Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina almost fifty years before Nietzsche described his philosophy of the Superman. Readers, however, can easily apply the descriptive framework of Nietzsche's theory of the Superman to Anna in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Anna displays an overwhelming amount of characteristics that Nietzsche would have expected to see in his Superman. Nietzsche's theory must be applied retrospectively to Tolstoy, so it is certain that Tolstoy was not trying to create a character who fit the mold of a Nietzschean Superman, but it is certain that Nietzsche was no stranger to the writings of Tolstoy, and that unlike Tolstoy, Nietzsche would admire Anna. If one applies the attributes of a superman to Anna, then Tolstoy created a character that one could view as a sort of presuperman, but a Superman nonetheless. The argument of this paper is that, despite Tolstoy's intentions to condemn Anna for her selfishness, readers can find characteristics in Anna that appear as possibl!

e inspirations to Nietzsche in developing his Superman.

Nietzsche uses the character Zarathustra to reveal his definition of a Superman. At the end of his travels, Zarathustra reaches a state where he has renounce

While Anna is in St. Petersburg, she confronts society by showing that she has a right to happiness despite the precariousness of her situation. Anna decides that she will attend an opera along with the rest of St. Petersburg's high society. Vronsky wants to tell Anna that "her presence [at the opera] will acknowledge her position as a fallen women," and he begs Anna not to attend (Tolstoy, 557) . When Anna attends the opera, she makes it known to all that historical morals do not dictate her feelings, and that she is not ashamed of her fallen status. Anna's presence at the opera is the novel's clearest presentation of Anna as a Superman. By appearing at the opera with all of her beauty, Anna proudly advertises her love of Vronsky in a way that seems flaunting to society. The women in St. Petersburg cannot cope with Anna's display of her ideas, and predictably Anna's appearance causes a scene. Anna's appearance at the opera can be read as her trying to infect society w!

In the beginning of the novel, Anna travels to Moscow to help Oblonsky and Dolly save their passionless marriage. Before this trip ends, Anna meets Vronsky and becomes aware of how terrible her marriage is. When Anna saves Dolly's marriage, it shows that Anna has not suffered enough to realize that passion is a necessity of life, otherwise Anna might have encouraged Dolly to leave Oblonsky. Perhaps, by observing Dolly and Oblonsky's marital problems Anna realizes that she cannot let herself wind up miserable like Dolly. If one can view Anna as a higher man on a journey towards becoming a Superman, then saving the marriage and being exposed to Dolly's misery all helps Anna along in the process of self realization that is necessary acquire the strength to become a superman.

Kennedy, J.M. The Gospel of Superman. London, England: T.N. Foulis, 1910

ith her ideas, and if we interpret Anna as a Superman, then her ideas would lead to progress. After leaving the opera, Anna and Vronsky go to the country, where they can live in innocence, like the child described by Nietzsche.

Thiele, Leslie Paul. Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of the Soul. Princeton

Adelman, Gary. Anna Karenina: The Bitterness of Ecstasy. Boston MA: Twayne

As earlier noted in this paper, only after suffering at the hands of man can a higher man find the extreme pain needed to complete his transition into the Superman. Extreme pain makes the higher man desperate to find salvation, and forces him to understand his own personal needs and what he must do to fulfill them. Before turning into Vronsky's lover, Anna suffers the isolated pain of living in an emotionally stale marriage, but she has not yet suffered enough to abandon common morality and begin her illicit affair. After falling in love with Vronsky, however, Anna suddenly becomes aware of the hypocrisy in society at large. Anna realizes that her marriage with a man whom she has no passion for is hypocritical, and that the only way she can find passion is by violating society's rules through an adulterous affair.

If Nietzsche had written Anna Karenina, he would have ended the story while Anna was in Europe, and preserved her appearance as a happy and thriving Superman. Tolstoy, however, does not find anything redeeming in the adulterous ways of Anna, and in his story, he cannot let her live happily ever after in Europe. Tolstoy kills Anna in the end of the novel because she seeks salvation in her new morality, which is that of self-gratifying love. Tolstoy would prefer that she seek salvation from the love of God, like Levin. The pursuit of salvation through a new type of morality is exactly what drives a higher man to become a Nietzschean Superman.

ength of his will and realizes that God had to die because it exuded too much humiliating pity on mankind (Kennedy, 186). The man who killed God appears as a metaphor for all of society, and

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Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)