If you have not seen the “Anna Karenina” movie (spoiler alert), it is about a lady in high society, Russia, who cheated on her husband, was disgraced, and was shunned because of it. She was married at the age of 18 to a man that she did not love for status. She cheated because she was in love with another man who, eventually, cheated on her for a younger woman.

In the story, there were other characters who were also finding love and dealing with their own problems. Anna’s brother cheated on his wife, but was not ousted from society because of it. He stated that his reason for cheating was because his wife had become older and was not as attractive as she used to be. There was also a wealthy farmer who had fallen in love with Princess Katarina. They had many obstacles to overcome and almost were not able to be together because of it. They eventually confessed their feelings towards one another and got married in the end.

Many say that this story illustrates how women were treated unequally in society and did not have any rights. That may be true, but there seems to be another theme as well, a theme about the dangers of physical love and how strange relationships can be. For example, in Anna’s relationships, Anna thought her husband was a cruel uncaring man, but he did not treat her poorly. He was unaffectionate, but was actually hurt when he learned of her infidelity and the fact that she was pregnant with her lover’s child. He even forgave Anna and the man that she cheated with, but Anna still hated him and wanted to stay with her lover. She gave up everything for her lover, just to find that the relationship that she had with him was not a lasting one and he ended up treating her worse than her ex-husband had by cheating on her with another woman. Had Anna never cheated on her husband with this man in the first place and let things go, she probably would not have ended up tragically killing herself in the end.

In Anna’s brother’s relationship, her brother destroyed his family because he continued to cheat on his wife after she forgave him as well.

Finally, in Levin, the wealthy farmer’s situation, the couple was fortunate enough to have found someone that they loved and could marry, but Levin was left with the question of what he believed in as far as relationships go. Did he believe that love (including physical love) was most important when it comes to finding happiness in a marriage or was it reason? At first Levin thought that it was reason because of how much physical love had destroyed the lives of all of these people that he knew, especially Anna’s, but then he was asked, was it reason that brought your wife to you? The answer to that question was no, it was coincidence, courage, understanding, and some favorable circumstances.