In Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, one of the main characters, named Levin says; “I believe the chief motive of all our actions to be, when all is said and done, our personal happiness.” In this quote Levin states what he believes to be the meaning of life; he believes that everyone’s goal in life is to find his or her own personal happiness. Being happy is the motivation one has for acting or behaving in a particular way. I believe there are many characters in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina that prove Lenin’s view of life, which is to find personal happiness above all else; these characters consist of Vronsky, Oblonsky, and our eponymous heroine, Anna.
Vronsky is a one of the major characters in the novel who does most things out of personal happiness. At the start of the novel, Vronsky is a bachelor and acts his most primitive desires. An example of this is Vronsky’s attitude towards Kitty, which is captured in one quote
“He did not know that this mode of behavior in relation to Kitty had a definite character, that it is courting young girls with no intention of marriage, and that such courting is one of the evil actions common among brilliant young men such as he was. It seemed to him that he was the first who had discovered this pleasure, and he was enjoying the discovery (55).”
In this quote, the narrator explains that Vronsky was courting Kitty for fun, almost as if it was a game, and had no intentions of marrying her, which was unacceptable in Russian society at the time. This “game” gave him great pleasure and happiness, however it was at the cost of Kitty’s happiness. This shows that his chief motive was his own happiness, rather than anyone else’s. Further along in the novel, Vronsky displays a want for his own personal des...
... middle of paper ...
...she is hopeless, shamed, and depressed. Since she kills herself for the reason, which is to escape the misery of life and find happiness through death, this shows that her motivation for these actions was to find happiness. She kills herself for selfish purposes and in turn hurts everyone who loved her. This demonstrates her motivation for personal happiness.
In conclusion these major characters find motivation through the search of their own personal happiness. These characters all risk destroying their lives as they were because they were unhappy. They take these risks in order to try to obtain this idea of happiness. This quote that Levin says also displays humans nature of being selfish. In order to find happiness these characters had to disregard other peoples’ feelings and happiness. This caused them to only be concerned with their own desires of happiness.
Throughout the short story, “The Lady with the Lapdog”, Chekhov’s strays away from the classical love story expectations by realistically portraying Anna's and Gurov's relationship. Chekhov follows the structure for a romantic tale to a bare minimum, but, ultimately, diverts from the commonly known aspects of a love story, as described by author Leigh Michaels’ “The Essential Elements of Writing a Romance Novel”. Chekok’s alteration from a classical love story thwarts the reader’s expectations by demonstrating realism and uncertainty found in human nature. Chekhov’s technique of applying a realistic lens on this couple raises more questions than answers, leaving much ambiguity for the reader’s own interpretation. By exploring the nuances in human nature, Chekhov illustrates a forbidden love that juxtaposes the universal rubric for what a love story should contain.
The ominous and tragic atmosphere infusing the consummation of their relationship gives a foresight into what is going to happen in the rest of this relationship which is ill-fated. Their love fails to give them the perfect happiness that they envisioned and therefore they begin blaming the social circumstances for their dissatisfaction. The social and familial disapproval that Vronsky encounters angers him. "They have no conception of what happiness is, and they do not know that without love there is no happiness or unhappiness for us, for there would be no life" (Tolstoy, 167). After the fulfilment of their initial desire for each other, they strive to satisfy another desire, a further one. They need to be set free from the need for dissembling and lies, "it was necessary to put an end to all this falsehood, and the sooner the better" (Tolstoy, 168). Vronsky puts it, "throw up everything and let us two conceal ourselves somewhere alone with our love" (Tolstoy, 168). The two lovers eventually achieve
We first meet Dmitri Gurov, a married middle aged man with children, who has been unfaithful to his wife many times. He has a great contempt for women and refers to them as “the lower race”. But strangely can’t get enough of them, “ It seemed to him that he had been so schooled by bitter experience that he might call them what he liked, and yet he could not get on for two days together without the lower race”. He is a player, a playboy. He doesn’t feel comfortable around men so he focuses his energies on the ladies, “In the society of men he was bored and not himself, with them he was cold and uncommunicative; but when he was in the company of women he felt free, and knew what to say to them and how to behave; and he was at ease with them even when he was silent”. He tells women what they want to hear so he can get them to bed, “ In his appearance, in his character, in his whole nature, there was something attractive and elusive which allured women and disposed then in his favour; he knew that, and some force seemed to draw him, too, to them.” This keeps life simple for him.
... sins, but she can’t take back what she did so she will forever have blood on her hands. This guilt and all of the lies she has told is giving her true trepidation and in the end she decided to end her terror by taking her life.
She no longer has a will to repress any untold secrets from the past, or perhaps the past. Since she has strayed far from her Christian beliefs, she has given in to the evil that has worked to overcome her. She believes she is finally achieving her freedom when she is only confining herself to one single choice, death. In taking her own life, she for the last time falls into an extremely low mood, disregards anyone but herself, and disobeys the church.
