“Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys' house. The wife had discovered that the husband was carrying on an intrigue with a French girl, who had been a governess in their family, and she had announced to her husband that she could not go on living in the same house with him. This position of affairs had now lasted three days, and not only the husband and wife themselves, but all the members of their family and household, were painfully conscious of it. Every person in the house felt that there was so sense in their living together, and that the stray people brought together by chance in any inn had more in common with one another than they, the members of the family and household of the Oblonskys. The wife did not leave her own room, the husband had not been at home for three days. The children ran wild all over the house; the English governess quarreled with the housekeeper, and wrote to a friend asking her to look out for a new situation for her; the man-cook had walked of the day before just at dinner-time; the kitchen-maid, and the coachman had given warning.”

     One important part of style of writing is the point of view. Examining this extract the point of view in Anna Karenina can be said to be omniscient. The narrator is all knowing, his knowledge extends to the thoughts of the characters, or at least one of the characters, Stiva Oblonsky as the reader sees what thoughts are running through his mind when he wakes up like “Yes, yes, how was it now”. The narrator is aware of the actions of all the characters. Narrator sees and tells what every character is doing, “wife did not leave her own room”, “husband had not been at home”, and “children ran wild all over the house”.

    Omniscient point of view is characteristic to many of Tolstoy’s big works like War and Peace and Anna Karenina. However, Tolstoy also uses first person point of view. An example can be story Hadji Murad, where the protagonist is telling the story.