Anna Karenina: A Comparative Analysis of Novel and Film Adaptations

This essay provides a detailed analysis of the film adaptations of Leo Tolstoy's novel, Anna Karenina. It begins with an introduction to the novel's central themes of love, passion, and societal constraints, focusing on the character of Anna Karenina. The main body of the essay examines three episodes dropped from the film adaptations and offers explanations for their omission, such as censorship and narrative focus. It then identifies settings, scenes, characters, and dialogues that were cut, discussing the overall effects of these omissions on the story's portrayal. The essay further analyzes three scenes included in the film, explaining the reasons for their inclusion and highlighting the differences between the text and film versions. The essay highlights the challenges faced by filmmakers in adapting a complex novel, particularly in balancing narrative fidelity with cinematic requirements. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the contrasting approaches of the novel and its film adaptations and their impact on audience understanding. The essay references various sources, including books, journals, and screenplays, to support its analysis.

Essay for Anna
Karenina

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Discuss three episodes from Anna Karenina that were dropped from its adaptation and explain
why you think the scenes were not shot......................................................................................1
Identify settings, scenes, characters, and dialogue that were cut from the adaptations of Anna
Karenina. Discuss the overall effect of these omissions.............................................................2
Choose three scenes from Anna Karenina that are kept in the film adaptation. Explain why the
scenes were included. What are the important differences between the text scenes and the film
scenes?.........................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
.........................................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
This report is based on the study of the Novel which is based and driven by the Dominant
theme of love, passion, loyalty, happiness and marriage and is world wide known for its superior
love story which has been written. This novel is completely based on different different
characteristics and their dialogues which has been written by the Leo Tolstoy. One of the major
characteristic on which the novel is totally based is Anna Karenina. Anna Karenina is a young
and beautiful girl who have married to have powerful strong man Karenina, who is the
government minister of the Russian Aristocracy. This assignment will cover the study about the
core three episodes from Anna Karenina that were dropped from its adaptation. Along with this ,
the study also focuses on the settings, scenes, and dialogues which were cut from the adaptation
of Anna Karenina and the overall effects of these omissions. Additionally the study also covers
scenes which were similar in both Film and Novel and the differences between the text film and
the novel.

MAIN BODY
Discuss three episodes from Anna Karenina that were dropped from its adaptation and explain
why you think the scenes were not shot.
Anna Karenina is the tragic story of Countess Anna Karenina, a married noblewoman
and socialite, and her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky. The story starts when she arrives in
the midst of a family broken up by her brother's unbridled womanising—something that
prefigures her own later situation, though she would experience less tolerance by others. Anna
Karenina is considered to be greatest love story Novel that is complex social witticism of early
Russian Empire. This book was wrote behind an idea regarding a beautiful woman risks all for
love is like catnip to the film-makers. It is a story which is based on the life of Anna Karenina
considering each and every aspects. Three episodes from Anna Karenina that were dropped from
its adaptation in the film were as :
EPISODE 1: Anna's Pregnancy.
In term of the Fiction, The episode related to the Anna's Pregnancy and Labour are
termed to be the core for various reasons. This was starred as the final attempts were all escaped
from the Love triangle(Meek, 2012). The only time during this when all the three character is
that Anna, Karenina and the Vronsky were united was at the time of the birth of the child. The
episode related to the Anna's Pregnancy was omitted from the movie just because at the time to
writing novel it was considered morally right to talk about such situation in public but later on
the restriction on such scenes were imposed by the censor board.
EPISODE 2 : Anna hatred for her son.
In case of the Novel Anna used to hate her son due to her imagination as she imagined
him to be more smarter and better but this was not in reality whereas in the film she herself is
being so caring and loving towards her son as she always wanted her image to be frame in front
of the audience in a positive manner. This also aid her to portray her impression as a most caring
women due to which this scene of her hatred towards the son in the movie was omitted.
EPISODE 3: Marriage with Karenina.
In the friction it was seen that the marriage of Anna and Karenina was just because of the
force of her Aunt as she spread false rumour about them having an affair which was considered
as a wrongful do within the society where they use to live so in order to protect their image they

