Acceptance and happiness

The first instance where the reader encounters the theme of acceptance and happiness is Family Happiness, where a couple who enter into marriage powered by lust find they begin drifting apart when the fire of desire cool. Although they have a comfortable life of property and leisure or perhaps because they have such a life. Both husband and wife grow restless. Their children evidently do not provide enough incentive for them to deepen their relationship; jealousy on both sides threatens to shipwreck their marriage. It is only when a played-out wife, Marya Alexandrovna, comes to accept her husband, Sergey Mikhaylych, just as he is and their marriage with its flaws but also with its joys and love, that they both experience the real meaning of happiness. Acceptance is the key for both to finding joy in their marriage and in the world.

But this view is...