Thinking back over the whole novel, call to mind, if you can, three different scenes or moments in Anna Karenina that struck you as being more like a tiny sliver of life than a matter of "art" or fiction. Quick examples that occur to me include the way Vasenka Veslovsky sees the expensive but clearly worn hunting clothes and gear that Stiva and Levin have on their first morning of hunting--and then he considers his own spiffy new getup and thinks, 'Next time, I'll dress with more casual elegance like those two'" (not an actual thought I've had, just seems real). Or Levin's panic on the morning of his wedding when he doesn't have the right shirt, or Laska's "dogginess" when she is a couple of yards away from a motherlode of grouse behind a slight mound and doesn't understand why Levin wants her to circle around the area to get a visual lock on a bird. Laska thinks why would you want me to lose the advantage of having their scent so strongly in my nostrils, going farther away from these grouse right here and having to depend only on my eyesight? Then she follows orders circling around the area but going through the motions rather than being fully engaged. (Her training trumps her instincts and she knows better than her master.) Or maybe Dolly's embarrassment to have packed only a coat with patches sewn over worn spots when she is surrounded by the grand luxury at Vronsky's estate, etc. If you have trouble, it's okay to use one of my examples to flesh out your three. . . . But I hope plenty will occur to you.
Include at least one quotation from each scene or moment you address.
Previous
critical response topics—no longer valid for submission:
1.1 Due Saturday, August 24th: Aside from the particular angles we are exploring in the threaded discussion, what else strikes you as significant, interesting, curious, or intriguing in our first installment of Crime and Punishment? Provide examples backed with quotations from at least three different chapters in Part One. Document quotations following Q1, Q2, and Q3 on the quotations page.
1.2 Due Saturday, August 31st: Address one, not both:
a) Find brief passages from two separate chapters in Part II of the novel and two in Part III that reveal significantly different aspects of Raskolnikov's feelings of guilt. Quote each passage and explain how they all offer different insights into Dostoevsky's understanding of fundamental human psychology.
b) Discuss Raskolnikov's first meeting with Porfiry Petrovich, in Part III, chapter 5. Avoiding plot summary, point out whatever strikes you as interesting or significant in this interview, including at least three quotations to illustrate your claims. You might, if you like, focus narrowly on Raskolnikov's published theory that interests Porfiry Petrovich so much.
1.3 Due Saturday, September 7th: Sonia and Svidrigaylov are often considered symbolic characters. What do you make of these two characters as we come to know them in Parts IV and V? Include at least one quotation from Part IV and at least one from Part V pertaining to each character.
1.4 Due Saturday, September 14th: In Dostoevsky's working notebooks (see excerpts in our Norton text, pp. 385-90), he wrote that the event of the murders "begins the corruption of his [Raskolnikov's] own psychology" (385) and also that "From this crime itself begins his moral development, the possibility of such questions as earlier were impossible. In the last chapter, in jail, he says that without the crime he would not have discovered in himself such questions, wishes, feeling, needs, striving, development" (387). Briefly, how does Dostoevsky show the "corruption" of the protagonist's psychology over the course of the novel? And in more depth, how does the novel also, particularly in Part VI and the two epilogues, endeavor to show significant, meaningful "moral development" set in motion by the murders? Include at least two quotes from Part VI and two or more from the epilogues.
1.5 Due Saturday, September 21st: Discuss Dostoevsky's portrayal of at least two female characters in the first ten chapters of The Idiot. You may write about whatever strikes you as interesting about the two or more characters you choose, taking care to avoid plot summary (nugget
1). If you're at all stuck, though, you might consider how the characters you address are significantly different from most or all of the women we met in Crime and Punishment. Include quotations from at least three different chapters in Part 1 of The Idiot in your response.
1.6 Due Saturday, September 28th: Discuss Nastasya Filippovna's attitude about money: Totsky has provided for her lavishly as a "kept woman" for about a decade, Ganya pursues Nastasya Filippovna explicitly for the 75,000 ruble dowry Totsky offers to get her "off his hands," and Rogozhin offers an outrageous 100,000 rubles to secure Nastasya Filippovna's hand in marriage. What do you make of Nastasya Filippovna's complicated view of money? Why does she throw Rogozhin's 100,000 rubles into the fire? Is she a grasping, manipulative "money grubber," or something else entirely? What does it say about the 19th-century Russian society that gives her the evident right to choose her own future here? Include at least four quotations from Part 2, chapters 1-9 in your discussion.
1.7 Due Monday, October 7th: In this unit's reading (Part 2, chapter 10, through Part 3, chapter 9), what are the most egregious or troublesome "ills of society" portrayed in the menagerie of notably flawed characters surrounding Prince Myshkin? That is, what typical attitudes or behaviors does Dostoevsky present as especially problematic? Focus on at least three different characters in at least three different chapters in this week's reading, supporting claims with a minimum of one quotation from each chapter.