decide to get married. But in the movie it has been showed that both of them had a very normal
upper class marriage with the mutual understanding and they lived normal life(Stoppard and
Tolstoj, 2013).
Thus, all these above mentioned were the three episodes which were omitted from the
Films so that this would not harm the career of Anna Karenina as an successful actor.
Identify settings, scenes, characters, and dialogue that were cut from the adaptations of Anna
Karenina. Discuss the overall effect of these omissions.
The Novel Anna Karenina was written in 800 pages which entails depth about the life
style of the Anna Karenina so in order to portray this novel into films the directors has to
undergo many omission and modification. In order to cover all the aspects of Anna's Karenina
story the directors considered the most critical elements included in the movie which resulted in
some cuts and omission. Below listed are some cuts and omissions:
SETTING:
Entire novel is based on the story of Anna Karenina who is considered as strong beautiful
women who left everything for the sake of her love but in case of the film the story of Anna
Karenina novel revolve around three frictional character that are, Anna, Kitty and Stiva where
are these three were in marriage which termed out to be as an a disaster, another one is
compromise and the last one is surprise(Morson, 2015).
SCENES:
For converting the Novel into a successful movie number of scenes were cut which may
be due to the restriction of the censor board or some may be due to their length. First and the
foremost scene which was omitted from the clip was the scene of Anna's Pregnancy, other one is
the scene of the train which was more in novel as compared to the movie and the last scene
which was cut off was about the Vronsky visiting to the death body of Anna's where they have
first met.
CHARACTERS:
While making the films the director of the movie has changed the two major characters
from the novel that is Anna Karenina. In the novel, Karenina was shown as the most wise man
who married to Anna for protecting their reputation in the society but in the movie Karenina was
caste as Villain who use to shout at Anna. And the second character was Levin who was

regarded as the Brother in law of Anna and was a game plotter but in movie he has been caste as
the person who is more down to earth(Leo, 2017).
DIALOGUE:
Due to the changes in above mention scenes and character automatically their occurs a
changes in the Dialogue. Some of the changes in the part of dialogues may be such as her love
for the son and her husband in negative role a lot has transform from the novel to the movie.
Thus, it has been observe that to convert novel exact in the same way into movie is quiet
difficult as for the Tolstoy whole novel revolve around the story of Anna but in movie they have
consider all the characters. As per the view of the writer the story was more about the love of a
women who at last bought her to the stage of death and also in a extreme bad situation. Showing
the story only based on her perspective would be of no use for the film-makers as films are made
considering each and every aspects of the coin so that it can be termed as successful as it should
be(Lavrin, 2015).
Choose three scenes from Anna Karenina that are kept in the film adaptation. Explain why the
scenes were included. What are the important differences between the text scenes and the
film scenes?
There very many scenes within the novel as well as the movie which were exactly the
same as they were in reality so that the character and the meaning of the story remain constant
and unchanged. The dialogues which were same and were not change are as mentioned beneath:
Anna's death : The scene of her death in the movie was exactly the same as it was in the
novel as she drove herself towards the railroad and laid in front of train due to which the incident
of her death happen. This was same place where Anna and Vronsky met for the first time. This
place and the scene were not altered within the movie and the love story ended successfully.
Paying respect to style and train : The writing of the novel that is Anna Karenina was
don in the middle of the 19th century which stated the culture, fashion of that time. Even the
trains which were mentioned in the novel were so fascinated and of vintage category. This was
shown same in the movie as they believe that to remind audience and to connect the movie to
audience they have to modify the train in the same as it was in that period of time. All the
materialistic things were remain unchanged so that these can have great impact of the story on
the public(Stoppard, 2012).

Anna's and Vronsky first meeting : This scene of Anna's and Vronsky meeting for the
first time at railway station was exactly the same in the movie as it was in the novel which kept
the Audience bound to watch the movie and also kept them curious to know the story and its
interesting part.
Differences between Text scenes and Films Scene:
Particular Text scenes Film scene
Meaning Text scenes are those which
appears in images either in
different font, size, shape and
position.
Film scenes are those which
are which involves actions on
the continuous basis and are
recorded with the help of
cameras.
Visual image vs. verbal sign Visual image and verbal sign
are those which are use to
narrate that what exactly the
writer is trying to say with the
help of different
signs(Auyoung, 2013).
Films scenes are the one which
have huge impact on the public
as these involves narrating
things through different icons
and visuals.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report it can be observed that the Novel and the movie of the
Anna Karenina was similar to the some part and were different on some part. The whole story
revolve around the love story of Anna Karenina who is an actress. This report also focuses on the
changes which have been seen in movie to make it more family centred as compared to the
novel. The assignment has also focused on the differences which the text scene and film scenes
foster. So that it can be identified which is more impactful to the audience.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Leo, T., 2017. Anna Karenina. Strelbytskyy Multimedia.
Auyoung, E., 2013. Partial cues and narrative understanding in Anna Karenina. Stories and
Minds: Cognitive Approaches to Literary Narrative. pp.59-80.
Stoppard, T., 2012. Anna Karenina: The Screenplay Based on the Novel by Leo Tolstoy. Vintage.
Lavrin, J., 2015. Tolstoy. In An Introduction to the Russian Novel (pp. 121-134). Routledge.
Morson, G. S., 2015. The Moral Urgency of Anna Karenina. Commentary. 139(4). pp.34-42.
Meek, J., 2012. rereading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. The Guardian. p.1.
Stoppard, T. and Tolstoj, A. N., 2013. Anna Karenina. Universal Studios Home Entertainment.