The language of the ball" and "music of life" in L.N. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina

In the article the "ball" chapters (XXII-XXIII, Part 1) in L.N. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina are analysed, i.e. the role of sounds, colours and material objects essential for deep understanding of the passage, of the plot and composition function of the novel. Depicting the intricately interwoven harmony of details as well as the characters' feelings, Tolstoy manages to reveal the powerful suprapersonal circumstances that determine a person's life in the novel, which is viewed as an ''epos of a private life'' according to V.G. Belinsky. The ball is known to have been an important form of public life, each element of which had a special meaning (see Yu.M. Lotman's commentary to A.S. Pushkin's Eugene Onegin). The ball is described by an objective narrator in the novel; the author bases his judgments upon the characters' individual consciousness, thus the psychological point of view is expressed. The ground for various psychological points is the "psychology basis", in which numerous ''facts'' are clustered (see A.B. Uspensky's A Poetics of Composition). Alternating the plane of expression and the plane of representation Tolstoy accumulates empirical data, gives emotional evaluation and makes psychological conclusions. ''The psychology plane'' in the ''ball'' chapters is rich in details that reveal the meaning of the elements in the characters' portraits: the description of the eyes, smiles, dresses (which are also ''the language of the ball''). Kitty's elaborate rose dress, synthetic hair in her coiffure, a velvet ribbon on her neck, a rose with two petals indicate the youth, fragility, vulnerability and a kind of inharmonicity of young Kitty at the ball. Karenina's dress details (a black velvet dress, a string of pearls, a bouquet of ''simple'' forget-me-nots in Anna's hair and in the belt of her dress) may have a different interpretation: Anna is confident of herself and her image is above praise (which is also shown with the help of ekphrasis). The hidden meaning of the dress details, ''the flower play'' allowed Tolstoy to depict the inner ties of the ''characters'' and ''circumstances''. The complicated ''language of the ball'' as part of the ''music of life'' contributes to this depiction. The multidirectional vectors of the characters' energy crossing each other and following a superi-our suprapersonal logic lead human destinies along unexpected and unforeseen routes. In the ''ball'' passage (like in the whole novel) a massive flow of sound (the orchestra, human voices) and colour (and flower) details as well as material objects play a complicated symphony of life with music of joy and unhappiness, reproach and forgiveness, humanity and cruelty, which make up the everlasting "music of life".

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