend to concentrate our energy on finding
love rather than giving it. We focus on the qualities that we
believe will make women love us—like Karenin, Vronsky
and Stiva, who focus on power, popularity and success—rather
than on the qualities that will make us truly loving
partners—like Levin, Lvov and, to some extent, Prince
Shcherbatsky, who are attentive, emotionally open and
self-sacrificing. The situation was not so much different in
Tolstoy's time. Most of Tolstoy's male characters, who work so
hard at advancing their careers, upholding their social images
and impressing their peers, are much less disciplined, even
lazy, when it comes to working at love.
In holding up
a mirror to his time, Tolstoy holds up a mirror to ours as
well. Men today can probably discover themselves in at least
one of the male characters. However, only Levin finds
happiness, because—by nature and by choice—he has what it
takes to build a loving, committed relationship. His many
years of emotional and spiritual struggle have served him
well. They have taught him the values of patience, openness,
commitment and self-sacrifice. Throughout the novel, Levin
seeks a higher meaning in his life, and that meaning is often
bound up with his ideals of love and marriage.
The Good Husband
From the very
beginning of the novel, as a woman and as a person, Kitty is
sacred to Levin. When he sees her ice-skating early in Part
One, he is overwhelmed by joy and fear: "The place where she
stood seemed to him unapproachably holy and there was a moment
he almost went away—he was so filled with awe." (p. 28) Levin
never loses his belief in Kitty's sacredness. Though they
argue and have daily struggles like all couples, Levin remains
eternally grateful to be in such a deeply satisfying
relationship with the woman of his dreams.
Unlike most
of the other men in the novel who keep their emotional life
and their married life separate, Levin brings all of his inner
resources to his relationship with Kitty. He lays himself bare
before her and invests his heart and soul into the bond they
build together. "He understood not only that she was close to
him, but that he no longer knew where she ended and he began."
(p.482) As a husband, Levin doesn't just take on the "manly"
responsibilities of working and earning a living. He also
strives to be responsive to his wife's needs. "Her petty
fussing and cares several times offended him. But he saw that
she needed it. And loving her as he did, though he did not
understand why, though he chucked at those cares, he could not
help admiring them." (p.480). Levin provides a model of what
it means to be a man of courage, ideals and heart. Levin finds
happiness in love because he is not afraid to make himself
emotionally vulnerable and to put his love for Kitty higher
than his love for himself.
The
Hope of a Man
More than any other man in the novel,
Levin struggles desperately to find faith and meaning in an
uncertain world. This is the source of much of his suffering.
None of the "solutions" provided by organized religion or the
other social institutions of his time satisfy Levin. Yet
despite Levin's moments of confusion, hurt and loss, I believe
he embodies a message of hope. Consider the many moments of
bliss and wonder that he experiences: the sublime love leading
up to and during their marriage, his terrified rapture during
the birth of his son, his feelings of ecstasy while mowing
with his peasants in the fields. Even by the end of the novel,
Levin never becomes a purely religious believer, but realizes
that his life does have a higher purpose: "…my whole life…is
not only not meaningless, as it was before, but has the
unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to
put into it." (p. 817) Happiness and meaning, Levin discovers,
come from within.
Just as Tolstoy describes vice and
frailty, he also describes the courage of the human spirit. In
Levin, Tolstoy expresses his faith in the human potential for
self-transformation. Tolstoy came to this faith the hard way.
More than once in his life, the author was on the verge of
suicide. In fact, the scene in Part Eight in which Levin hides
the ropes and rifles so that he won't kill himself was
actually taken from the pages of Tolstoy's own life. "But
Levin did not shoot himself or hang himself and went on
living." (p. 798) So did Tolstoy.
What was the
powerful inner spark that brought both of them back from the
brink of despair? It was Tolstoy's (and Levin's) conviction
that, no matter how difficult things can sometimes become,
life is always worth living. Remember, the novel doesn't end
with Anna's tragedy, but with Kitty and Levin's productive
family life in the country. Both of these truths—the suffering
and the joys of life—are perfectly intertwined in
Anna Karenina. One cannot exist without the other. But
the balance tilts towards happiness in the end. As Levin's
journey shows, no matter how badly human beings stumble and
fall, the strength and beauty of the human spirit always
shines through.
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