Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina

Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina 

Anna Karenina is a novel by Russian author Leo Tolstoy. For the purposes of this post, I will be referring to the 2012 film adaptation. Keira Knightley plays socialite and aristocrat Anna Karenina, who is married to prominent government minister Alexandrovich Karenin (Karenin for short). In a time where women married for both economical status and stability, Anna spends her days at their estate while her shallow, emotionless duty-bound husband is always pre-occupied with a more seemingly important task. 

Anna becomes a social outcast and pariah in her city of St.Petersberg when her husband uncovers that she has been having an affair with a Mr. Alexei Vronsky, a handsome, well-off military officer. Anna is very much in love with Vronsky, so much so that she requests a divorce from her husband. He of course, refuses and prompts her to stay together for the sake of keeping up appearances. 

Anna grows increasingly infatuated and paranoid with Vronsky when he seems to begin to detach. Compelled by his career ambitions, Vronsky has no plans of abandoning prospective career opportunities in exchange for an affair. Eventually, her irrational, psychosomatic behavior pushes her to the deepest depths of despair, resulting in her suicide. 

I chose the film adaptation of this particular story for two main reasons. Considering the way Russian women looked, especially in the mid to late 1800’s, I found it interesting that they chose Keira Knightley to play the role of Anna Karenina. They were heftier and more masculine than say, British women. They did emphasize the traditional bushy eyebrows on Keira Knightley for this role, but still, she doesn’t quite embody the Russian stereotype for this time. 

Considering “male gaze”, I think they purposely chose Keira Knightley to portray a taller, thinner, more feminine version of Anna Karenina. They made her much more sensual and pleasing to the eye. 

Despite her physical role in the film, this story is one that centers around how profusely women were made to be inferior. Among other things, Anna was intellectual, an avid reader and writer and well educated. All qualities that are seemingly insignificant to her husband. 

She was pretty and born into wealth which made her a good counterpart in the eyes of her husband. She then finds a man (Vronsky) who can match her and stimulate her intellectually, and yet, that is not enough to make him stick around in comparison to his career.

Keira Knightley as Anna Karenina