1.8 Due Sunday, October 13th: address one, not both or all three:
a)
In terms of plot, suspense, and dramatic interest, how does The Idiot differ from more “typical” plot-driven lengthy novels? Does it maintain the reader’s interest throughout? How so? Or why not?
b) Dostoevsky wrote in his letters, “In Christian literature, . . . the most perfect character is Don Quixote, but he is perfect simply because he is at the same time also ridiculous. Dickens’s Pickwick (an infinitely weaker conception than Don Quixote, but enormous all the same) is also ridiculous and that is the only reason why he appeals to everybody. One feels a sense of pity towards a man who is unaware of his own perfection and who is being constantly held up to ridicule, and hence the reader’s sympathy is aroused. This arousal of compassion is the secret of humour. There is nothing comparable in my novel and that is why I am afraid that it will be a complete failure” (qtd. In Magarshak 389).
Two things: how might Prince Myshkin be considered "perfect," or "perfectly beautiful," in any respect? Also, explain why you do or do not feel compassion for the prince. What truth is there in Dostoevsky’s comments? Is he entirely correct, though? Does Myshkin succeed more effectively than his creator anticipated? Dig deep and consider both sides of the question. Include at least three quotations from the novel in your response.
c) Included in the selection of comments about Dostoevsky in the final pages of the 2004 Barnes and Noble edition of The Idiot is this from Virgina Woolf: "The novels of Dostoevsky are seething whirlpools, gyrating sandstorms, waterspouts which hiss and boil and suck us in. They are composed purely and wholly of the stuff of the soul. Against our wills we are drawn in, whirled round, blinded, suffocated, and at the same time filled with a giddy rapture" (575). Perhaps more than any other major author of literary criticism, Woolf writes as a novelist (or really, a poet) in her use of surprising and yet entirely apt metaphors.
Do you see what Woolf means in her assessment of Dostoevsky (in either or both of his novels we've read)? If so, even in part, elaborate or explain how Woolf's view of Dostoevsky's fiction is accurate and keenly insightful.
2.1 Due Saturday, October 19th: Address one, not both:
a) Why does Tolstoy present the funeral of the protagonist, Ivan Ilych Golovin, before narrating his life from beginning to end? Include quotations from at least three different chapters.
b) Tolstoy's novella seems to have two different thematic aims: one showing the falseness of "ordinary" people's lives in the higher reaches of society (upper middle class, most specifically); and the other suggesting that even on a sinner's deathbed, he or she can still be "saved" and reach heaven. In separate paragraphs, at least, comment on Tolstoy's comparative success in communicating both of these themes.
2.2 Due Sunday, October 27th: Contrast Levin's behavior in the big city and his behavior in his brief time at home in the country (Part 1, chapters 26-27 and Part 2, chapters 12-13). Include two or more "city" quotes and two or more "country" quotes. This dichotomy of city vs. country will become increasingly significant as the novel unfolds.
2.3 Due Sunday, November 3rd: Open assignment on Part 3, chapters 1-25. Explore any matters from this portion of the novel that strikes you as interesting, intriguing, or significant. Avoid plot summary (nugget
1) and include at least three quotations from the novel to support your observations. You might do well to read well into Part 3 before deciding on a topic.
2.4 Due Sunday, November 10th: Tolstoy's original working title for Anna Karenina was Two Couples, initially focusing on Oblonsky and Dolly as one couple and Anna and Vronsky in the other. His initial conception changed significantly as he got into the early portions of the novel, leading to greater fascination with Anna's passion and power (as indicated in the book's final title), lessening the roles of Stiva and Dolly Oblonsky, and heightening the importance of a third couple in Levin and Kitty. When you reach the end of our reading in Part 5 (chapter 16), give a quick overview of the state of all three couples' relationships at this point in the novel (perhaps one good paragraph on each, not a great deal more). Consider the different problems each of the couples faces at this moment in the story, and what hope we might have in their working things out satisfactorily. What are the most hopeful or positive aspects of each pair (dig deep here if you must!)? Include at least five quotations in your analysis, perhaps just one for one couple and at least two apiece for the other couples.
2.5 Due Wednesday, November 20th: Discuss the significance or the narrative function of Vasenka Veslovksy in the first half of Part 6. Is he a convincing, realistic character? How so, or how not so? Aside from the obvious matter of his making Lenin jealous, what important purposes does he serve in the narrative? What does Tolstoy use him for, or accomplish through him? Include quotes from at least three chapters to substantiate your claims.
2.6 Due Wednesday, November 27th (you may do either or both for credit):
a) Analyze closely Levin's experiences with the Provincial elections in Part 5, chapters 27-30. Know that Levin is not an "autobiographical character," but that Levin does indeed share many of Tolstoy's views and some of Levin's actions were first done in life by Tolstoy (mowing with his peasants, getting involved with educating peasants, giving his wife-to-be a diary that noted his intimacies with women, and more). So we are speculating here: how does Levin's thinking and behavior suggest interesting questions we might ask of Tolstoy's views of the world of provincial politics? Include at least four quotations from these chapters in your discussion.
b) Another commonality between Tolstoy and Levin is a history of staunch atheism and then a decisive move to religious faith. We don't see here in Levin the full scope of a radical transformation that led Tolstoy to swear off writing fiction for a time (only to resume later, but with more pointedly moral and Christian themes, as in The Death of Ivan Ilych). Discuss Levin's instinctual "moments of apparent belief" in Part 7, chapters 13-16.
