Taking Back Control in Anna Karenina Anna Karenina features large groups of scenes, all of which depict significant moments in the development of the novel's major characters. One of the most important moments occurs when Anna goes to Vronsky. Along the way, his perceptions change; she throws her “spotlight” on herself. When she arrives at the next station, she sees the tracks and knows what needs to be done. Anna has had control of her own life taken away from her, due to societal limitations on her choices as a woman. She becomes irritated by the society in which she lives and turns this frustration on the unsympathetic Vronsky, who retains his own freedom as well as control over his own happiness. She is too proud and passionate to live in subordination, as Dolly Oblonsky does. Anna cannot imagine continuing indefinitely as she has been, and at the same time cannot take any pleasure in contemplating her past or her future, which offers no prospect of change. Feeling trapped and unfaithful to her own unwanted desires, she begins to see the entire world as a miserable place populated by miserable, trapped individuals just like her. Through death alone, she feels she can secure a place in Vronsky's heart. Death is also the only decision she is free to make on her own. Anna's place is like that of a child, inventing tasks to occupy her time, while others make the decisions that affect her life. Anna tries to take an interest in the young Englishwoman's education, writing a children's book, but these are only distractions from the fact that she has nowhere to go. Oblonsky and Karenin meet to try to settle the question of Anna's future, without inviting Anna to plead for herself or otherwise in the middle of a paper......to find out whether the servant will remember or not to clean yourself. sheets on guest beds. But none of these women's roles are true to their own desires. To stay on this earth is to put control of her life in the hands of a man who she is not sure loves her. Anna's decision is incomprehensible to Madame Vronsky: “Can you understand these desperate passions? (812). But from our perspective of Anna's mindscape, we can understand them all too well. Amy. “Feminist Criticism and Anna Karenina.” Tolstoy Studies Journal III (1990): 82-103Nitze, Paul H. and foreword. The Complete Idiot's Guide by Leo Tolstoy. London: Henry Z. Walck, 1994. Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. Trans. Joel Carmichael. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1960.