Regaining Control in Anna Karenina Anna Karenina features significant groups of scenes, which depict important moments in the development of the novel's main figures. One of the most important moments is when Anna goes to visit Vronsky. On his journey his perceptions change; casts its "lighthouse" on itself. Arriving at the next station he sees the tracks and knows what needs to be done. Anna has had control over her life taken away from her, due to social limitations on her choices as a woman. She becomes resentful of the society she lives in and directs that frustration at the unsympathetic Vronsky, who retains her freedom and control over her happiness. She is too proud and passionate to live in subordination, as Dolly Oblonsky does. Anna cannot conceive of going on forever as she has been, and at the same time she cannot take pleasure in contemplating her past, or her future, which has no prospect of change. Feeling trapped and unfaithful to her own unwanted desires, she begins to see the entire world as a miserable place populated by miserable, trapped individuals just like her. Only through death does she feel she can secure a place in Vronsky's heart. Death is also the only decision she is free to make on her own. The place that Anna occupies is like that of a child, who invents tasks to fill her time, while others make the decisions that affect her life. Anna tries to take an interest in the English girl's education, writing a children's book, but these are all distractions from the fact that she has nowhere to go. Oblonsky and Karenin meet to try to resolve the question of Anna's future, without inviting Anna to defend herself or in any case to...... middle of paper ......about whether or not the servant will remember to clean the sheets on guest beds. But none of these women's roles are true to his desires. Staying on this earth means putting control of her life in the hands of a man who isn't sure he loves her. Anna's decision is incomprehensible to Madame Vronsky: "Can you understand these desperate passions?" (812). But from our perspective of Anna's mindscape, we can understand them all too well. Works Cited Jahn, Gary R. “The Images of the Railroad in Anna Karenina,” Slavic and East European Journal 2 (1981): 1-10. Mandelker, Amy. “Feminist criticism and Anna Karenina”. Tolstoy Studies Journal III (1990): 82-103 Nitze, Paul H. and preface. Leo Tolstoy's Complete Idiots Guide. London: Henry Z. Walck, 1994.Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Carenina. Trans. Joel Carmichael. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1960.