The Eternal Quest for the Complicated as Acknowledgement of Personal Limitation in Tolstoy’s Works

Tolstoy and his characters seek the answers the life’s toughest questions, and in doing so, deprive themselves of inner peace.  Before Pierre experiences a lack of thought in the grip of captivity and realizes that there are limitations to his human comprehension, he goes so far as to join the Freemasons in search of “meaning.”  As soon as he senses that he has discovered truths of Masonic law, his interest in the organization wanes.  Prince Andrei exhibits a similar desire for meaning when he shifts his loyalties from one prestigious mentor to the next in an effort to understand life.  As soon as he is disillusioned and finds that these superiors practice faulty reasoning or are, in the end, merely humans, he casts them aside and throws himself into the quest for truth once again.  It’s almost as though these men subconsciously want to continue the quest eternally until death in order to confirm their own ignorance and force themselves to acknowledge a higher being on their deathbed.  Andrei’s life plays out in exactly this manner; only when he is on the brink of death does he finally accept that some higher being must exist that man cannot possibly comprehend.  Pierre, fortunately, comes to this conclusion earlier in his life and is able to truly live, instead of quest, for the remainder of his life.  In the face of war, it is comforting for man to acknowledge his own limitations and, therefore, the existence of a higher being as the atrocities of battle become fathomable in their “unfathomability.”  Because man cannot understand certain events, the events become plausible.  Tolstoy’s exploration of man’s desire for knowledge and fascination with the unknown continues into Anna Karenina.  Kitty and her sisters enchant Konstantin Levin, a sister-less man, as, “He knew that everything that went in there was beautiful, and he was in love precisely with the mysteriousness of it all,” (Anna Karenina 22).  Kitty repels Levin precisely because she does understand him, but deeply desires Vronsky as his mystery attracts her like a moth to a light.  She contemplates Vronsky’s allure, “It was if there was some falseness- not in him, he was very simple and nice- but in herself, while with Levin she felt completely simple and clear.  But on the other hand, the moment she thought of future with Vronsky, the most brilliantly happy prospects rose before her, while with Levin, the future seemed cloudy,” (Anna Karenina 47).  Tolstoy’s exploration of mystery and the unexplainable becomes a sexual exploration.  In Tolstoy’s mind, women’s role is to bare children and organize the home.  Here, Kitty seems to seek this life goal in the way Pierre, Andrei, and Levin seek meaning in life.  She seeks the unexplainable, desiring to understand it, yet simultaneously wishing for the mystery to remain intact.  Marriage was a terrifying institution for romantic women of the age and a marriage where the future is unknown, yet exciting, gives them hope.  Questing for mystery and complication backfires for women in their romantic relations as it does for men in their quest for life meaning.  Kitty weds Levin and Natasha weds Pierre.  Anna cannot give up the sense-heightening chase, and, so, perishes.  

Tags: Anna Karenina, Marijke, Tolstoy, van de Stadt, War and Peace, Williams College