Anna's Existentialism In The Awakening

Before she knew it, Anna quickly got overtaken by this passion, and it ultimately led to her own demise, as the love that Vronsky had to offer quickly diminished. This became a problematic force since Anna practically gave up everything she owned to chase the life that this man offered her. She did it in such a manner that she could no longer return back to her family or normal lifestyle. In a way, she was victim to a lifeless marriage by which she found herself to pretend to be happy. When Anna finally gets a shot at love, she realizes all that she has missed, and it is easy to see how she falls victim to such an enamored opportunity. Anna simply wanted to know that she mattered, to have been appreciated and admired. Unfortunately, being a

woman, she found herself in an even more stark position, as she was not accepted into the general society on her own after having left her initial household. Her whole reputation was thrown into the drain following her infidelity, and this only made her situation more miserable. On the contrary, this was not a problem for Stiva, as he was able to incorporate himself back into society with little to no trouble of his own.
When Anna starts to realize that her options are slim to none to incorporate herself into society, she falls in a state of despair that is so stark that she finds no other option than to return to the train station which symbolizes her fate.

Since a train is a mode of transportation, it can be equated to her love story, as she let herself get swept up off of her feet, but didn’t take into consideration the hurt she would bring herself in doing so. She ultimately falls to her death before being swept by a train, as her omen suggests. This element of suicide resents the ultimate figure of existentialism, as she proceeded in this regard as a way to overcome her tragic

situation.
By bringing herself to her own ending, Anna turns the epigraph into a personal account, that she herself is to take on the responsibility of bringing herself to her punishment, which is that of death.

Beyond killing herself though, this last scene symbolizes the idea that Anna finally got to a state in which she would face her judgement, and because of this, the reader did not have to ascribe her to any kind of punishment, as God himself is the one to determine what is to happen to her from this point onward. Even though she is the only one who faces a wrath following her wrongdoing, Tolstoy still hinted a sort of fondness towards the character of Anna, as she was simply a victim of a dead marriage. Under any other circumstance, if she would not have been married, her story would have been accepted as a love story. But since she was married, she should have accepted the unhappiness of her marriage, as to some extent or another, it seems to be a thread within the familial structure (as depicted in the opening line of the novel). The very fact that the novel started out with the infidelity of Stiva and his ease to reincorporate himself back into the society, while Anna ultimately met her maker symbolizes a double standard of gender that existed in this structure of

society.