April 12, 2024
After a winter of reading, I am finally wrapping up the last few pages of my worn and torn copy of Anna Karenina. Tolstoy had this uncanny ability to climb into the minds of his characters and so was able to reveal truths and ideas about life. There are certain things about the human condition that are timeless, and that is why I so appreciate his writings.
The story takes place in Russia in a time long past, and yet it is a story that resonates as much today as it did in the late 1800’s. Anna is in a loveless marriage that was arranged for her at a young age. She accepts this until one day, by chance, she meets a charming man. They fall desperately in love with each other, but she must sacrifice everything including her child and her home to be with him. Because divorce was not a possibility at the time, she must live with the shame of being a compromised woman and a failure as a mother. She is scorned by her acquaintances and her friends, if you want to call them that. She feels constrained by her circumstances while her lover is able to continue living his life and doing his duties with society’s approval. This doesn’t sit well with her, and that becomes a sticking point for the two of them. She wants to rebel against this unfairness but does not have the means to do so. Eventually, her societal struggle pales in comparison to her internal struggles and demons.
Yes, this was back in 19th century Russia, when most women had very little rights no matter what country they lived in. It’s hard to imagine that just a century ago women got the right to vote here in America. For most of humanity and for most cultures upon the earth, women have had to accept their place as beings with less rights than men. However, through so much hard work by so many, society began to evolve and learned to accept the idea that a woman’s strength can flourish outside the confines of home and hearth.
We’ve come so far … or so it had seemed until recently. Now, it seems that a woman’s ability to determine her own life is being chipped away bit by bit. My little granddaughter turns two this month. As I write this piece, she is intently watching my keystrokes (and occasionally adding a letter or two with her little fingers). I wonder what the future will bring for her? Will she have all the choices that her grandmother had? Will there still be a world of possibilities at her fingertips? Or, will she grow up in a world where her dreams are destined to be just that … dreams.
