About the author:
Valeria G. Andreeva, DSc in Philology, Leading Research Fellow, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia; Professor, Kostroma State University, Dzerzhinsky St., 17, 156005 Kostroma, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4558-3153
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Abstract:
The article examines the role of secondary and tertiary characters in the novel “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy in creating an artistic whole work, in illustrating the typicality and uniqueness of life situations, in revealing the depths of the human psyche. The study of a complex roll call of images, consideration of parallels between characters, analysis of the similarities of characters in the final text and versions, as well as some episodes that were not included in the novel, allows you to show the movement of the writer’s thought and his attitude to the characters, to understand the author’s system of values. As in his earlier works, in Anna Karenina, Tolstoy depicts the spiritual world of a person and illuminates in detail the inner struggle of the individual. But when creating Anna Karenina, the writer turned not to particular oppositions of heroes, but tried to create a hierarchy containing all human qualities and traits, basing it on the only possible divine idea that embraces everything. The author of the work compares the images and behavioral characteristics of the secondary characters in the final text and draft materials, noting several significant figures and situations not included by the writer in the novel.