Why did Anna Karenina go Crazy?
Anna Karenina is a novel by Leo Tolstoy that depicts the tragic story of a married woman who falls in love with another man and suffers the consequences of her actions. Anna’s story arc can be analyzed from the perspective of economic and evolutionary incentives, using the theories of marriage market and evolutionary psychology.
Anna married Karenin, a wealthy and influential government official, because of the economic and social benefits that he offered her. According to Becker’s theory of marriage, Anna chose Karenin as her spouse based on his income, status, and availability in the marriage market. However, Anna did not have much freedom or emotional satisfaction in her marriage, as she was expected to conform to the rigid gender roles and moral codes of Russian society. She felt bored, lonely, and unfulfilled by her husband, who was cold, distant, and rational.
When Anna met Vronsky, a young and handsome army officer, she was attracted to his youth, passion, and charm. She decided to pursue a love affair with him, despite the risk of ruining her reputation and losing her son. According to evolutionary psychology, Anna’s attraction to Vronsky can be explained by the mismatch hypothesis, which proposes that some mental disorders are caused by a mismatch between the environment that humans evolved in and the environment that they live in today. Anna’s instincts were driven by the ancestral environment, where she would have preferred a mate who was strong, healthy, and fertile. However, Anna’s actions were incompatible with the modern environment, where she faced social ostracism, legal discrimination, and moral condemnation for her adultery.
Anna’s affair with Vronsky also did not bring her happiness, as she became increasingly jealous, insecure, and paranoid. She felt that Vronsky did not love her as much as she loved him, and that he was tempted by other women. She also missed her son, whom she could not see because of Karenin’s custody. She became depressed and suicidal, unable to cope with her situation. According to evolutionary psychology, Anna’s depression can be explained by the smoke detector principle, which suggests that some mental disorders are exaggerated responses to potential threats. Anna’s depression was a response to chronic stress and social isolation that was rare in ancestral times, but is common in modern societies.
Anna’s fate can also be understood using the stable assignment models of marriage market theory. According to these models, a match between two individuals is stable if they both prefer each other over any other potential partner. However, Anna and Vronsky were not a stable match, as they both preferred to switch partners with someone else: Anna with Karenin and Vronsky with Kitty. Anna realized this too late, when she saw that Karenin had forgiven her and still loved her, and that Vronsky had fallen in love with Kitty before meeting her. Anna felt that she had made a mistake and lost everything for nothing.
Anna’s tragic story illustrates the conflict between individual desires and social norms in the marriage market. It also shows how evolutionary psychology can explain mental illness as a result of evolutionary adaptations that are maladaptive in modern environments. Anna’s story arc is a complex and nuanced portrayal of human nature and society.