Throughout history, motivation has been one of the components to survival. Motivation is needed to get up in the morning and go on about the day in order to survive. As humans began to evolve, so did society, which meant our drive and motivation were derived from different goals rather than one common one. Rather than depending on biological drive, humans started to depend on the system of rewarding the good behavior and punishing the bad. This operating is known as Motivation 2.0 (Pink, 2009). However, this method is flawed due to the fact that this implies that humans are no different from a herd of livestock.
...traordinary and is able to love Sonia (Ivants). The two are aware that their love will take years of endurance to finally be fulfilled when Raskolnikov is freed; however, they are also aware of the extremity of the case and are truly grateful for Raskolnikov's rebirth.
It is this selfishness that makes it hard for the reader to be empathetic towards her later in the play, as it is evident in this scene that her hardships were brought on by herself. If she hadn’t insisted on the murder, she would not be driven insane by guilt, which would eventually lead to her death.... ... middle of paper ... ... As we saw, it was plaguing her dreams, and taking a heavy toll on her mental health.
...is wife and hides her body he does not own up to his actions but instead blames the cat as the one “which had been the cause of so much wretchedness”. (254)
Individuals are constantly searching for a way to create the perfect life they dream. Motivation gives them the drive and desire to obtain specifically what they are in need of. In the short stories The Painted Door, by Sinclair Ross, and A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin, the idea that motivations alter the way humans process and interpret information is developed. Ross demonstrates this by using Ann to question her choices during the experiences she faces. Chopin, on the other hand, explores how individuals initiative's alter our behavior. Motivations that individuals experience affect one’s course of action because of their desire to fill what is missing inside them, regardless
...her to feel despair. Her misery resulted in her doing unthinkable things such us the unexplainable bond with the woman in the wallpaper.
Through Duke Ferrara’s description of his departed Duchess, it is apparent that he is a controlling individual whose dissatisfaction with the Duchess’ loose behavior led to him arranging her death. When Duke Ferrara was talking to the marriage negotiator about the portrait he has of his last Duchess, he states, “sir, ‘twas not/her husband’s presence only, called the spot/of joy into the Duchess’ cheek” (13-15). When commenting on the expression of his deceased Duchess in the painting, Duke Ferrara claims that the blush of pleasure on her cheeks was caused by numerous individuals, not solely he. Later summarizing the tragic flaw of the Duchess, Duke Ferrara asserts, “a heart–how shall I say?–too soon made glad,/too easily impressed; she liked whate’er/she looked on, and her looks went everywhere” (23-24). With these words, Duke Ferrara alleges that too many things amazed the Duchess, which dissatisfied him. Also through “her looks went everywhere” (24), Duke Ferrara uses a reference to sexual promiscuity to demonstrate his anger toward her lack of emotional restraint. At the end of his monologue, Duke Ferrara discusses the repercussions of the Duchess’ flirtation: “O...
The narcissism of the narrator contributes to the overall darkness of the story and is largely conclusive to the dark and the underlying malevolence of Poe’s own conscience. The cat in “The...
Since animals, usually pets, are sometimes an essential part of one’s life, it is not surprising that we find frequent references to its role in works of social realism, such as Wislawa Szymborska’s Poems New and Collected and Milan Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being. Animals in literature could be used to symbolize all sorts of things, but in particular, animals may represent the personality of a character. This is because as humans and animals co-exist in the same atmosphere, certain aspects of a character reveal themselves in the compassion or even hatred towards the animal. Since animals are often known to trigger the interests of humans, the attitude of the humans towards the animals contributes much to character revelation. Both Szymborska and Kundera use animals to symbolize character personality in their works. Therefore, through looking at animals, although it does seem to be a very commonplace topic, we may gain insight to what the writers are trying to convey about the character. This paper will compare the ways the writers use animals to determine a character’s personality or characteristics.
As the narrator describes how people line up to see the character due to the fact that she comes back after every suicide attempt the narrator explains why her character does it. Plath reveals that the character does it “so it feels like hell. /I do it so it feels real” (46-47). The narrator is using a hyperbole to explain why her character commits suicide, we can understand that she does it in order to flee from everyone who sees her as a showcase. Moreover, it is a hyperbole because no one would want to feel the pain of hell which makes it exaggerated. Therefore, Plath also uses a hyperbole to explain that her character views suicide as “[a] miracle! /[t]hat knocks [her] out” (55-56). The character views death as a miracle which is a hyperbole because no one views death as a miracle but a tragedy. Moreover, the character views death as a miracle because it takes her out from reality and all her problems which to her it’s a miracle because she doesn’t have to deal with it. Therefore, death allows the character to escape from her problems by being in a place where she doesn’t have to