“Scapegoating, Double-plotting and the Justice of Anna Karenina” is an article which aims to answer one of the most vexed and haunting questions in the history of Anna Karenina’s reception: To what extent and how justifiably is Anna suggested to deserve her fate? The author, Catherine Brown, approaches this question through the analysis of the possibility that Anna is used as a scapegoat; Anna’s status as tragic or otherwise; and the effect upon her of Levin’s existence in the novel. She points out that Anna’s viewed as a victim of the faults of her society. Her brother Oblonskii also commits adultery, but why he is oddly and largely guiltless? It seems like other characters are permitted to satisfy these desires without suffering any kind of punishment except Anna. (Brown, 2011) So the problem exists here is still the unfair treatment between men and women.

Ma Yumin’s “On the Tragic Inevitability of Anna Karenina,” explores the social and historical inevitability of Anna’s tragedy by analyzing three bitter conflicts: the conflict between the true love that Anna seeks and hypocritical morality in upper class, between her own outlook on happiness and the broken marriage in real life, between her maternal love and extramarital love. (马玉敏, 2003)The paper mainly focuses on the external factors such as the hypocrisy and cunning of upper class, the deception and restraint of religion, and the inexorability and despotism of bureaucracy. 

Lin Min’s “An Analysis of Anna Karenina’s Tragedy,” mainly focuses on the impacts of social ethics, unjust laws and religious principles that gradually leading to the self-destruction of Anna Karenina. (林敏, 2011) 

To sum up, these scholars have interpreted and explored the tragedy of Anna Karenina mainly from the perspective of the external factors like society, religion and law.