Fiercely pacifist during the sentimental pan-Slavic fervor which brought Russia into the Serbian war against the Turks, Tolstoy's antiwar views implicitly undercut Vronsky's heroism and self-sacrifice. Thus we see Vronsky's gesture is another surrender to impulses which are basically frivolous. When he explains this is as good a way as any other to waste his useless life, Vronsky admits his self-indulgence. The incident underscores his limited morality. Vronsky thus disappears from the novel, hopelessly seeking a goal in life to replace the void left by Anna's death But his pilgrimage is doomed to fail. Finding an excuse in the war gives him a chance to avoid the basic confrontation with death, a confrontation which would be his means of salvation.
