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  • Essay / The novels "Anna Karenina" and "Us": in pursuit of love

    Sexual relations have different social implications depending on the society in which they take place. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is a 19th century novel and Envy by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a 20th century novel. Both novels depict the imperfect realities of coupling, but in very different ways. Anna Karenina focuses more in-depth on the third-person relationships between characters, while We tells D-503's point of view. Both make the reader understand that society has an impact on the value of relationships between men and women. The consequences of these actions are also described. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay To have imperfect relationships, there must be an ideal. Both novels inexplicitly explain an unidentifiable perfect couple. In Anna Karenina, it is about a married man and woman, who interact peacefully socially and in the bedroom. Our perfect couple includes a male Number and a female Number who have no emotional connection and "have the right to access the Number of any other as a sexual product" simply to satisfy the human need for sex (Zamyatin p. 22). These are very radically different social implications: one insists on an emotional bond, and the other disapproves of it. Yet in both cases, social perfection is desirable. In order to maintain the image of perfection, the characters in both books endure discomfort. “The Karenins, husband and wife, continued to live in the same house, met every day, but were completely distant from each other”, because this confirms their image of an ideal couple (Tolstoy p. 353). Tolstoy writes: “The Karenins, husband and wife,” emphasizing their mutual role and the fact that both participate in establishing the image. They have to endure this because Anna decides she likes a different man. It's not socially acceptable, so rather than either one facing embarrassment, they pretend everything is normal. In Anna Karenina, the ideal couple is a happily married couple. In Us, there is not the image of perfect unity, but rather ideal distance. D-503 and O try to maintain this, by regulating the rules of Sex Day and not calling each other "my". D-503, however, falls in love with another number, I-330. Because in their society, in theory, "there is no longer the slightest reason to envy", so when D-503 hurts O with his affections towards another Number, he must recognize the faults of himself and the system (Zamyatin p.23). O likes D-503, and when she admits it, D thinks, "What wild terminology – 'mine.' I never was… But I suddenly came to my senses: it occurred to me that I was not before, it’s true, but now…” (Zamyatin p. 76). Here he understands the difference between society's ideal and reality. He wasn't his socially, but he was emotionally. Now he loves I-330, which shouldn't happen. He calls the word “mine” “savage” because it comes from “ancient times” and was socially rejected; the feeling has not lessened. The feeling of “mine” and deviation from the social norm is depicted drastically in each novel. In Anna Karenina, when Anna and Vronsky consummate their relationship, rather than the ideal and perfect union, their coupling is compared to a corpse. Tolstoy, emphasizing the unnatural reality of their relationship, writes: “And as the murderer throws himself on this body with animosity, as if with passion, tears it off and cuts it, so he covers its face and shoulders with kisses” ( Tolstoy pp. 149). -150). It's a scene.