Count Vronsky, the love interest of the tragic main
character Anna, in the novel Anna Karenina enters a stage of deep
grief and mourning after her suicide. It is hard to ascertain whether his grief is
caused by the guilt he feels knowing that he was the cause of her misfortunes, or
whether he is actually mourning his great love,
lost.
However, it is evident that her death creates a
series of events in Vronsky's life that are a consequence of his deep sadness. First,
his pain renders him almost unable to be proactive. He is almost paralyzed with grief,
and is clearly trying to understand the situation.
Second,
he turns his daughter to the custody of Karenin, Anna's estranged husband. He basically
sees that his life belongs in the Army, where his heart and career have always been. In
giving his daughter to Karenin, he is also returning to him (in their own peculiar way)
the dignity that Vronsky took away from the man when he courted, impregnated, and eloped
with his wife.
Finally, we see that Vronsky returns to the
battlefield where it is understood that he will eventually die. It is a way for him to
return to his origins the way that Anna returned to that one moment when she saw a man
die in the railroad tracks: The two events which shaped the lives of both Anna and
Vronsky repeat themselves and decide the fate of their deaths.
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