Why did Anna Karenina commit suicide?

Abstract

In this paper, I will endeavor to interpret the motives that led Anna Karenina to commit suicide. They are diverse, starting with the public rejection of Ana, her isolation, and the experience of losing love, all the way to personal humiliation and escapism from the evil world. The reasons for her suicide are interrelated, although they are not of the same significance. They are both of physiological and mental-spiritual character, whereby the latter contributes to a better and deeper understanding of Anna?s suicide. It is most often emphasized that, above all, social suicidal occasions have influenced Anna Karenina, to kill herself in such a difficult and painful way. I will distinguish external events from her inner life, which are not always caused by these events. Our mental states are not passive recipients of what is outside of us but they are the results of our memory, imagination, our emotions, thoughts, and the ways in which we think of ourselves. All these reasons, in my view, make her suicidal intent. Then, I will examine whether the reasons for the suicide of Ana Karenina can contribute to understanding suicidal intent as such.