that had been gathered, and then made a relation between the sources with the topic and two problems presented in the study.
After evaluating what have been found and making a relation between the sources and the study, the writer started writing her thesis which consists of five
chapters. They are: introduction, review of related literature, methodology, analysis, and conclusions.
The last step is formatting bibliography. After writing her thesis, the writer decided the format of the bibliography and then listed down all of the citations which
are used in the study.
32
CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS
This chapter aims at analyzing the work of the novel and answering the two problems presented in the study. Firstly, the analysis focuses on the description of
Anna Karenin‟s character in the novel. Secondly, the analysis concentrates on the motivations of Anna Karenin to break her gender roles.
A. The Character Description of Anna Karenin
Koesnosoebroto 1988 states that major characters are those whose life experiences are the emphasis and the heart of the whole story p.23. Generally, those
who become major characters can also be called as dynamic characters. According to Perrine 1974, dynamic character is a developing character that undergoes better or
worse changes in some of her character, outlook, or personality p.71.
In Anna Karenin, Leo Tolstoy presents a noble woman named Anna Karenin as both the major and dynamic character of the story. He describes Anna Karenin as a
woman whose character is rich in complexity. In order to have deeper understanding on the character description of Anna Karenin, the theory of character and
characterization should be applied in this study. The first is the theory of character. In the previous chapter, Abrams 1999
describes characters as the imaginative persons with moral, intellectual and emotional values from what they think, what they say, and what they do. p.33. Moreover,
Rohrberger and Woods 1971 says that every character in the story has different appearance and personality from one another. p.20. This theory helps the study to
analyze how the physical appearance and the moral, intellectual, and emotional values of Anna Karenin make her special and different from other characters in the
story. The second theory is the theory of characterization from Murphy 1972. He
clarifies how the author presents characters in the story through nine aspects, which consist of; personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life,
conversation of others, reactions, direct comment, thought and mannerism. This theory supports the writer to analyze how the author depicts the appearance and the
personality of Anna Karenin in the novel. By applying the theory of character and characterization, this study is able to
find out the answer of the first problem, that is how Anna Karenin, as the main character, described in the story. In order to give clear and complete answer to the
first problem, the description of Anna Karenin‟s character will be divided into two parts. The first part is the description of physical and social appearances of Anna
Karenin and the second is the description of her personality in the story.
1. The Physical and Social Descriptions of Anna Karenin a.
Beautiful
In the beginning of the story, Leo Tolstoy describes Anna Karenin as a beautiful woman. Her gentleness and tenderness can easily make everybody
fascinated at her. This kind of fascination can be seen through Vronsky‟s admiration
on Anna when they first meet in the train station.
He must have another look at her —not because of her beauty…but because of
something tender and caressing in her lovely face. Her brilliant grey eyes, shadowed by thick l
ashes, gave him a friendly, attentive look….her sparkling eyes and the slight smile curving her red lips p.75.
Vronsky‟s mother also experiences the same admiration as Vronsky when she talks to Anna along their journey to Moscow.
I could travel round the world with you and never be dull. You are one of those sweet woman with whom it is nice to be silent as well as to talk. Let me
have a kiss of your pretty little face…let me confess that I have lost my heart to you pp. 76-77.
Vronsky‟s mother regards Anna as an attractive woman who can be a nice companion to talk. Anna owns enchantment and hospitality in the way she speaks and behaves,
and it makes Vronsky‟s mother falls in love with Anna. In the eyes of her friend, Anna is also such a dear and
sweet person that can melt everyone‟s heart p.152.
b. Young
Although Anna has already been a mother of an eight-year-old boy named Seriozha, she still looks young and impressive. Kitty, both Dolly
‟s younger sister and Vronsky‟s lover, admires Anna‟s youth and beauty. Her admiration to Anna is so big
that make her constantly fall in love with Anna at the first impression. According to Kitty, Anna is different from any other women she has ever met
before, “Anna was not like a society lady, nor the mother of an eight-year-old son.
Her lithe movements, her freshness, and the persistent animation of her face…have made her look more a girl of twenty” pp.85-86.
c. Aristocratic
Anna is a wife of an honorable statesman in St. Petersburg named Karenin. As a wife of a noble official statesman, Anna is surely well-
known in society, “Dolly did not forget that Anna, her sister in-law, was the wife of one of the most important
pesonages in Petersburg and a grande dame of Petersburg society” p.80.
Being dubbed as a grande dame means that Anna Karenin is highly appreciated by the society. Since she is a distinguished woman who becomes the
limelight of everybody, the ways she dresses up and behaves are different from other women in general.
Her charm lay precisely in the fact that she stood out from whatever she was wearing, that her dress never conspicuous on her. And the black velvet,
with its rich lace served only as a frame. It was Anna alone, simple, natural, elegant p.93.
The way she talks to other people shows her courtesy as an aristocratic woman, and it makes everybody, including Levin, impressed on her.
Levin recognized and admired the manners of a woman of high society, always self-
possessed and natural…she spoke easily and without haste. Anna talked not merely naturally and cleverly, but cleverly and without
pretence, attaching no value to her own ideas and giving great weight to the ideas of the person she was speaking to pp.729-730.
From the quotation above, the writer can understand that when Anna has a conversation with someone, she shows respect and every sentence that she utters has
significance. It makes other people feel happy and do not easily get bored to talk to her.
2. The Personality Description of Anna Karenin
a. Caring
Anna Karenin is a caring person. She cares about the problems existed in Oblonsky‟s household. When her brother‟s household is threatened collapsed caused
by his affair with the children governess, Anna Karenin with good intention comes from Petersburg to Moscow to r
econcile Oblosnsky with his wife, Dolly, “Anna Arkadyevna, Oblonsky‟s beloved sister, might effect a reconciliation between
husband and wife” p.17. Anna really feels sorry for Dolly‟s disappointment to her beloved husband,
“Dolly dear, I do not want to speak up for him, or try to console you; that would be impossible. But, dearest, I am just sorry for you
—sorry with all my heart” p.81. Her utterance makes Dolly realize that there is someone who still able to understand
her painful position as a betrayed wife. Although Anna knows that Dolly has been sinked into deep sorrow, she keeps
reminding Dolly that there is no use to make herself more miserable, for it will only drive her to take the wrong solution p.83. To actualize a reconciliation between
Dolly and Oblonsky, she explains how Oblonsky feels guilty to Dolly and to the children, “He is tormented by two things: that he‟s ashamed for the children‟s sake
