Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" is largely autobiographical and
             expressive of his yearnings. His main character, Anna, exemplifies both
             what he admires and what he repels in a woman. Anna embodies more than
             human fullness in a lovable woman, specifically in the mother Tolstoy lost
             before he could be fully conscious and appreciate her. Anna also represents
             the extents to which a woman can go, something, which, in Tolstoy's time,
             He could derive the idea of strong and nurturing womanhood from his
             aunt that reared and sent him to school, which he did not finish. Even with
             the nurturing he received from an aunt, the impress of a splintered family
             hounded him in life and is basic in this novel.
             The fullness and extremes of human life in Anna and the foulness of
             death in Tolstoy's experiences are both major themes in his novel. Without
             a mother, he lost his father to murderers when Tolstoy was only 10. Hence,
             a sense of death prevails in the work. His struggle with mortality is
             reflected in Anna's person and so is his dissatisfaction towards the social
             His character, Alexei Vronsky, is a caricature of an anti-
             militaristic viewpoint Tolstoy developed when he joined the Russian army to
             fight in the Crimean War from 1854 to 1856. Tolstoy's disdain of the army
             official as only dashing and passionate figures in Vronsky whom Anna
             fancies for his whims, romantic stance, seeming independence and rebellion
             towards society, which they share. Vronsky, however, loses these traits in
             the end, as Tolstoy gives the military man a chance to redeem himself in
             his (Tolstoy's) eyes. In the meantime, Vronskly appeals to Anna for his
             handsome looks, his wealth, and his willingness to abandon the principles
             and values of society, which in the fiery time of youth, is quite often
             very tempting and seems to be the rule.
             Tolstoy appears to pattern part of Anna's characterization after ...