.

             Anna Karenina at the begging of Tolstoy's novel was a bright .

             and energetic women. When Tolstoy first introduces us to Anna she .

             appears as the paragon of virtue, a women in charge of her own .

             destiny. .

             He felt that he had to have another look at her- not because .

             she was very beautiful not because of her elegance and unassuming .

             grace which was evident in her whole figure but because their was .

             something specially sweet and tender in the expression of her lovely .

             face as she passed him. (Tolstoy 76.) .

             In the next chapter Anna seems to fulfill expectations Tolstoy .

             has aroused in the reader when she mends Dolly and Oblonskys marriage. .

             But Anna like Emma has a defect in her reasoning, she has an inability .

             to remain content with the ordinariness of her life: her marriage to .

             Karenin, the social festivities, and housekeeping. Anna longs to live .

             out the same kind of romantic vision of life that Emma also read and .

             fantasized about. .

             Anna read and understood everything, but she found no .

             pleasure in reading, that is to say in following the reflection in.

             other people's lives. She was to eager to live herself. When she read .

             how a heroine of a novel nursed a sick man, she wanted to move about .

             the sick room with noiseless steps herself. When she read how Lady .

             Mary rode to hounds and teased her sister-in-law, astonishing everyone .

             by her daring, she would have liked to do the same. (Tolstoy 114.) .

             Anna Karenina was a romantic who tried to make her fantasies a .

             reality. It was for this reason she had an affair with Vronsky. Like .

             Emma her decisions were driven by impulsiveness and when the .

             consequences caught up with her latter in the novel she secluded .

             herself from her friends, Vronsky, and even her children. Anna and .

             Emma both had character flaws that made them view the world as fantasy .

             so that when their fantasy crumbled they resorted to creating a new .